PHYSICAL LAYER

UNIT - II
Physical Layer

Physical Layer is responsible for electrical, mechanical and

Application
Application procedural checks. Data will be converted into Binary (i.e) 0’s
& 1’s. Data will be in the form of electrical pulses if it is
Presentation
Presentation Coaxial or Twisted Pair cable and in the form of Light if it is
Fiber Optic Cable.
Session
Session
Devices working at Physical Layer are Hubs, Repeaters,
Cables, Modems etc.
Transport
Transport

Network
Network

Data
DataLink
Link

Physical
Physical
Physical
Physical
• Physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI reference model.
• responsible for sending bits from one computer to another.
• This layer is not concerned with the meaning of the bits
• deals with the setup of physical connection to the network
• transmission and reception of signals.

Functions of Physical Layer

1. Representation of Bits
2. Data Rate
3. Synchronization
4. Interface
5. Line Configuration
6. Topologies
7. Transmission Modes
Bounded or Guided Transmission
Media
• those that provide a conduit from one device to another
• Twisted-Pair Cable
• Coaxial Cable
• Fiber-Optic Cable
• A signal travelling along any of these media is directed and contained
by the physical limits of the medium.
• Twisted-pair and coaxial cable use metallic (copper) conductors - form
of electric current. 
• Optical fiber is a cable - form of light.
Twisted Pair Cable
• Its frequency range is 0 to 3.5 kHz.
• Typical attenuation is 0.2 dB/Km @ 1kHz.
• Typical delay is 50 µs/km.
• Repeater spacing is 2km.
• A twisted pair consists of two conductors(normally copper), each with its own
plastic insulation, twisted together.
• In addition to the signal sent by the sender on one of the wires,
interference(noise) and crosstalk may affect both wires and create unwanted
signals.
• If the two wires are parallel, the effect of these unwanted signals is not the same
in both wires because they are at different locations relative to the noise or
crosstalk sources.
• This results in a difference at the receiver.
Twisted Pair is of two types:
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable
• It is the most common type of telecommunication Cable which consists of two
conductors usually copper, each with its own color plastic insulator.
• Identification is the reason behind colored plastic insulation.
• Cable with 2 pair use RJ-11 connector and 4 pair cable use RJ-45 connector.
Advantages of Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable
• Installation is easy
• Flexible
• Cheap
• It has high speed capacity, 100 meter limit
• Higher grades of UTP are used in LAN technologies like Ethernet.
Disadvantages of Unshielded Twisted Pair
Cable
Bandwidth is low when compared with Coaxial
Cable
Provides less protection from interference
 Shielded Twisted Pair Cable
• This cable has a metal foil or braided-mesh covering which encases each pair of insulated
conductors.
Advantages
• Easy to install
• Performance is adequate
• Can be used for Analog or Digital transmission
• Increases the signaling rate
• Higher capacity
• Eliminates crosstalk
Disadvantages
• Difficult to manufacture
• Heavy
Coaxial Cable

• it contains two conductors that are parallel to each other.

• Copper is used in this as centre conductor which can be a solid wire.
• It is surrounded by PVC installation
• Outer metallic wrapping is used as a shield against noise
Here the most common coaxial standards.
• 50-Ohm RG-7 or RG-11 : used with thick Ethernet.
• 50-Ohm RG-58 : used with thin Ethernet
• 75-Ohm RG-59 : used with cable television
• 93-Ohm RG-62 : used with ARCNET.
There are two types of Coaxial cables:
1. BaseBand
• This is a 50 ohm (Ω) coaxial cable which is used for digital transmission.
• It is mostly used for LAN's.
• Baseband transmits a single signal at a time with very high speed.
• The major drawback is that it needs amplification after every 1000 feet.

2. BroadBand
• This uses analog transmission on standard cable television cabling.
• It transmits several simultaneous signal using different frequencies.
• It covers large area when compared with Baseband Coaxial Cable.
 Fiber Optic Cable
• A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the form of
light.
Propagation Modes of Fiber Optic Cable
• Multimode 
• Single mode
UnBounded or UnGuided
Transmission Media
• Unguided medium transport electromagnetic waves without using a
physical conductor.
• This type of communication is often referred to as wireless
communication.
• Signals are normally broadcast through free space and thus are
available to anyone who has a device capable of receiving them.
Unguided signals can travel from the source to
the destination in several ways: Ground
propagation, Sky propagation and Line-of-
sight propagation
• Ground Propagation: In this, radio waves travel through the lowest portion
of the atmosphere, hugging the Earth.
• Sky Propagation: In this, higher-frequency radio waves radiate upward into
the ionosphere where they are reflected back to Earth.
• Line-of-sight Propagation: In this type, very high-frequency signals are
transmitted in straight lines directly from antenna to antenna.
We can divide wireless transmission into three broad groups:
• Radio waves
• Micro waves
• Infrared waves
Radio Waves

