Whenever the bandwidth of a medium linking
two devices is greater than the bandwidth
needs of the devices, the link can be shared.
Multiplexing is the set of techniques that
allows the simultaneous transmission of
multiple signals across a single data link.
High-bandwidth media such as optical fiber
and terrestrial and satellite microwaves. Each
has a bandwidth far in excess of that needed
for the average transmission signal
If the bandwidth of a link is greater than the
bandwidth needs of the devices connected to
it, the bandwidth is wasted.
An efficient system maximizes the utilization
of all resources; bandwidth is one of the most
precious resources in data communications.
In a multiplexed system, n lines share the
bandwidth of one link.
In the figure, the word link refers to the physical path. The word
channel refers to the portion of a link that carries a transmission
between a given pair of lines. One link can have many (n) channels.
The lines on the left direct their transmission
streams to a multiplexer (MUX), which combines
them into a single stream (many-to one).
At the receiving end, that stream is fed into a
demultiplexer (DEMUX), which separates the stream
back into its component transmissions (one-to-
many) and directs them to their corresponding
lines.
There are three basic multiplexing techniques: frequency-division
multiplexing, wavelength-division multiplexing, and time-division
multiplexing. The first two are techniques designed for analog signals,
the third, for digital signals.
FDMA – Large room divided up into small rooms.
Each pair of people takes turns speaking.
TDMA – Large room divided up into small rooms.
Three pairs of people per room, however, each pair
gets 20 seconds to speak.
CDMA – No small rooms. Everyone is speaking in
different languages. If voice volume is minimized,
the number of people is maximized
Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is an analog
technique that can be applied when the bandwidth of
a link (in hertz) is greater than the combined
bandwidths of the signals to be transmitted.
In FDM, signals generated by each sending device
modulate different carrier frequencies. These
modulated signals are then combined into a single
composite signal that can be transported by the link.
Carrier frequencies are separated by sufficient
bandwidth to accommodate the modulated signal.
Channels can be separated by strips of unused
bandwidth-guard bands-to prevent signals from
overlapping.
Multiplexing Process
Each source generates a signal of a similar frequency
range. Inside the multiplexer, these similar signals
modulates different carrier frequencies (/1,12, and h).
The resulting modulated signals are then combined
into a single composite signal that is sent out over a
media link that has enough bandwidth to
accommodate it.
The demultiplexer uses a series of filters to
decompose the multiplexed signal into its constituent
component signals.
The individual signals are then passed to a
demodulator that separates them from their carriers
and passes them to the output lines.
If channel is not in use, it sits idle.
Channel bandwidth is relatively narrow (30kHz).
Simple algorithmically, and from a hardware
standpoint.
Fairly efficient when the number of stations is small
and the traffic is uniformly constant.
Capacity increase can be obtained by reducing the
information bit rate and using efficient digital
code.
No need for network timing.
No restriction regarding the type of baseband or
type of modulation
The presence of guard bands.
Requires right RF filtering to minimize adjacent
channel interference.
Maximum bit rate per channel is fixed .
Small inhibiting flexibility in bit rate capability.
Does not differ significantly from analog system.
A very common application of FDM is AM and FM
radio broadcasting. Radio uses the air as the
transmission medium.
Another common use of FDM is in television
broadcasting. Each TV channel has its own
bandwidth of 6 MHz.
The first generation of cellular telephones (still in
operation) also uses FDM.
Each user is assigned two 30-kHz channels, one
for sending voice and the other for receiving.
Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a digital
process that allows several connections to
share the high bandwidth of a link Instead of
sharing a portion of the bandwidth as in FDM,
time is shared.
Each connection occupies a portion of time
in the link.
TDM into two different schemes: synchronous and
statistical.
In synchronous TDM, each input connection has an
allotment in the output even if it is not sending
data.
Time Slots and Frames
In synchronous TDM, the data flow of each input
connection is divided into units, where each input
occupies one input time slot.
A unit can be 1 bit, one character, or one block of
data. Each input unit becomes one output unit and
occupies one output time slot.
In synchronous TDM, a round of data units from
each input connection is collected into a frame.
If we have n connections, a frame is divided into n
time slots and one slot is allocated for each unit,
one for each input line.
If the duration of the input unit is T, the duration
of each slot is Tin and the duration of each frame is
T
The data rate of the output link must be n times
the data rate of a connection to guarantee the flow
of data.
Time slots are grouped into frames.
A frame consists of one complete cycle of
time slots, with one slot dedicated to each sending
device.
In a system with n input lines, each frame has n
slots, with each slot allocated to carrying data from
a specific input line.
Interleaving
TDM can be visualized as two fast-rotating
switches, one on the multiplexing side and the
other on the demultiplexing side.
