Physical Layer

by
Dr. Simar Preet Singh
(Associate Professor)
Email: [email protected]

School of Computer Science Engineering and Technology

Bennett University
Greater Noida – 201310
 Outline

Physical Layer: Services

Line coding
Modulation
Multiplexing
Switching
 Physical Layer
The physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI
model.
This layer controls the way unstructured, raw, bit -
stream data is sent and received over a physical
medium.
This layer is composed of the electrical, optical, and
physical components of the network.
It carries the signals for all of the higher layers.
This layer plays with most of the network’s physical
connections - wireless transmission, cabling, cabling
standards and types, connectors and types, network
interface cards, and more - as per network
requirements.
 Physical Layer: Services
 Representation of Bits: Data in this layer consists of stream of bits. The bits must be encoded into signals for
transmission. It defines the type of encoding i.e., how 0's and 1's are changed to signal.
 Data Rate: This layer defines the rate of transmission which is the number of bits per second.

 Synchronization: The sender and receiver are synchronized at bit level.

 Interface: Transmission interface between devices and transmission medium.

 Line Configuration: Point to Point configuration and Multipoint configuration.

 Network topologies: Mesh, Star, Ring, Bus, Tree, and Hybrid.

 Transmission Modes: Simplex, Half Duplex, Full Duplex.

 Deals with baseband and broadband transmission.

 Line coding

Line coding – Conversion of

digital data to digital signal.
Sender converts sequence to bits
(or encoding) into a digital signal
which then again converted into
bits (or decoded) by the receiver.
Line coding: Relationship between data and signal
Data elements are being carried whereas signal elements are the carriers.
The number of data elements sent per second is known as bit rate.
The signal that can be sent per second is known as baud rate or pulse rate.
The relationship between them is given as follows:

baud
where S = baud rate, c = case factor, N = bit rate, r is the ratio of data
element carried by each signal
Line coding: Relationship between data and signal
E.g.-
A signal is carrying data in which one data element is encoded as one signal
element (r = 1). If bit rate is 1 Mbps and case factor c is ½ (in most of the cases)
then what will the value of baud rate?
Line coding: Relationship between data and signal
E.g.- A signal is carrying data in which one data element is encoded as one signal
element (r = 1). If bit rate is 1 Mbps and case factor c is ½ (in most of the cases)
then what will the value of baud rate?

Sol:
S = 1/2 * 1000000/1 = 500 kbaud
Line coding: Relationship between data and signal
Case (a): One data element per one signal element ( 𝑟=1)
• Each bit (0 or 1) corresponds directly to one signal
change.
• This is a 1:1 encoding, meaning that the baud rate
(signal rate) equals the bit rate.
Case (b): One data element per two signal elements
(𝑟=1/2)
• Each bit is represented by two signal elements.
• This means the signal rate (baud rate) is double the bit
rate.
• This is typical in schemes like Manchester encoding,
Line coding: Relationship between data and signal
Case (c): Two data elements per one signal element (𝑟=2)
• Each signal element carries two bits.
• This is an example of higher-order modulation, such as
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK).
• Since each signal element contains more information,
the baud rate is half the bit rate.
Case (d): Four data elements per three signal elements
(𝑟=4/3)
• Each signal change represents multiple bits.
• This approach is used in schemes like Quadrature
Amplitude Modulation (QAM), which increases data
transmission efficiency.
Line coding: Schemes
 Line coding: Unipolar
It uses only one voltage level.

 It is also called On-Off Keying or simply

OOK.
 Positive voltage is defined by bit 1 and
zero voltage defines bit 0.
Two variations:
 Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ): Signal does not
return to zero at the middle of the bit.
 Return to Zero (RZ): Signal returns to zero at the
middle of the bit.
 Line coding: Unipolar
Unipolar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) Unipolar Return to Zero (RZ)
 A High in data represented by a +ve pulse but its duration is
 A High (1) in data is represented by a positive pulse.
less than the symbol bit duration.
 A Low(0) in data input has no pulse.
 Half of the bit duration remains high, but it immediately
returns to zero and shows the absence of pulse for remaining
half.
 Line coding: Polar
It uses two voltage levels – one positive and the other one negative.
The voltages are on both sides of the time axis.
Binary values; 0 and 1, are used to show +ve and –ve voltage, respectively.
 Polar: NRZ
The signal level remains same throughout the bit-period.

