Transmission Media and

Data Transmission
2G1316 Data
Communications and
Computer Networks

2E1623 Data Links and

Local Area Networks
Transmission and Physical Infrastructure

• Transmission Media
ƒ Attenuation and link budget
ƒ Signal distortion
ƒ Capacity limitations

• Modulation and line coding

• Synchronization and framing
• Multiplexing
• Capacity requirements
• Examples—TDM, ADSL, SDH

2
Transmission Media

T Wave guide
Wave guide R
Transmitter Amplifier, Receiver
Signal regenerator

• Guided media • Unguided media

ƒ Electrical ƒ Electromagnetic waves in air
o Twisted pair cable o Radio
o Coaxial cable o Microwaves (terrestrial and
satellite)
ƒ Optical
o Single-mode and multimode

3
Attenuation

10 log10 Pin/Pout
• No link is perfect
• Attenuation
ƒ Power loss between sender and receiver
ƒ Relationship between incoming and outgoing power
ƒ Measured in decibel [dB]
o Example:
o Pin = 120 mW
o Pout = 30 mW
o Attenuation = 10 log10 4 ≈ 6 dB

4
Power and Sensitivity

• Measured in ”decibel watt” dBW or

”decibel milliwatt” dBm
ƒ PdbW = 10 log10 P

ƒ PdBm= 10 log10 P/1×10-3

• For example, transmitter output power

and receiver input sensitivity

• Note: absolute power measures!

5
Transmission Quality—Distortion

ƒ Signal changes form or shape

ƒ Each frequency component has its
own speed through the medium

6
Transmission Quality—Noise

• Undesired signal added to • Signal-to-noise ratio, SNR

the transmitted signal ƒ S/N, where S is signal
ƒ Thermal noise power, N is noise power
o Random motion of
electrons
o Independent of frequency
(”white noise”) and
amplitude
o Added to the signal

7
Transmission Quality—Counter Measures

• Amplification
ƒ Compensates for attenuation and other losses
ƒ Adds noise

• Regeneration (for digital signals)

ƒ Recreates the shape of the signal
• Noise filters
ƒ Can attenuate the signal
• Protection against disturbances and crosstalk (”överhörning”)
ƒ For example shielding against electromagnetic fields

• Protection against distortion

ƒ Equalizers
ƒ Dispersion compensation

8
Bit Rate and Baud Rate

• Link capacity: number of bits per second (bit rate)

• Baud rate: number of signal elements per second

C = R log2 L
C: capacity
L: number of levels
R: baud rate

L=2 L=4
C=R C = 2R

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Nyquist Bit Rate

Cmax = 2B log2 L

• Harry Nyquist (1889 – 1976)

• Also Nyquist’s/Hartley’s Law
• Nyquist bit rate Cmax is the
maxiumum bit rate on an ideal
channel
ƒ So maximum baud rate is 2B

10
 Channel Capacity—Shannon’s Formula

C = B log2 (1 + S/N)

• Claude Shannon (1916 – 2001)

ƒ ”Father of information theory”

• Highest possible bit rate in a channel with

white noise
ƒ B is channel bandwidth
ƒ S/N is signal to noise ratio

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Shannon’s Formula
• Example
ƒ B = 3100 Hz
ƒ S/N = 20 dB = 100 times
ƒ C = 3100 log2(1 + 100) = 20.6 kb/s
• Telephone line
ƒ B: 3100-3500 Hz
ƒ S/N: 33-39 dB
ƒ C ≈ 33-45 kb/s
ƒ (What about ADSL and 56K modems?)

12
Bandwidth for Different Media

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Guided Media

• Wires, cables

• Twisted pair cables

• Coaxial cables

• Optical fibers

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Twisted Pair Cable

• Separately insulated

• Pair of cables twisted together

ƒ Even out external disturbances

ƒ Receiver operates on signal differences

15
Twisted Pair Cable

• Several pairs bundled together

• Often with RJ-45 connector
• Often installed in building when built
• Shielded (STP) and unshielded (UTP)
ƒ Shielding protects from noise and crosstalk
ƒ Bulkier and more expensive

16
Cathegories of Unshielded Twisted Pair

Category Bandwidth Data Rate Digital/Analog Use

1 very low < 100 kbps Analog Telephone

<2
2 2 Mbps Analog/digital T-1 lines
MHz
3 16 MHz 10 Mbps Digital LANs

4 20 MHz 20 Mbps Digital LANs

5 100 MHz 100 Mbps Digital LANs

6 (draft) 200 MHz 200 Mbps Digital LANs

7 (draft) 600 MHz 600 Mbps Digital LANs

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 Bandwidth Bit rate Use

CAT 1 Very low < 0.1 Mb/s Telepho

ne
Doorbel
l
CAT 2 <2 MHz 4 Mb/s T-1
Token
Ring
CAT 3 16 MHz 16 Mb/s 10Base-
T
18
100
Coaxial Cable

