3.
Introduction to
physical layer
Introduction to physical layer
Move data in the form of electromagnetic signals across a transmission medium
For transmission, data needs to be changed to signals
Objectives:
◦ Study of analog and digital data
◦ Periodic analog signals for data communication and related definitions
◦ Non periodic digital signals for data communication and related definitions
◦ Transmission impairment and related definitions
◦ Data rate limit of channel and related definitions
◦ Performance of data transmission and related definitions
To be transmitted, data must be
transformed to electromagnetic signals.
Contents
Data and Signals
Periodic Analog Signals
Digital Signals
Transmission Impairment
Data Rate Limits
Performance
Data and signals
Analog and Digital Data
Analog and Digital Signals
Periodic and Non-periodic
Analog and digital data
Analog data
◦ Information that is continuous
◦ Eg. An analog clock, analog voice create by human beings
Digital data
◦ Information that has discrete states
◦ Eg. A digital clock, data stored in computer memory in form of 1s and 0s
Analog and digital signals
Analog signals can have an infinite number of values over a period of time
A digital signal can have only a limited number of defined values
Periodic and nonperiodic
A periodic signal completes a pattern within a measurable time frame, called a period
◦ Repeats that pattern over subsequent identical periods
◦ Completion of one full pattern is called a cycle
A nonperiodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern or cycle that repeats over time
Both analog and digital signals can be periodic or nonperiodic
In data communications, periodic analog
signals and nonperiodic digital signals are
commonly used
Periodic Analog Signals
Simple
composite
Sine wave
Phase
Wavelength
Time and Frequency Domains
Composite signals
Bandwidth
Sine wave
Most fundamental form of a periodic analog signal
Its change over the course of a cycle is smooth and consistent, a continuous, rolling flow
A sine wave
Sine wave
Represented by
◦ The peak amplitude
◦ The frequency and
◦ The phase
S(x) = A * Sin(2*pi*f + Φ)
Two signals with the same phase and frequency,
but different amplitudes
Sine wave
Represented by
◦ The peak amplitude
◦ The frequency and
◦ The phase
Two signals with the same amplitude and phase, but different frequencies
Sine wave
Represented by
◦ The peak amplitude
◦ The frequency and
◦ The phase
Period is amount of time, in seconds, a signal takes to complete one cycle
Frequency refers to number of periods per second
Period is inverse of frequency and vice versa
Frequency and period are inverse of each
other
Units of period and frequency
The power we use at home has a frequency of 60
Hz. The period of this sine wave can be determined
as follows:
Express a period of 100 ms in microseconds.
100 ms = 100 X 10-3 s = 100 X 10-3 X 106 μs = 105 μs
The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its
frequency in kilohertz?
Solution
First we change 100 ms to seconds, and then we calculate the frequency from the period (1 Hz =
10−3 kHz).
Some extremes of frequency
Measurement of the rate of change
Electromagnetic signals are the oscillating waveforms
◦ Fluctuate continuously above and below a mean energy level
Change in a short span of time means high frequency
Change over a long span of time means low frequency
If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is zero
If a signal changes continuously, its frequency is infinite
Sine wave
Represented by
◦ The peak amplitude
◦ The frequency and
◦ The phase or phase shift
Phase describes the position of the waveform relative to time 0.
Indicates the status of the first cycle
Phase is measured in degrees or radians (360 or 2Π)
Three signals with the same amplitude and
frequency, but different phases
A sine wave is offset 1/6 cycle with respect to time 0. What is its
phase in degrees and radians?
Solution
We know that 1 complete cycle is 360°. Therefore, 1/6 cycle is
wavelength
Wavelength is the distance a simple signal can travel in one period
Binds period or the frequency of a simple sine wave to the
propagation speed of the medium.
Wavelength and Period
wavelength
Wavelength (λ) is calculated as
Wavelength = (propagation speed) X period
= (propagation speed)/frequency
λ = c/f
Wavelength is used to describe transmission of light in an optical fiber.
Time and frequency domains
Time domain plot shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to time
A frequency domain plot is concerned with the peak value and the frequency; changes in
amplitude during one period are not shown
Frequency domain is more compact and useful when dealing with more than one sine wave
A complete sine wave in the time domain can be
represented by one single spike in the frequency
domain.
