Chapter 3:

Physical Layer (OSI

Model)

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 1
 3.1 Physical Layer
Protocols

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
Purpose of Physical Layer
Physical Connection
▪ Before any network communications can occur, a physical connection to a local
network must be established.
▪ A physical connection can be a wired connection using a cable or a wireless
connection using radio waves.
▪ The type of physical connection used depends upon the setup of the network.
▪ For example, in many corporate offices, employees have desktop or laptop
computers that are physically connected, via cable, to a shared switch. This type
of setup is a wired network. Data is transmitted through a physical cable.
▪ In addition to wired connections, many businesses also offer wireless
connections for laptops, tablets, and smartphones. With wireless devices, data
is transmitted using radio waves. Devices on a wireless network must be
connected to a wireless access point (AP) or wireless router.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3
Connecting to the Network

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4
Connecting to the Network

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5
Connecting to the Network
▪ Wired connection using an Ethernet NIC
▪ Ethernet NICs are used for a wired connection, as shown in the
figure, whereas wireless local area network (WLAN) NICs are used
for wireless. An end-user device may include one or both types of
NICs.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6
 Home connection

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7
 Home connection

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 8
 Enterprise LAN connection

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9
Purpose of Physical Layer
▪ The OSI physical layer provides the means to transport the bits
that make up a data link layer frame across the network media.
▪ At Sender’s end : Physical layer accepts a complete frame from the
data link layer, encodes the frames and creates the electrical,
optical, or radio wave signals that represent the bits in each frame.
These signals are then sent over the media, one at a time.
▪ At destination node : physical layer retrieves these individual
signals from the media, restores them to their bit representations,
and passes the bits up to the data link layer as a complete frame.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10
1

1 receives frame from DL layer

2 and transmit bits to the

media as signals

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11
Purpose of the Physical Layer
3.1 Physical Layer Protocol

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 13
Purpose of the Physical Layer
Physical Layer Standards
• The physical layer consists of electronic circuitry, media, and
connectors developed by engineers.

• There are many different international and national

organizations, regulatory government organizations, and
private companies involved in establishing and maintaining
physical layer standards.

• For instance, the physical layer hardware, media, encoding,

and signaling standards are defined and governed by these
standards organizations:

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14
Physical Layer Standards
Standard
organizati Networking Standards
on
• ISO 8877: Officially adopted the RJ connectors (e.g., RJ-
11, RJ-45)
ISO
• ISO 11801: Network cabling standard similar to EIA/TIA
568.
• TIA-568-C: Telecommunications cabling standards, used
by nearly all voice, video and data networks.
• TIA-569-B: Commercial Building Standards for
EIA/TIA Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces
• TIA-598-C: Fiber optic color coding
• TIA-942: Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for
Data Centers

ANSI • 568-C: RJ-45 pinouts. Co-developed with EIA/TIA

ITU-T • G.992: ADSL

• 802.3: Ethernet
• 802.11: Wireless LAN (WLAN) & Mesh (Wi-Fi
IEEE
certification)
Presentation_ID • 802.15: Bluetooth © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 15
Signaling
▪ The physical layer must generate the electrical, optical, or wireless
signals that represent the "1" and "0" on the media. The way that
bits are represented is called the signaling method.
▪ The physical layer standards must define what type of signal
represents a "1" and what type of signal represents a "0".
▪ This can be as simple as a change in the level of an electrical signal
or optical pulse. For example, a long pulse might represent a 1
whereas a short pulse might represent a 0.
▪ Signaling depends on the media type.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 16
Purpose of the Physical Layer
Physical layer : signalling
Signals depends on the media type

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 17
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 18
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 19
Terminology
Bandwidth

• Bandwidth is the capacity at which a medium can carry data.

• Digital bandwidth measures the amount of data that can flow
from one place to another in a given amount of time

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 20
Terminology
Throughput
• Throughput is the actual measure of the
transfer of bits across the media over a
given period of time.
• Due to a number of factors, throughput
usually does not match the specified
bandwidth in physical layer
implementations. Throughput is usually
lower than the bandwidth.
• There are many factors that influence
throughput:
•The amount of traffic
•The type of traffic
•The latency created by the number
of network devices encountered
between source and destination
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 21
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 22
Latency
▪ Latency refers to the amount of time, including delays, for data to
travel from one given point to another.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 23
 3.2 Network Media

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 24
Hub, Switch, & Router – Video

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 25
Types of Media
▪ Copper cabling
UTP
STP
Coaxial
▪ Fiber Optic Cabling
▪ Wireless Media

