Chapter 7

Transmission Media

7.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Transmission Media

➢ Transmission media is defined as anything that

can carry information from source to destination.

➢ Transmission media are located below the

physical layer and controlled by physical layer.
➢

➢ Transmission media is usually free space, metallic

cable, or fiber optic.

2
 Figure 7.1 Transmission medium and physical layer

7.3
 Classes of Transmission Media

➢ In telecommunications, transmission media can

be divided into two broad categories:
➢ Guided
➢ Unguided.

➢ Guided media include twisted-pair cable, coaxial

cable, and fiber optic cable.
➢ Unguided media is free space.
➢

4
 Figure 7.2 Classes of transmission media

7.5
 7-1 GUIDED MEDIA

Topics discussed in this section:

Twisted-Pair Cable
Coaxial Cable
Fiber-Optic Cable

7.6
Guided Media
▪ Guided media, which are those that provide a conduit from
one device to another, include twisted-pair cable, coaxial
cable, and fiber-optic cable.

▪ A signal traveling along any of these media is directed and

contained by physical limits of the medium.

▪ Twisted-pair and coaxial cable use metallic (copper)

conductors that accept and transport signals in the form of
electric current.
▪ Fiber-optic is a cable that accepts and transports signals in
the form of light.

7
 Twisted-pair Cable
❑ It consists of two conductors (normally copper) each with its
own plastic isolation.
❑ One wire is used to carry signal, and the other is ground
reference.
❑ The receiver use difference between the two.
❑ In addition to the signal sent by sender on one wire,
interference (noise) and crosstalk may affect both wires.

7.8
 Twisted-pair Cable
▪ If the two wires are parallel, the effect of unwanted signal is not
the same in both wires, this results in a difference at the receiver.
✓ Because they are at different locations relative to noise or crosstalk
source (one closer and one farther)
▪ By twisting the pairs, a balance is maintained.
▪ For example, suppose one wire is close to noise and other is farther, in
the next twist the reverse is true.
▪ Twisting makes it possible that both wires are equally affected by
external influences.
▪ More twists means better quality.
2 − (−3) = +5
+5 5 − 2 = 3 − 1 − 2 = −3
+5 5−2 = 3

0 0 −1 = −1 0
7.9 3 − (−1) = +4 0 −1 = −1 3 −1 = 2
 Twisted-pair Cable Types
▪ There are two types:
✓ Unshielded twisted-pair (UTP)
✓ Shielded twisted-pair (STP)

Figure 7.4 UTP and STP cables

7.10
 Twisted-pair Cable Types
▪ Unshielded twisted-pair (UTP)
✓ most common cable used in communication.
✓ No extra shielding around the wire pair.
✓ less expensive, easy to install, easy to work with.
✓ Subject to interference; noise and crosstalk.
✓ Limited distance.
▪ Shielded twisted-pair (STP)
✓ Has a metal foil or braided mesh that encases each pair of
insulated conductor
✓ to reduce interference
✓ Bulkier, more expensive, difficult to work with

7.11
 Twisted-pair Cable Categories
❑ EIA (Electronic Industry Association) has developed standard
to classify UTP cables into 8 categories.
❑ Category are determined by cable quality,
✓ cat 1 as the lowest and 8 as the highest
❑ Each category is suitable for specific case.
❑ Table 7.1 show these categories.

7.12
 Table 7.1 Categories of unshielded twisted-pair cables

Bandwidth
MHz

1Gbps

10Gbps

cat8 2GHz
40Gbps LANs

7.13
 UTP Connector
❑ The most common UTP connector is RJ45
❑ RJ stands for Registered Jack
❑ RJ45 is a keyed connector, meaning the connector can
be inserted in only one way

7.14
 Registered Jack (RJ)

RJ 11 RJ 45

➢ RJ-11 – Defined for

telephone connectors

➢ RJ-45 – Defined for

UTP connectors

15
 Coaxial Cable
❑ Coaxial cable carries signals of higher frequency ranges
than those in twisted-pair.
❑ Instead of having two wires, coax has central core
conductor of solid wire enclosed in insulating sheath
which in turn encased in outer conductor of metal foil.
✓ The outer metallic wrapping serves both as a shield against noise
and a 2nd conductor.
❑ The whole cable is protected by plastic cover.

