Chapter Two – Part One
Data Transmission
Terminology (1)
Transmitter
Receiver
Medium
Guided medium
e.g. twisted pair, optical fiber
Unguided medium
e.g. air, water, vacuum
Terminology (2)
Direct link
No intermediate devices
Point-to-point
Direct link
Only 2 devices share link
Multi-point
More than two devices share the link
Terminology (3)
Simplex
One direction
e.g. Television
Half duplex
Either direction, but only one way at a time
e.g. police radio
Full duplex
Both directions at the same time
e.g. telephone
Frequency, Spectrum and
Bandwidth
Time domain concepts
Continuous signal
Various in a smooth way over time
Discrete signal
Maintains a constant level then changes to another
constant level
Periodic signal
Pattern repeated over time
Aperiodic signal
Pattern not repeated over time
Continuous & Discrete Signals
Frequency Domain Concepts
Signal usually made up of many
frequencies
Components are sine waves
Can be shown (Fourier analysis) that any
signal is made up of component sine
waves
Can plot frequency domain functions
Data Rate and Bandwidth
Any transmission system has a limited
band of frequencies
This limits the data rate that can be
carried
Analog and Digital Data
Transmission
Data
Entities that convey meaning
Signals
Electric or electromagnetic representations of
data
Transmission
Communication of data by propagation and
processing of signals
Data
Analog
Continuous values within some interval
e.g. sound, video
Digital
Discrete values
e.g. text, integers
Signals
Means by which data are propagated
Analog
Continuously variable
Various media
wire, fiber optic, space
Speech bandwidth 100Hz to 7kHz
Telephone bandwidth 300Hz to 3400Hz
Video bandwidth 4MHz
Digital
Use two DC components
Data and Signals
Usually use digital signals for digital data
and analog signals for analog data
Can use analog signal to carry digital data
Modem
Can use digital signal to carry analog data
Compact Disc audio
Analog Signals Carrying Analog
and Digital Data
Digital Signals Carrying Analog
and Digital Data
Analog Transmission
Analog signal transmitted without regard
to content
May be analog or digital data
Attenuated over distance
Use amplifiers to boost signal
Also amplifies noise
Digital Transmission
Concerned with content
Integrity endangered by noise,
attenuation etc.
Repeaters used
Repeater receives signal
Extracts bit pattern
Retransmits
Attenuation is overcome
Noise is not amplified
Advantages of Digital Transmission
Digital technology
Low cost LSI/VLSI technology
Data integrity
Longer distances over lower quality lines
Capacity utilization
High bandwidth links economical
High degree of multiplexing easier with digital
techniques
Security & Privacy
Encryption
Integration
Can treat analog and digital data similarly
Transmission Impairments
Signal received may differ from signal
transmitted
Analog - degradation of signal quality
Digital - bit errors
Caused by
Attenuation and attenuation distortion
Delay distortion
Noise
Attenuation
Signal strength falls off with distance
Depends on medium
Received signal strength:
must be enough to be detected
must be sufficiently higher than noise to be
received without error
Attenuation is an increasing function of
frequency
Delay Distortion
Only in guided media
Propagation velocity varies with frequency
Noise
Additional signals inserted between
transmitter and receiver
Thermal
Due to thermal agitation of electrons
Uniformly distributed
White noise
Intermodulation
Signals that are the sum and difference of
original frequencies sharing a medium
Noise (2)
Crosstalk
A signal from one line is picked up by another
Impulse
Irregular pulses or spikes
e.g. External electromagnetic interference
Short duration
High amplitude
Channel Capacity
Data rate
In bits per second
Rate at which data can be communicated
Bandwidth
The maximum amount of data transmitted
over an internet connection in a given amount
of time
In cycles per second of Hertz
Constrained by transmitter and medium
Required Reading
Stallings chapter 3