• Solid inner connector

• Outer connector is braid or metal foil
• Separated by insulating material
• Higher bandwidth than twisted pair
ƒ But also higher attenuation

19
Optical Fibre

• Core of glass or plastic

• Cladding with lower index of refraction
• Light Emitting Diode (LED) or laser

20
Fiber Transmission Modes

21
Loss vs Wavelength

• Wavelength λ = c/f
ƒ c is propagation speed, f is frequency
22
Fiber Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages
ƒ Very high capacity
ƒ Low attenuation
ƒ Low crosstalk: no interference between photons
ƒ Not sensitive to electromagnetic noise
ƒ Light weight

• Disadvantages
ƒ Installation/maintenance
ƒ Unidirectional

23
Propagation Methods for Unguided Signals

24
Radio Waves

• Radio, television,
etc

• Up to 1 GHz

• Ground and sky

propagation

• Omnidirectional
antennas

25
Microwaves

• 1-300 GHz

• Cellular phones, satellite networks, wireless LANs

• Line of sight propagation

• Unidirectional antennas

26
Infrared

• 300 GHz – 400 THz

• Line-of-sight propagation

• Closed areas
ƒ Interference from sun rays

• Short distances

27
Analog and Digital Signals
Analog and Digital Signals

• Low-pass channel • Band-pass channel

ƒ Digital transmission
ƒ Dedicated medium
o One channel
ƒ Line coding
(”Basbandsmodulering”)
ƒ Analog transmission
ƒ Multiple channels in the
same medium
ƒ ”Bärvågsmodulering”
29
 Line Coding

• Turn binary data into

digital signal

• Dedicated medium
ƒ Full spectrum
ƒ Fourier transformation
of square wave is
infinite serie

30
Unipolar Encoding

• One signal level (and zero)

• Contains DC component
ƒ Distorted (blocked) in some components
ƒ Extra energy
• Lack of synchronization
ƒ Long sequences of all ones or all zeros may cause receiver to loose synchronization

31
Nonreturn to Zero (NRZ)

• Polar signal (two levels)

ƒ NRZ-level (NRZ-L) and NRZ-invert (NRZ-I)

• Average signal level reduced

• Synchronization could still a problem
32
Return to Zero (RZ) Encoding

• Synchronization even for long strings of 1s or 0s

• Two signal-changes per bit—more bandwidth
• “Differential RZ”

33
Manchester Encoding

• Two signal levels

• Higher pulse rate requires larger bandwidth

34
Differential Manchester Encoding

• Need only detect ”transition” or ”no transition”

35
Block Coding

0110 0010 1101

0110 0010 1101 0111
0111 4B/5B
4B/5B
11010
11010 01010
01010 10010
10010 00101
00101

• Bit stream is divided into m-bit groups

• Groups are encoded as n-bit codes
ƒ 4B/5B: 5-bit codes represent 4-bit groups
ƒ 8B/10B: 10-bit codes represent 8-bit groups

36
Substitution in 4B/5B Block Coding

• Chose codes in such a way that synchronization is ensured

ƒ In 4B/5B, there can never be more than three consecutive 0s
• Error detection
• Control information
• Disadvantage: higher bandwidth

37
4B/5B Control Characters

Data Code

Q (Quiet) 00000
I (Idle) 11111
H (Halt) 00100
J (start delimiter) 11000
K (start delimiter) 10001
T (end delimiter) 01101
S (Set) 11001
R (Reset) 00111

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8B/6T Encoding

• Substitute an 8-bit group with a 6-symbol

code

• Ternary symbols

• Limited bandwidth

39
Transmission of Analog Signal
Sampling
• Coding of analog signals
ƒ For example voice and video
• Analog signal is measured at equal intervals
ƒ Sampling
ƒ Quantization in time
ƒ PAM—pulse amplitude modulation

41
Sampling Rate—The Nyquist Theorem

• The sampling rate must be at least twice the highest frequency in the
analog signal
ƒ This frequency is often called the Nyquist frequency, or Nyquist rate

• Theoretically, no information is gained by sampling at a higher rate

42
Aliasing

Amplitude
Original signal

Regenerated signal

• Sampling below the Nyquist rate

(undersampling) distorts the spectrum
• ”Vikningsdistortion”

