August 2012 Master of Science in Information Technology (MScIT) Revised Fall 2011 Semester 2 MIT204 : Data Communication &

Networking 4 Credits (Book ID: B1389) Assignment Set 1 (60 Marks) 2. Discuss on transmission impairments. [10 Marks] ANS: Transmission Impairments Attenuation Signals loose power in time.

Issues: 1. Signals must be sufficiently strong so that the receiver will be able to detect and interpret them 2. they should maintain a sufficient high level to make them distinguishable from noise 3. Too strong signals can overload the circuitry of the transmitter and result in distortion. 4. they should take into account that attenuation increases frequency. Bel deciBel Pin = 100mW, Pout = 10mW, attenuation = Decibels are commonly used because 1. Signal strengths often falls off logarithmically 2. Cascade losses and gains can be calculated with simple additions and subtractions. Dispersion Signals tend to spread as they travel, with the amount of spreading dependent on the frequency. deciBel
1 2 3

with the

Delay distortion Due to velocity of propagation that varies with frequency. Thus, various frequency components of a signal arrive at the receiver at different times.

Critical in particular for digital data, because signal components of bit positions spill into other bit positions, and so limiting the allowed rate of transmission. Noise Noise

Signal

signal + noise Signals are reconstructed by sampling.

Increased data rate implies "shorter" bits with higher sensitivity to noise. Sources: Thermal Agitates the electrons in conductors, and is a function of the temperature. It is often referred to as white noise, because it affects uniformly the different frequencies.

The thermal noise in a bandwidth W is 10-23

where T=temperature, and k= Boltzmann's constant = 1.38 Joules/degrees Kelvin.

Signal to noise ratio:

Typically measured at

the receiver, because it is the point where the noise is to be removed from the signal.

Intermodulation Resulting from interference of different frequencies sharing the same medium. It is caused by a component malfunction or a signal with excessive strength is used. For example, the mixing of signals at frequencies f1 and f2 might produce energy at the frequency f1 + f2 . This derived signal could interfere with an intended signal at frequency f1 + f2 . Crosstalk Foreign signal enters the path of the transmitted signal. Impulse Irregular disturbances, such as lightning, and flawed communication elements. It is a primary source of error in digital data.

3. What is Line Encoding? Explain. [10 Marks] ANS: The waveform pattern of voltage or current used to represent the 1s and 0s of a digital signal on a transmission link is called line encoding. The common types of line encoding are Unipolar, Polar, Bipolar and Manchester encoding. Unipolar Encoding Unipolar encoding has 2 voltage states, with one of the states being 0 volts. Since Unipolar line encoding has one of its states at 0 Volts, it is also called Return to Zero (RTZ). A common example of Unipolar line encoding is the TTL logic levels used in computers and digital logic.

Unipolar line encoding works well for inside machines--where the signal path is short-- but is unsuitable for long distances, due to the presence of stray capacitance in the transmission medium. On long transmission paths, the constant level shift from 0 to 5 volts, which causes the stray capacitance to charge up (remember, the capacitor charging formula is: 1-e-t/RC !). There will be a "stray" capacitor effect between any two conductors that are in close proximity to each other. For example, parallel running cables or wires are very suspect to stray capacitance.

If there is sufficient capacitance on the line (and a sufficient stream of 1s) a DC voltage component will be added to the data stream. Instead of returning to 0 volts, it would only

return to 2 or 3 volts. The receiving station may not recognize a digital low at voltage of 2 volts!

Unipolar line encoding can have synchronization problems between the transmitter and receiver's clock oscillator. The receiver's clock oscillator locks on to the transmitted signal's level shifts (logic changes from 0 to 1) if there is a long series of logical 1s or 0s in a row. There is no level shift for the receiver's oscillator to lock to. The receiver oscillator's frequency may drift and become unsynchronized: it could lose track of where the receiver is supposed to sample the transmitted data!

Receive oscillator may drift during the period of all 1s Polar Encoding When the digital encoding is symmetrical--around 0 Volts--it is called a Polar Code. For example, the RS-232D interface uses Polar line encoding. The signal does not return to zero; it is either a +ve voltage or a -ve voltage. Polar line encoding is also called None Return To Zero (NRZ). Polar line encoding is the simplest pattern that eliminates most of the residual DC problem.

There is still a small residual DC problem, but Polar line encoding is a great improvement over Unipolar line encoding. Polar encoding has an added benefit in that it reduces the power required to transmit the signal by one-half.

RS-232D TXD Polar and Unipolar line encoding both share the same synchronization problem: if there is a long string of logical 1s or 0s, the receive oscillator may drift and become unsynchronized. Bipolar Line Encoding Bipolar line encoding has 3 voltage levels. A low or 0 is represented by a 0 Volt level and a 1 is represented by alternating polarity pulses. By alternating the polarity of the pulses for 1s, the residual DC component cancels.

Bipolar Line Encoding Synchronization of receive and transmit clocks is greatly improved--except if there is a long string of 0s transmitted. Bipolar line encoding is also called Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI). Manchester Line Encoding In Manchester Line Encoding, there is a transition at the middle of each bit period. The midbit transition serves as a clocking mechanism (and also as data): a low to high transition represents a 1 and a high to low transition represents a 0.

Manchester line encoding has no DC component and there is always a transition available for synchronizing receive and transmit clocks. Manchester line encoding is also called selfclocking line encoding. It has the added benefit of requiring the least amount of bandwidth

compared to the other line encoding. Manchester line encoding requires 2 frequencies: the base carrier and 2 x the carrier frequency. All others require a range from 0 hertz to the maximum transfer rate frequency.

Manchester line encoding can detect errors during transmission: a transition is expected during every bit period. Therefore, the absence of a transition would indicate an error condition.