Chapter 3

Introduction to Physical Layer

 Chapter 3: Outline

3.1 DATA AND SIGNALS

3.3 DIGITAL SIGNALS

3.4 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

3.6 PERFORMANCE
 Objective
❑ The first section shows how data and signals can be either analog
or digital.
Analog refers to an entity that is continuous; digital refers to an
entity that is discrete.

❑ The third section shows that only non-periodic digital signals

can be used in data communication.
● The attributes of a digital signal such as bit rate and bit length
are discussed.
● We also discuss how digital data can be sent using analog
signals.
● Baseband and broadband transmission are also discussed in this
section.
 Objective (continued)

❑ The fourth section is devoted to transmission impairment.

● The section shows how attenuation, distortion, and noise can

impair a signal.

❑
The sixth section discusses the performance of data transmission.

● Several channel measurements are examined including

bandwidth, throughput, latency, and jitter.

● Performance is a major issue Networking.

 3-1 DATA AND SIGNALS

● Figure below shows a scenario in which a

scientist working in a research company, Sky
Research, needs to order a book related to her
research from an online bookseller, Scientific
Books.
Communication at the physical layer
 Analog and Digital Data
● Data can be analog or digital.
● The term analog data refers to information that is
continuous;
● For example, an analog clock that has hour,
minute, and second hands gives information in a
continuous form; the movements of the hands are
continuous.
● Digital data refers to information that has discrete
states.
● Eg: a digital clock that reports the hours and the
minutes will change suddenly from 8:05 to 8:06.
 Analog and Digital Signals
Like the data, signals can be either analog or
digital.
● An analog signal has infinitely many levels of
intensity over a period of time. As the wave
moves from value A to value B, it passes through
and includes an infinite number of values along
its path.

● A digital signal, on the other hand, can have only

a limited number of defined values. Although
each value can be any number, it is often as
simple as 1 and 0.
Comparison of analog and digital signals
 Periodic and Nonperiodic
● Both Analog and Digital signals can be Periodic or
non periodic.

● A periodic signal completes a pattern within a

measurable time frame, called a period and repeats
that pattern over subsequent identical periods.

● The completion of one full pattern is called a cycle.

● A non periodic signal changes without exhibiting a
pattern or cycle that repeats over time.

● In DC, we use periodic analog signal & non periodic

digital signal.
 3-3 DIGITAL SIGNALS

● In addition to being represented by an analog signal,

information can also be represented by a digital
signal.

Eg: 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a 0 as

zero voltage.

⮚A digital signal can have more than two levels. In

this case, we can send more than 1 bit for each level.

⮚ Figure below shows two signals, one with two levels

and the other with four.
Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and the
other with four signal levels
 Bit Rate
→ Most digital signals are nonperiodic, and thus period
and frequency are not appropriate characteristics.
→ The term bit rate is used to describe digital signals.
The bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1s, expressed in bits per second (bps).

Figure below shows the bit rate for two signals.

 Bit Length
● The bit length for a digital signal is the distance
one bit occupies on the transmission medium.
 Digital As Composite Analog Signal
● Based on Fourier analysis a digital signal is a
composite analog signal (made of simple sine waves
with different amplitude, frequency & phase).
● A digital signal, in the time domain, comprises
connected vertical and horizontal line segments.
● A vertical line in the time domain means a frequency
of infinity
● A horizontal line in the time domain means a
frequency of zero.
● Going from a frequency of zero to a frequency of
infinity implies all frequencies in between are part of
the domain.
The time and frequency domains of periodic and
non periodic digital signals
 Transmission of Digital Signals
⮚Digital signal (Periodic or non periodic)is a
composite analog signal with frequencies between zero
and infinity.

⮚In data communication we consider non periodic

digital signal.

⮚How this digital signal is sent from one point to

another?
Two approaches for transmission of digital signals
1. Baseband transmission
2. Broadband Transmission
 Baseband transmission
● Sending a digital signal over a channel
without changing the digital signal to analog
signal.
 Baseband transmission
■ Baseband transmission requires Low Pass channel ,
a channel with a bandwidth that starts from zero.
■ i.e, we have a dedicated medium with a bandwidth
constituting only one channel.

