The Physical

LayerChapter 2
• Theoretical Basis for Data
Communications
• Guided Transmission Media
• Wireless Transmission
• Communication Satellites
• Digital Modulation and Multiplexing
• Public Switched Telephone Network
• Mobile Telephone System
• Cable Television
Revised: February
2018
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 The Physical
Layer
Foundation on which other layers
build
• Properties of wires, fiber, Applicatio
wireless limit what the n
network can do Transport
Network
Link
Key problem is to send Physical
(digital) bits using only
(analog) signals
• This is called modulation

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Physical Layer
Issues
• Media: wires, fiber, satellites, radio
• Signal propagation: bandwidth, attenuation,
noise
• Modulation: how bits are represented as voltage
signals
• Fundamental limits: Nyquist, Shannon

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Abstract Model of a
Link
Channel: bit rate, delay, error
Sender rate Receiver

• Bit rate: bits/sec depends on the channel’s

bandwidth
• Delay: how long does it take a bit to get to the
end?
• Error rate: what is the probability of a bit
flipping?

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Bandwidth-Delay
Product
• Bits have a physical size on the channel!
• Storage capacity of a channel is: bit rate x
delay
• Example:
• 100 Mbps 5000-km fiber, delay = 50
msec
• In 50 msec we can pump out 5 million
bits
• So the fiber can store 5 million bits in
5000 km
• 1 km holds 1000 bits so a bit is 1 meter
long
• CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Signal Propagation over a
Wire
• The signal has a finite propagation speed
(2/3 c)
• The signal is attenuated per km
• Frequencies above a cutoff are strongly
reduced
• Noise is added to the signal

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Theoretical Basis for Data
Communication
Communication rates have fundamental
limits

• Fourier analysis
• Bandwidth-limited signals
• Maximum data rate of a channel

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Sine
wave
g(t) = A sin (2 π f t
+ ϕ)
(Volts)
A

Period = 1/f Tim

e
• A is the amplitude = how strong the signal is
• f is the frequency (cycles/sec or Hz) = how fast it
changes in time
(Volts)
AA

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Fourier
Analysis
A time-varying periodic signal can be
represented as a series of frequency
components (harmonics):

Signal over a, b weights of

time harmonics

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Bandwidt
h
• At the signal level, bandwidth is cutoff
frequency (HZ)
• For data transmission it is bits/sec

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Bandwidth-Limited
Signals
Having less bandwidth (harmonics) degrades the
signal

8 harmonics
Lost!

Bandwidth

4
harmonics
Lost!

2
harmonics
Lost!

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Maximum Data Rate of a Channel -
Nyquist
Nyquist’s theorem relates the data rate to the
bandwidth (B) and number of signal levels (V) on a
noiseless channel:
Max. data rate = 2B log2V
bits/sec
• Examples
– 3000 Hz channel (tel. line), binary signals = 6000
bps
– 3000 Hz channel (tel. line), 4-level signals =
12,000 bps
– 3000 Hz channel (tel. line), 16-level signals =
48,000 bps

• Nyquist is a property of mathematics that

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Maximum Data Rate of a Channel -
Shannon
• Signal to noise is signal power to noise power:
- Expressed as log10 signal power/noise power
- S/N of 10 is written as 10 dB
- S/N of 100 is written as 20 dB
- S/N of 1000 is written as 30 dB

Shannon's theorem relates the data rate to the

bandwidth
(B) and signal strength (S) relative to the noise
(N):
Max. data rate = B log2(1 + S/N)
bits/sec
How fast How many
signal can levels can
CN5E by Tanenbaum &change beand seen
Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall D. Wetherall, 2011
 Example of Shannon’s
limit
• DSL line of 1 MHz
• Suppose S/N = 50 dB (S = 100,000)

• Data rate = 106 log2 (100,001) bit/sec

• Data rate = 16.6 Mbps

• To go higher, you have to cheat:
- Fiber to the curb
- Bonding: Use two or more pairs
- Dynamic spectrum mgmt (basically, reduce
noise)

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Nyquist vs.
Shannon
• Nyquist:
- For noiseless channel
- Depends on number signal levels per
symbol

• Shannon
- For noisy channel
- Depends on S/N ratio, not bits/symbol

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Guided Transmission (Wires &
Fiber)
Media have different properties, hence
performance
• Reality check
– Physical transport of storage media
• Wires:
– Twisted pairs
– Coaxial cable
– Power lines
• Fiber cables

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Transporting Physical
Media
• AST 1990: Never underestimate the
bandwidth of a station wagon full of
tapes hurtling down the highway.