The switches are synchronized and rotate at the
same speed, but in opposite directions. On the
multiplexing side, as the switch opensin front of a
connection, that connection has the opportunity to
send a unit onto the path.
This process is called interleaving. On the
demultiplexing side, as the switch opens in front of
a connection, that connection has the opportunity
to receive a unit from the path.
Flexible bit rate
No frequency guard band required
No need for precise narrowband filters
Easy for mobile or base stations to initiate and
execute hands off
Extended battery life
TDMA installations offer savings in base station
equipment, space and maintenance
The most cost-effective technology for upgrading a
current analog system to digital.
Requires network-wide timing synchronization.
Requires signal processing fro matched filtering
and correlation detection.
Demands high peak power on uplink in transient
mode.
Multipath distortion.
In statistical time-division multiplexing, slots are
dynamically allocated to improve bandwidth
efficiency.
Only when an input line has a slot's worth of data
to send is it given a slot in the output frame.
In statistical multiplexing, the number of slots in
each frame is less than the number of input lines.
The multiplexer checks each input line in round
robin fashion; it allocates a slot for an input line if
the line has data to send; otherwise, it skips the
line and checks the next line.
Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is
designed to use the high-data-rate capability of
fiber-optic cable.
The optical fiber data rate is higher than the data
rate of metallic transmission cable.
Multiplexing allows us to combine several lines into
one. WDM is conceptually the same as FDM, except
that the multiplexing and demultiplexing involve
optical signals transmitted through fiber-optic
channels.
The idea is the same I,e combining different
signals of different frequencies.
WDM multiplexer and demultiplexer. Very narrow
bands of light from different sources are combined
to make a wider band of light. At the receiver, the
signals are separated by the demultiplexer.
One application of WDM is the SONET network in
which multiple optical fiber lines are multiplexed
and demultiplexed.
A new method, called dense WDM (DWDM), can
multiplex a very large number of channels by
spacing channels very close to one another. It
achieves even greater efficiency.
There is a third kind of multiplexing that works in a
completely different way than FDM and TDM.
CDM (Code Division Multiplexing) is a form of
spread spectrum communication in which a
narrowband signal is spread out over a wider
frequency band.
This can make it more tolerant of interference, as
well as allowing multiple signals from different
users to share the same frequency band.
Because code division multiplexing is mostly used
for the latter purpose it is commonly called CDMA
(Code Division Multiple Access).
CDMA allows each station to transmit over the entire
frequency spectrum all the time.
TDM is comparable to pairs of people in the room
taking turns speaking.
FDM is comparable to the pairs of people speaking
at different pitches, some high-pitched and some
low-pitched such that each pair can hold its own
conversation at the same time as but independently of
the others.
CDMA is comparable to each pair of people talking at
once, but in a different language. The key to CDMA is
to be able to extract the desired signal while
rejecting everything else as random noise.
In CDMA, each bit time is subdivided into m short
intervals called chips.
Typically, there are 64 or 128 chips per bit, Each
station is assigned a unique m-bit code called
a chip sequence.
CDMA is used by satellites and cable networks as
well as cellular networks,
Many users of CDMA use the same frequency, TDD
or FDD may be used.
Multipath fading may be substantially reduced
because of large signal bandwidth.
No absolute limit on the number of users.
Easy addition of more users.
Impossible for hackers to decipher the code sent.
Better signal quality.
No sense of handoff when changing cells.
As the number of users increases, the overall quality
of service decreases.
Self-jamming.
A switched network consists of a series of
interlinked nodes, called switches. Switches are
devices capable of creating temporary connections
between two or more devices linked to the switch. In
a switched network, some of these nodes are
connected to the end systems, for example
computers or telephones,).
Two different switching techniques are used by the
network :
circuit switching and packet switching.
When computer places a telephone call, the
switching equipment within the telephone system
seeks out a physical path all the way from
telephone to the receiver’s telephone. This
technique is called circuit switching.
A circuit-switched network 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
Circuit switching takes place at the physical layer.
Before starting communication, the stations must
make a reservation for the resources to be used
during the communication.
These resources, such as channels (bandwidth in
FDM and time slots in TDM), switch buffers, switch
processing time, and switch input/output ports,
must remain dedicated during the entire duration
of data transfer until the teardown phase.
Data transferred between the two stations are not
packetized (physical layer transfer of the signal).
The data are a continuous flow sent by the source
station and received by the destination station,
although there may be periods of silence.
There is no addressing involved during data
transfer. The switches route the data based on
their occupied band (FDM) or time slot (TDM).
Of course, there is end-to-end addressing used
during the setup phase.