CHAPTER 3

PHYSICAL LAYER

1
Outline
• Physical layer
• Data and Signals
• Encoding and Modulation
• Multiplexing and Spreading
• Transmission Media
• Switching
 The physical layer coordinates the functions required to carry a bit stream over a physical
medium.
 It deals with the characteristics of the interface between the devices and the transmission
media.
 It also defines the procedures and functions that physical devices and interfaces have to
perform for transmission to occur.

The physical layer is responsible for movements of individual bits from one hop (node) to the
next.
Data and Signals
Data
 It is an information that has been translated into a form that is
efficient for movement or processing.
 It can be any text, image, audio, video, and multimedia files.
Signal
It is an electrical or electromagnetic current that is used for carrying
data from one device or network to another.
 Is a function of time, but it can also be expressed as a function of
frequency.
Can be either analog or digital.
• Data transmission is the process of sending digital or analog data over
communication medium. It enables the transfer and communication
of devices in a point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and multipoint to
multipoint environment.
• Transmission media may be classified as guided or unguided
 Guided medium
• waves are guided along a physical path
e.g. Twisted pair, coaxial cable, optical fiber
 Unguided / wireless medium
• Provide means for transmitting electromagnetic waves but do not
guide them.
e.g.. Microwave, radio, infrared…
• Generally, we have four types of signal.
1. Analog signal
 Continuously varying signal
 Characterized by amplitude and frequency.

2, Digital signal
 A series of discrete pulses, representing one bit and zero bits.
 Cheaper and Less susceptible to noise/interference.
3, Periodic signal
 Repeats the sequence of values exactly after a fixed length of time, known as the
period. E.g.. Sine, cosine, Square, and saw tooth.

4, Aperiodic signal
 A signal which does not repeat itself after specific interval of time.
Example; Sound signals from radio, all types of noise signals.
 Encoding and Modulation
• Encoding is the process of converting the data or a given sequence of
characters, symbols, alphabets etc., into a specified format, for the
secured transmission of data.
• The process of using various patterns of voltage or current levels to
represent 1s and 0s of the digital signals on the transmission link.
• Modulation has been defined as the process of combining an input
signal m(t) and the carrier frequency fc to produce a signal s(t).
A. Digital data to Digital signals
• is a sequence of discrete voltage pulses
• each pulse is a signal element
• Binary data encoded into signal elements.
• There are several ways to map digital data to digital signals. Some of
them are: Non Return to Zero (NRZ), Bi-phase and differential
Manchester.
B. Digital data to Analog signals
 Transmitting digital data using analog signals can be done with the help of
telephone networks.
• The telephone network was designed to receive, switch, and transit analog signals
in voice frequency range of about 300 to 3400 Hz. The digital devices are attached to
the shift keying which converts digital data to analog signals.
• Amplitude shift keying (ASK), Frequency shift keying (FSK), and Phase shift keying
(PSK) are three methods of conversion.
ASK: the two binary values are presented by two different amplitudes of the carrier
frequency.
FSK: Two binary values are presented by two different frequencies.
PSK: the phase of the carrier signal is changed by varying the sine and cosine inputs
at a particular time.
ASK,FSK,PSK
C. Analog data to Digital signals
• Process of converting analog data into digital signal is known as
digitization. The device used for converting analog data into digital
form is Codec.