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26
Copper cabling
▪ Copper cabling is the most common type of cabling used in
networks today
▪ There are three different types of copper cabling that are each
used in specific situations.
▪ Networks use copper media because it is inexpensive, easy to
install, and has low resistance to electrical current. However,
copper media is limited by distance and signal interference.
▪ Data is transmitted on copper cables as electrical pulses.
▪ The farther the signal travels, the more it deteriorates. This is
referred to as signal attenuation.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 27
▪ The timing and voltage values of the electrical pulses are also
susceptible to interference from two sources:
• Electromagnetic interference (EMI) or radio frequency
interference (RFI) - EMI and RFI signals can distort and corrupt the
data signals being carried by copper media.
• Potential sources of EMI and RFI include radio waves and electromagnetic
devices, such as fluorescent lights or electric motors.

• Crosstalk - Crosstalk is a disturbance caused by the electric or

magnetic fields of a signal on one wire to the signal in an adjacent
wire.
• In telephone circuits, crosstalk can result in hearing part of another voice
conversation from an adjacent circuit.
• Specifically, when an electrical current flows through a wire, it creates a
small, circular magnetic field around the wire, which can be picked up by an
adjacent wire.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 28
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
▪ To counter the negative effects of EMI and RFI, some types of
copper cables are wrapped in metallic shielding and require proper
grounding connections.
▪ To counter the negative effects of crosstalk, some types of copper
cables have opposing circuit wire pairs twisted together, which
effectively cancels the crosstalk.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 30
Types of Copper Cabling
▪ There are three main types of copper media used in networking.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
▪ Unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cabling is the most common
networking media. UTP cabling, terminated with RJ-45 connectors,
is used for interconnecting network hosts with intermediary
networking devices, such as switches and routers.
▪ In LANs, UTP cable consists of four pairs of color-coded wires that
have been twisted together and then encased in a flexible plastic
sheath that protects from minor physical damage. The twisting of
wires helps protect against signal interference from other wires.
▪ As seen in the figure, the color codes identify the individual pairs
and wires and aid in cable termination.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 32
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 33
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
▪ Shielded twisted-pair (STP) provides better noise protection than
UTP cabling.
▪ However, compared to UTP cable, STP cable is significantly more
expensive and difficult to install. Like UTP cable, STP uses an RJ-45
connector.
▪ STP cables combine the techniques of shielding to counter EMI and
RFI, and wire twisting to counter crosstalk. To gain the full benefit
of the shielding, STP cables are terminated with special shielded
STP data connectors. If the cable is improperly grounded, the
shield may act as an antenna and pick up unwanted signals.
▪ The STP cable shown uses four pairs of wires, each wrapped in a
foil shield, which are then wrapped in an overall metallic braid or
foil.
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 34
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 35
 UTP Cat 6 vs STP

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 36
Coaxial Cable
▪ Coaxial cable, or coax for short, gets its name from the fact that
there are two conductors that share the same axis.
▪ Coaxial cable consists of the following:
• A copper conductor is used to transmit the electronic signals.
• A layer of flexible plastic insulation surrounds a copper conductor.
• The insulating material is surrounded in a woven copper braid, or metallic
foil, that acts as the second wire in the circuit and as a shield for the inner
conductor. This second layer, or shield, also reduces the amount of outside
electromagnetic interference.
• The entire cable is covered with a cable jacket to prevent minor physical
damage.

▪ There are different types of connectors used with coax cable.

Example : Bayonet Neill–Concelman (BNC), N type, and F type
connectors
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 37
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 38
Usage of UTP
▪ Although UTP cable has essentially replaced coaxial cable in
modern Ethernet installations, the coaxial cable design is used in
the following situations:
• Wireless installations - Coaxial cables attach antennas to wireless
devices. The coaxial cable carries radio frequency (RF) energy
between the antennas and the radio equipment.
• Cable internet installations - Cable service providers provide
internet connectivity to their customers by replacing portions of
the coaxial cable and supporting amplification elements with fiber-
optic cable. However, the wiring inside the customer's premises is
still coax cable.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 39
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 40
UTP Cabling

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 41
UTP
▪ UTP cable does not use shielding to counter the effects of EMI and
RFI. Instead, cable designers have discovered other ways that they
can limit the negative effect of crosstalk:
• Cancellation - Designers now pair wires in a circuit. When two wires in an
electrical circuit are placed close together, their magnetic fields are the exact
opposite of each other. Therefore, the two magnetic fields cancel each other
and also cancel out any outside EMI and RFI signals.
• Varying the number of twists per wire pair - To further enhance the
cancellation effect of paired circuit wires, designers vary the number of
twists of each wire pair in a cable. UTP cable must follow precise
specifications governing how many twists or braids are permitted per meter
(3.28 feet) of cable. Notice in the figure that the orange/orange white pair is
twisted less than the blue/blue white pair. Each colored pair is twisted a
different number of times.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 42
UTP Cabling Standards and Connectors
▪ UTP cabling conforms to the standards established jointly by the
TIA/EIA. Specifically, TIA/EIA-568 stipulates the commercial cabling
standards for LAN installations and is the standard most commonly
used in LAN cabling environments. Some of the elements defined
are as follows:
• Cable types
• Cable lengths
• Connectors
• Cable termination
• Methods of testing cable

