15Z502 COMPUTER

NETWORKS
Unit 6 – Physical Layer
UNIT VI-PHYSICAL LAYER
Signal Characteristics
Data Transmission
Physical Links and Transmission Media
Signal Encoding Techniques
Channel Access Techniques - TDM - FDM.
Signal Encoding Techniques

• How we can represent digital data by using digital signals

• The conversion involves three techniques:
• line coding,
• block coding,
• scrambling.
• Line coding is always needed
• Block coding and scrambling may or may not be needed.
Line Coding
• Line coding is the process of converting digital data to digital signals.
• We assume that data, in the form of text, numbers, graphical images,
audio, or video, are stored in computer memory as sequences of bits
• Line coding converts the sequence of bits to a digital signal.
• At the sender, digital data are encoded into a digital signal;
• At the receiver, the digital data are recreated by decoding the digital
signal.
Line coding and decoding
Signal Element Versus Data Element

• A data element is the smallest • A signal element is the shortest

entity that can represent a piece unit (time wise) of a digital

of information. ie the bit. signal.

• signal elements are what we can

• data elements are what we
send
need to send
• signal elements are the carriers.
• Data elements are being carried
Signal Element versus Data Elements
Signal Element versus Data Elements
• A ratio r which is the number of data elements carried by each signal
element.
• Suppose each data element is a person who needs to be carried from
one place to another.
• A signal element as a vehicle that can carry people.
• When r = 1, it means each person is driving a vehicle.
• When r > 1, it means more than one person is travelling in a vehicle (a
carpool, for example).
• We can also have the case where one person is driving a car and a
trailer (r = 1/2 ).
Data Elements versus Signal Element
• The data rate defines the number • The signal rate is the number of signal
elements sent in 1s.
of data elements (bits) sent in 1s.
• The unit is the baud.
• The unit is bits per second (bps).
• The signal rate is sometimes called the
• The data rate is sometimes called pulse rate, the modulation rate, or the
the bit rate baud rate.
• Increasing the data rate increases • Decreasing the signal rate decreases the
bandwidth requirement.
the speed of transmission.
• One goal in data communications is to increase the data rate while decreasing the
signal rate.
• In our vehicle-people analogy, we need to carry more people in fewer vehicles to
prevent traffic jams.
• We have a limited bandwidth in our transportation system.
Signal Element versus Data Elements
• This relationship, depends on the value of r.
• It also depends on the data pattern.
• If we have a data pattern of all 1s or all 0s,
• the signal rate may be different from a data pattern of alternating 0s and 1s.
• Relationship between data rate and signal rate as
S =c x N x – (1/r) baud
• where N is the data rate (bps);
• c is the case factor, which varies for each case;
• S is the number of signal elements;
• r is the previously defined factor.
 Digital To Digital Encoding Techniques
• In order to transport digital bits of data across carrier
waves, encoding techniques have been developed.
• some of the more common techniques in Physical layer are
given below
❖ NRZ( non return to zero)
❖ NRZI(non return to zero inverted)
❖ MANCHESTER ENCODING
❖ DIFFERNTIAL MANCHESTER ENCODING
❖ 4B/5B ENCODING
 Digital Signal
1 0 1 1
0

10110 Encoder Decoder 10110

Digital message

Digital to digital encoding

NRZ encoding (Non Return to Zero)
 The most common and easiest way to transmit digital signals.

 Uses two different voltage levels (one positive and one negative) as the signal
elements for the two binary digits.
 Voltage does not return to zero during the bit interval.

 The voltage is constant during the bit interval.

0 ⬄ negative voltage
1 ⬄ positive voltage
 NRZ
Encoding
0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0
+

-
NRZ
Encoding
 The problem with this is that it is difficult to distinguish a series of '1's or '0's.
 Leads to baseline wander

In decoding a digital signal, the receiver calculates a running average of the

received signal power.
This average is called the baseline.
The incoming signal power is evaluated against the baseline to determine the
value of the data element.
A long string of 0's or 1's can cause a drift in the baseline (baseline wandering )
and make it difficult for the receiver to decode correctly.

 Sender and Receiver clocks have to highly precise

 NRZ BASE LINE WONDER

0 1 1
0 0 0 0 1 0 1
1
1 1
1
NRZI ENCODING
NRZI stands for non return to zero inverted.

• NRZ inverted (NRZI)

• Solve the problem of consecutive 1’s.

• At zero, state of current signal remains same.

• Transition at beginning of bit time Transition (either low-to-high

or high-to-low) denotes a binary 1

• No transition denotes a binary 0.

NRZI(Non return to zero inverted)
1 0 1 1 0 1 0

-
Manchester Encoding
 There is a transition at the middle of each bit period.

 A transition in the middle of each bit makes it possible to synchronize

the sender and receiver and also as data:
 low to high represents 0, high to low represents 1

1 ⬄ High-to-low transition

0⬄ low-to-high transition

 Used by IEEE 802.3 Ethernet

LAN
 Differential Manchester
• Initially 1 - high to low. 0 - low to high

• bit 1 is indicated by absence of transmission.

• bit 0 is indicated by presence of transmission.

• In Manchester and differential Manchester encoding, the duration of the bit is divided into two halves

• Differential Manchester, The minimum bandwidth of Manchester and differential Manchester is 2 times
that of NRZ.
Pros and Cons
❑ Pros
 Self-clocking: Because there is a predictable transition during each
bit time, the receiver can synchronize on that transition.

❑ Cons
 The maximum modulation rate is twice that for NRZ
 Requires more bandwidth
Block Coding
• Block coding can give us redundancy and improve the performance of line
coding.
• Block coding is normally referred to as mB /nB coding;
• it replaces each m-bit group with an n-bit group.
• Block coding normally involves three steps:
• division, substitution, and combination.
• In the division step, a sequence of bits is divided into groups of m-bits.
• In the substitution step, substitute an m-bit group for an n-bit group is done
• n-bit groups are combined together to form a stream. The new stream has
more bits than the original bits
Block Coding
Block Coding - 4B/5B
• The four binary/five binary (4B/5B) coding scheme was designed to be
used in combination with NRZ-I.
• NRZ-I has a good signal rate, but it has a synchronization problem.

• A long sequence make the receiver clock lose synchronization.

• One solution is to change the bit stream, prior to encoding with NRZ-I, so
that it does not have a long stream.
• The 4B/5B scheme achieves this goal.

• At the receiver, the NRZ-I encoded digital signal is first decoded into a
stream of bits and then decoded to remove the redundancy.
4B/5B
 4B/5B Encoding
• 4B/5B block encoding scheme designed to breakup long strings of 0’s and 1’s without
increasing the frequency bandwidth.
• In this scheme bit sequence is broken up in to four bit blocks.
• Each block of four bit is replaced with a five bit block.
• The five bits codes were selected so that there is no more than one leading zero and no
more than two trailing zeros.
• Only half of the five bits are used for encoding , the remaining codes can be used for other
purposes.
• Thus, when the codes are strung together there can be no more than three consecutive
zeros
• The string of bits after the replacement are transmitted using NRZI.
• 4B/5B encoding followed by NRZI is used in 10BaseTX (Fast Ethernet).
4B/5B Encoding
4B/5B Encoding
Bit Sequence

100101101110 1001 0110 1110

4B/5B Encoding

1 0 01 1 011 1110
10 0
Not more than 3 consecutive zeros

100110111011100
 Digital Signal
1 0 1 1
0

101 Digital 1010

0 data Digital
data
4B/5B NRZI NRZI 4B/5B
Frame
Encoder Encoder
Decoder Decoder

1011 4B/5B Encoding 1011

0 0