Sampling Theorem: If a signal f(t) is sampled at regular intervals of time

then the samples contain all the information of the original signal.
D. Analog data to Analog signals
• Analog data can be modulated by a carrier frequency to produce an
analog signal.
• Why we modulate analog signals?
o higher frequency can give more effective transmission
o multiplexing of signal occur
• Types of analog modulation techniques
• Amplitude Modulation
• Frequency Modulation
• Phase Modulation
AM,FM,PM
 Multiplexing and Spreading
Multiplexing
• is a technique by which different analog and digital streams of
transmission can be simultaneously processed over a shared link.
• The widespread use of multiplexing:
1. To enable network devices to communicate with each other.
2. To better utilize scarce or expensive network resources.
Categories of Multiplexing
i. Frequency division multiplexing (FDM)
• is an analog multiplexing technique that combines analog signals.
• Signals of different frequencies are combined into a composite signal
and is transmitted on the single link.
• Channels are separated by the strips of unused bandwidth called
Guard Bands (to prevent overlapping).
FDM multiplexing FDM Demultiplexing
Example:
Five channels, each with a 100-kHz bandwidth, are to be multiplexed
together. What is the minimum bandwidth of the link if there is a need
for a guard band of 10 kHz between the channels to prevent interference?
Solution
For five channels, we need at least four guard bands. This means that the
required bandwidth is at least
5 × 100 + 4 × 10 = 540 kHz, as shown in Figure.
 ii. Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
• WDM is an analog multiplexing technique.
• In WDM different signals are optical or light signals that are transmitted
through optical fiber.
• Various light waves from different sources are combined to form a
composite light signal that is transmitted across the channel to the
receiver.
• At the receiver side, this composite light signal is broken into different
light waves by De-multiplexer.
iii. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
• is a digital multiplexing technique for combining several low-rate
channels into one high-rate one.
• Channel/Link is not divided on the basis of frequency but on the basis of
time.
• Total time available in the channel is divided between several users.
• Each user is allotted a particular time interval called time slot or slice.
Types of TDM
 Synchronous TDM
 Asynchronous TDM
a. Synchronous TDM
• Each device is given same Time Slot to transmit the data over the link,
whether the device has any data to transmit or not.
• If any device does not have data to send then its time slot remains
empty.
Example-1
In Figure above, the data rate for each input connection is 3 kbps. If 1 bit
at a time is multiplexed (a unit is 1 bit), what is the duration of (a) each
input slot, (b) each output slot, and (c) each frame?
Solution-1
a. The data rate of each input connection is 1 kbps. This means that the
bit duration is 1/1000 s or 1 ms. The duration of the input time slot is 1 ms
(same as bit duration).
b. The duration of each output time slot is one-third of the input time
slot. This means that the duration of the output time slot is 1/3 ms.
c. Each frame carries three output time slots. So the duration of a frame
is 3 × 1/3 ms, or 1 ms. the duration of a frame is the same as the duration
of an input unit.
 B. Asynchronous TDM
• Also known as Statistical Time Division multiplexing.
• In this time slots are not Fixed i.e. slots are Flexible.
• In ASTDM we have n input lines and m slots i.e. m less than n (m<n).
• Slots are not predefined rather slots are allocated to any of the device
that has data to send.
Spreading
• It is used to extended bandwidth to accommodate signals in a
protective envelope so that more secure transmission is possible.
• The original bandwidth of the signal gets enlarged (spread)
through the spread code as shown in the figure.
Principles of Spread Spectrum process:
• It is necessary that the bandwidth allocated to each station should
be much larger than needed.
• The spreading process occurs after the signal is created by the
source.
Characteristics of the Spread Spectrum are:
• Higher channel capacity.
• Ability to resist multipath propagation.
• They cannot easily intercept any unauthorized person.
• They are resistant to jamming.
Two types of techniques for Spread Spectrum are:
• Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
• Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
 Different carrier frequencies are modulated by the source signal.
Advantages of FHSS:
• Synchronization is not greatly dependent on distance.
• Processing Gain is higher than DSSS.
Disadvantages of FHSS:
• The bandwidth of the FHSS system is too large (in GHz).
• Complex and expensive Digital frequency synthesizers are
required.
FHSS:
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
 Each data bit is replaced with n bits using a spreading code
called chips, and the bit rate of the chip is called as chip-rate. The chip
rate is n times the bit rate of the original signal.
Advantages of DSSS
• The DSSS System combats the jamming most effectively.
• The performance of DSSS in presence of noise is superior to FHSS.
• Interference is minimized against the signals.
Disadvantages of DSSS
• Processing Gain is lower than DSSS.
• Channel Bandwidth is less than FHSS.
• Synchronization is affected by the variable distance between the
transmitter and receiver.
DSSS:
Transmission Media
• Data transmission occurs between a transmitter & receiver via some
medium
• Transmission media may be classified as guided or unguided
• In considering the design of data transmission systems, key concerns are
data rate and distance: the greater the data rate and distance, the
better.
i. Twisted Pair cable
 Is formed by twisting two insulated conductors around each other.
 Usually, a number of pairs of these wires are put together into a cable.
The cable may contain more than a hundred pairs of wires for long-
distance communications.
Are the most common media in a telephone network.
 These wires support both analog and digital signals and can transmit
the signal at a speed of 10 Mbps over a short distance.
 Simple to install and relatively independent when compared to coaxial
and optical fiber cables.