Two encoding schemes:

 NRZ Level (NRZ-L)
NRZ-L
 NRZ Inverted (NRZ-I) 1 = Low level
0 = High level

NRZ-I
For each 1 in the bit
sequence, the signal
level inverted.
 Polar: RZ
RZ scheme uses three values: positive, negative, and zero.

In RZ, the signal changes not between bits but during the bit.

The signal goes to 0 in the middle of each bit, and it remains there until the beginning of the next bit.
Polar: Manchester
Polar: Differential Manchester
 Line Coding: Bipolar
 It is also called as multilevel binary scheme.
It is of two types:
Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI): A neutral zero voltage represents binary 0 whereas binary 1s
(Mark) are represented by alternating +ve and –ve voltages.
Pseudoternary: Binary 1 bit is encoded as a zero voltage and the binary 0s are represented by
alternating +ve and –ve voltages.
 Line coding: Bipolar
AMI Pseudoternary
 Line Coding Self Practice Example
Encode the bit stream 000111101011 using
 Unipolar

 NRZ-L

 NRZ-I

 Manchester

 Differential Manchester

 AMI

 Pseudoternary
 Modulation : Definition
 The process of superimposing a low-frequency
signal (message signal or baseband signal) on a
high-frequency carrier signal (sinusoidal wave).
 The process of varying RF carrier wave in
accordance with the low-frequency signal
information.
 A higher frequency carrier wave is able to
travel much farther than the baseband signal.
 Modulation can be done based on the
amplitude, frequency or phase of the signal.
 Modulation : Why is needed
Ease of Radiation (To reduce the antenna size)
 Modulation : Why is needed
 To reduce the interference: When thousands of devices want to transmit baseband signal with same frequency then those
signals interfere with each other leading to a lot of noise in the system. By using a carrier wave of high frequencies and
allotting a band of frequencies to each message, there is no mixing up of signals and the received signals are perfect.

 Wireless Communication: Modulation helps to transmit the signals through space to long distances without using wires.
The technique of modulation helped humans to use the wireless equipment in a big way in their lives. Telephones no
longer had to remain plugged to a wall.
 Modulation : Types

On the basis of
Type of Carrier Signal

AM: Amplitude Modulation PAM: Pulse Amplitude Modulation PWM: Pulse Width Modulation
FM: Frequency Modulation PPM: Pulse Position Modulation PCM: Pulse Code Modulation
PM: Phase Modulation
Analog Modulation: Continuous Wave Modulation
Analog Modulation: Pulse Modulation
Modulation: Digital Modulation
 Multiplexing
 A technique used to combine and send the multiple data streams over a single medium.

 The process of combining the data streams is known as multiplexing and hardware used for multiplexing is known as a
multiplexer.
 Multiplexing follows many-to-one, i.e., n input lines and one output line.

 Demultiplexing is achieved by using a device called Demultiplexer (DEMUX) available at the receiving end.

 DEMUX separates a signal into its component signals (one input and n outputs). Therefore, we can say that demultiplexing
follows the one-to-many approach.
 Multiplexing
Why Multiplexing?
The transmission medium is shared among n users and can only have one signal at a time.

If there are multiple signals to share one medium, then the medium must be divided in such a way
that each signal is given some portion of the available bandwidth.

E.g. If there are 10 signals and bandwidth of medium is100 units, then the 10 unit is shared
by each signal.
Multiplexing concept is used to avoid collision between signals.

Transmission services are very expensive.

 Multiplexing Techniques: Frequency division multiplexing (FDM)
It is an analog technique which is used extensively in TV and radio transmission.

The available bandwidth of a single transmission medium is subdivided into several channels.

The input signals are translated into frequency bands by using modulation techniques, and they are
combined by a multiplexer to form a composite signal.
Multiplexing Techniques: Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)
 WDM is same as FDM except that the optical signals are transmitted through the fiber optic cable.

 WDM is used on fiber optics to increase the capacity of a single fiber.

 It is an analog multiplexing technique.

 Optical signals from different source are combined to form a wider band of light using multiplexer.

 Demultiplexer separates the signals to transmit them to their respective destinations.

Multiplexing Techniques: Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)

Multiplexing and Demultiplexing can be achieved by using a prism.

Prism can perform a role of multiplexer by combining the various optical signals to form a
composite signal, and the composite signal is transmitted through a fiber optical cable.
Prism also performs a reverse operation, i.e., demultiplexing the signal.
 Multiplexing Techniques: Time division multiplexing (TDM)
A digital process that allows several connections to share the high bandwidth of a line instead of
sharing a portion of the bandwidth as in FDM, time is shared.
Each connection occupies a portion of time in the link.
 Multiplexing Techniques: Time division multiplexing (TDM)
A user takes control of the channel for a fixed amount of time (i.e., time slot).