▪ The electrical characteristics of copper cabling are defined by the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 43
▪ IEEE rates UTP cabling according to its performance. Cables are
placed into categories based on their ability to carry higher
bandwidth rates. For example, Category 5 cable is used commonly
in 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet installations. Other categories include
Enhanced Category 5 cable, Category 6, and Category 6a.
▪ Cables in higher categories are designed and constructed to
support higher data rates. As new gigabit speed Ethernet
technologies are being developed and adopted, Category 5e is now
the minimally acceptable cable type, with Category 6 being the
recommended type for new building installations.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 44
UTP Catogories
▪ The figure shows three categories of
UTP cable:
• Category 3 was originally used for voice
communication over voice lines, but later
used for data transmission.
• Category 5 and 5e is used for data
transmission. Category 5 supports
100Mbps and Category 5e supports 1000
Mbps
• Category 6 has an added separator
between each wire pair to support
higher speeds. Category 6 supports up to
10 Gbps.
• Category 7 also supports 10 Gbps.
• Category 8 supports 40 Gbps.
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 45
UTP RJ-45
▪ UTP cable is usually terminated with an RJ-45 connector. The
TIA/EIA-568 standard describes the wire color codes to pin
assignments (pinouts) for Ethernet cables.
▪ As shown in the figure, the RJ-45 connector is the male
component, crimped at the end of the cable.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 46
Socket
▪ The socket, shown in the figure, is the female component of a
network device, wall, cubicle partition outlet, or patch panel.
When terminated improperly, each cable is a potential source of
physical layer performance degradation.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 47
Properly Terminated UTP cable

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 48
Straight-through and Crossover UTP Cables

▪ he following are the main cable types that are obtained by using
specific wiring conventions:
• Ethernet Straight-through - The most common type of networking
cable. It is commonly used to interconnect a host to a switch and a
switch to a router.
• Ethernet Crossover - A cable used to interconnect similar devices.
For example, to connect a switch to a switch, a host to a host, or a
router to a router. However, crossover cables are now considered
legacy as NICs use medium-dependent interface crossover (auto-
MDIX) to automatically detect the cable type and make the
internal connection.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 49
UTP Cabling
Types of UTP Cable

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 50
Straight through and Cross over

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 51
Fiber Optic Cables
▪ Optical fiber cable transmits data over longer distances and at
higher bandwidths than any other networking media.
▪ Unlike copper wires, fiber-optic cable can transmit signals with
less attenuation and is completely immune to EMI and RFI.
▪ Optical fiber is commonly used to interconnect network devices.
▪ Optical fiber is a flexible, but extremely thin, transparent strand of
very pure glass, not much bigger than a human hair.
▪ Bits are encoded on the fiber as light impulses. The fiber-optic
cable acts as a waveguide, or “light pipe,” to transmit light
between the two ends with minimal loss of signal.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 52
Fiber Optic Cabling
Fiber Media Cable Design
• The core is usually made of glass
or plastic

• The core is the light-transmitting

portion of the fiber.

• The cladding usually is made of

the same material as the core, but
with a slightly lower index of
refraction (usually about 1% lower).
• The ”coating” is a protective layer
of the optical fiber.
• The “strengthening”, or strengthen • This index difference causes total
member, helps to protect the core internal reflection to occur at the
against crushing forces and index boundary along the length of
excessive tension during the fiber so that the light is
installation, transmitted down the fiber and does
• An outer jacket is used to protect not escape through the sidewalls.
the cable from environmental
hazards.
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 53
Types of Fiber Media

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 54
Fiber Optic Cabling
Network Fiber Connectors

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 55
Fiber Optic Cabling Usage
▪ Fiber-optic cabling is now being used in four types of industry:
• Enterprise Networks - Used for backbone cabling applications and
interconnecting infrastructure devices
• Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) - Used to provide always-on broadband services
to homes and small businesses
• Long-Haul Networks - Used by service providers to connect countries and
cities
• Submarine Cable Networks - Used to provide reliable high-speed, high-
capacity solutions capable of surviving in harsh undersea environments at up
to transoceanic distances. Search the internet for “submarine cables
telegeography map” to view various maps online.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 56
Fiber Optic Cabling
Fiber versus Copper
Implementation issues Copper media Fibre-optic

