Transmission Media
Lecture 7
Computer Network
Transmission Media
• Transmission media are located below the
physical layer and are directly controlled by
the physical layer.
• You could say that transmission media belong
to layer zero.
..Cont
• Transmission media can be divided into two
broad categories:
1. Guided transmission media.
2. Unguided transmission media.
Twisted pair
• Twisted-pair uses metallic (copper) conductors that accept
and transport signals in the form of electric current.
• A twisted pair consists of two conductors each with its own
plastic insulation.
• The twisting tends to decrease the cross talk interference.
Between adjacent pairs in cable.
• The thickness of the pair is from 0.4 to 0.9 mm.
• Commonly used in the telephone network and short distance
data communication system.
Cont..
• Twisted pair come into verities
1. Unshielded twisted pair (UTP).
2. shielded twisted pair (STP).
• UTP is subject to external electromagnetic
interference from nearby twisted pair and from
noise generated in the environment.
• STP provides better performance and high data
rate since the pair is shielded with braid metallic
that reduce the interference.
Coaxial cable
• Coaxial cable carries signals of higher frequency
ranges than those in twisted pair cable.
• It consists two conductors same as twisted pair.
• It has a diameter (1-2.5) cm
• Because of its shielded concentric construction,
coaxial cable is much less susceptible to
interference and crosstalk than twisted pair.
..Cont
• The application of coaxial cable
1. Television distribution
2. Long distance telephone transmission
3. LANs
• coaxial cables are used to transmit both analog and digital signal.
Fiber-optic cable
• A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits
signals in the form of light.
• It has a cylindrical shape and consists of three concentric
sections: core , cladding and jacket.
• The core is the most inner section made of glasses or plastic ,
the diameter of core in the range of ( 8 to 100 )um
• Each fiber is surrounded by its own cladding that made it
from glass or plastic with different optical properties from
those of the core.
• The interface between core and cladding acts as a reflectors
to confine the light that would escape the core.
• The jacket is composed of plastic and other material layered
to protect against moisture, abrasion , crushing and other
environmental dangerous.
..Cont
•
Step index multimode ( for long
( distance
(Graded index multimode (LANs
( Single mode (Short distance
Unguided Media Transmission
• transmission and reception are achieved by
means of an antenna
• directional
– Transmitting antenna puts out focused beam
– Transmitter and receiver must be aligned
• omnidirectional
– Signal spreads out in all directions
– Can be received by many antennas
Wireless Examples
• Terrestrial microwave
• Satellite microwave
• Broadcast radio
• Infrared
Terrestrial Microwave
• Used for long-distance telephone service and
Television transmission.
• Uses radio frequency spectrum, from 2 to 40 Ghz
• parabolic dish antenna is used
• Microwave propagation is line-of-sight. Since the
towers with the mounted antennas need to be in
direct sight of each other.
Terrestrial Microwave
Applications
• Television distribution
• Long-distance telephone transmission
• Private business networks
Microwave Transmission
Disadvantages
• line of sight requirement
• Expensive towers and repeaters
• Subject to interference such as passing
airplanes and rain
Satellite Microwave
• A microwave relay station in space, it used to
link two or more ground-based microwave
stations.
• The most important application of the satellite
are as follow.
1. Television distribution.
2. Long distance telephone transmission.
3. Private business networks.
Satellite Transmission Process
satellite
transponder
dish
dish
miles 22,300
uplink station downlink station
Satellite Transmission Links
• Earth stations communicate by sending signals
to the satellite on an uplink
• the satellite then repeats those signals on a
downlink.
• The optimum frequency range of the satellite
is (1 – 13 ) GHz.
• Below 1 GHz there is significant noise from
natural sources including galactic, solar and
atmospheric.
Broadcast Radio
• Radio is omnidirectional and microwave is
directional
• Radio is a general term often used to
encompass frequencies in the range 3 kHz to
300 GHz.
• A prime source of impairment for broadcast
radio is multipath interferences.
Infrared
• Uses transmitters/receivers (transceivers) that
modulate noncoherent infrared light.
• Transceivers must be within line of sight of
each other (directly or via reflection ).
• Unlike microwaves, infrared does not
penetrate walls.
