Line Communication

1. Two Wire Transmission Lines

- Parallel Wire Line
- Twisted Pair Wires
- Coaxial Line
2. Equivalent Circuit of a Transmission Line
3. Velocity Factor in a Line
4. Losses in a Line
5. Cable System
6. Optic Fibre System & Components of Fibre Optic
Equipment
7. Optical Fibre – Types of Optical Fibre
8. Principle of Optic Fibre
9. Important Aspects – Numerical Aperture, Attenuation and
Dispersion
10. Advantages and Disadvantages of Optic Fibres

Created by C. Mani, Principal, K V No.1, AFS, Jalahalli West, Bangalore

Line Communication:
The simplest and the oldest mode of communication from point-to-point in
contact through transmission lines or wires is called ‘line communication’.
The main line communication channels are:
(i) Two wire transmission lines
(ii) Coaxial cables
(iii) Optical fibres
Two Wire Transmission Lines:
The most commonly used two wire lines are:
(a) Parallel wire line (b) Twisted pair of wires and (c) Coaxial line
Parallel Wire Line:
It is also known as balanced line. It resembles a ribbon. It
is commonly used to connect an antenna with the TV
receiver. It suffers from interferences and losses. Insulation

If the conductor separation is nearly equal to half wave

length of the operating frequency of the signal, the system
of wires may start radiating the signal.
Conductors
Parallel wire lines are not suitable for microwaves.
Twisted Pair of Wires:

A twisted pair of wires consists of two insulated copper wires twisted around
each other at regular intervals.
If the wires run parallel without twisting, then the electrical interference will
be more for the wire close to the source of noise than the wire away from the
source of noise. As a result of this, a distorted signal is available at the
receiving end.
So, to minimize the electrical interference, two wires are twisted around each
other.
Twisted pair wires are used to connect telephone systems. Usually many
twisted pairs parallel to each other are grouped in the form of a bundle which
is encased in a protective sheath.
In case of twisted pair wires, signals having frequency range 100 Hz to 5 MHz
are transmitted.

Outer Insulation Protective shield Twisted pairs

(Wire mesh)
Advantages:
(i) The signals can travel several kilometers without any amplification in a
telephone system when twisted pair wires are used.
(ii) Both analogue and digital signals can be transmitted.
(iii) It is a cheap mode of communication.
Disadvantages:
(i) The signal becomes weak when it travels a very large distance through a
twisted pair of wires. As a result, transmission becomes faulty.
(ii) Telephone lines run overhead, so they can be broken during storm, etc.

Coaxial Line:
It is also called unbalanced line. Such a line resembles a rounded cable.
It is commonly used by TV Cable operators.
Inner Insulation

Outer Insulation Conductor - II Conductor - I

in mesh form
It is also used to interconnect transmitter and an earthed antenna. Such
cables are shielded i.e. outer conductor surrounds the insulated inner wire
and the outer conductor is always earthed.

These cables do not suffer from radiation problems and be used for
microwave and UHF region.
The inner and outer conductors are separated with the help of low
dielectric. The common insulations are Polyethylene and Teflon.
Coaxial cables can be gas filled also. To reduce flash over between the
conductor handling high power, nitrogen gas is used in the cable. Dry air
can also be used under high pressure to avoid moisture in the cable.
These cables can find wide application for frequencies between 1 GHz and
20 GHz.
Advantages:
(i) Coaxial cable is well protected than an ordinary twisted pair of wires, so
communication through cables is more efficient than through the twisted
pairs.
(ii) The speed of transmission of signals is more than that of twisted pairs.
(iii) Electrical signals of higher frequencies (100 kHz to 500 kHZ) are
transmitted through the cables than through the twisted pair wires.
Equivalent Circuit of a Transmission Line:

L R L R L R L L L
Insulation ≡ C G C G ≡ C C

A two wire line consists of conductors and dielectric between them.

The line has some resistance (or conductance), inductive reactance and
capacitive reactance (or susceptance). A dielectric can not be an ideal
insulator and so some leakage current always flows through it which is
considered to be due to shunt conductance G.