Eg 1. Entire bandwidth of a cable connecting 2 computers

is one single channel.
2. Connect several computers to a bus not allowing
two stations to communicate at a time.
Bandwidth of two low-pass channels
 Two Cases studies
Case 1: Low pass channel with wide bandwidth
→ If we want to preserve the exact form of a non-
periodic digital signal

1. We need to send entire spectrum, the continuous

range of frequencies between zero and infinity.

2. Possible if we have a dedicated medium with

infinite bandwidth between sender and receiver,
which maintains the exact amplitude of each
component of a composite signal.
Continued..

■ Possible between CPU and Memory inside a

computer.

■ If we have a medium such as coaxial or fiber

optic with wider bandwidth, two stations can
communicate with good accuracy.
Baseband transmission using a dedicated medium
Case 2- Low pass channel with limited bandwidth

■ Approximate the digital signal with an analog

signal

■ Level of approximation depends on bandwidth

available.

1. Rough Approximation

2. Better approximation
Rough approximation of a digital signal (part 1)
Rough approximation of a digital signal (part 2)
 Better approximation
■ To make shape of analog signal look more like digital
signal, need to add more harmonics of the frequencies.

■ Need to increase the bandwidth to 3N/2, 5N/2,7N/2 and

so on.

■ Better shape of the signal will be obtained if harmonics

of frequencies are added, so that data transmission will
be faster, loss of bits can be minimized.
Simulating a digital signal with first three harmonics
(part I)
Simulating a digital signal with first three harmonics
(part II)
Bandwidth requirements
 Bandwidth of a band-pass channel
● Means changing the digital signal to an
analog signal for transmission.

● Uses band pass channel-A Channel with a

bandwidth that does not start from Zero.
Modulation of a digital signal for transmission on
band-pass channel
 3.4 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

● Signals travel through transmission media, which are not

perfect.

● The imperfection causes signal impairment. This means

that the signal at the beginning of the medium is not the same
as the signal at the end of the medium.

● What is sent is not what is received.

Three causes of impairment are

1. Attenuation
2. Distortion
3. Noise
Causes of impairment
 Attenuation
● Attenuation means a loss of energy.

● When a signal, simple or composite, travels through a

medium, it loses some of its energy in overcoming the
resistance of the medium. That is why a wire carrying
electric signals gets warm, if not hot, after a while.

● Some of the electrical energy in the signal is converted

to heat.

● To compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to

amplify the signal.
Figure below shows the effect of attenuation and
amplification..
Attenuation and amplification
 Decibels
■ To show that signal has gained /lost strength,
engineers use the unit of Decibel.
■ Decibel measures relative strength of two
signals or signals at two different points.
■ If Signal is attenuated, decibel is –ve and +ve
if signal is amplified.
Continued..
■ P1 and P2 are powers of a signal at two points.

■ Decibel is defined in terms of voltage instead

of power.
■ Because power is proportional to square of
voltage, the formula is

dB=20log10(v2/v1)
 Examples
1.Suppose a signal travels through a
transmission medium and its power is reduced
to one-half. This means that P2 is (1/2)P1. In
this case, the attenuation (loss of power) can
be calculated as

A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-

half the power.
Examples
2. A signal travels through an amplifier, and its
power is increased 10 times. This means that
P2 = 10P1 . In this case, the amplification (gain
of power) can be calculated as
 Distortion
■ Means signal changes its form or shape

■ Occur in a composite signal with different frequencies.

■ Each signal component has its own propagation speed

through a medium and therefore delay in arriving at
final destination.

■ Differences in delay creates a difference in phase. i.e

signal component at the receiver have phases different
from what they had at the sender and therefore shape of
composite signal are not same.
Distortion
 Noise
Types of noises such as

1. Thermal noise(random motion of electrons in a

wire which creates extra signal)

2. Induced noise(comes from motors and appliances)

3. Cross talk(effect of one wire on another)

4. Impulse noise(is a spike, a signal with high

energy in a very short time that comes from power
lines, lightning etc.,)may corrupt the signal.
Noise
 Signal-to-noise-ratio(SNR)
■ SNR is defined as ratio of signal power to noise
power.

