9/13/2022

Data Communications
04 –Transmission Media

Overview
• guided - wire / optical fibre
• unguided - wireless
• characteristics and quality determined by
medium and signal
– in unguided media - bandwidth produced by the
antenna is more important
– in guided media - medium is more important
• key concerns are data rate and distance

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Design Factors
• bandwidth
– higher bandwidth gives higher data rate
• transmission impairments
– eg. attenuation
• interference
• number of receivers in guided media
– more receivers introduces more attenuation

Electromagnetic Spectrum

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Transmission Characteristics of Guided

Media
Frequency Typical Typical Repeater
Range Attenuation Delay Spacing
Twisted pair 0 to 3.5 kHz 0.2 dB/km @ 50 µs/km 2 km
(with loading) 1 kHz

Twisted pairs 0 to 1 MHz 0.7 dB/km @ 5 µs/km 2 km

(multi-pair 1 kHz
cables)
Coaxial cable 0 to 500 MHz 7 dB/km @ 10 4 µs/km 1 to 9 km
MHz
Optical fiber 186 to 370 0.2 to 0.5 5 µs/km 40 km
THz dB/km

Twisted Pair

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Twisted Pair - Transmission

Characteristics
• analog
– needs amplifiers every 5km to 6km
• digital
– can use either analog or digital signals
– needs a repeater every 2-3km
• limited distance
• limited bandwidth (1MHz)
• limited data rate (100MHz)
• susceptible to interference and noise

Unshielded vs Shielded TP
• unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
– ordinary telephone wire
– cheapest
– easiest to install
– suffers from external EM interference
• shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
– metal braid or sheathing that reduces interference
– more expensive
– harder to handle (thick, heavy)
• in a variety of categories - see EIA-568

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UTP Categories

Category 3 Category 5 Category 5E Category 6 Category 7

Class C Class D Class E Class F
Bandwidth 16 MHz 100 MHz 100 MHz 200 MHz 600 MHz
Cable Type UTP UTP/FTP UTP/FTP UTP/FTP SSTP
Link Cost 0.7 1 1.2 1.5 2.2
(Cat 5 =1)

Comparison of Shielded and

Unshielded Twisted Pair

Attenuation (dB per 100 m) Near-end Crosstalk (dB)

Frequency Category 3 Category 5 Category 3 Category 5
(MHz) UTP UTP 150-ohm STP UTP UTP 150-ohm STP
1 2.6 2.0 1.1 41 62 58
4 5.6 4.1 2.2 32 53 58
16 13.1 8.2 4.4 23 44 50.4
25 — 10.4 6.2 — 41 47.5
100 — 22.0 12.3 — 32 38.5
300 — — 21.4 — — 31.3

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Near End Crosstalk

• coupling of signal from one pair to another
• occurs when transmit signal entering the link
couples back to receiving pair
• ie. near transmitted signal is picked up by near
receiving pair

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Coaxial Cable

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Coaxial Cable - Transmission

Characteristics
• superior frequency characteristics to TP
• performance limited by attenuation & noise
• analog signals
– amplifiers every few km
– closer if higher frequency
– up to 500MHz
• digital signals
– repeater every 1km
– closer for higher data rates
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Optical Fiber

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Optical Fiber - Benefits

• greater capacity
– data rates of hundreds of Gbps
• smaller size & weight
• lower attenuation
• electromagnetic isolation
• greater repeater spacing
– 10s of km at least

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Optical Fiber - Transmission

Characteristics
• uses total internal reflection to transmit light
– effectively acts as wave guide for 1014 to 1015 Hz
• can use several different light sources
– Light Emitting Diode (LED)
• cheaper, wider operating temp range, lasts longer
– Injection Laser Diode (ILD)
• more efficient, has greater data rate
• relation of wavelength, type & data rate

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Optical Fiber Transmission Modes

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Frequency Utilization for Fiber

Applications

Wavelength (in Frequency Band Fiber Type Application

vacuum) range Range (THz) Label
(nm)
820 to 900 366 to 333 Multimode LAN
1280 to 1350 234 to 222 S Single mode Various
1528 to 1561 196 to 192 C Single mode WDM
1561 to 1620 192 to 185 L Single mode WDM

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Attenuation in Guided Media

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Wireless Transmission Frequencies

• 2GHz to 40GHz
– microwave
– highly directional
– point to point
– satellite
• 30MHz to 1GHz
– omnidirectional
– broadcast radio
• 3 x 1011 to 2 x 1014
– infrared
– local
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Antennas
• electrical conductor used to radiate or collect
electromagnetic energy
• transmission antenna
– radio frequency energy from transmitter
– converted to electromagnetic energy byy antenna
– radiated into surrounding environment
• reception antenna
– electromagnetic energy impinging on antenna
– converted to radio frequency electrical energy
– fed to receiver
• same antenna is often used for both purposes
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Radiation Pattern
• power radiated in all directions
• not same performance in all directions
– as seen in a radiation pattern diagram
• an isotropic antenna is a (theoretical) point in
space
– radiates in all directions equally
– with a spherical radiation pattern

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Parabolic Reflective Antenna

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Antenna Gain
• measure of directionality of antenna
• power output in particular direction verses
that produced by an isotropic antenna
• measured in decibels (dB)
• results in loss in power in another direction
• effective area relates to size and shape
– related to gain

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Terrestrial Microwave
• used for long haul telecommunications
• and short point-to-point links
• requires fewer repeaters but line of sight
• use a parabolic dish to focus a narrow beam onto a
receiver antenna
• 1-40GHz frequencies
• higher frequencies give higher data rates
• main source of loss is attenuation
– distance, rainfall
• also interference
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Satellite Microwave
• satellite is relay station
• receives on one frequency, amplifies or repeats
signal and transmits on another frequency
– eg. uplink 5.925-6.425 GHz & downlink 3.7-4.2 GHz
• typically requires geo-stationary orbit
– height of 35,784km
– spaced at least 3-4° apart
• typical uses
– television
– long distance telephone
– private business networks
– global positioning
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Satellite Point to Point Link

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Satellite Broadcast Link

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Broadcast Radio
• radio is 3kHz to 300GHz
• use broadcast radio, 30MHz - 1GHz, for:
– FM radio
– UHF and VHF television
• is omnidirectional
• still need line of sight
• suffers from multipath interference
– reflections from land, water, other objects
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Infrared
• modulate noncoherent infrared light
• end line of sight (or reflection)
• are blocked by walls
• no licenses required
• typical uses
– TV remote control
– IRD port

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Wireless Propagation
Ground Wave

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Wireless Propagation
Sky Wave

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Wireless Propagation
Line of Sight

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Refraction
• velocity of electromagnetic wave is a function of
density of material
~3 x 108 m/s in vacuum, less in anything else
• speed changes as move between media
• Index of refraction (refractive index) is
– sin(incidence)/sin(refraction)
– varies with wavelength
• have gradual bending if medium density varies
– density of atmosphere decreases with height
– results in bending towards earth of radio waves
– hence optical and radio horizons differ
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Line of Sight Transmission

• Free space loss
– loss of signal with distance
• Atmospheric Absorption
– from water vapour and oxygen absorption
• Multipath
– multiple interfering signals from reflections
• Refraction
– bending signal away from receiver

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Free Space Loss

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Multipath Interference

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Summary
• looked at data transmission issues
• frequency, spectrum & bandwidth
• analog vs digital signals
• transmission impairments

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