Physical Layer

Unit 1
Introduction
Physical layer actually interacts with the transmission media,
the physical part of the network that connects network
components together.
This layer is involved in physically carrying information from
one node in the network to the next.
The physical layer has complex tasks to perform.
One major task is to provide services for the data link layer. The
data in the data link layer consists of Os and 1s organized into
frames that are ready to be sent across the transmission
medium. This stream of Os and 1s must first be converted into
another entity: signals.
One of the services provided by the physical layer is to create a
signal that represents this stream of bits.
The physical layer must also take care of the physical network,
the transmission medium.
The transmission medium must be controlled by the physical
layer. The physical layer decides on the directions of data flow.
The physical layer decides on the number of logical channels
for transporting data coming from different sources.
One of the major functions of the physical layer is to move
data in the form of electromagnetic signals across a
transmission medium.
Whether you are collecting numerical statistics from another
computer, sending animated pictures from a design
workstation, or causing a bell to ring at a distant control
center, you are working with the transmission of data across
network connections.
Generally, the data usable to a person or application are not
in a form that can be transmitted over a network.
For example, a photograph must first be changed to a form
that transmission media can accept.
Transmission media work by conducting energy along a
physical path.
To be transmitted, data must be transformed to
electromagnetic signals.
Analog and Digital Data
Data can be analog or digital.
The term analog data refers to information that is
continuous; digital data refers to information that has
discrete states.
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.
On the other hand, 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 they represent, 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.
Periodic and Nonperiodic
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 nonperiodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern
or cycle that repeats over time. Both analog and digital
signals.
In data communications, we commonly use periodic
analog signals and nonperiodic digital signals.

PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS
The sine wave is the most fundamental form of a
periodic analog signal.
A sine wave can be represented by three parameters:
the peak amplitude, the frequency, and the phase.
These three parameters fully describe a sine wave.
Peak Amplitude: The peak amplitude of a signal is
the absolute value of its highest intensity, proportional
to the energy it carries.
Figure: Two signals with the same phase and frequency,
but different amplitudes
Period and Frequency
Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a
signal needs to complete 1 cycle.
Frequency refers to the number of periods in I s.
Note that period and frequency are just one
characteristic defined in two ways. Period is the
inverse of frequency, and frequency is the inverse of
period.



Period is formally expressed in seconds. Frequency is
formally expressed in Hertz (Hz), which is cycle per
second.
Figure: Two signals with the same amplitude and phase,
but different frequencies
Table: Units of period and frequency
Example
The power we use at home has a frequency of 60 Hz.
The period of this sine wave can be determined as
follows:




Express a period of 100 ms in microseconds.


The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in
kilohertz?

Solution
First we change 100 ms to seconds, and then we
calculate the frequency from the period (1 Hz = 10
3

kHz).
Frequency is the rate of change with respect to
time.
Change in a short span of time means high
frequency.
Change over a long span of time means low
frequency.
If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is
zero.
If a signal changes instantaneously, its frequency
is infinite.

Phase
Phase describes the position of the waveform
relative to time 0.

Figure: Three sine waves with the same amplitude and frequency,
but different phases
wavelength
The wavelength is the distance a simple signal can
travel in one period.
Composite Signals
A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in data
communications; we need to send a composite
signal, a signal made of many simple sine waves.
According to Fourier analysis, any composite
signal is a combination of simple sine waves with
different frequencies, amplitudes, and phases.
If the composite signal is periodic, the
decomposition gives a series of signals with
discrete frequencies; if the composite signal is
nonperiodic, the decomposition gives a
combination of sine waves with continuous
frequencies.
Bandwidth
The range of frequencies contained in a composite
signal is its bandwidth.
The bandwidth is normally a difference between
two numbers. For example, if a composite signal
contains frequencies between 1000 and 5000, its
bandwidth is 5000 - 1000, or 4000
If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves
with frequencies of 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what
is its bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming all
components have a maximum amplitude of 10 V.
Solution
Let f
h
be the highest frequency, f
l
the lowest frequency, and
B the bandwidth. Then
Example
The spectrum has only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700,
and 900 Hz
DIGITAL SIGNALS
Information can also be represented by a digital signal.
For example, a 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: 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.
Another term bit rate (instead of frequency) is used
to describe digital signals.
The bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1s,
expressed in bits per seconds (bps).
Example: Assume we need to download text
documents at the rate of 100 pages per minute. What is
the required bit rate of the channel?
Ans. A page is an average of 24 lines with 80
characters in each line. If we assume that one character
requires 8 bits, the bit rate is
100 x 24 x 80 x 8 =1,636,000 bps =1.636 Mbps
Bit Length
Wavelength is concerned about for an analog signal:
the distance one cycle occupies on the transmission
medium.
Bit length: for digital signal.
The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the
transmission medium.

TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT
Signals travel through transmission media, which are
not perfect.
The imperfection causes signal impairment. (harm,
destruction)
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 attenuation, distortion, and noise

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.
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 3.27: Attenuation and amplification
Distortion: Distortion means that the signal changes its
form or shape. Distortion can occur in a composite
signal made of different frequencies.
Noise: Noise is another cause of impairment.
Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced
noise, crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the
signal.
Thermal noise is the random motion of electrons in a wire,
which creates an extra signal not originally sent by the
transmitter.
Induced noise comes from sources such as motors.
Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other.

DATA RATE LIMITS
A very important consideration in data communications
is how fast we can send data, in bits per second, over
a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)


Noiseless Channel: Nyquist bit Rate
BitRate = 2 X bandwidth X Log
2
L
In this formula, bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel, L
is the number of signal levels used to represent data, and
BitRate is the bit rate in bits per second.
According to the formula, we might think that, given a specific
bandwidth, we can have any bit rate we want by increasing the
number of signal levels.
Although the idea is theoretically correct, practically there is a
limit. When we increase the number of signal levels, we
impose a burden on the receiver.
Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the reliability of
the system.
Example: Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of
3000 Hz transmitting a signal with two signal levels. The
maximum bit rate can be calculated as


Consider the same noiseless channel transmitting a signal with
four signal levels (for each level, we send 2 bits). The maximum
bit rate can be calculated as


Noisy Channel: Shannon
Capacity
Capacity = bandwidth X Log
2
(1 + SNR)
In this formula, bandwidth is the bandwidth of the
channel, SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio, and capacity
is the capacity of the channel in bits per second.
Note that in the Shannon formula there is no indication
of the signal level, which means that no matter how
many levels we have, we cannot achieve a data rate
higher than the capacity of the channel.
In other words, the formula defines a characteristic of
the channel, not the method of transmission.
Using Both Limits: In practice, we need to use both
methods to find the limits and signal levels.
From Shannon Capacity, we can find capacity of
channel. And using that capacity in Nyquist bit Rate we
can find number of level to be send for good
performance.
Transmission Media
Transmission media are actually located below the
physical layer and are directly controlled by the
physical layer.
You could say that transmission media belong to layer
zero.
A transmission medium can be broadly defined as
anything that can carry information from a source to a
destination.
To be specific for Data communications,
The transmission medium is usually free space, metallic
cable, or fiber-optic cable.
The information is usually a signal that is the result of a
conversion of data from another form.

Transmission medium and physical layer
Computers and other telecommunication devices use
signals to represent data.
These signals are transmitted from one device to
another in the form of electromagnetic energy, which is
propagated through transmission media.
In telecommunications, transmission media can be
divided into two broad categories: guided and
unguided.
Guided media include
twisted-pair cable,
coaxial cable, and
fiber-optic cable.
Unguided medium is free space
Classes of transmission media
GUIDED MEDIA
Guided media, which are those that provide a conduit
from one device to another.
There are three categories of guided media:
1. Twisted-pair cable
2. Coaxial cable
3. Fiber-optic cable


Twisted-pair cable
Twisted pair consists of two
conductors (normally copper),
each with its own plastic
insulation, twisted together.
One of the wires is used to
carry signals to the receiver,
and the other is used only as a
ground reference.
Twisted-pair cable comes in two
forms: unshielded and
shielded
The twisting helps to reduce the
interference (noise) and
crosstalk.


UTP Vs. STP
Unshielded Twisted-pair (UTP)
cable
UTP cable is the most common type of
telecommunication medium in use today.
The range is suitable for transmitting both data and
video.
Advantages of UTP are its cost and ease of use.
UTP is cheap, flexible, and easy to install.


UTP Standards
Category Bandwidth Data Rate Digital/Analog Use
1 very low < 100 kbps Analog Telephone
2 < 2 MHz 2 Mbps Analog/digital T-1 lines
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
UTP connectors
The most common UTP connector is RJ45 (RJ stands for
Registered Jack).

Shielded Twisted (STP) Cable
STP cable has a metal foil or braided-mesh covering
that enhances each pair of insulated conductors.
The metal casing prevents the penetration of
electromagnetic noise.
Materials and manufacturing requirements make STP
more expensive than UTP but less susceptible to noise.


