CST-2235_Computer Networks I

Data and Computer Communications

Tenth Edition
By William Stallings
 Chapter 3
Data Transmission
Transmission Terminology
 Data transmission occurs between transmitter and receiver over some transmission medium.
 Transmission media may be classified as guided or unguided.
 In both cases, communication is in the form of electromagnetic waves.

 Guided Media
 The waves are guided along a physical path ; (Example : twisted pair, coaxial cable, and
optical fiber)
 Unguided Media
 Also called wireless.
 Provide a propagation through air, vacuum, and seawater.
 Direct link
 Refer to the transmission path between two devices.
 Point-to-point
 Direct link between two devices.
 Are the only two devices sharing medium.
 Multi-point
 More than two devices share the same medium.
 Simplex
 Signals are transmitted in only one direction.
 One station is transmitter and the other is receiver not vice versa.
 Half duplex
 Both stations can transmit and receive, but only one at a time.
 Full duplex
 Both stations may transmit simultaneously.
 The medium is carrying signals in both direction at the same time.
Sine Wave
Can be represented by three parameters:
 Peak amplitude (A)
 Maximum value or strength of the signal over time
 Typically measured in volts
 Frequency (f)
 Rate at which the signal repeats
 Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second
 Period (T) is the amount of time for one repetition
 T = 1/f
 Phase (ɸ)
 Relative position in time within a single period of signal

Wavelength (λ)
  The wavelength of a signal is the distance occupied by a single cycle.
 Can also be stated as the distance between two points of corresponding phase of two
consecutive cycles.
Spectrum and Bandwidth
 Spectrum
 Range of frequencies contained in signal
 Absolute bandwidth
 Width of spectrum, eg: spectrum is f to 3f, and then 3f-f=2f is absolute bandwidth.
 Effective bandwidth (or just bandwidth)
 Narrow band of frequencies containing most energy
 Dc component
 Component of zero frequency
Relationship between Data Rate and Bandwidth
 Any transmission system has a limited band of frequencies.
 This limits the data rate that can be carried on the transmission medium.
 Square waves have infinite components and hence will have an infinite bandwidth.
 Any given medium, the greater the bandwidth transmitted, the greater the cost.
 Limiting bandwidth creates distortion.
 There is a direct relationship between data rate and bandwidth, which is the higher the data
rate of a signal, the greater is its required effective bandwidth.
Analog and Digital Data Transmission
 Data
 Entities that convey information
 Signals
 Electric or electromagnetic representations of data
 Signaling
 Physical propagation of the signal along a suitable medium
 Transmission
 Communication of data by the propagation and processing of signals
Video Signals
 To produce a video signal a TV camera is used
 USA standard is 483 lines per frame, at a rate of 30 complete frames per second
 Table 3.1 Analog and Digital Transmission

Digital
Signaling
Techniques
 Digital
technology
  LSI and VLSI technology has caused a continuing drop in the cost and size of digital
circuitry
 Data integrity
 The use of repeaters has made it possible to transmit data longer distances over lower
quality lines while maintaining the integrity of the data
 Capacity utilization
 It has become economical to build transmission links of very high bandwidth, including
satellite channels and optical fiber
 Security and privacy
 Encryption techniques can be readily applied to digital data and to analog data that have
been digitized
 Integration
 Economies of scale and convenience can be achieved by integrating voice, video, and
digital data
Transmission Impairments
 Signal received may differ from signal transmitted causing:
 Analog - degradation of signal quality
 Digital - bit errors
 Most significant impairments are
 Attenuation and attenuation distortion
 Delay distortion
 Noise
Attenuation
 Received signal strength must be:
 Strong enough to be detected
 Sufficiently higher than noise to be received without error
 Strength can be increased using amplifiers or repeaters
 Equalize attenuation across the band of frequencies used by using loading coils or
amplifiers
 Signal strength falls off with distance over any transmission medium
 Varies with frequency
Delay Distortion
 Occurs in transmission cables such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, and optical fiber
  Occurs because propagation velocity of a signal through a guided medium varies with
frequency
 Various frequency components arrive at different times resulting in phase shifts between the
frequencies
 Particularly critical for digital data since parts of one bit spill over into others causing
intersymbol interference
Categories of Noise
 Thermal noise
 Due to thermal agitation of electrons
 Uniformly distributed
 Referred to as white noise
 Intermodulation noise
 Produced by nonlinearities in the transmitter, receiver, and / or intervening
transmission medium
 Effect is to produce signals at a frequency that is the sum or difference of the two
original frequencies
 Crosstalk
 A signal from one line is picked up by another
 Can occur by electrical coupling between nearby twisted pairs or when microwave
antennas pick up unwanted signals
 Impulse noise
 Caused by external electromagnetic interferences
 Noncontiguous, consisting of irregular pulses or spikes
 Short duration and high amplitude
 Minor annoyance for analog signals but a major source of error in digital data
Channel Capacity
 Data rate
 The rate, in bits per second (bps) at which data can be communicated
 Bandwidth
 The bandwidth of the transmitted signal as constrained by the transmitter and the
nature of the transmission medium, expressed in cycles per second, or hertz
 Noise
 The average level of noise over the communications path
 Error rate
  The rate at which errors occur, where an error is the reception of a 1 when a 0 was
transmitted or the reception of a 0 when a 1 was transmitted

Assignment: Example 3.6 on page 102 for * spectrum of channel is between 5 MHz and 7
MHz.