• Ultrium 7 tape = 6 TB, 400 cm2 (costs €100)

• Typical van has capacity of 7 x 106 cm2
• Van holds 17,500 tapes holding 105 x 1015
bytes
• One person can drive NYC to LA in 5 days = 4 x
105 s
• Computer
This is Fifth
Networks, a bandwidth ofand2David
Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum TbpsWetherall, or 2000
© Pearson GbpsHall, 2011
Education-Prentice
 Amazon’s Snowmobile
Service
• When I first wrote that, I meant it as a
joke
• No longer. Enter Amazon’s Snowmobile
service

• It is for companies to put their data in the

cloud
• The Truck holds 100 PB (100,000 terabytes)
on HDs
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Wires – Twisted
Pair
Very common; used in LANs, telephone
lines
• Twists reduce radiated signal
(interference)
• UTP = Unshielded Twisted Pair

Category 5 UTP cable with four twisted pairs

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Kinds of
Wire
• STP = Shielded Twisted Pair
• UTP = Unshielded Twisted
Pair
- Cat 3: Home telephone
lines
- Cat 5: Fast Ethernet (100
Mbps)
- Cat 5e: Gigabit Ethernet
(1 Gbps)
- Cat 6: 10-Gigabit
Ethernet (10 Gps) up to
100 m
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 Connecto
rs

RJ11 – 4 RJ45 – 8
wires wires

Modern buildings are wired for RJ45 but there are

adaptors

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 Link
Terminology
Simplex link
• Only one fixed direction at all times; not
common
Half-duplex link
• Both directions, but not at the same time
• e.g., senders take turns on a wireless
channel
Full-duplex link
• Used for transmission in both directions at
once
• e.g., use different twisted pairs for each
direction
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Wires – Coaxial Cable (“Co-
ax”)
Also common. Better shielding and more
bandwidth for longer distances and higher
rates than twisted pair.

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Wires – Power
Lines
Household electrical wiring is another example
of wires
• Convenient to use, but poor for sending data

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Fiber Optics
(1)

Three examples of a light ray from

inside a silica fiber impinging on the
air/silica boundary at different angles.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Fiber Cables
(2)
Common for high rates and long distances
• Long distance ISP links, Fiber-to-the-
Home
• Light carried in very long, thin strand
of glass

Light Light trapped by

source Photodetect
total internal or
(LED, reflection
laser)

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Fiber Cables
(3)
Fiber has enormous bandwidth (THz) and tiny
signal loss – hence high rates over long
distances

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Fiber Cables
(3)
Single-mode
• Core so narrow (10um) light
can’t even bounce around
• Used with lasers for long
distances, e.g., 100km

Multi-mode
• Other main type of fiber
• Light can bounce (50um core)
• Used with LEDs for cheaper,
shorter distance links

Fibers in a
cable
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 TAT-14 TransAtlantic
Cable

• Fiber cable lies on the ocean floor (8000 m

deep)
• Ring structure
• Two pairs of fibers used plus two pairs for
backup
• Theoretical capacity is 3 Tbps
• Cables are not well protected and there is no
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Wire vs.
Fiber
Comparison of the properties of wires and
fiber:

Property Wires Fiber

Distance Short (100s of m) Long (tens of km)
Bandwidth Moderate Very High
Cost Inexpensive Less cheap
Convenience Easy to use Less easy
Security Easy to tap Hard to tap

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Wireless
Transmission
• Electromagnetic
Spectrum
• Radio Transmission
• Microwave
Transmission
• Light Transmission
• Wireless vs. Wires/Fiber

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Electromagnetic
Spectrum (1)
Different bands have different
uses:
– Radio: wide-area broadcast; Infrared/Light: line-
of-sight
– Microwave: LANs and 3G/4G; Networking
focus

Microwave

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Electromagnetic
Spectrum (2)
To manage interference, spectrum is carefully
divided, and its use regulated and licensed,
e.g., sold at auction.
300 3
MHz GHz

WiFi (ISM
3 Source: NTIA Office of Spectrum Management, bands) 30
2003
GHz GHz
Part of the US frequency
allocations

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Electromagnetic
Spectrum (3)
Fortunately, there are also unlicensed (“ISM”)
bands:
– Free for use at low power; devices manage
interference
– Widely used for networking; WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.

