Unit II

SIGNALS AND TRANSMISSSION MEDIA

SIGNALS:
Signal is a physical representation of data by means of
analog or digital. To be transmitted, data must be transformed to
electromagnetic signals.
For example, a photograph has to be changed to a form that
transmission media can accept. Transmission media works by
conducting energy along a physical path.
Two types of signals:
 Digital signal
 Analog signal

Analog Data

Analog data refers to information which is continuous.

For Example, an Analog clock which is having hour, minute, and
second hands that gives information in a continuous form; the
movement of the hands are continuous.

Digital Data

Digital data refers to information which has discrete states.

For Example, a digital clock which reports the hours and minutes that
will change suddenly from 10:05 to 10:06.
In this way the data can represent, signals can also represent either
Analog or digital.
Analog Signal

Analog signals have infinitely so many levels of intensity over a period

of time. When the wave moves from value A to value B, it passes
through and it includes an infinite number of values along its path. A
wave produced from an signal is also known as sine wave. Analog
signal is able to move anywhere along the wave and between the
minimum and maximum values
Eg: waves in the ocean bobbing up and down.
Advantages of Analog Signals :

 It is Easier in processing.
 Analog Signals are best fitted to audio and video transmission.
 It posses higher density.
 It Uses less bandwidth than digital sounds.
 It Provide more accurate representation of a sound.
 It is the natural sort of a sound.
 It has Less bandwidth.
 Binary digits 0 and 1 represent the optical pulse for storing,
processing and transmitting information.
Disadvantages of Analog Signals :
 Analog tends to possess a lower quality signal than digital.
 The cables are sensitive to external influences.
 Analog wire is expensive and not easily portable.
 Data can become corrupted in analog signals.
 It is quite difficult to synchronize analog sound.
Digital Signal
Digital signals can have only a limited number of defined
values. Although each value can be any number, it is often as simple as
0 or 1.
The easiest way to show signals is by plotting them on a pair of
perpendicular axes.
 The vertical axis represents the value or strength of a signal.
 The horizontal axis represents time.

The above figure shows the Analog signal and a digital signal. The
curve represents the Analog signal through an infinite number of points.
The vertical lines of the digital signal, however, demonstrate the sudden
jump that the signal makes from value to value.
Eg: smart watch, cell phone.
Advantages of Digital Signals :
 Digital data can be easily compressed.
 Equipment that uses digital signals is more common and fewer
expensive.
 These signals turn the moving instruments free from errors.
 You can edit the sound without altering the first copy.
  Digital signals can convey information with less noise,
distortion, and interference.
 Digital signal processing is safer because digital information are
often easily encrypted and compressed.
 Digital signals are often easily stored on any magnetic media or
optical media using semiconductor chips.
 Digital signals can be transmitted over long distances.
Disadvantage of Digital Signals:
 Sampling may cause loss of information.
 A higher bandwidth is required for data communication in
comparison to analog transmission of an equivalent information.
 Digital systems and processing are typically more complex.

Periodic and Non-periodic Signals:

 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 non-periodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern or cycle
that repeats over time.
Periodic analog signals can be classified as:
 simple
A simple periodic analog signal, a sine wave, cannot be
decomposed into simpler signals.
 composite.
A composite periodic analog signal is composed of multiple
sine waves.
 A sine wave can be represented by three parameters:
 peak amplitude,
 frequency,
 phase.
 AMPLITITUDE:

Period and Frequency

Period refers to the amount of time (T), in seconds, a signal needs to complete 1
cycle.
Frequency (f) refers to the number of periods in 1s. Period is the inverse of
frequency, and frequency is the inverse of period, as the following formulas show.
F=1/T and T=1/F

Period is formally expressed in seconds. Frequency is formally expressed in Hertz

(Hz),which is cycle per second.
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.
Wavelength
Wavelength can be calculated if one is given the propagation speed (the
speed of light)
and the period of the signal. It is normally considered as the length of
one complete cycle of
a signal.
Formula:

λ = C/f
Where,

λ (Lambda) = Wavelength in meters

c = Speed of Light (299,792,458 m/s)

f = Frequency

Transmission media
o Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the
information from the sender to the receiver. Data is transmitted
through the electromagnetic signals.
o It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data
communication.
o In a copper-based network, the bits in the form of electrical
signals.
o In a fibre based network, the bits in the form of light pulses.