Time and frequency domain of a sine wave
A complete sine wave in the time domain can be
represented by one single spike in the frequency domain
The time domain and frequency domain of three sine waves
Composite signals
A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in data communications
Composite signals are a combination of simple sine waves with different frequencies,
amplitudes, and phases (According to Jean-Bapstite Fourier)
Composite signal can be periodic or nonperiodic
Periodic composite signal can be decomposed into a series of simple sine waves with discrete
frequencies
Nonperiodic composite signals can be decomposed into a combination of an infinite number of
simple sine waves with continuous frequencies
A composite periodic signal
Decomposition of a composite periodic signal in the time and
frequency domain
Composite signals
First harmonic or fundamental frequency
◦ If decomposed signal has the same frequency as that of composite periodic signal, it is called first
harmonic or fundamental frequency
◦ If the decomposed signal has twice the frequency of composite periodic signal, it is called second
harmonic
◦ Third harmonic
◦ And so on
Here, first harmonic, third harmonic and ninth harmonic are shown
Frequency decomposition of a signal is discrete
Since f is integral, 3f and 9f are also integral
No frequencies exist like 1.2f or 2.6 f
Time and Frequency domains of a nonperiodic signal
bandwidth
Range of frequencies contained in a composite signal is its bandwidth
Difference between the highest and the lowest frequencies contained in that signal
Bandwidth of a non periodic signal
If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves with frequencies of 100,
300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what is its bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming
all components have a maximum amplitude of 10 V.
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then
The spectrum has only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz
A periodic signal has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. The highest frequency is 60 Hz. What
is the lowest frequency? Draw the spectrum if the signal contains all frequencies
of the same amplitude.
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then
The spectrum contains all integer frequencies. We show this by a series of spikes
A nonperiodic composite signal has a bandwidth of 200 kHz, with a middle
frequency of 140 kHz and peak amplitude of 20 V. The two extreme frequencies
have an amplitude of 0. Draw the frequency domain of the signal.
The lowest frequency must be at 40 kHz and the highest at 240 kHz
An example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the signal propagated by an AM
radio station. In the United States, each AM radio station is assigned a 10-kHz
bandwidth. The total bandwidth dedicated to AM radio ranges from 530 to 1700
kHz.
Another example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the signal propagated by
an FM radio station. In the United States, each FM radio station is assigned a
200-kHz bandwidth. The total bandwidth dedicated to FM radio ranges from 88
to 108 MHz.
Another example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the signal received by an
old-fashioned analog black-and-white TV. A TV screen is made up of pixels. If we
assume a resolution of 525 × 700, we have 367,500 pixels per screen. If we scan
the screen 30 times per second, this is 367,500 × 30 = 11,025,000 pixels per
second. The worst-case scenario is alternating black and white pixels. We can
send 2 pixels per cycle. Therefore, we need 11,025,000 / 2 = 5,512,500 cycles
per second, or Hz. The bandwidth needed is 5.5125 MHz.
Digital signals
BIT RATE
BIT LENGTH
DIGITAL SIGNAL AS A COMPOSITE
ANALOG SIGNAL
TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL
SIGNALS
Digital signal
Information can be represented by a digital signal
If a signal has L levels, each level needs log2L bits
Example:
◦ A digital signal has eight levels. How many bits are needed per level? We calculate the number of bits
from the formula
◦ Each signal level is represented by 3 bits
Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and other with four signal levels
A digital signal has nine levels. How many bits are needed per
level?
Each signal level is represented by 3.17 bits
However, this answer is not realistic.
The number of bits sent per level needs to be an integer as well as a power of 2.
For this example, 4 bits can represent one level.
Bit rate
Bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1s, expressed in bits
per second (bps)
Example:
Assume we need to download text documents at the rate
of 100 pages per sec. What is the required bit rate of the
channel? (Consider a page is an average of 24 lines with
80 characters in each line. )
Solution
A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in each
line. If we assume that one character requires 8 bits
(ASCII), the bit rate is 100 X 24 X 80 X 8 = 1.536 Mbps
A digitized voice channel, is made by digitizing a 4-kHz bandwidth analog voice signal. We
need to sample the signal at twice the highest frequency (two samples per hertz). We
assume that each sample requires 8 bits. What is the required bit rate?
The bit rate can be calculated as
What is the bit rate for high-definition TV (HDTV)?
