Chapter 3

Transmission Media

William Stallings, Data and Computer Communications

8th Edition

Arini, ST, MT

Contents
Transmission Media
Overview
Design Factor
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Guided Transmission Media
Twisted Pairs
Coaxial Cable
Optical Fiber

Unguided Transmission
terrestrial microwave transmission
satellite transmission
broadcast radio
infrared

Common Carries

 Transmission Media
Physical path between transmitter and receiver
Guided or unguided (wireless)
Communication is in the form of electromagnetic
waves
Characteristics and quality of data transmission are
determined by characteristics of medium and signal
In guided media, medium characteristics is more
important, whereas in unguided media, signal
characteristics is more important (related to bandwidth
antenna)
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Overview
Guided - wire
Unguided - wireless
Characteristics and quality determined by
medium and signal
For guided, the medium is more important
For unguided, the bandwidth produced by the
antenna is more important
Key concerns are data rate and distance

Design Factors
Bandwidth
Higher bandwidth gives higher data rate

Transmission impairments
Attenuation, Noise, Delay

Interference
Number of receivers
Major factor in guided media : more receivers
(multi-point) introduce more attenuation

Electromagnetic Spectrum

Rentang
Frekuensi

Redaman
Tipikal

Delay
Tipikal

Jarak
Repeater

Twisted pair

0 sd 3.5 kHz

0.2 dB/km @
1 kHz

50 s/km

2 km

Twisted pairs
(multi-pair
cables)

0 sd 1 MHz

0.7 dB/km @
1 kHz

5 s/km

2 km

Coaxial cable

0 sd 500 MHz

7 dB/km @
10 MHz

4 s/km

1 to 9 km

Optical fiber

186 sd 370
THz

0.2 to 0.5
dB/km

5 s/km

40 km

Guided Transmission Media

the transmission capacity depends on the
distance and on whether the medium is
point-to-point or multipoint
e.g.,
Twisted Pair
Coaxial cable
Optical fiber

Twisted Pair
consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a
regular spiral pattern to minimize the electromagnetic
interference between adjacent pairs
often used at customer facilities and also over distances
to carry voice as well as data communications
low frequency transmission medium

Twisted Pair - Applications

Most common medium
Telephone network
Between house and local exchange (subscriber loop)

Within buildings
To private branch exchange (PBX)

For local area networks (LAN)

10Mbps or 100Mbps

10

Twisted Pair - Pros and Cons

Cheap
Easy to done
Low data rate
Short range

11

Twisted Pair - Transmission

Characteristics
Analog
Amplifiers every 5km to 6km

Digital
Use either analog or digital signals
repeater every 2km or 3km

Limited distance
Limited bandwidth (1MHz)
Limited data rate (100MHz) using different
modulation & signaling techniques
Susceptible to interference and noise
12

Unshielded and Shielded TP

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)

Ordinary telephone wire

Cheapest
Easiest to install
Suffers from external electromagnetic interference
(EM)

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

The pair is wrapped with metallic foil or braid to
insulate the pair from electromagnetic interference
More expensive
Harder to handle (thick, heavy)
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UTP Categories
Cat 3
up to 16MHz
Voice grade found in most offices
Twist length of 7.5 cm to 10 cm

Cat 4 (least common)

up to 20 MHz

Cat 5
up to 100MHz
Commonly pre-installed in new office buildings
Twist length 0.6 cm to 0.85 cm

Cat 5E (Enhanced)
Cat 6
Cat 7

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Shielded and Unshielded

Twisted Pair Comparison
Attenuation (dB per 100 m)

Frequency
(MHz)

Category 3
UTP

Category 5
UTP

2.6

2.0

5.6

16

13.1

150-ohm
STP

Near-end Crosstalk (dB)