802.1 802.11a/g/
1 n/ac
b/g/n

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Radio
Waves
• Radio waves have a frequency, f, in
Hz
• They have a wavelength, λ in meters
• λf = c in vacuum
• Speed of radio/light = 1 foot/nsec
• For microwaves, megahertz x meters
= 300
– 300 MHz waves are 1 meter long
– 1 GHz waves are 30 cm long
– 2.4 GHz waves are 12.5 cm long

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Radio
Transmission
Radio signals penetrate buildings well and
propagate for long distances with path loss

In the VLF, LF, and MF bands, In the HF band, radio waves

radio waves follow the curvature bounce off the ionosphere.
of the earth

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Microwave
Transmission
Microwaves have much bandwidth and are
widely used indoors (WiFi) and outdoors (3G,
satellites)
• Signal is attenuated/reflected by everyday
objects
• Strength varies with mobility due multipath
fading, etc.

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Light
Transmission
Line-of-sight light (no fiber) can be used for
links
• Light is highly directional, has much
bandwidth
• Use of LEDs/cameras and
lasers/photodetectors

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Wireless vs.
Wires/Fiber
Wireless:
+ Easy and inexpensive to deploy
+ Naturally supports mobility
+ Naturally supports broadcast
– Transmissions interfere and must be managed
– Signal strengths hence data rates vary greatly

Wires/Fiber:
+ Easy to engineer a fixed data rate over point-
to-point links
– Can be expensive to deploy, esp. over distances
– Doesn’t readily support mobility or broadcast

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Communication
Satellites
Satellites are effective for broadcast
distribution and anywhere/anytime
communications
• Kinds of Satellites
• Geostationary (GEO) Satellites
• Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites
• Satellites vs. Fiber

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Kinds of
Satellites
Satellites and their properties vary by altitude:
• Geostationary (GEO), Medium-Earth Orbit
(MEO), and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO)

Sats needed
for global
coverage

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Geostationary Satellites
(1)
GEO satellites orbit 36,000 km above a fixed
location
• VSAT (computers) can communicate with the help
of a hub
• Up and down time is about 250 msec
• Big problem for voice

GEO satellite

VSA
T

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Geostationary Satellites
(2)

The principal satellite

bands
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Low-Earth Orbit
Satellites
Systems such as Iridium use many low-latency
satellites for coverage and route
communications via them

The 66 Iridium satellites

form six necklaces
around the earth.

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 Low-Earth Orbit Satellites
(2)

Relaying in
space.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Low-Earth Orbit Satellites
(3)

Relaying on the
ground
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Satellite vs.
Fiber
Satellite:
+ Can rapidly set up anywhere/anytime
communications (after satellites have been
launched)
+ Can broadcast to large regions
– Limited bandwidth and interference to manage

Fiber:
+ Enormous bandwidth over long distances
– Installation can be more expensive/difficult
– Doesn’t work at sea or in remote areas

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Digital Modulation and
Multiplexing
Modulation schemes send bits as signals
Multiplexing schemes share a channel among
users.

• Baseband Transmission
• Passband Transmission
• Frequency Division Multiplexing
• Time Division Multiplexing
• Code Division Multiple Access

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Baseband
Transmission
Line codes send symbols that represent one or
more bits
• NRZ is the simplest, literal line code (+1V=“1”,
-1V=“0”)
• Other codes tradeoff bandwidth and signal
transitions

Four different line

codes
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Clock
Recovery
To decode the symbols, signals need sufficient
transitions
• Otherwise
1 0 0long
0 0runs
0 0of 00s0(or
0 1s) are
0 um, confusing,
0? er,
e.g.: 0?

Strategies:
Manchester coding, mixes clock signal in every
symbol 4B/5B maps 4 data bits to 5 coded bits
with 1s and 0s:
Data Code Data Code Data Code Data Code
0000 11110 0100 01010 1000 10010 1100 11010
0001 01001 0101 01011 1001 10011 1101 11011
0010 10100 0110 01110 1010 10110 1110 11100
0011 10101 0111 01111 1011 10111 1111 11101

Scrambler XORs tx/rx data with

pseudorandom bits
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 Passband Transmission
(1)
Modulating the amplitude, frequency/phase of a
carrier signal sends bits in a (non-zero)
frequency range

NRZ signal of bits

Amplitude shift

keying Frequency

shift keying Phase

shift keying

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 Passband Transmission
(2)
Constellation diagrams are a shorthand to
capture the amplitude and phase modulations
of symbols:

