Data Transmission

Guided & Wireless Transmission

Terminology (1)
• Transmitter
• Receiver
• Medium
— Guided medium
• e.g. twisted pair, optical fiber
— Unguided medium
• e.g. air, water

• Direct link
—No intermediate devices
—Except the amplifiers
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Terminology (2)
• Point-to-point
— A guided transmission medium is P-to-P if there exist a direct
link between 2 devices &
— Only 2 devices share link
• Multi-point
— More than two devices share the link
• Simplex
— One direction
— One station is the receiver and the other is the transmitter
• e.g. Television
• Half duplex
— Either direction, but only one way at a time
• e.g. police radio
• Full duplex
— Both directions at the same time 3
• e.g. telephone
Frequency, Spectrum and Bandwidth
• The signal is a function of time, but it can also be
expressed as a function of frequency; that is, the signal
consists of components of different frequencies.
• Time domain concepts
—Analog signal :
• Varies in a smooth way over time
—Digital signal :
• Maintains a constant level & then changes to another
constant level
—Periodic signal
• Pattern repeated over time
—Aperiodic signal
• Pattern not repeated over time
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Analog & Digital Signals

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Periodic
Signals

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Sine Wave
• Peak Amplitude (A)
— maximum strength of signal
— Measure in volts
• Frequency (f)
— Rate of change of signal
— Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second
—Period = time for one repetition (T)
— T = 1/f
• Phase ()
—Relative position in time

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Varying Sine Waves
s(t) = A sin(2ft +)

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Wavelength
• Distance occupied by one cycle
• Distance between two points of
corresponding phase in two consecutive
cycles
• Represented by  
• Assuming signal velocity v
— = vT  for a particular signal
—f = v
—c = 3*108 ms-1 (speed of light in free space)
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Frequency Domain Concepts
• Signal made up of many frequencies

• Components are sine waves

• Can be shown (Fourier analysis) that any signal

is made up of component sine waves

• Can plot frequency domain functions

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 Addition of
Frequency
Components
(T=1/f)
Representation of one
individual frequency
component

Addition of
individual frequency
components gives

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Spectrum & Bandwidth
• Spectrum
— range of frequencies contained in signal

• Absolute bandwidth
— width of spectrum

• Effective bandwidth
—Often just bandwidth
— Narrow band of frequencies containing most of the energy

• DC Component
— Component of zero frequency
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Data Rate and Bandwidth
• Any transmission system has a limited band of
frequencies

• This limits the data rate that can be carried

• How we maximize the data rate ?

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Analog and Digital Data
Transmission
• Data
—Entities that convey meaning

• Signals
—Electric or electromagnetic representations of data

• Transmission
—Communication of data by propagation and
processing of signals

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Data Analog OR Digital
• Analog
—Continuous values within some interval
—e.g. sound, video

• Digital
—Discrete values
—e.g. text, integers

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Signals Analog OR Digital
• Means by which data are propagated
• Analog
—Continuously variable
—Various media
• wire, fiber optic, space
—Speech bandwidth 100Hz to 7kHz
—Telephone bandwidth 300Hz to 3400Hz
—Video bandwidth 4MHz
• Digital
—Use two DC components

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Advantages & Disadvantages
of Digital Signals
• Advantage:
—Cheaper
—Less susceptible to Noise & Interference

• Disadvantage:
—Greater Attenuation
• Pulses become rounded and smaller
• Leads to loss of information

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Attenuation of Digital Signals
2 voltage levels to represent binary 0 and binary 1

Recived waveform is rounded and small

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Spectrum of Signals
• Frequency range (of hearing)
—20 Hz – 20 KHz  Human speech signal
—100 Hz – 7 kHz  Speech Signal Spectrum

• Limit frequency range for voice channel

—300-3400Hz  Voice Signal Spectrum

• Easily converted into electromagnetic signal for

transmission

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Conversion of Voice Signal into
Analog Signal
voice frequencies becomes the
input of a conversion-device

Loudness of voice frequency is

the amplitude of the input signal 21
Conversion of Binary Input to
Digital Signal