Types of transmission media:

 Guided Media
 Unguided Media

Guided Transmission Media

Transmission media is nothing but the physical layer or medium. The
physical layer is to transport bits from one machine to another.

It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are

transmitted. It is also known as Bounded media.
There are five types in guided media
1) Magnetic Media
2) Twisted Pairs
3) Coaxial Cable
4) Power Lines
5) Fiber Optics

1. Magnetic Media:
The most common ways to transport data from one computer to
another is to write them onto magnetic tape or removable media.
Physically transport the tape or disks to the destination machine, and
read them back in again.

It is more cost effective, especially for applications in which high

bandwidth or cost per bit transported. It has delay characteristics are
poor.

Twisted Pairs

Its uses metallic (Copper) conductors that accept and transport signals in the
form of electric current.

A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires, typically about 1 mm

thick. The wires are twisted together in a helical form. A twisted pair consists
of two conductors(normally copper), each with its own plastic insulation,
twisted together. One of these wires is used to carry signals to the receiver, and
the other is used only as ground reference.
The receiver uses the difference between the two. In addition to the signal sent
by the sender on one of the wires, interference(noise) and crosstalk may affect
both wires and create unwanted signals.
If the two wires are parallel, the effect of these unwanted signals is not the same
in both wires because they are at different locations relative to the noise or
crosstalk sources. This results in a difference at the receiver.

Twisted Pair is of two types:

– Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
– Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

a). Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable

It is the most common type of telecommunication when compared with
Shielded Twisted Pair Cable which consists of two conductors usually copper,
each with its own colour plastic insulator. Identification is the reason behind
coloured plastic insulation. UTP cables consist of 2 or 4 pairs of twisted cable.

Advantages of Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable

✓ Installation is easy
✓ Flexible
✓ Cheap
✓ It has high speed capacity,
✓ 100 meter limit
✓ Higher grades of UTP are used in LAN technologies like Ethernet.
Disadvantages of Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable
✓ Bandwidth is low when compared with Coaxial Cable
✓ Provides less protection from interference.

b). Shielded Twisted Pair Cable

This cable has a metal foil or braided-mesh covering which encases
each pair of insulated conductors. Electromagnetic noise penetration is
prevented by metal casing. Shielding also eliminates crosstalk.

Advantages of Shielded Twisted Pair Cable

✓ Easy to install
✓ Performance is adequate
✓ Can be used for Analog or Digital transmission
✓ Increases the signalling rate
✓ Higher capacity than unshielded twisted pair
✓ Eliminates crosstalk

Disadvantages of Shielded Twisted Pair Cable

✓ Difficult to manufacture
✓ Heavy

Applications of Shielded Twisted Pair Cable

In telephone 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.
Coaxial Cable:
Another common transmission medium is the coaxial cable. Two kinds of
coaxial cable are widely used. One kind, 50-ohm cable, is commonly used
when it is intended for digital transmission from the start. The other kind, 75-
ohm cable, is commonly used for analog transmission and cable television.
A coaxial cable consists of a stiff copper wire as the core, surrounded by an
insulating material. The insulator is encased by a cylindrical conductor, often as
a closely woven braided mesh. The outer conductor is covered in a protective
plastic sheath.

The construction and shielding of the coaxial cable give it a good combination
of high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity.

Coaxial cable is of two types:

1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a

single signal at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting
multiple signals simultaneously.
Advantages of Coaxial Cable
✓ Bandwidth is high
✓ Used in long distance telephone lines.
✓ Transmits digital signals at a very high rate of 10Mbps.
✓ Much higher noise immunity

✓ Data transmission without distortion.