At radio frequency operations, the inductance of line is more effective than

the resistance of line and capacitive susceptance is also significant than
shunt conductance. So, at RF such resistances and shunt conductances
can be ignored resulting into simple LC circuit.
A two wire line has some input impedance which depends upon type of line,
length of line, termination at the other end, etc. This input impedance is
known as ‘reference impedance or characteristic impedance’ (Z0).
Characteristic impedance can be defined as the impedance measured at the
input of a line of infinite length. Practically this impedance depends upon the
size and spacing of the conductors as well as dielectric constant of the
insulator separating them.
At voice frequency, expression for characteristic impedance is

R + jωL
Z0 =
G + jωC
L
At radio frequency, expression for characteristic impedance is Z0 =
C
(R and G are insignificant)

For a parallel – wire line, For a coaxial line,

276 2S 138 D
Z0 = log Z0 = log
√k d √k d

d
d D
S
Velocity Factor of a Line:
Velocity factor (v.f) of a cable is the ratio of reduction of speed of light in the
dielectric of the cable. c
v= (where c is speed of light and k is
√k dielectric constant)
By definition, v = (v.f) c So, v.f = 1 / √k For a line, velocity factor is
generally of the order of 0.6 to 0.9
Losses in a Line:
Different types of lines cause different amount of energy losses. These losses
can be due to Joule’s heating in conductors, dielectric heating of insulation,
radiation, etc.
Joule’s Heating is given by H = I2Rt

Current in the line depends upon frequency to be handled. Frequency alters

the skin effect which changes the capacitive reactance ( 1 / 2πνC ) and
inductive reactance ( 2πνL ) changing the circuit current and hence the energy
losses change.

Dielectric losses are proportional to the voltage across the insulation. These
losses increase with frequency. Dielectric heating is inversely proportional to
the characteristic impedance for any power transmitted by the line.

Parallel lines cause radiation losses. Increase in frequency increases radiation

losses. Coaxial cables have less radiation losses compared to parallel lines.
Cable System:
A practical cable system consists of a tube carrying many simple coaxial
cables. They are more commonly used compared to flat cables.
A coaxial cable consists of a conductor covered with a suitable insulation. A
shield wire is wrapped on this insulation which serves as the second
conductor also. The shield wire is then again covered with a suitable
insulation which also serves as a protection against mechanical injuries.
A typical cable used in communication system is used for multiple channels.
A large channel system with 10,500 channels is much cheaper than
equivalent number of small channel systems (say 3 x 3500 channels).

A cable is a source of loss of energy

Conductor
of a signal causing attenuation in
signals as they travel along the
cable. A signal booster i.e.
amplifying repeater is placed at the
required distance intervals.
Insulators
A cable further deviates the
frequency and phase response of a Shield wire or
signal. This deviation in signal has mesh (conductor)
to be set right with the help of fixed
Spacers Insulator Tube
type or variable type equalizers.
 Optic Fibre System:
Optical communication is the mode of transmitting information in the form of
a sort of light beam.
Optical fibre link like microwave link transmits the output from the digital
source. The bit stream (zeros and ones) can be used directly to turn a laser
or and off to send light pulses down the fibre cable.

Optical Optical Optical

Fibre Cable Fibre Cable Fibre Cable

Line Terminal Line Terminal

Equipment Repeater or Repeater or Equipment
Regenerator Regenerator

BIT Optical Optical BIT

stream signal signal stream
 Components of Fibre Optic Equipment:
1. Light Source (LD or LED): They are p-n junctions. Light from LED is
produced by spontaneous emission whereas light from an LD is made by
stimulated emission. LED has an incoherent output and wide spectrum but
it has higher reliability, simpler drive circuit, lower temperature sensitivity,
immunity to reflected light and low cost.
LD has an output which is coherent and therefore has a very narrow
spectrum. It has high output power and high coupling efficiency.
2. Amplifiers: Semiconductor amplifiers or doped fibre amplifiers are used to
limit fibre losses and to increase repeater spacing. They are also known as
repeaters because they can directly boost the signal just prior to detection.
3. Modulators: Modulation of a light source can be done by direct modulation
of direct current supplying the source or by using an external modulator
following the source. The simplest form of direct modulation is to change
the light biasing current above and below the threshold value to turn the
laser on and off to obtain digitalisation (0 and 1).
4. Filters: They are essential components to minimise the cross talk between
channels.
5. Light Detectors: Light emerging from the end of an optical fibre link must be
detected and converted in to electronic pulses for further processing so that
the transmitted information can be received.
Optical Fibre: Buffer Jacket
Silicon Gel
Cladding (Glass of Plastic) (n2)
n1 > n2
Core (Glass / Plastic / Silica) (n1)