43
Amplitude Quantization

• From analog to digital data

• Binary coding
44
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

• Signal levels are represented by a fixed

number of bits
ƒ 8 bit values: -127 to 127

• Quantization noise introduced by rounding

errors

45
PCM Examples

Sample rate Sample size Bit rate

(kHz) (bits) (kb/s)
Telephony 8 8 64

CD 44.1 16 705.6

DVD Audio 44.1, 48, 16, 20, 24 9600

88.2, 96, (max)
176.4, 192

46
From Analog to Digital

47
Modulation

• Sine wave fully described by amplitude A,

frequency f and phase φ
ƒ s(t) = A sin(2πft + φ)

• Vary one (or more) to represent symbols

48
Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

• Signal level is varied to represent symbols

• Amplitude sensitive to noise

49
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)

• Signal frequency is varied to represent symbols

• Bandwidth limitations

50
Phase Shift Keying (PSK)

• Signal phase is varied to represent symbols

• Limited by receiver’s ability to detect phase
changes

51
PSK Constellation Diagram

• Phase-state diagram

52
4-PSK (Q-PSK)

• Four different phases

• Each phase represents two bits

53
8-PSK Constellation Diagram

54
Qadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

• Combination of ASK and PSK

ƒ Allows for more combinations—more bits per baud

• Maximum contrast between signal units

55
4-QAM and 8-QAM Constellations

56
Bit and Baud Rates

Bit
Modulation Units Bits/Baud Baud rate
Rate
ASK, FSK, 2-PSK Bit 1 N N
4-PSK, 4-QAM Dibit 2 N 2N
8-PSK, 8-QAM Tribit 3 N 3N
16-QAM Quadbit 4 N 4N
32-QAM Pentabit 5 N 5N
64-QAM Hexabit 6 N 6N
128-QAM Septabit 7 N 7N
256-QAM Octabit 8 N 8N

57
Data Transmission Over Telephone Lines

58
Modems

• Modulator/demodulator

59
V-series Modem Standards

• V.32
ƒ 9600 b/s: 32-QAM, baud rate 2400, 4+1 data bits/baud (trellis-coded)

• V.32 bis
ƒ 14400 b/s: 128-QAM, 6+1 data bits/baud

• V.34 bis
ƒ 28800 – 33600 b/s: 960 to 1664 points constellations

60
 56K modems (PCM modems)

• Quantization noise from

PCM sampling
• ISPs have digital connection
(no modem)
• V.90 and V.92 standards
• Asymmetric rate
ƒ 56/33.6 Kb/s (V.90)
ƒ 8000 samples per second
ƒ 7 bits of data per sample
o 1 bit for control

61
Data Transmission Modes

Transmission
Transmission

Parallel
Parallel Serial
Serial

Asynchronous
Asynchronous Synchronous
Synchronous

62
Parallel Transmission

• High capacity
• But costly, if it requires multiple cables

63
Serial Transmission

• Need for synchronization at bit level

ƒ External clock, such as GPS
ƒ Separate link for clock signal
ƒ Line coding with embedded clock
o Manchester coding, for example

ƒ Receiver resynchronization

64
Asynchronous Transmission

• Asynchronous at the word (byte) level

ƒ Start and stop bits mark the beginning and end of a byte

• (Loose) synchronization at bit level

ƒ Receiver is resynchronized when start bit is detected
ƒ Clock frequencies sufficiently close to keep synchronization for the duration of a byte

• Often combined with parity bit for error control (e.g. RS-232)
• Keyboard, serial port, etc

65
Synchronous Transmission

• Continuous stream of bits

ƒ No extra bits or extra space between bytes

• Special idle patterns to indicate absense of data

• Bit stream can be divided into larger data units (”frames”)
ƒ Responsibility of the data link layer

66
Multiplexing
Multiplexing

• Subdivision of a link into multiple channels

ƒ Multiple sender/receiver pairs can share the link

• Resource sharing
ƒ Bandwidth divided into frequency channels
ƒ Transmission time divided into time slots

68
Multiplexing

• Analog multiplexing
ƒ Frequency division multiplexing (FDM)
o Multiple frequency channels
o Band pass modulation
o TV and radio broadcast

ƒ Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)

o Similar to FDM but for optical transmission

• Digital multiplexing
ƒ Time division multiplexing (TDM)
o Access according to time slots
— Synchronous TDM

o Statistical TDM

69
Time Division Multiplexing for Telephony

• Carries PCM voice channels

ƒ T1 (North America, Japan)
o 24 channels, 1.544 Mb/s
ƒ E1
o 30 channels, 2.048 Mb/s

70
Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing

• Access according to time slots

• Time slots grouped into frames
• If n is the number of inputs, the output link needs to be n times faster
than each input link
• Frame duration is the same as the duration of a data unit on the input