Applications of Twisted Pair
Cables
Twisted-pair cables are used in telephones lines to
provide voice and data channels.
The DSL lines that are used by the telephone
companies to provide high data rate connections also
use the high-bandwidth capability of unshielded
twisted-pair cables.
Local area networks, such as 10Base-T and 100Base-
T, also used UTP cables.


Coaxial Cable (or coax)
Coaxial cable (or coax) carries signals of higher
frequency ranges than those in twisted pair cable.
Instead of having two wires, coax has a central core
conductor of solid or stranded wire (usually copper)
enclosed in an insulating sheath, which is, in turn,
encased in an outer conductor of metal foil, braid, or a
combination of the two.
The outer metallic wrapping serves both as a shield
against noise and as the second conductor, which
completes the circuit.

Categories of coaxial cables
Fiber-Optic Cable
A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and
transmits signals in the form of light.
To understand optical fiber, we first need to explore
several aspects of the nature of light.
Light travels in a straight line as long as it is moving
through a single uniform substance.
If a ray of light traveling through one substance
suddenly enters another (less or more dense)
substance, its speed changes abruptly, causing the ray
to change direction.
This change is called refraction.

Critical angle
If the angle of incidence increases, so does the angle of
refraction.
The critical angle is defined to be an angle of incidence
for which the angle of refraction is 90 degrees.
Reflection
When the angle of incidence
becomes greater than the
critical angle, a new
phenomenon occurs called
reflection.

Light no longer passes into
the less dense medium at all.



Bending of light ray
Optical fibers use reflection to guide light through a
channel.
A glass or core is surrounded by a cladding of less
dense glass or plastic. The difference in density of the
two materials must be such that a beam of light
moving through the core is reflected off the cladding
instead of being into it.
Information is encoded onto a beam of light as a series
of on-off flashes that represent 1 and 0 bits.

Fiber Construction
Types of Optical Fiber
There are two basic types of fiber:
multimode fiber and
single-mode fiber.
Multimode fiber is best designed for short transmission
distances, and is suited for use in LAN systems and
video surveillance.
Single-mode fiber is best designed for longer
transmission distances, making it suitable for long-
distance telephony and multichannel television
broadcast systems.

Propagation Modes (Types of
Optical Fiber )
Multimode: In this case multiple beams from a light source
move through the core in different paths.
In multimode step-index fiber, the density of the core
remains constant from the center to the edges. A beam of
light moves through this constant density in a straight line
until it reaches the interface of the core and cladding. At the
interface there is an abrupt change to a lower density that
alters the angle of the beams motion.
In a multimode graded-index fiber the density is highest at
the center of the core and decreases gradually to its lowest
at the edge.
Single mode uses step-index fiber and a highly focused
source of light that limits beams to a small range of angles,
all close to the horizontal.
Fiber Sizes
Optical fibers are defined by the ratio of the diameter of
their core to the diameter of their cladding, both
expressed in microns (micrometers)


Type Core Cladding Mode
50/125 50 125 Multimode, graded-index
62.5/125 62.5 125 Multimode, graded-index
100/125 100 125 Multimode, graded-index
7/125 7 125 Single-mode
Advantages of Optical Fiber
The major advantages offered by fiber-optic cable over
twisted-pair and coaxial cable are noise resistance, less
signal attenuation, and higher bandwidth.
Noise Resistance: Because fiber-optic transmission uses
light rather than electricity, noise is not a factor. External
light, the only possible interference, is blocked from the
channel by the outer jacket.
Less signal attenuation
Fiber-optic transmission distance is significantly greater
than that of other guided media. A signal can run for miles
without requiring regeneration.
Higher bandwidth
Currently, data rates and bandwidth utilization over fiber-
optic cable are limited not by the medium but by the signal
generation and reception technology available.
Disadvantages of Optical Fiber
The main disadvantages of fiber optics are cost,
installation/maintenance, and fragility (weakness).
Cost. Fiber-optic cable is expensive. Also, a laser light
source can cost thousands of dollars, compared to
hundreds of dollars for electrical signal generators.
Fragility. Glass fiber is more easily broken than wire,
making it less useful for applications where hardware
portability is required.


Unguided Media
Unguided media, or wireless communication, transport
electromagnetic waves without using a physical
conductor.
Signals are broadcast though air or water, and thus are
available to anyone who has a device capable of
receiving them.
The section of the electromagnetic spectrum defined
as radio communication is divided into eight ranges,
called bands, each regulated by government
authorities.