BPSK QPSK QAM-16 QAM-

2 symbols 4 16 symbols 64
64
1 bit/symbol 2 symbols 4 symbols
bits/symbol bits/symbol 6
BPSK/QPSK varies only bits/symbol
QAM varies amplitude and
phase phase

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Frequency Division
Multiplexing
FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing)
shares the channel by placing users on
different frequencies:

Overall FDM
channel

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum
• WiFi and Bluetooth change frequencies many
times/sec
• Called “frequency hopping”
• Invented by sex-goddess Hedy Lamarr
• She patented it, but Navy wasn’t interested

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Time Division Multiplexing
(TDM)
Time division multiplexing shares a channel
over time:
• Users take turns on a fixed schedule; this
is not packet switching or STDM
(Statistical TDM)
• Widely used in telephone / cellular
systems

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Code Division Multiple Access
(1)

(a) Chip sequences for four

stations.
(b)Signals the sequences
represent
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
Code Division Multiple Access
(2)

(c) Six examples of

transmissions.
(d)Recovery of station C’s

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
The Public Switched Telephone
Network
• Structure of the telephone
system
• Politics of telephones
• Local loop: modems, ADSL, and
FttH
• Trunks and multiplexing
• Switching

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Structure of the Telephone
System (1)

(a) Fully interconnected

network.
(b)Centralized switch.
(c) Two-level hierarchy.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
Structure of the Telephone
System (2)
A hierarchical system for carrying voice calls
made of:
• Local loops, mostly analog twisted pairs to
houses
• Trunks, digital fiber optic links that carry
many calls
• Switching offices, that move calls among
trunks

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Structure of the Telephone
System (3)
Major Components
• Local loops analog twisted pairs to houses,
businesses).
• Trunks (digital fiber optic links between switching
offices).
• Switching offices (calls are moved from one
trunk to another)
• Core of phone system is optical & digital in
Europe, US

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 The Politics of
Telephones
There is a distinction for competition between
serving a local area (LECs) and connecting to a
local area (at a POP) to switch calls across areas
(IXCs)
• Customers of a LEC can dial via any IXC they
choose

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Physics of Cat 3
Wiring

Bandwidth versus distance over

Category 3 UTP for DSL.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Local loop (2):
modems
Telephone modems send digital data over an
3.3 KHz analog voice channel interface to the
POTS
• Rates <56 kbps; early way to connect to the
Internet

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Local loop (1): Acoustic
Couplers

• Until 1968 in U.S. and ca. 1984 in Europe,

modems were not allowed
• People could use acoustic couplers to connect
terminals

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Local loop (3): Digital Subscriber
Lines
DSL broadband sends data over the local loop to
the local office using frequencies that are not
used for POTS

• Telephone/
computers attach
to the same old
phone line
• Rates vary with line
– ADSL2 up to 24
Mbps
– VDSL2 to 100
Mbps
• OFDM used to 1.1
MHz CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Local loop (4): Fiber To The
Home
FttH broadband relies on deployment of
fiber optic cables to provide high data
rates customers
• One wavelength can be shared among
many houses
• Fiber is passive (no amplifiers, etc.)

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Pulse Code Modulation
(1)
Calls are carried digitally on PSTN trunks using
TDM
• A call is an 8-bit PCM sample each 125 µs (64
kbps)
• Traditional T1 carrier has 24 call channels
each 125 µs (1.544 Mbps)

• Europe uses 8 bits for data: E1 at 2.048

Mbps CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Pulse Code Modulation
(2)

Multiplexing T1 streams into higher

carriers
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 SONET/SDH
(1)
• Different carriers had to interconnect
• For international calls, T3 and E3 had to be
harmonized
• Need for standards above T4 and E4
• Better network management was needed

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 SONET/SDH
(2)
SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) is the
worldwide standard for carrying digital signals on
optical trunks
• Keeps 125 µs frame; base frame is 810 bytes
(52Mbps)
• Payload “floats” within framing for flexibility

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 SONET/SDH
(3)
Hierarchy at 3:1 per level is used for higher
rates
• Each level also adds a small amount of
framing
• Rates from 52 Mbps (STS-1) to 40 Gbps (STS-
768)

SONET/SDH rate
hierarchy

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Wavelength Division
Multiplexing
WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing),
another name for FDM, is used to carry many
signals on one fiber:

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Circuit Switching/Packet
Switching (1)

(a) Circuit switching. (b) Packet

switching.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
Circuit Switching/Packet
Switching (2)