Bandwidth supported 10 Mbps – 10 Gbps 10 Mbps – 100 Gbps

Relatively short Relatively High

Distance (1 – 100 meters) (1 – 100,000 meters)

High
Immunity to EMI and RFI Low
(Completely immune)

High
Immunity to electrical hazards Low
(Completely immune)

Media and connector costs Lowest Highest

Installation skills required Lowest Highest

Safety precautions Lowest Highest

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 57
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 58
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 59
Wireless media
▪ Wireless media carry electromagnetic signals that represent the
binary digits of data communications using radio or microwave
frequencies.
▪ Wireless media provide the greatest mobility options of all media,
and the number of wireless-enabled devices continues to increase.
Wireless is now the primary way users connect to home and
enterprise networks.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 60
Limitations of wireless media
▪ These are some of the limitations of wireless:
• Coverage area - Wireless data communication technologies work well in
open environments. However, certain construction materials used in
buildings and structures, and the local terrain, will limit the effective
coverage.
• Interference - Wireless is susceptible to interference and can be disrupted by
such common devices as household cordless phones, some types of
fluorescent lights, microwave ovens, and other wireless communications.
• Security - Wireless communication coverage requires no access to a physical
strand of media. Therefore, devices and users, not authorized for access to
the network, can gain access to the transmission. Network security is a major
component of wireless network administration.
• Shared medium - WLANs operate in half-duplex, which means only one
device can send or receive at a time. The wireless medium is shared amongst
all wireless users. Many users accessing the WLAN simultaneously results in
reduced bandwidth for each user.
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 61
Wireless Standard
▪ These are the wireless standards:
• Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) - Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, commonly referred to
as Wi-Fi. WLAN uses a contention-based protocol known as carrier sense
multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA
• Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15) - This is a wireless personal area network (WPAN)
standard, commonly known as “Bluetooth.” It uses a device pairing process
to communicate over distances from 1 to 100 meters.
• WiMAX (IEEE 802:16) - Commonly known as Worldwide Interoperability for
Microware Access (WiMAX), this wireless standard uses a point-to-
multipoint topology to provide wireless broadband access.
• Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) - Zigbee is a specification used for low-data rate, low-
power communications. It is intended for applications that require short-
range, low data-rates and long battery life. Zigbee is typically used for
industrial and Internet of Things (IoT) environments such as wireless light
switches and medical device data collection

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 62
Wireless LAN
▪ A common wireless data implementation is enabling devices to
connect wirelessly via a LAN. In general, a WLAN requires the
following network devices:
• Wireless Access Point (AP) - These concentrate the wireless signals from
users and connect to the existing copper-based network infrastructure, such
as Ethernet. Home and small business wireless routers integrate the
functions of a router, switch, and access point into one device, as shown in
the figure.
• Wireless NIC adapters - These provide wireless communication capability to
network hosts.

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 63
Wireless Media
802.11 Wi-Fi Standards (FYI only)

Maximum Backwards
Standard Frequency
Speed compatible

802.11a 54 Mbps 5 GHz No

802.11b 11 Mbps 2.4 GHz No

802.11g 54 Mbps 2.4 GHz 802.11b

802.11n 600 Mbps 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz 802.11b/g

1.3 Gbps 2.4 GHz and 5.5

802.11ac (1300 Mbps) GHz
802.11b/g/n

7 Gbps 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and

802.11ad (7000 Mbps) 60 GHz
802.11b/g/n/ac

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 64
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 65
Fundamental Principles of Layer 1
Physical Layer Fundamental Principles
Physical
Media Frame Encoding Technique Signalling Method
Components
• UTP • Manchester Encoding • Changes in the
• Coaxial • Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) electromagnetic field
• Connectors techniques • Intensity of the
• NICs • 4B/5B codes are used with electromagnetic field
Copper cable
• Ports Multi-Level Transition Level 3 • Phase of the
• Interfaces (MLT-3) signaling electromagnetic wave
• 8B/10B
• PAM5
• Single-mode Fiber • Pulses of light • A pulse equals 1.
• Multimode Fiber • Wavelength multiplexing using • No pulse is 0.
• Connectors different colors
Fiber Optic
• NICs
cable
• Interfaces
• Lasers and LEDs
• Photoreceptors
• Access Points • DSSS (direct-sequence spread- • Radio waves
• NICs spectrum)
Wireless
• Radio • OFDM (orthogonal frequency
media
• Antennae division multiplexing)

Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 66
Presentation_ID © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 67