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Data and Signals
• Usually use digital signals for digital data and analog
signals for analog data

• Can use analog signal to carry digital data

— Modem
• Sender  Modulation
• Receiver  Demodulation

• Can use digital signal to carry analog data

— CODEC
• Sender  Coding
• Receiver  Decoding

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Analog Signals Carrying Analog
and Digital Data

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Digital Signals Carrying Analog
and Digital Data

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Analog and Digital
Transmission

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Analog and Digital
Transmission

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 Analog Transmission Amplifier
• Analog signal transmitted without regard to
content
• May be analog or digital data
• Attenuated over distance
• Use amplifiers to boost signal
• Also amplifies noise

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 Digital Transmission Repeater
• Concerned with content
• Integrity endangered by noise, attenuation etc.
• Repeaters used
• Repeater receives signal
• Extracts bit pattern
• Retransmits
• Attenuation is overcome
• Noise is not amplified

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Advantages of Digital Transmission
• Cheaper digital technology
—Low cost LSI/VLSI technology
• Data integrity
—With the use of repeaters rather than amplifiers, the
effects of noise and other signal impairments are not
cumulative.
• Longer distance communication
—Longer distances over lower quality lines
—Use of repeaters
• Security & Privacy
—Private and Public key algorithm
• Encryption, Decryption 30
 Advantages of Digital Transmission
• Capacity utilization
— It has become economical to build transmission links of
very high bandwidth, including satellite channels and
optical fiber.
— To utilize such capacity effectively, digital techniques
(TDM) are better than analog (FDM).
• Integration
—By treating both analog and digital data digitally, all
signals have the same form and can be treated similarly.
—Thus economies of scale and convenience can be
achieved by integrating voice, video, and digital data

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Transmission Impairments
• Signal received may differ from signal
transmitted

• Analog Signals  Degradation of signal quality

• Digital Signals  Bit errors

• Classification
— Attenuation and Attenuation Distortion
— Delay Distortion
— Noise
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Attenuation
• Signal strength falls off with distance
—The strength of a signal falls off with distance over
any transmission medium.

• Depends on medium
—For guided media, this reduction in strength, or
attenuation, is generally exponential
—For unguided media, attenuation is a more complex
function of distance and the makeup of the
atmosphere.

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Attenuation
Designer needs to address problems:
Attenuation introduces three considerations for
the transmission engineer.
1. A received signal must have sufficient strength so
that the electronic circuitry in the receiver can
detect the signal.
2. The signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher
than noise to be received without error.
3. Attenuation varies with frequency.
– Equalizer circuit

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Attenuation
• Attenuation is measured relative
to the attenuation at 1000 Hz.
• Positive values on the y-axis
represent attenuation greater
than that at 1000 Hz.
• A 1000-Hz tone of a given power
level is applied to the input, and
the power, is measured at the
output.
• For any other frequency f, the
procedure is repeated and the
relative attenuation in decibels is

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Delay Distortion
• Related to propagation speed

• Propagation velocity varies

with frequency

• Different frequency
components experience
different delays

• Eventually, arrive at different

time

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Noise (1)
• Additional signals inserted between transmitter
and receiver
1. Thermal
— Due to thermal agitation of electrons
— White noise
— Upper bound on the performance
—The amount of thermal noise to be found in a
bandwidth of 1 Hz in any device or conductor is
N0 = kT (W/Hz)
— N0 = noise power density in watts per 1 Hz of bandwidth
— k = Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38 * 10-23 J/K
— T = temperature, in kelvins (absolute temperature)
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Noise (2)
2. Intermodulation Noise
— Signals that are the sum and difference of original
frequencies sharing a medium
—For example, the mixing of signals at frequencies f1
and f2 might produce energy at the frequency f1 +f2
This derived signal could interfere with an intended
signal at the frequency f1 +f2
—Intermodulation noise is produced by nonlinearities in
the transmitter, receiver, and/or intervening
transmission medium.
—Ideally, these components behave as linear systems;
that is, the output is equal to the input times a
constant 39
Noise (3)
3. Crosstalk
— A signal from one line is picked up by another
— Unwanted electrical coupling between the
transmission paths
4. Impulse
— Irregular pulses or spikes
— External electromagnetic disturbance
— Short duration
— High amplitude