HDTV uses digital signals to broadcast high quality video signals. The HDTV
screen is normally a ratio of 16 : 9. There are 1920 by 1080 pixels per screen,
and the screen is renewed 30 times per second. Twenty-four bits represents
one color pixel
The TV stations reduce this rate to 20 to 40 Mbps through compression
Bit length
Similar to wavelength for analog signals
The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium
Bit length = propagation speed X bit duration
Digital signal as a composite
analog signal
Digital signal as a composite analog
signal
A digital signal is a composite analog signal
Infinite bandwidth
Periodic digital signal
◦ Rare in data communication
◦ Frequency domain representation has infinite bandwidth and discrete frequencies
Nonperiodic digital signal
◦ Decomposed signal still has an infinite bandwidth
◦ Frequencies are continuous
The time and frequency domains of periodic and nonperiodic digital signals
Transmission of digital signals
Digital signal is a composite analog signal with frequencies between
zero and infinity
Transmission of digital signal is possible by 2 approaches
◦ Baseband transmission
◦ Broadband transmission (using modulation)
Transmission of digital signals: baseband
transmission
Baseband Transmission
Sending a digital signal over a channel without changing the digital signal to an
analog signal
Requires a low-pass channel with a bandwidth that starts from zero
Means a dedicated medium with a bandwidth constituting only one channel
Bandwidths of Low pass channels
Baseband transmission using a dedicated medium
An example of a dedicated channel where the entire bandwidth of the medium is used as
one single channel is a LAN. Almost every wired LAN today uses a dedicated channel for two
stations communicating with each other. In a bus topology LAN with multipoint connections,
only two stations can communicate with each other at each moment in time (timesharing);
the other stations need to refrain from sending data. In a star topology LAN, the entire
channel between each station and the hub is used for communication between these two
entities.
Baseband transmission of a digital signal that preserves the
shape of the digital signal is possible only if we have a low-pass
channel with an infinite or very wide bandwidth
Rough approximation of a digital signal using first harmonic for worst case
Assumption: We have a digital signal of bit rate N
Conclusions:
• Analog representation for the 3-bit pattern is shown
• Phases involved are 90, 180, 270, 0
• Highest frequency is N/2 and lowest frequency is 0
• Bandwidth = N/2 (First harmonic)
Simulating the digital signal with first three harmonics
Better approximation:
• Add more harmonics and increase bandwidth to 3N/2, 5N/2, 7N/2 and so on
• Required bandwidth is proportional to bit rate
• Want to send bits faster, need more bandwidth
Bandwidth requirements
What is the required bandwidth of a low-pass channel if we need
to send 1 Mbps by using baseband transmission?
The answer depends on the accuracy desired.
a. The minimum bandwidth, is B = bit rate /2, or 500 kHz.
b. A better solution is to use the first and the third
harmonics with B = 3 × 500 kHz = 1.5 MHz.
c. Still a better solution is to use the first, third, and fifth
harmonics with B = 5 × 500 kHz = 2.5 MHz.
We have a low-pass channel with bandwidth 100
kHz. What is the maximum bit rate of this
channel?
The maximum bit rate can be achieved if we use the first harmonic.
The bit rate is 2 times the available bandwidth, or 200 kbps
Broadband transmission (Using
modulation)
Changing a digital signal into analog signal for transmission
Modulation allows us to use use a bandpass channel
◦ A channel with bandwidth that does not start from 0
◦ More available than a low-pass channel
Bandwidth of a Bandpass channel
Modulation of a digital signal for transmission on a bandpass channel
If the available channel is a bandpass channel, we cannot send the digital
signal directly to the channel; we need to convert the digital signal to an analog
signal before transmission.
An example of broadband transmission using modulation is the sending of computer data
through a telephone subscriber line, the line connecting a resident to the central telephone
office. These lines are designed to carry voice with a limited bandwidth. The channel is
considered a bandpass channel. We convert the digital signal from the computer to an
analog signal, and send the analog signal. We can install two converters to change the
digital signal to analog and vice versa at the receiving end. The converter, in this case, is
called a modem
A second example is the digital cellular telephone. For better reception, digital cellular
phones convert the analog voice signal to a digital signal. Although the bandwidth allocated
to a company providing digital cellular phone service is very wide, we still cannot send the
digital signal without conversion. The reason is that we only have a bandpass channel
available between caller and callee. We need to convert the digitized voice to a composite
analog signal before sending.