The two basic types of twisted-pair transmission lines specified are

 unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and
 shielded twisted pair (STP).
• Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) • Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
• ordinary telephone wire • metal braid or sheathing that
• cheapest reduces interference
• easiest to install • more expensive
• suffers from external EM • harder to handle (thick, heavy)
interference
 ii. Coaxial (Concentric) cable
• Because of the advent of modern UTP and STP twisted pair cables,
coaxial cable is seen very less in computer networks, but still has very
high importance in analog systems, such as cable television
distribution networks.
• The basic coaxial cable consists of a center conductor surrounded by a
dielectric material (insulation), then a concentric (uniform distance
from the center) shielding, and finally a rubber environmental
protection outer jacket.
 iii. Fiber optics cable
• An optical communications system is one that uses light as the carrier of
information.
• They use glass or plastic fiber cables to contain the light waves and guide
them in a manner similar to the way EM waves are guided through a
metallic transmission media.
Benefit of Fiber optics
• greater capacity: data rates of hundreds of Gbps
• smaller size & weight
• lower attenuation
• Electromagnetic isolation- Optical fiber systems are not affected by
external EMF.
• greater repeater spacing: Fewer repeaters mean lower cost and fewer
sources of error
Transmission Characteristics of fiber optics
• uses total internal reflection to transmit light
• can use several different light sources
• Light Emitting Diode (LED)
• Injection Laser diode (ILD)
Reading assignment
• Advantages and disadvantages of twister pair, coaxial, and fiber
optics cable
Optical Fiber Transmission Modes
i. Multimode fiber
ii. Single mode fiber
 Switching
• Switching is process to forward packets coming in from one port to a
port leading towards the destination.
• When data comes on a port it is called ingress, and when data leaves a
port or goes out it is called egress.
• A switched network consists of a series of interlinked nodes, called
switches.
Types of Switched network
 I. Circuit-switched networks
• 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 or TDM.
• requires three phases: Connection setup, data transfer and Connection
teardown.
 II. Packet-switched networks
• is a switching technique in which the message is sent in one go, but
it is divided into smaller pieces, and they are sent individually.
• The message splits into smaller pieces known as packets and packets are
given a unique number to identify their order at the receiving end.
• Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source
address, destination address and sequence number.
• Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.
• All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
➢ If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message will be sent to
resend the message.
➢ If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the acknowledgment
message will be sent.
• There are two approaches to Packet Switching:
Datagram and Virtual circuit packet switching
A. Datagram Networks
 Each packet is treated independently of all others. Packets in this
approach are referred to as datagrams.
 Sometimes referred to as connectionless networks.
 There are no setup or teardown phases.
 B. Virtual circuit network
• Is a cross between a circuit-switched network and a datagram network.
It has some characteristics of both.
• A virtual-circuit network is normally implemented in the data link
layer, while a circuit switched network is implemented in the physical
layer and a datagram network in the network layer.
 III. Message -switched networks
• This technique was somewhere in middle of circuit switching and
packet switching.
• In message switching, the whole message is treated as a data unit.
 Comparison
Circuit switching Datagram packet Virtual-circuit packet
switching switching
Dedicated transmission path No dedicated path No dedicated path

Continuous transmission of data Transmission of packets Transmission of packet

Messages are not stored Packets may be stored until delivered Packets stored until delivered

No overhead bits after call setup Overhead bits in each message Overhead bits in each packet.

Busy signal if called party busy Sender may be notified if packet not Sender notified of connection denial
delivered

Call setup delay Packet transmission delay Call setup delay, packet transmission
delay