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Channel Capacity
1. Data rate
— In bits per second
— Rate at which data can be communicated
2. Bandwidth
— In cycles per second of Hertz
— Constrained by transmitter and medium
3. Noise
— Introduce errors
4. BER
— Limit the data rate

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Nyquist Theorem
• If rate of signal transmission is 2B then signal
with frequencies no greater than B is sufficient
to carry signal rate
• Given bandwidth B, highest signal rate is 2B
• Given binary signal, data rate supported by B Hz
is 2B bps
• Can be increased by using M signal levels
• C= 2B log2M

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Shannon Capacity Formula
• Consider data rate, noise and error rate
• Faster data rate shortens each bit so burst of
noise affects more bits
—At given noise level, high data rate means higher
error rate
• Signal to noise ratio (in decibels)
• SNRdb=10 log10 (signal/noise)
• Capacity  C=B log2(1+SNR)
• This is error free capacity

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Define Following:
• Direct Link
• Point-to-point
• Multi-point
• Simplex
• Half duplex
• Full duplex
• Peak Amplitude (A)
• Frequency (f)
• Phase ()
• Wavelength
• Spectrum
• Absolute bandwidth
• Effective bandwidth
• DC Component
Explain Following:
• Analog v/s Digital Transmission

• Advantages of Digital Transmission

• Transmission Impairments

• Attenuation and Attenuation Distortion

• Delay Distortion

• Noise

• Channel Capacity

• Nyquist Theorem

• Shannon Capacity
Guided & Wireless Transmission
Overview
• Guided - wire
• Unguided - wireless
• Characteristics and quality determined by
medium and signal
• For guided, the medium is more important
• For unguided, the bandwidth produced by the
antenna is more important
• Key concerns are data rate and distance
Design Factors
• Bandwidth
—Higher bandwidth gives higher data rate
• Transmission impairments
—Attenuation
• Interference
• Number of receivers
—In guided media
—More receivers (multi-point) introduce more
attenuation
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Guided Transmission Media
• Twisted Pair
• Coaxial cable
• Optical fiber
 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
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 @ 4 µs/km 1 to 9 km
10 MHz
Optical fiber 186 to 370 0.2 to 0.5 5 µs/km 40 km
THz dB/km
Twisted Pair
Twisted Pair - Applications
• Most common medium
• Telephone network
—Between house and local exchange (subscriber loop)
• Within buildings
—To private branch exchange (PBX)
• For local area networks (LAN)
—10Mbps or 100Mbps
Twisted Pair - Pros and Cons
• Cheap
• Easy to work with
• Low data rate
• Short range
Twisted Pair - Transmission
Characteristics
• Analog
—Amplifiers every 5km to 6km
• Digital
—Use either analog or digital signals
—repeater every 2km or 3km
• Limited distance
• Limited bandwidth (1MHz)
• Limited data rate (100Mbps)
• Susceptible to interference and noise
Unshielded and 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)
UTP Categories
• Cat 3
— up to 16MHz
— Voice grade found in most offices
— Twist length of 7.5 cm to 10 cm
• Cat 4
— up to 20 MHz
• Cat 5
— up to 100MHz
— Commonly pre-installed in new office buildings
— Twist length 0.6 cm to 0.85 cm
Coaxial Cable
Coaxial Cable Applications
• Most versatile medium
• Television distribution
—Aerial to TV
—Cable TV
• Long distance telephone transmission
—Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously
—replaced by fiber optic
• Short distance computer systems links
• Local area networks
Coaxial Cable - Transmission
Characteristics
• Analog
—Amplifiers every few km
—Closer if higher frequency
—Up to 500MHz
• Digital
—Repeater every 1km
—Closer for higher data rates
 Optical Fiber
• If you look closely at a single
optical fiber, you will see that
it has the following parts:
—Core - Thin glass center of
the fiber where the light
travels
—Cladding - Outer optical
material surrounding the core
that reflects the light back into
the core
—Buffer coating - Plastic
coating that protects the fiber
from damage and moisture
Optical Fiber
How Does an Optical Fiber
Transmit Light?
• The light in a fiber-optic cable travels through the
core by constantly bouncing from the cladding, a
principle called total internal reflection.
• Because the cladding does not absorb any light from
the core, the light wave can travel great distances.
• However, some of the light signal degrades within
the fiber, mostly due to impurities in the glass. The
extent that the signal degrades depends on the purity
of the glass and the wavelength of the transmitted
light
Total Internal Reflection
• Optical fibers work on the principle of total
internal reflection
• With light, the refractive index is listed
• The angle of refraction at the interface
between two media is governed by Snell’s
law: n sin  n sin
1 1 2 2