✓ The can span to longer distance at higher speeds as they have better
shielding when compared to twisted pair cable
Disadvantages of Coaxial Cable
✓ Single cable failure can fail the entire network.
✓ Difficult to install and expensive when compared with twisted pair.
✓ If the shield is imperfect, it can lead to grounded loop.
• Applications of Coaxial Cable
✓ Coaxial cable was widely used in analog telephone networks, where a single
coaxial network could carry 10,000 voice signals.
✓ Cable TV networks also use coaxial cables. In the traditional cable TV
network, the entire network used coaxial cable. Cable TV uses RG-59 coaxial
cable.
✓ In traditional Ethernet LANs used it.
Power Lines
The telephone and cable television networks are not the only sources of
wiring that can be reused for data communication. There is a yet more common
kind of wiring: electrical power lines. Power lines deliver electrical power to
houses and electrical wiring within houses
distributes the power to electrical outlets.

Power lines have been used by electricity companies for low-rate

communication such as remote metering for many years, as well in the home to
control devices.

Simply plug a TV and a receiver into the wall,

which you must do anyway because they need power, and they can send and
receive movies over the electrical wiring. There is no other plug or radio. The
data signal is superimposed on the low-frequency power signal (on the active or
‘‘hot’’ wire) as both signals use the wiring at the same time.

The difficulty with using household electrical wiring for a network is that it was
designed to distribute power signals. This task is quite different than
distributing data signals, at which household wiring does a horrible job.
Electrical signals are sent at 50–60 Hz and the wiring attenuates the much
higher frequency(MHz) signals needed for high-rate data communication.

Fiber Optic Cable

A fibre-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in

the form of light. For better understanding we first need to explore several aspects
of the nature of light. Light travels in a straight line as long as it is mobbing
through a single uniform substance. If ray of light travelling through one substance
suddenly enters another substance (of a different density), the ray changes
direction.
Optical fibres use reflection to guide light through a channel. A glass or plastic
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 refracted into it. Based on this
concept, the fiber is classified into two categories

• Single-mode fiber - Carries light pulses along single path and Uses Laser Light
Source.
• Multimode fiber - Many pulses of light generated by LED travel at different
angles.

Transmission of Light Through Fiber

Optical fibers are made of glass, which, in turn, is made from sand, an inexpensive
raw material available in unlimited amounts.

The glass used for modern optical fibers is so transparent that if the oceans were
full of it instead of water, the seabed would be as visible from the surface as the
ground is from an airplane on a clear
day.

Advantages of Fibre Optic Cable

✓ Higher bandwidth
✓ Less signal attenuation
✓ Immunity to electromagnetic interference
✓ Resistance to corrosive materials
✓ Light weight
✓ Greater immunity to tapping
Disadvantages of Fibre Optic Cable
✓ Installation and maintenance
✓ Unidirectional light propagation
✓ High Cost
• Performance of Fibre Optic Cable
Attenuation is flatter than in the case of twisted-pair cable and coaxial cable. The
performance is such that we need fewer(actually one tenth as many) repeaters
when we use the fibre-optic cable.

Applications of Fibre Optic Cable

✓ Often found in backbone networks because its wide bandwidth is cost-
effective.
✓ Some cable TV companies use a combination of optical fibre and coaxial cable
thus creating a hybrid network.
✓ Local-area Networks such as 100Base-FX network and 1000Base-X also use
fibreoptic cable.

UnGuided Transmission
o An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves
without using any physical medium. Therefore it is also known
as wireless transmission.
 o In unguided media, air is the media through which the
electromagnetic energy can flow easily.

Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three categories:

Radio waves
o Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all
the directions of free space.
o Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all
the directions.
o The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
o In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not
aligned, i.e., the wave sent by the sending antenna can be received by
any receiving antenna.
o An example of the radio wave is FM radio.

Applications Of Radio waves:

o A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and
many receivers.
 o An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio
wave.

Advantages Of Radio transmission:

o Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile
cellular phones.
o Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
o Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.

Microwaves

Microwaves are of two types:

o Terrestrial microwave
o Satellite microwave communication.