Data is not transmitted simultaneously rather the data is transmitted one-by-one.

In TDM, the signal is transmitted in the form of frames.

Frames contain a cycle of time slots which contains one or more slots dedicated to each user.

There are two types of TDM:

 Synchronous TDM: Time slot is preassigned to every device.

 Asynchronous TDM: Time slots are not fixed and are allocated to only those devices which have the data to send.
 Switching
 A process to forward packets coming in from one port to a port leading towards the destination.

Two terms used

 Ingress – Data comes on a port

 Egress – Data leaves a port or goes out

 Switching can be divided into two categories:

 Connectionless: Data is forwarded on behalf of forwarding table and no manual intervention. It is not secure

 Connection-oriented: A circuit is pre-established along with the path between both endpoints. Data is forwarded on
the circuit and the circuit can be kept for future use or can be turned down immediately.
Switching : Techniques
 Switching : Circuit Switching
 A dedicated path is established between sender and receiver and will remain to exist until the
connection is terminated.
Circuit switching in a network operates in a similar way as the telephone works.

A complete end-to-end path must exist before the communication takes place.

Circuit switching has 3 phases:

 Circuit establishment

 Data transfer

 Circuit Disconnect
 Switching : Circuit Switching
Advantage Disadvantage
 A committed transmission channel is established between  It takes a long time to establish a connection.
the computers which give a guaranteed data rate.  More bandwidth is required in setting up dedicated channels.
 No delay in data flow due to the dedicated transmission  It cannot be used to transmit any other data even if the channel is

path. free as the connection is dedicated to circuit switching.

 Switching : Message Switching
 Message is transferred as a complete unit and forwarded using store and forward mechanism.

 No dedicated path is established between the sender and receiver.

The destination address is appended to the message and is routed efficiently using dynamic path.

Each node stores the entire message and then forward it to the next node.

Not suited for streaming media and real-time application.

Application:
 Telegraph message switching centers

 Electronic mail systems

 Switching : Message Switching
Advantage
 It can store the message when channel is not available, it helps
in reducing the traffic in the network.
 The data channels are shared by the devices.

 It makes traffic management efficient by assigning priorities

to the messages.
Disadvantage
 It cannot be used for real-time applications as storing
messages causes delay.
 The message must be stored for which every intermediate
device in the network requires a large storing capacity.
 Switching : Packet Switching
Message is broken into individual chunk called as packets that is sent individually in the network.

Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source address, destination address
and sequence number.
Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.

Sequence number helps the receiver to reorder the packets, detect missing packets, and send
acknowledgement.
Application:
 Ethernet

 Frame Relay
 Switching : Packet Switching approaches
Datagram Packet switching:
Packet is known as a datagram and is considered as an independent entity.

Each packet contains the information about the destination and switch uses this information to
forward the packet to the correct destination.
The packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.

The routing path is not fixed where the routing decision is taken by the intermediate nodes.

It is also known as connectionless switching.

 Switching : Packet Switching approaches
Virtual circuit switching:
It is also known as connection-oriented switching.

A preplanned route is established before the messages are sent.

Call request and call accept packets are used to establish connection between sender and receiver.

In this case, the path is fixed for the duration of a logical connection.
 Switching : Packet Switching approaches
Advantage Disadvantage
 More efficient in terms of bandwidth, since the  It doesn’t send packets in order.
concept of reserving circuit is not there.
 Since the packets are unordered, we need to
 Minimal transmission latency.
provide sequence numbers for each packet.
 More reliable as a destination can detect the
 Complexity is more at each node because of the
missing packet.
facility to follow multiple paths.
 More fault tolerant because packets may follow
 Transmission delay is more because of rerouting.
a different path in case any link is down, Unlike
 Packet Switching is beneficial only for small
Circuit Switching.
messages, but for bursty data (large messages)
 Cost-effective and comparatively cheaper to
Circuit Switching is better.
implement.
 References

 https://circuitglobe.com/difference-between-circuit-switching-and-packet-switching.html

 https://www.javatpoint.com/computer-network-switching-techniques

 https://www.studytonight.com/computer-networks/multiplexing-in-computer-networks

 https://www.javatpoint.com/multiplexing-in-computer-network

 https://data-flair.training/blogs/multiplexing-in-computer-network/

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HlJ4psu5aU&t=350s

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHvV_Tv8HDQ