7.16
 Figure 7.7 Coaxial cable

7.17
 Coaxial Cable Standards

❑ Coaxial cables are categorized by their radio government (RG) ratings.

❑ Each RG numbers denotes a unique set of physical specifications:
✓ wire gauge on inner conductor, thickness and type of the inner
insulator, construction of shield, size and type of outer casing.
❑ Each cable defined by RG ratings is adapted for specialized function

Table 7.2 Categories of coaxial cables

7.18
 Coaxial Cable Connectors
❑ Used to connect coaxial cable to devices.
❑ The most common type is the Bayone-Neill-Concelman, or BNC.
❑ The three popular types of connectors are:
❑ BNC connector;
✓ is used to connect end of cable to a device, such as a TV set.
❑ BNC T
✓ is used in Ethernet network to branch out a cable for connection to a
computer or other devices.
❑ BNC terminator;
✓ is used at the end of the cable to prevent the reflection of the signal

7.19
 Fiber-Optic Cable
▪ A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and
transmits signals in the form of light.
▪ Light travels in straight line as long as it is moving
through a single uniform substance.
▪ If a ray of light traveling through one substance suddenly
enters another substance of difference density, the ray
change direction.

7.20
 Fiber Composition
❑ The outer jacket is made Of either PVC or Teflon.
❑ Inside the Jacket are Kevlar strands to strengthen the cable.
✓ Kevlar is a strong material used in the fabrication of bulletproof vests.

❑ Below the Kevlar is another plastic coating to cushion the fiber.

❑ The fiber is at the center of the cable and it consists of cladding and core.

Figure 7.14 Fiber construction

7.21
 Fiber Composition
Figure 7.14 Fiber construction

7.22
 Bending of Light Ray
▪ If angle of incidence (angle the ray makes with the line
perpendicular to the interface between the two substances) is
less than the critical angle, the ray refracts and moves closer to
the surface.
▪ If angle of incidence is equal to the critical angle, the light bends
along the interface.
▪ If angle is greater than the critical angle, the ray reflects (makes
a turn) and travels again in the denser substance

7.23
 Optical Fiber – Reflection of Light
❑ Optical fibers use reflection to guide light through a channel.
❑ A glass or plastic core is surrounded by a cladding of less dense glass
or plastic.
❑ The difference in density of the two materials must be such that a beam
of light moving through the core is reflected off the cladding instead of
being refracted into it.

7.24
 Propagation Modes
▪ Optical fiber supports two modes: mutlimode and single mode.
✓ for propagating light along optical channel
✓ each requiring fiber with different physical characteristics.
▪ Multimode can be implemented in two forms: step-index or
graded-index.
▪ Multimode is so named because multiple beams from a light source
move through the core in different paths.

7.25
 Figure 7.13 Modes

7.26
 Multimode Step Index Fiber

❑ In multimode step index fiber, the density of the core

remains constant from the center to the edges.
❑ A beam of light moves through this constant density in a
straight line until it reaches the interface of the core and the
cladding.
❑ At the interface, there is an abrupt change to a lower density
that alters the angle of the beam s motion.
❑ The term step index refers to the suddenness of this change.

7.27
 Multimode Graded-Index Fiber
❑ A second type of fiber, called multimode graded-index fiber,
decreases the distortion of the signal through the cable.
❑ The word index here refer to the index of refraction.
❑ The index of refraction is related in density,
❑ A graded-index fiber, therefore, is one with varying densities.
❑ Density is highest at the center of the core and decreases gradually
to its lowest at the edge.