• n1 & n2 are refractive index of two medium

Refraction & Total Internal
Reflection
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
Optical Fiber - Applications
• Long-haul trunks
• Metropolitan trunks
• Rural exchange trunks
• Subscriber loops
• LANs
Optical Fiber - Transmission
Characteristics
• Act as wave guide for 1014 to 1015 Hz
—Portions of infrared and visible spectrum
• Light Emitting Diode (LED)
—Cheaper
—Wider operating temp range
—Last longer
• Injection Laser Diode (ILD)
—More efficient
—Greater data rate
• Wavelength Division Multiplexing
 Modes and Materials
• Single-mode fibers have small cores (about 3.5 x 10-4
inches or 9 microns in diameter) and transmit infrared
laser light (wavelength = 1,300 to 1,550 nanometers).
• Multi-mode fibers have larger cores (about 2.5 x 10-3
inches or 62.5 microns in diameter) and transmit
infrared light (wavelength = 850 to 1,300 nm) from light
emitting diodes (LEDs).
• Some optical fibers can be made from plastic. These
fibers have a large core (0.04 inches or 1 mm diameter)
and transmit visible red light (wavelength = 650 nm)
from LEDs.
Optical Fiber Transmission
Modes
 Wireless Transmission Frequencies
• Frequencies in the range of about 1 GHz to 40 GHz
are referred to as microwave frequencies.
—At these frequencies, highly directional beams are
possible, and microwave is quite suitable for point-to-point
transmission.
—Microwave is also used for satellite communications.
• 30MHz to 1GHz
—We refer to this range as the radio range.
—suitable for omnidirectional applications
—Broadcast radio
• 3 x 1011 to 2 x 1014 Infrared
—useful to local point-to-point and multipoint applications
within confined areas, such as a single room.
Antennas
• Electrical conductor (or system of conductors) used to
either radiate electromagnetic energy or collect
electromagnetic energy
• Transmission
— Radio frequency (electrical) energy from transmitter
— Converted to electromagnetic energy by the antenna
— Radiated into surrounding environment (air, water, space)
• Reception
— Electromagnetic energy impinging on antenna
— Converted to radio frequency electrical energy
— Fed to receiver
• Same antenna often used for both (duplex comm.)
Radiation Pattern
• Power radiated in all directions
• Not same performance in all directions
• Isotropic antenna is (theoretical) point in space
—Radiates in all directions equally
—Gives spherical radiation pattern
Parabolic Reflective Antenna
Parabolic Reflective Antenna
• Used for terrestrial and satellite microwave
• Parabola is locus of point equidistant from a line and a
point not on that line
— Fixed point is focus
— Line is directrix
• Source placed at focus will produce waves reflected
from parabola in parallel to axis
— Creates (theoretical) parallel beam of light/sound/radio
• On reception, signal is concentrated at focus, where
detector is placed
Antenna Gain
• Measure of directionality of antenna
• Power output in particular direction compared
with that produced by isotropic antenna
• Measured in decibels (dB)
• Results in loss in power in another direction
• Effective area relates to size and shape
—Related to gain
Terrestrial Microwave
• Physical Description :
—Antenna is the parabolic dish
—The antenna is fixed and focuses a narrow beam to
achieve line-of-sight transmission to the receiving
antenna.
—Microwave antennas are usually located at substantial
heights above ground level to extend the range
between antennas
• Applications :
—Long haul telecommunications
—short point-to-point links between buildings
• Higher frequencies give higher data rates
Terrestrial Microwave
• For microwave (and radio frequencies), the loss
can be expressed as

where d is the distance and λ is the wavelength, in the same units.