Transmission
impairment
ATTENUATION
DISTORTION
NOISE
Causes of Impairment
• Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect
• Imperfection causes signal impairment
• Signal at the beginning of the medium is not the same as the signal at the
ned of medium
Attenuation
• Loss of energy
• Signal loses some energy in overcoming the resistance of medium
• Hence, amplifiers are used to amplify the signal
Attenuation
Measurement of Attenuation
• Measured in decibels
dB = 10log10(P2/P1)
P1 - input signal
P2 - output signal
• Some books define decibels in terms of voltage instead of power. In such a
case,
dB = 20log10(V2/V1)
V1 - input voltage
V2 - output voltage
Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium and its power is reduced
to one-half. This means that P2 is (1/2)P1. In this case, the attenuation (loss of
power) can be calculated as
A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half the power
A signal travels through an amplifier, and its power is increased 10 times. This means
that P2 = 10P1 . In this case, the amplification (gain of power) can be calculated as
One reason that engineers use the decibel to measure the changes in the strength of a
signal is that decibel numbers can be added (or subtracted) when we are measuring
several points (cascading) instead of just two. In Figure, a signal travels from point 1 to
point 4. In this case, the decibel value can be calculated as
This implies that the signal has gained in power.
Sometimes the decibel is used to measure signal power in milliwatts. In this
case, it is referred to as dBm and is calculated as dBm = 10 log10 Pm , where Pm is
the power in milliwatts. Calculate the power of a signal with dBm = −30.
The loss in a cable is usually defined in decibels per kilometer (dB/km). If the
signal at the beginning of a cable with −0.3 dB/km has a power of 2 mW, what is
the power of the signal at 5 km?
The loss in the cable in decibels is 5 × (−0.3) = −1.5 dB. We can calculate the power
as
Distortion
• Signal changes its form or shape
• Distortion can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies
• Each signal component has its own propagation speed through a medium
and its own delay in arriving at final destination
• Differences in delay may create a difference in phase if the delay is not exactly
the same as period duration
Distortion
Noise –
The unwanted signal that mixes up with the original signal is called noise.
• Thermal Noise - Thermal noise is movement of electrons in wire
which creates an extra signal
• Induced Noise - Induced noise comes from sources such as motors
and appliances. These devices act as a sending antenna and receiving
antenna.
• Crosstalk Noise - Same as above, but between two wires.
• Impulse Noise- Spikes that result from power lines, lightning, etc.
Noise
Noise Measurement
• Measured using Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)
• SNR is the theoretical bit rate limit
• It is usually given in dB and referred to as SNRdB.
• SNR = (average signal power)/(average noise power)
• SNR is ratio of what is wanted (signal) and what is not
wanted (noise)
SNRdB = 10log10SNR
Two cases of SNR: a high SNR and a low SNR
The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the noise is 1 μW; what are the
values of SNR and SNRdB ?
The values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel are unachievable as -
We can never achieve this ratio in real life; it is an ideal.
Data rate limits
NOISELESS CHANNEL: NYQUIST BIT RATE
NOISY CHANNEL: SHANNON CAPACITY
USING BOTH LIMITS
Data rate limits
Data rate depends on 3 factors
◦ The bandwidth available
◦ The levels of the signals we use
◦ The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
Two theoretical formulas were developed to calculate data rate
◦ By Nyquist for a noiseless channel
◦ By Shannon for a noisy channel
Noiseless channel: nyquist bit rate
Nyquist bit rate defines the theoretical maximum bit rate
BitRate = 2 X bandwidth X log2L
The bit rate of a system increases with an increase in the number of signal levels
A symbol can consist of a single bit or “n” bits. The number of signal levels = 2n.
As the number of levels goes up, the spacing between level decreases, increasing
the probability of an error occurring in the presence of transmission impairments
◦ Increasing the signal levels impose burden on receiver to distinguish between
different levels
Increasing the levels of a signal increases the probability of an error occurring,
in other words it reduces the reliability of the system. Why??
Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz transmitting a signal with
two signal levels. The maximum bit rate can be calculated as
Consider the same noiseless channel transmitting a signal with four signal levels (for
each level, we send 2 bits). The maximum bit rate can be calculated as
We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How
many signal levels do we need?
Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either increase the number of
levels or reduce the bit rate. If we have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we
have 64 levels, the bit rate is 240 kbps
Noisy channel: Shannon capacity
The channel is always noisy
In 1944, Claude Shannon introduced a formula, called the Shannon Capacity, to determine the
theoretical highest data rate for a noisy channel:
Capacity = bandwidth X log2(1+SNR)
There is no indication of the signal level
Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value of the signal-to-noise ratio
is almost zero. In other words, the noise is so strong that the signal is faint. For this
channel the capacity C is calculated as
This means that the capacity of this channel is zero regardless of the
bandwidth. In other words, we cannot receive any data through this channel.