Timing of events in (a) circuit

switching,
(b)Tanenbaum
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew packet and David switching
Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Circuit Switching/Packet
Switching (3)

A comparison of circuit-switched and packet-switched

networks.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 QUEUEING DELAY
Packe
t

Switch

• Queueing delay for M/M/1 system: Q =

1/(1-ρ) * T
• Where ρ is the line utilization
• Examples:
- ρ = 0.01 means Q = 1.01T
- ρ = 0.5 means Q = 2T
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 Mobile Telephone
System
• Generations of mobile telephone
systems
• Cellular mobile telephone systems
• GSM, a 2G system
• UMTS, a 3G system
• 4G LTE
• 4G

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Generations of mobile telephone
systems
• 1G, analog voice
– AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) is example,
deployed from 1980s. Modulation based on FM (as in
radio).
• 2G, analog voice and digital data
– GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is
example, deployed from 1990s. Modulation based on
QPSK.
• 3G, digital voice and data
– UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)
is example, deployed from 2000s. Modulation based
on CDMA
• LTE, digital data including voice
– LTE (Long Term Evolution) is example, deployed from
2010s. Modulation based on OFDM

• 4G based on CDMA and 802.16m (WiMax)

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Cellular mobile phone
systems
All based on notion of spatial regions called
cells
– Each mobile uses a frequency in a cell; moves cause
handoff
– Frequencies are reused across non-adjacent cells
– To support more mobiles, smaller cells can be used

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
2G GSM – Global System for
Mobile Communications
(1)
• Mobile is divided into handset and SIM
card (Subscriber Identity Module) with
credentials
• Mobiles tell their HLR (Home Location
Register) their current whereabouts for
incoming calls
• Cells keep track of visiting mobiles (in the
Visitor LR)

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
2G GSM – Global System for
Mobile Communications
Air interface(2)
is based on FDM channels of
200 KHz divided in an eight-slot TDM frame
every 4.615 ms
• Mobile is assigned up- and down-stream
slots to use
• Each slot is 148 bits long, gives rate of
27.4 kbps

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
2G GSM—The Global System for
Mobile Communications
(3)

A portion of the GSM framing

structure.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Goals for UMTS
(3G)
Basic services desired
• High-quality voice transmission.
• Messaging (replacing email, fax, SMS,
chat).
• Multimedia (music, videos, films,
television).
• Internet access (Web surfing, incl. audio,
video).

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 3G UMTS – Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (1)
Architecture is an evolution of GSM; terminology
differs Not compatible with 2G GSM

Intern
et

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 3G UMTS – Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (2)
Air interface based on CDMA over 5 MHz
channels
• Rates over users <14.4 Mbps (HSPDA) per
5 MHz
• CDMA permits soft handoff (connected to
both cells)
Soft
hando
ff

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 4
G
• ITU defined spec in 2008, before the technology
existed
• ITU can’t enforce what carriers do or call their
services
• Pure IPv6 packet switching, no circuit switching
• No voice (except as VoIP)
• 1 Gbps for stationary user, 100 Mbps for moving
user
• Uses carrier aggregation (multiple bands
together)
• Uses OFDMA (Orthogonal Freq. Div. Mux Access)
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 OFDM
A
0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1
1
Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4
0 1 1 0
1 0 1 1
0 1 1 1
0 0 1 0
1 0 1 1

Each channel is broadcast in parallel on

different frequency bands

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Cable
Television
• Internet over
cable
• Spectrum
allocation
• Cable modems
• ADSL vs. cable

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Community Antenna
Television

An early cable television

system

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Internet over
Cable
Internet over cable reuses the cable television
plant
• Data is sent on the shared cable tree from the
head- end, not on a dedicated line per
subscriber (DSL)

ISP
(Interne
t)

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Internet over Telephone
System

The fixed telephone

system.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Spectrum
Allocation
Upstream and downstream data are
allocated to frequency channels not used
for TV channels:

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Cable
Modems
Cable modems at customer premises
implement the physical layer of the DOCSIS
standard
• QPSK/QAM is used in timeslots on
frequencies that are assigned for
upstream/downstream data

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Comparison of Cable and
Telephone
Item Cable Telephone Internet
Internet
Type of wiring Shared Dedicated
Interference from Possible Impossible
neighbors
Wiring Coax CAT 3 twisted pair
Age of system Newer Very old
Max speed 400 Mbps 100 Mbps (copper)
Fiber possible? No Yes
Security Poor Good

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 En
d
Chapter
2

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011