—Loss varies as the square of the distance. In contrast, for
twisted-pair and coaxial cable, where loss varies
exponentially with distance
—Thus repeaters or amplifiers may be placed farther apart
for microwave systems—10 to 100 km
—Attenuation is increased with rainfall.
—Another source of impairment is interference.
—The assignment of frequency bands is strictly regulated.
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Satellite Microwave
• Satellite is a microwave relay station
• Satellite receives on one frequency (uplink) ,
amplifies or repeats signal and transmits on
another frequency (downlink)
• Requires geo-stationary orbit
—Height of 35,863 km
• Applications
—Television
—Long distance telephone transmission
—Private business networks
—Global positioning
Satellite Point to Point Link
Satellite Broadcast Link
Satellite Microwave
• Transmission Characteristics :
—The optimum frequency range for satellite
transmission is in the range 1 to 10 GHz.
—Below 1 GHz, there is significant noise from natural
sources, including galactic, solar, and atmospheric
noise, and human made interference from various
electronic devices.
—Above 10 GHz, the signal is severely attenuated by
atmospheric absorption and precipitation.
—there is a propagation delay of about a quarter
second from transmission from one earth station to
reception by another earth station.
—satellite microwave is inherently a broadcast facility 84
Broadcast Radio
• Omnidirectional (30 MHz to 1 GHz)
• FM radio
• UHF and VHF television
• Line of sight
• Suffers from multipath interference
—Reflections
Infrared
• Modulate noncoherent infrared light
• Line of sight (or reflection)
• Blocked by walls
• e.g. TV remote control, IRD port
Wireless Propagation
• Signal travels along three routes
— Ground wave
• Follows contour of earth
• Up to 2MHz
• AM radio
— Sky wave
• Amateur radio, BBC world service, Voice of America
• Signal reflected from ionosphere layer of upper atmosphere
• (Actually refracted)
— Line of sight
• Above 30Mhz
• May be further than optical line of sight due to refraction
• More later…
Ground Wave Propagation
Sky Wave Propagation
Line of Sight Propagation
Refraction
• Velocity of electromagnetic wave is a function of density
of material
— ~3 x 108 m/s in vacuum, less in anything else
• As wave moves from one medium to another, its speed
changes
— Causes bending of direction of wave at boundary
— Towards more dense medium
• Index of refraction (refractive index) is
— Sin(angle of incidence)/sin(angle of refraction)
— Varies with wavelength
• May cause sudden change of direction at transition
between media
• May cause gradual bending if medium density is varying
— Density of atmosphere decreases with height
— Results in bending towards earth of radio waves
Optical and Radio Horizons
Optical and Radio Horizons

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Line of Sight Transmission
• Free space loss
— Signal disperses with distance
— Greater for lower frequencies (longer wavelengths)

• For any type of wireless communication the signal disperses with

distance.
• Therefore, an antenna with a fixed area will receive less signal
power the farther it is from the transmitting antenna.
• For satellite communication this is the primary mode of signal loss.
• This form of attenuation is known as free space loss, which can
be expressed in terms of the ratio of the radiated power Pt to the
power Pr received by the antenna
Free
Space
Loss
Line of Sight Transmission
• Atmospheric Absorption
—Water vapour and oxygen absorb radio signals
—Water greatest at 22GHz, less below 15GHz
—Oxygen greater at 60GHz, less below 30GHz
—Rain and fog scatter radio waves
• Multipath
—Better to get line of sight if possible
—Signal can be reflected causing multiple copies to be
received
—May be no direct signal at all
—May reinforce or cancel direct signal
• Refraction
—May result in partial or total loss of signal at receiver
Multipath Interference