• Electromagnetic waves ranging in frequencies between 3 KHz and 1

GHz are normally called radio waves.
• Radio waves are omnidirectional.
• When an antenna transmits radio waves, they are propagated in all
directions.
• This means that the sending and receiving antennas do not have to be
aligned.
• A sending antenna send waves that can be received by any receiving
antenna.
Micro Waves
• Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between 1 and 300 GHz are
called micro waves.
• When an antenna transmits microwaves, they can be narrowly focused.
• This means that the sending and receiving antennas need to be aligned.
The unidirectional property has an obvious advantage.
The following describes some characteristics of microwaves propagation:
• Microwave propagation is line-of-sight.
• Very high-frequency microwaves cannot penetrate walls.
• The microwave band is relatively wide, almost 299 GHz.
• Use of certain portions of the band requires permission from
authorities.
Network Hardware
• Hub OSI Model Layers
• An unintelligent network device that sends one 7 Application
signal to all of the stations connected to it.
6 Presentation
• All computers/devices are competing for attention
because it takes the data that comes into a port and 5 Session
sends it out all the other ports in the hub. 4 Transport
• Traditionally, hubs are used for star topology 3 Network
networks, but they are often used with other 2 Data Link
configurations to make it easy to add and remove 1 Physical
computers without bringing down the network.
• Resides on Layer 1 of the OSI model
Network Hardware
• Switch OSI Model Layers
• Split large networks into small segments, decreasing 7 Application
the number of users sharing the same network
resources and bandwidth. 6 Presentation
• Understands when two devices want to talk to each 5 Session
other, and gives them a switched connection 4 Transport
• Helps prevent data collisions and reduces network 3 Network
congestion, increasing network performance. 2 Data Link
• Most home users get very little, if any, advantage 1 Physical
from switches, even when sharing a broadband
connection.
• Resides on Layer 2 of the OSI model.
Network Hardware
• Bridge OSI Model Layers
• Connects two LANs and forwards or filters data 7 Application
packets between them.
6 Presentation
• Creates an extended network in which any two
workstations on the linked LANs can share data. 5 Session
• Transparent to protocols and to higher level devices 4 Transport
like routers. 3 Network
• Forward data depending on the Hardware (MAC) 2 Data Link
address, not the Network address (IP). 1 Physical
• Resides on Layer 2 of the OSI model.
Network Hardware
• Repeater OSI Model Layers
• Used to boost the signal between two cable 7 Application
segments or wireless access points. 6 Presentation
• Can not connect different network architecture. 5 Session
• Does not simply amplify the signal, it regenerates 4 Transport
the packets and retimes them. 3 Network
• Resides on Layer 1 of the OSI model. 2 Data Link
1 Physical
Network Hardware
• Router OSI Model Layers
• A device that connects any number of LANs. 7 Application
• Uses standardized protocols to move packets 6 Presentation
efficiently to their destination. 5 Session
• More sophisticated than bridges, connecting 4 Transport
networks of different types (for example, star and 3 Network
token ring) 2 Data Link
• Forwards data depending on the Network address 1 Physical
(IP), not the Hardware (MAC) address.
• Routers are the only one of these four devices that
will allow you to share a single IP address among
multiple network clients.
• Resides on Layer 3 of the OSI model.
Network Hardware
• Additional Network Hardware Devices
• Network Interface Cards (NICs)
• Puts the data into packets and transmits packet onto the network.
• May be wired or wireless.
• Gateway
• Connects networks with different protocols like TCP/IP network and IPX/SPX networks.
• Routers and Gateways often refer to the same device.
• Proxy server
• Isolates internal network computers from the internet.
• The user first access the proxy server and the proxy server accesses the internet and
retrieves the requested web page or document. The user then gets a copy of that page
from the proxy server.