7.28
 Single-Mode Fiber
❑ Single-mode uses step-index fiber and a highly focused source of light that
limits beams to a small range of angles, all close to the horizontal.
❑ It is manufactured with a much smaller diameter than that of multimode
fiber, and with substantially lower density (index of refraction).
❑ The decrease in density results in a critical angle that is close enough to 90
to make the propagation of beams almost horizontal.
❑ In this case, propagation of different beams is almost identical, and delays
are negligible.
❑ All the beams arrive at the destination together and can be recombined
with little distortion to the signal

7.29
 Fiber Sizes
❑ Optical fibers are defined as the ratio of the diameter of their core to the
diameter of their cladding, both expressed in micrometers.
❑ The common sizes ore shown in Table 7.3.
❑ The last size listed is only for single-mode.

9 / 125 9

Table 7.3 Fiber types

7.30
 Fiber-Optic Cable Connectors
▪ Fiber-optic cable use three different typos of connectors, as shown in Figure below
▪ The subscriber channel (SC) connector is used for cable TV.
✓ It uses a push/pull locking system.
▪ The straight-tip (ST) connector is used for connecting cable to networking
devices.
✓ It uses a bayonet locking system and is more reliable than SC
▪ MT-RJ is a new connector with the same size as RJ45.

7.31
Comparing Ethernet Media Requirements

10G
BASE-T

EIA/TIA
Cat 5e, 6
or 7

100 m

RJ45
Comparing Ethernet Media Requirements (cont.)
 Figure 13.10 10Base5 implementation

13.34
Figure 13.11 10Base2 implementation

35
Figure 13.12 10Base-T implementation

36
Figure 13.13 10Base-F implementation

37
 Table 13.1 Summary of Standard Ethernet implementations

13.38
Straight Through Cable
▪ In a UTP implementation of a straight-through cable, the
wires on both cable ends are in the same order

▪ You can determine that the wiring is a straight-through

cable by holding both ends of the UTP cable side by side
and seeing that the order of the wires on both ends is
identical
▪ You can use a straight-through cable for dissimilar
devices

✓Connecting a router to a hub or switch

✓Connecting a server to a hub or switch
✓Connecting workstations to a hub or switch

39
UTP Implementation: Straight-Through

Switch Router

Switch PC

Switch Server

Hub PC

Hub Server
UTP Implementation (Straight-Through)

Cable 10BASE-T/
100BASE-TX Straight-Through Straight-Through Cable

Pin Label Pin Label

1 TX+ 1 TX+
2 TX- 2 TX-
3 RX+ 3 RX+
4 NC 4 NC
5 NC 5 NC
6 RX- 6 RX-
7 NC 7 NC Wires on cable ends
8 NC 8 NC are in same order.
42
 Crossover Cable
▪ In the implementation of a crossover, the wires on each end
of the cable are crossed.
▪ Transmit to Receive and Receive to Transmit on each side,
for both tip and ring.
▪ Notice that pin 1 on one side connects to pin 3 on the other
side, and pin 2 connects to pin 6 on the opposite end
▪ You can use a crossover cable for similar devices
✓ Connecting uplinks between switches
✓ Connecting hubs to switches
✓ Connecting a hub to another hub.

43
UTP Implementation: Crossover

Switch Switch

Switch Hub

Hub Hub

Router Router

Router PC

PC PC
Crossover Cable (cont.)