1. Core: It is made of glass / silica / plastic of refractive index (say n1) with
approximate diameter of 10 to 100 μm.
2. Cladding: It is made of glass or plastic with refractive index n2 (n2 < n1)
with approximate diameter of 100 to 400 μm. Cladding is of two types:
Step-index fibre in which the refractive index changes abruptly;
Graded-index fibre in which the refractive index changes gradually.
3. Buffer Jacket: It is plastic coating which houses the core-cladding and
provides safety and strength.
Types of Optical Fibre:

Multi mode fibre

Input Light Pulse Output Light Pulse

Single mode fibre

1. In multi mode optical fibre, the core diameter is about 50 μm. The signal is
transmitted in multiple modes. Attenuation is higher in this mode.
2. In single mode optical fibre, the core diameter is about 8 to 10 μm which is
approximately same as the wavelength of the light used. Only one mode
propagates in this fibre. Attenuation is lower and the maximum bit rate is
higher.
Fibre Bending: Whenever a fibre is bent, some of the energy with in the
core can escape into region outside the fibre. This loss of energy
increases as the radius of curvature of bend decreases.
Principle / Action of Optical Fibre:
Optical fibre works on the principle of total internal reflection.
When light falls on the interface separating the fibre and coating at an angle
which is greater than the critical angle, multiple total internal reflections take
place.
The light travels the entire length of the fibre and comes out of the other end
of the fibre without any loss in its intensity.

Cladding (n2 = 1.5)

i>ic
Core (n1 = 1.7)

Incident Light Transmitted Light

Optic Pipe: It is a bundle of thousands of optical fibres packed in such a way
that the free ends on both sides are at the same relative positions.
Important Aspects of Fibre Optics:
1. Numerical Aperture (NA):
For Total Internal Reflection, light should enter the fibre at an angle θ in
accordance with core of acceptance angle θc.
Numerical Aperture depends on diameter of the core. It decreases as the
diameter of core decreases and vice versa.
Typical value of NA for a 50 μm core cable is 0.2
and it is 0.1 for 10 μm cable. NA = sin θc = n12 – n22
2. Attenuation:
It basically means power loss or loss of information strength. Standard
wavelengths of operation of optical fibres are 1.3 and 1.55 μm.
Attenuation Coefficient

The lowest loss

silica fibres operate
at 1.55 μm with
minimum
attenuation of about
(dB/km)

0.2 dB/km.
0.2
0 Wavelength (nm) 1550 nm
3. Dispersion:
As the optical pulses travel forward in the optical fibre, the pulses are
broadened due to dispersion and the adjacent pulses may overlap. So,
dispersion limits the distance of data transmission and transmission speed
of data.
Laser has a narrower line width and hence dispersion will be the least.
Dispersion depends on fibre dimensions i.e. core diameter. It is also due to
frequency dependence of refractive index of the fibre material.
Advantages of Optical Fibres:
1. Optical fibres are the best for wavelength multiplexing i.e. innumerable
signals of differing but nearby wavelengths can be sent along the same
fibre.
A pair of optical fibres can carry 3000 telephone calls simultaneously
whereas only dozens of telephone calls can be carried by a pair of copper
wires and that also by special methods only.
2. They are the best suited for digital transmission and switching systems.
3. A normal optic fibre cable is 1/6th in diameter as compared to coaxial cable.
4. Optic fibre communication is free from electromagntic interference and
noise.
5. Optical fibres are virtually free from losses. The intensity of the information
transmitted by electric current flowing in copper wires become weak. But,
the messages, data or picture sent through optical fibres remain
undisturbed and hence can be transmitted through thousands of kilometers.
6. Optical communication can not be jammed as easily as radio waves can be
jammed.
7. Light has higher frequency than electric current and so optical fibres can
transmit higher band widths.
8. Optic fibres are becoming economical day by day.

Disadvantages of Optical Fibres:

1. Optical fibres are costly.
2. Only skilled engineers can handle the technology.
3. Glass fibres are easily broken when compared to copper wires, so they
require extra care when installed.