■ High SNR🡪 Signal is less corrupted by the noise

■ Low SNR🡪 Signal is more corrupted by noise

 Signal-to-noise-ratio(SNR)

■ Because SNR is defined as ratio of two

powers it is described in decibel units

SNRdB is defined as
Two cases of SNR: a High SNR and Low SNR
 3-5 DATA RATE LIMITS

● A very important consideration in data

communications is how fast we can send data,
in bits per second, over a channel.

● Two theoretical formulas were developed to

calculate the data rate

1. Nyquist for a noiseless channel

2. Shannon for a noisy channel

 Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Rate
For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist bit rate formula
defines the theoretical maximum bit rate.

Where L🡪 Number of signal levels used to represent data.

BitRate🡪Bit rate in bps.
By increasing the number of signal levels, we can have any bit
rate, Theoretically correct, practically there is a limit

NOTE: Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the

reliability of the system.
 Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity
→ In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel. The
channel is always noisy.

→ In 1944, Claude Shannon introduced a formula, called

the Shannon capacity, to determine the theoretical highest
data rate for a noisy channel:

Where SNR🡪 Signal to Noise Ratio

Capacity 🡪 Capacity of channel in bps

● There is no Indication of signal level.

● Formula defines a characteristics of channel, not
method of transmission
 Using Both Limits
In practice, we need to use both methods to find the
limits and signal levels.
 3-6 PERFORMANCE

● Discussed the tools of transmitting data (signals)

over a network and how the data behave.

● One important issue in networking is the

performance of the network—how good is it
 Bandwidth

● One characteristic that measures network

performance is bandwidth.

● However, the term can be used in two different

contexts with two different measuring values:

1. Bandwidth in hertz

2. Bandwidth in bits per second..

 Throughput

● The throughput is a measure of how fast we can

actually send data through a network.

● Although, bandwidth in bits per second and

throughput seem the same, they are different.

● A link may have a bandwidth of B bps, but we

can only send T bps through this link with T
always less than B.
 Throughput
● The latency or delay defines how long it takes for
an entire message to completely arrive at the
destination from the time the first bit is sent out
from the source.

● Latency is made of four components: propagation

time, transmission time, queuing time and
processing delay.
 Propagation time
● Time required for a bit to travel from source to the
destination.

● Propagation time is calculated by the formula

● Propagation speed of electromagnetic signals

depends on medium and frequency of the signal
 Transmission time

■ Time required for transmission of a message

depend on the size of the message and bandwidth
of the channel.
 Queuing time (QT)
■ The time needed for each intermediate or end device
to hold the message before it can be processed.

■ QT is not a fixed factor.

■ Depends on the load imposed on the network.

■ Heavy traffic 🡪 QT is more, Intermediate devices

need to queue the messages and process one by one.
 Bandwidth-Delay Product
● Bandwidth and delay are two performance
metrics of a link.

● What is very important in data communications is

the product of the two, the bandwidth-delay
product.

● Let us elaborate on this issue, using two

hypothetical cases as examples.
Filling the links with bits for Case 1
Filling the links with bits for Case 2
Continued..
● We can think about the link between two points as a pipe.

● The cross section of the pipe represents the bandwidth,

and the length of the pipe represents the delay.

● We can say the volume of the pipe defines the

bandwidth-delay product, as shown in Figure below
Concept of bandwidth-delay product
 Jitter
● Another performance issue that is related to delay
is jitter.

● We can roughly say that jitter is a problem if

different packets of data encounter different
delays and the application using the data at the
receiver site is time-sensitive (audio and video
data, for example).

● If the delay for the first packet is 20 ms, for the

second is 45 ms, and for the third is 40 ms, then
the real-time application that uses the packets
endures jitter.