Terrestrial Microwave Transmission

o Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the
focused beam of a radio signal from one ground-based microwave
transmission antenna to another.
 o Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in
the range from 1GHz to 1000 GHz.
o Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is
to be aligned, i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are
narrowly focussed.
o In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to
another antenna which is km away.
o It works on the line of sight transmission, i.e., the antennas mounted
on the towers are the direct sight of each other.

Characteristics of Microwave:

o Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is

from 4-6 GHz to 21-23 GHz.
o Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
o Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
o Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a
longer distance.
o Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by
environmental conditions and antenna size.

Advantages Of Microwave:

o Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.

o It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the
installation of cables.
o Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains
as the installation of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
 o Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave
transmission.

Disadvantages of Microwave transmission:

o Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication.

Any malicious user can catch the signal in the air by using its own
antenna.
o Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using
microwave transmission.
o Susceptible to weather condition: A microwave transmission is
susceptible to weather condition. This means that any environmental
change such as rain, wind can distort the signal.
o Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of
microwave transmission.

Satellite Microwave Communication

o A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a
known height.
o Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more
flexibility than cable and fibre optic systems.
o We can communicate with any point on the globe by using satellite
communication.

How Does Satellite work?

The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station,
and it amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is retransmitted to another
earth station.

Advantages Of Satellite Microwave Communication:

 o The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial
microwave.
o The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance
from the centre of the coverage area.
o Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless
communication applications.
o It is easy to install.
o It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting,
radio/TV signal broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.

Disadvantages Of Satellite Microwave Communication:

o Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher

cost.
o The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular
periods so that it remains in orbit.
o The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years. Due to this reason,
another launch of the satellite has to be planned before it becomes
non-functional.

Infrared
o An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for
communication over short ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer
between two cell phones, TV remote operation, data transfer between
a computer and cell phone resides in the same closed area.
Characteristics Of Infrared:

o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared
communication in one room cannot be interrupted by the nearby
rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better security with minimum
interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because
the sun rays will interfere with the infrared waves.

Transmission Impairment in Data Communication

In communication system, analog signals travel
through transmission media, which tends to deteriorate the quality of
analog signal, which means that the signal at the beginning of the
medium is not the same as the signal at the end of the medium. The
imperfection causes signal impairment. Below are the causes of the
impairment.

Causes of impairment –
 Attenuation – It means loss of energy. The strength of signal
decreases with increasing distance which causes loss of energy in
overcoming resistance of medium. This is also known as attenuated
signal. Amplifiers are used to amplify the attenuated signal which
gives the original signal back and compensate for this loss.

Attenuation is measured in decibels(dB). It measures the relative

strengths of two signals or one signal at two different point.

Attenuation(dB) = 10log10(P2/P1)

P1 is the power at sending end and P2 is the power at receiving end.

Some where the decibel is also define in terms of voltage instead of
power.In this case because power is proportional to the square of the
voltage the formula is

Attenuation(dB) = 20log10(V2/V1)

V1 is the voltage at sending end and V2 is the voltage at receiving end.

 Distortion – It means changes in the form or shape of the signal.

This is generally seen in composite signals made up with different
frequencies. Each frequency component has its own propagation
speed travelling through a medium. And thats why it delay in
arriving at the final destination Every component arrive at different
time which leads to distortion. Therefore, they have different phases
at receiver end from what they had at senders end.
Noise – The random or unwanted signal that mixes up with the
original signal is called noise. There are several types of noise such
as induced noise, crosstalk noise, thermal noise and impulse noise
which may corrupt the signal.

 Induced noise comes from sources such as motors and

appliances. These devices act as sending antenna and
transmission medium act as receiving antenna.
 Thermal noise is movement of electrons in wire which `q`
 creates an extra signal.
 Crosstalk noise is when one wire affects the other wire.
 Impulse noise is a signal with high energy that comes from
lightning or power lines

 To find the theoretical bit rate limit, we need to know the ration
.The signal-to-noise ratio is defined as

SNR = AVG SIGNAL POWER / AVG NOISE POWER

SNRdB = 10Log10SNR