Propagation of Radio Waves
Radio technology considers the earth as surrounded by
two layers of atmosphere: the troposphere and the
ionosphere.
The troposphere is the portion of the atmosphere
extending outward approximately 30 miles from the
earth's surface.
The troposphere contains what we generally think of
as air. Clouds, wind, temperature variations, and
weather in general occur in the troposphere.
The ionosphere is the layer of the atmosphere above
the troposphere but below space.
Ground propagation. In ground propagation, radio
waves travel through the lowest portion of the
atmosphere, hugging the earth. These low-frequency
signals emanate in all directions from the transmitting
antenna and follow the curvature of the planet. The
distance depends on the power in the signal.

In Sky propagation, higher-frequency radio waves
radiate upward into the ionosphere where they are
reflected back to earth. This type of transmission
allows for greater distances with lower power output.

In Line-of-Sight Propagation, very high frequency
signals are transmitted in straight lines directly from
antenna to antenna.
Bands
Band Range Propagation Application
VLF 330 KHz Ground Long-range radio navigation
LF 30300 KHz Ground
Radio beacons and
navigational locators
MF 300 KHz3 MHz Sky AM radio
HF 330 MHz Sky
Citizens band (CB),
ship/aircraft communication
VHF 30300 MHz
Sky and
line-of-sight
VHF TV,
FM radio
UHF 300 MHz3 GHz Line-of-sight
UHF TV, cellular phones,
paging, satellite
SHF 330 GHz Line-of-sight Satellite communication
EHF 30300 GHz Line-of-sight Long-range radio navigation
We can divide wireless transmission into three broad
groups:
radio waves,
microwaves, and
infrared waves
Radio Waves
Although there is no clear-cut demarcation between
radio waves and microwaves, electromagnetic waves
ranging in frequencies between 3 kHz and 1 GHz are
normally called radio waves; waves ranging in
frequencies between 1 and 300 GHz are called
microwaves.
Radio waves, are omnidirectional. When an antenna
transmits radio waves, they are propagated in all
directions.
This means that the sending and receiving antennas do
not have to be aligned. A sending antenna sends
waves that can be received by any receiving antenna.
Radio waves, can travel long distances. This makes
radio waves a good candidate for long-distance
broadcasting such as AM radio.
Applications: AM and FM radio, television, cordless
phones
Omnidirectional antenna
Microwaves
Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between 1 and
300 GHz are called microwaves.
Microwaves are unidirectional.
When an antenna transmits microwaves, they can be
narrowly focused.
This means that the sending and receiving antennas need
to be aligned. The unidirectional property has an obvious
advantage.
A pair of antennas can be aligned without interfering with
another pair of aligned antennas.
Microwaves are used for unicast communication such
as cellular telephones, satellite networks, and wireless
LANs.
Unidirectional antenna
Infrared
Infrared waves, with frequencies from 300 GHz to 400 THz
(wavelengths from 1 mm to 770 nm), can be used for short-
range communication.
Infrared waves, having high frequencies, cannot penetrate
walls.
This advantageous characteristic prevents interference
between one system and another; a short-range
communication system in one room cannot be affected by
another system in the next room.
When we use our infrared remote control, we do not
interfere with the use of the remote by our neighbors.

Switching: Introduction
A network is a set of connected devices. Whenever we
have multiple devices, we have the problem of how to
connect them to make one-to-one communication
possible.
The solution is switching. A switched network
consists of a series of interlinked nodes, called
switches.
Switches are devices capable of creating temporary
connections between two or more devices linked to the
switch.
In a switch, some of these nodes are connected to the
end system Others are used only for routing.


Switched network
Three Methods of Switching
Traditionally, three methods of switching have been
discussed:
circuit switching,
packet switching, and
message switching.
The first two are commonly used today. The third
has been phased out in general communications
but still has applications.
Packet switching can further be divided into two
subcategories,
virtual-circuit approach and
datagram approach
Switching can happen at several layers of the
TCP/IP protocol suite: at the physical layer, at the
data-link layer, and at the network layer
CIRCUIT-SWITCHED NETWORKS
A circuit-switched network consists of a set of switches
connected by physical links.
A connection between two stations is a dedicated path
made of one or more links.
However, each connection uses only one dedicated
channel on each link.
Each link is normally divided into n channels by using
FDM(frequency division multiplexing) or TDM(time
division multiplexing)

A trivial circuit-switched network
Three Phases
The actual communication in a circuit-switched network
requires three phases: connection setup, data transfer,
and connection teardown.
Setup: Before the two parties can communicates, a
dedicated circuits needs to be established.
The end systems are normally connected through
dedicated lines to the switches , so connection setup
means creating dedicated channels between the
switches.
Data-Transfer: After the establishment of the dedicated
circuit the two parties can transfer data.
Teardown Phase: When one of the parties needs to
disconnect , a signal is sent to each switch to release
the resources.