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Hierarchical Multiplexing

72
E Line Rates

Rate Voice
E Line
(Mbps) Channels

E-1 2.048 30

E-2 8.448 120

E-3 34.368 480

E-4 139.264 1920

73
Example: SDH/SONET

• ANSI: Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET)

• ITU-T: Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
• TDM system
ƒ Synchronous network
o A single, common clock allows channel multiplexing

• Fiber-optic transmission system

• Can carry ”tributaries”
ƒ DS-0, DS-1, E1

74
 SONET/SDH Equipment

STS: Synchronous Transport Signal

75
Frame Format

• Organized as a matrix with 9 × 90 octets

ƒ Three columns of administration overhead
ƒ Payload is called Synchronous Payload Envelope (SPE)

76
SONET/SDH Rates

Optical Electrical SDH Line rate Payload

level level equivalent (Mb/s) rate
(Mb/s)
OC-1 STS-1 - 51.84 50.112

OC-3 STS-3 STM-1 155.52 150.336

OC-12 STS-12 STM-4 622.08 601.344

OC-48 STS-48 STM-16 2488.32 2405.376

OC-192 STS-192 STM-64 9953.28 9621.604

OC-768 STS-768 STM-256 39813.120 38486.016

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Virtual Tributaries

• Carry lower rate data

ƒ Partial payload
ƒ VT1.5 for DS-1 service (1.544 Mb/s), VT2
for E1 service (2.048 Mb/s), etc

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Example: Digital Subscriber Link (DSL)

• High-speed Digital Access to Internet

• Exploit the actual bandwidth available
in twisted pair cables in local loop
(subscriber access lines)
ƒ Up to 1.1 MHz
ƒ Subject to strict physical limitations
o Cable distance
o Size of cable
o Signalling

79
Asymmetrical DSL (ADSL)

• Adaptive
ƒ Bandwidth and data rate depends on conditions

• Lower rate in upstream direction (from subscriber)

ƒ For residential access
ƒ Upstream 64 kb/s to 1 Mb/s, Downstream 500 kb/s to 8 Mb/s

• Bandwidth (typically) divided into 4 kHz channels

80
Discrete Multitone Technique (DMT)

• Combination of QAM and FDM

• 4 kHz channels and 15 bits/baud ⇒ 60 kb/s
channels

81
ADSL Modems and DSLAMs

Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer

82
ADSL2/ADSL2+
• ADSL2
ƒ Improved rate and reach
o Improvements in modulation, framing, coding, signal processing, etc.
o About 12 Mb/s downstream and 1 Mb/s upstream
o Slightly increased reach (+200 m)
— Higher rates on long lines

ƒ Higher capacity by ”bonding” two or more phone lines

ƒ Channelized voice
o 64 kb/s DS-0 channels for TDM voice traffic

ƒ All-digital mode
o Use voice channel for data

• ADSL2+
ƒ 2.2 Mhz bandwidth
ƒ Up to 26 Mb/s downstream and 1.5 Mb/s upstream

83
Other DSL Technologies

• Symmetric DSL (SDSL)

ƒ Equally divided bandwidth

• High-bit-rate DSL (HDSL)

ƒ Alternative to T1 access
ƒ Up to 2 Mb/s
ƒ 2B1Q encoding (four levels, two bits per baud)
ƒ Two twisted-pair wires for full-duplex

• Very-high-bit-rate DSL (VDSL)

ƒ Similar to ADSL
ƒ DMT with up to 50-55 Mb/s downstream, 1.5-2.5 upstream
ƒ Short distances (300 to 1800 m)
ƒ Fiber, coaxial cable, twisted-pair cable

84
Summary
• Transmission media
ƒ Link budget
ƒ Capacity limitations

• Transmission of digital information

ƒ Line coding
ƒ Digital modulation

• Transmission of analog information

ƒ Conversion to digital signals
ƒ Sampling

• Synchronization
• Multiplexing
• Examples
ƒ Modems
ƒ SDH/SONET
ƒ ADSL

85
Reading Instructions

• Behrouz A. Forouzan, ”Data Communications and Networking,” third

edition
ƒ 3 Signals
o 3.4 Analog versus Digital
o 3.5 Data Rate Limits
o 3.6 Transmission Impairment
ƒ 4 Digital Transmission
o 4.1 Line Coding
o 4.2 Block Coding
o 4.4 Transmission mode
ƒ 5 Analog Transmission
o 5.1 Modulation of Digital Data
o 5.2 Telephone Modems
ƒ 6 Multiplexing
ƒ 7 Transmission Media
ƒ 9 High-Speed Digital Access
o 9.1 DSL Technology
o 9.3 SONET

86