We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone line. A
telephone line normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is
usually 3162. For this channel the capacity is calculated as
This implies that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is 34.860 kbps. If we
want to send data faster than this, we can either increase the bandwidth of the
line or improve the signal-to-noise ratio
The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels. Assume that SNRdB = 36 and the
channel bandwidth is 2 MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be calculated as
For practical purposes, when the SNR is very high, we can assume that SNR + 1 is
almost the same as SNR. In these cases, the theoretical channel capacity can be
simplified to
We can calculate the theoretical capacity of the previous example as
Using both limits
We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is 63. What
are the appropriate bit rate and signal level?
We use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit
For better performance we choose something lower, 4 Mbps, for example.
Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the number of signal levels
We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is 63. What
are the appropriate bit rate and signal level?
we use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit
For better performance we choose something lower, 4 Mbps, for example.
Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the number of signal levels
The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit; the Nyquist formula tells us how
many signal levels we need
Performance
BANDWIDTH
THROUGHPUT
LATENCY
JITTER
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is used in two contexts
◦ Bandwidth in Hertz
◦ refers to the range of frequencies in a composite signal or the range of frequencies that a channel can
pass
◦ Bandwidth in Bits per Second
◦ refers to the speed of bit transmission in a channel or link;
◦ often referred to as Capacity
The bandwidth of a subscriber line is 4 kHz for voice or data. The bandwidth
of this line for data transmission can be up to 56,000 bps using a sophisticated
modem to change the digital signal to analog.
If the telephone company improves the quality of the line and increases the
bandwidth to 8 kHz, we can send 112,000 bps by using the same technology
as mentioned in previous Example.
Throughput
Measure of how fast we can actually send data through a network
Bandwidth vs. throughput
◦ Bandwidth is a potential measurement of a link
◦ Throughput is an actual measurement of how fast we can send data
◦ Link with a bandwidth of 1Mbps, but devices connected may handle only 200 kbps
◦ Hence, we can’t send more than 200 kbps through this link
A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an average of 12,000
frames per minute with each frame carrying an average of 10,000 bits. What
is the throughput of this network?
The throughput is almost one-fifth of the bandwidth in this case.
Latency (delay)
Defines how long it takes for an entire message to completely arrive at the destination from the
time the first bit is sent out from the source
Made of four components
◦ Propagation time
◦ Transmission time
◦ Queuing time
◦ Processing delay
Latency = propagation time + transmission time + queuing time + processing delay
Propagation Time
• Measures the time required for a bit to travel from the source to the destination
• Calculated by dividing the distance by propagation speed
Propagation Time = Distance/Propagation speed
What is the propagation time if the distance between the two points is 12,000 km?
Assume the propagation speed to be 2.4 × 108 m/s in cable.
Transmission Time
• There is a time between the first bit leaving the sender and the last bit arriving at
the receiver
• Transmission time depends on size of the message and the bandwidth of the
channel
Transmission time = (Message Size) / Bandwidth
What are the propagation time and the transmission time for a 2.5-kbyte message
(an e-mail) if the bandwidth of the network is 1 Gbps? Assume that the distance
between the sender and the receiver is 12,000 km and that light travels at 2.4 × 108
m/s.
Note that in this case, because the message is short and the bandwidth is high, the
dominant factor is the propagation time, not the transmission time. The transmission
time can be ignored.
What are the propagation time and the transmission time for a 5-Mbyte
message (an image) if the bandwidth of the network is 1 Mbps? Assume
that the distance between the sender and the receiver is 12,000 km and
that light travels at 2.4 × 108 m/s.
Note that in this case, because the message is very long and the
bandwidth is not very high, the dominant factor is the transmission
time, not the propagation time. The propagation time can be ignored.
Queuing Time
• Time needed for each intermediate or end device to hold
the message before it can be processed
• Not a fixed factor; it changes with the load imposed on
the network
• When there is heavy traffic on the network, queuing
time increases
• Routers queue the packets
Jitter
• Jitter is a problem if different packets of data
encounter different delays and the
application using the data at the receiver site
is time-sensitive
Frequency = 1/2*(Data rate)
To transmit in one second 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, (6 bits) the signal goes high, low, high,
low, high, low. That's 3 full cycles of high-low and back low-high. So to transmit
6 bits per second, the information signal will oscillate at most 3hz.
So information frequency = 0.5 * data rate.
Thank you!!!
ANY QUESTIONS!!!