Pin Number Wire color Wire Becomes Pin number Wire color
Pin 1 Orange/White Pin 1 Green/White
Pin 2 Orange 1 3 Pin 2 Green
Pin 3 Green / White Pin 3 Orange/White
Pin 4 Blue 2 6 Pin 4 Blue
Pin 5 Blue/White Pin 5 Blue/White
Pin 6
Pin 7
Green
Brown/White
3 1 Pin 6
Pin 7
Orange
Brown/White
Pin 8 Brown Pin 8 Brown
6 2
45
UTP Implementation (Crossover)

Cable 10BASE-T or
100BASE-TX Straight-Through Crossover Cable

EIA/TIA T568A EIA/TIA T568B

Pin Label Pin Label

1 TX+ 1 TX+
2 TX- 2 TX-
3 RX+ 3 RX+
4 NC 4 NC
5 NC 5 NC
6 RX- 6 RX-
7 NC 7 NC Some wires on cable
8 NC 8 NC ends are crossed.
4

Straight through / X- Over Cable

8

The Transmit and Receive pins are shown above

UTP Implementation: Straight-Through vs. Crossover

Switch Router Switch

Switch
Hub
Switch PC Switch

Hub
Server Hub
Switch
Router Router
PC
Hub
Router PC
Server
Hub PC
PC
Using Varieties of UTP

Switch PC
Hub

Router
Switch

Server
END OF LECTURE 5
 Wireless Transmission Waves
▪ Wireless transmission can be divided into broad groups:
✓ Radio waves,
✓ Microwaves, and
✓ Infrared waves

Figure 7.19 Wireless transmission waves

7.52
 Radio Waves
❑ Omnidirectional waves propagated in all directions
❑ Sender and receiver must not be aligned
❑ Propagate in sky mode
✓ Can travel long distance
❑ Radio waves (with low and medium frequencies) can penetrate walls
✓ We can receive AM signal inside a building.
✓ We cannot isolate a communication to just inside or outside
buildings
❑ The radio waves band is relatively narrow compared to microwave
band.
✓ Low data rate for digital communication
✓ Use of any band requires permission from authority

7.53
 Figure 7.20 Omnidirectional antenna

7.54
 Note

Radio waves are used for multicast

communications (one sender and many
receivers), such as radio (AM and FM)
and television, cordless phone, maritime
radio and paging systems.

7.55
 Microwaves
▪ Microwaves are unidirectional.
✓ They can be narrowly focused
✓ A pair of antenna can be aligned without interfering with an
other pair of aligned antenna
▪ Characteristics
✓ Line-of-sight
✓ Repeaters are needed for long distances
✓ Very high frequency cannot penetrate walls
✓ Microwave band is relatively wide (299 GHz),
✓ therefore wider sub-bands can be assigned, (higher data
rate

7.56
 Figure 7.21 Unidirectional antennas

7.57
 Note

Microwaves are used for unicast (one-to-

one) communication such as cellular
telephones, satellite networks,
and wireless LANs.

7.58
 Satellites

Freq. Band uplink downlink use

4/6 C 5.925-6.425 3.7-4.2 commercial
7/8 X 7.9-8.4 7.9-8.4 military
11/14 Ku 14.0-14.5 11.7-12.2 commercial
20/30 Ka 27.5-30.5 17.7-21.2 military
20/44 Q 43.5-45.5 20.2-21.32 military
 Geostationary Satellite

satellite
transponder

dish dish
36,000 km

uplink station downlink station

Extra Slides
Making connections - Steps
STEP 1 – STRIP CABLE END
 Strip 1 – 1½” of insulating sheath

 Avoid cutting into conductor insulation

 STEP 2 – UNTWIST WIRE ENDS
 Sort wires by insulation colors
 STEP 3 – ARRANGE WIRES
 TIA/EIA 568A: GW-G OW-Bl BlW-O BrW-Br
 TIA/EIA 568B: OW-O GW-Bl BlW-G BrW-Br
 STEP 4 – TRIM WIRES TO SIZE
 Trim all wires evenly
 Leave about ½” of wires exposed
STEP 5 – ATTACH CONNECTOR
 Maintain wire order,
left-to-right, with
RJ45 tab facing
downward
 STEP 6 - CHECK
 Do all wires extend to end?
 Is sheath well inside connector?
 STEP 7 - CRIMP
 Squeeze firmly to crimp connecter
onto cable end (8P)
STEP 8 – TEST
 Does the cable work?
70