Source:
http://www.camas.wednet.edu/chs/tech/computer_tech/info/routers_hubs_bridges.htm
Common Network Media
•Electrical (copper)
• Coaxial Cable
• Single copper conductor in the center surrounded by a plastic layer for
insulation and a braided metal outer shield.
• Twisted pair
• Four pairs of wires twisted to certain specifications.
• Available in shielded and unshielded versions.

•Fiber-optic - A cable, consisting of a center glass core surrounded by layers of

plastic, that transmits data using light rather than electricity.

•Atmosphere/Wireless – Uses Electromagnetic waves. whose frequency

range is above that of microwaves, but below that of the visible spectrum.

•Choose Media based on :

• Wiring configurations
• Distance and location limitations
• Speed
• Reliability
• Security
• Budget
Multiplexing
• Any transmission medium (wire, radio, etc..) can carry only one signal
at a particular moment.
• Consider the following scenario.
• If several users or several signals or several applications need to share
one medium simultaneously. What to be done?
• That medium has to be divided and shared giving each signal, a
portion of the total bandwidth or time or space or wavelength.
Frequency Division Multiplexing

• Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) is a technique of multiplexing

which combines more than one signal over a shared medium.
• In FDM, the total bandwidth is divided to a set of frequency bands
that do not overlap.
• Each of these bands is a carrier of a different signal that is generated
and modulated by one of the sending devices.
• The frequency bands are separated from one another by strips of
unused frequencies called the guard bands, to prevent overlapping of
signals.
• The modulated signals are combined together using a multiplexer
(MUX) in the sending end.
• The combined signal is transmitted over the communication channel,
thus allowing multiple independent data streams to be transmitted
simultaneously.
• At the receiving end, the individual signals are extracted from the
combined signal by the process of demultiplexing (DEMUX).
Q: If the frequency bands are of 150 KHz
bandwidth separated by 10KHz guard bands, then
the capacity of the communication channel should
be ________
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)
• Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technique of
multiplexing multiple optical carrier signals through a single optical
fiber channel by varying the wavelengths of laser lights.
• WDM allows communication in both the directions in the fiber cable.
• n WDM, the optical signals from different sources or (transponders)
are combined by a multiplexer
• They are combined so that their wavelengths are different.
• The combined signal is transmitted via a single optical fiber strand.
• At the receiving end, a demultiplexer splits the incoming beam into its
components.
• each of the beams is send to the corresponding receivers.
Categories of WDM
• Course WDM (CWDM) : CWDM generally operates with 8 channels
where the spacing between the channels is 20 nm (nanometers) apart.
• It consumes less energy and is less expensive.
• However, the capacity of the links, as well as the distance supported, is
lesser.
• Dense WDM (DWDM) : DWDM operates with 40 at 100GHz spacing or
80 with 50GHz spacing.
• Due to this, they can transmit the huge quantity of data through a
single fiber link.
• DWDM is generally applied in core networks of telecommunications
and cable networks.
• It is also used in cloud data centers for their IaaS services.
Code Division Multiplexing
• Code division multiplexing (CDM) is a multiplexing technique that uses
spread spectrum communication.
• In spread spectrum communications, a narrowband signal is spread over
a larger band of frequency or across multiple channels via division. 
• When CDM is used to allow multiple signals from multiple users to share
a common communication channel, the technology is called Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA).
• Each group of users is given a shared code and individual conversations
are encoded in a digital sequence.
• Data is available on the shared channel, but only those users associated
with a particular code can access the data.
• Each communicating station is assigned a unique code.
• The codes stations have the following properties −
• If code of one station is multiplied by code of another station, it yields
0.
• If code of one station is multiplied by itself, it yields a positive number
equal to the number of stations.
• The communication technique can be explained by the following
example −
• Consider that there are four stations
• w, x, y and z that have been assigned the codes cw , cx, cy and cz 
• need to transmit data dw , dx, dy and dz 
• Each station multiplies its code with its data and the sum of all the
terms is transmitted in the communication channel.
• Thus, the data in the communication channel is dw . cw+ dx . cx+ dy . cy+
dz . cz
• Suppose that at the receiving end, station z wants to receive data sent
by station y.
• In order to retrieve the data, it will multiply the received data by the
code of station y which is dy.
• data = (dw . cw+ dx . cx+ dy . cy+ dz . cz ) . cy
• = dw . cw . cy + dx . cx . cy+ dy . cy . cy+ dz . cz .cy
• = 0 + 0 + dy . 4 + 0 = 4dy
• it can be seen that station z has received data from only station y
while neglecting the other codes.