Category 3
UTP

Category 5
UTP

150-ohm
STP

1.1

41

62

58

4.1

2.2

32

53

58

8.2

4.4

23

44

50.4

25

10.4

6.2

41

47.5

100

22.0

12.3

32

38.5

300

21.4

31.3

Twisted Pair Categories

Category 3
Class C

Category 5
Class D

Bandwidth

16 MHz

100 MHz

Cable Type

UTP

Link Cost
(Cat 5 =1)

0.7

Category
5E

Category 6
Class E

Category 7
Class F

100 MHz

200 MHz

600 MHz

UTP/FTP

UTP/FTP

UTP/FTP

SSTP

1.2

1.5

2.2

Twisted Pair Advantages

inexpensive and readily available
flexible and light weight
easy to handle and install

Twisted Pair Disadvantages

susceptibility to interference and noise
attenuation problem
For analog, repeaters needed every 5-6km
For digital, repeaters needed every 2-3km

relatively low bandwidth

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Coaxial Cable

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Coaxial Cable Applications

Most versatile/flexible medium
Television distribution
Antena - TV
Cable TV

Long distance telephone transmission

Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously
Being replaced by fiber optic

Short distance computer systems links

Local area networks
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Coaxial Cable - Transmission

Characteristics
Analog
Amplifiers every few km
Closer if higher frequency
Up to 500MHz

Digital
Repeater every 1km
Closer for higher data rates

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Coaxial Advantages
higher bandwidth
400 to 600Mhz
up to 10,800 voice conversations

much less susceptible to interference than

twisted pair

Coax Disadvantages
high attenuation rate makes it expensive over
long distance
bulky
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Optical Fiber

22

Optical Fiber - Benefits

Greater capacity
Data rates of hundreds of Gbps

Smaller size & weight

Lower attenuation
Electromagnetic isolation
Greater repeater spacing
10s of km at least

23

Optical Fiber - Applications

Long-haul trunks
Metropolitan trunks
Rural exchange trunks
Subscriber loops
LANs

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Optical Fiber - Transmission

Characteristics
Act as wave guide for 1014 to 1015 Hz
Portions of infrared and visible spectrum

Light :
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Cheaper
Wider operating temp range
Last longer

Injection Laser Diode (ILD)

More efficient
Greater data rate

Detector : PIN and APD Detector

Wavelength Division Multiplexing

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Fiber Optic Types

multimode step-index fiber
the reflective walls of the fiber move the light pulses
to the receiver

multimode graded-index fiber

acts to refract the light toward the center of the fiber
by variations in the density

single mode fiber

the light is guided down the center of an extremely
narrow core

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Optical Fiber Transmission

Modes

27

Fiber Optic Signals

fiber optic multimode
step-index

fiber optic multimode

graded-index

fiber optic single mode

28

Fiber Optic Advantages

greater capacity (bandwidth of up to 2 Gbps)

smaller size and lighter weight
lower attenuation
immunity to environmental interference
highly secure due to tap difficulty and lack of signal
radiation

Fiber Optic Disadvantages

expensive over short distance
requires highly skilled installers
adding additional nodes is difficult

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Unguided/Wireless Transmission
Transmission and reception via antenna
Two techniques are used:
Directional
Focused beam
Careful alignment required

Omnidirectional
Signal spreads in all directions
Can be received by many antennas

30

Frequencies
2GHz to 40GHz
Microwave
Highly directional
Point to point : Satellite

30MHz to 1GHz
Omnidirectional
Broadcast radio

3 x 1011 to 2 x 1014
Infrared
Local
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Wireless Examples

Terrestrial microwave transmission

satellite transmission
broadcast radio
infrared

32

Terrestrial Microwave
uses the radio frequency spectrum, commonly from 2 to
40 Ghz
transmitter is a parabolic dish, mounted as high as
possible
used by common carriers as well as by private networks
requires unobstructed line of sight between source and
receiver
curvature of the earth requires stations (called
repeaters) to be ~30 miles apart
Applications :
long-haul telecommunications service for both voice and television
transmission
short point-to-point links between buildings for closed-circuit TV, LANs
33

Terrestrial Microwave
Transmission Advantages
no cabling needed between sites
wide bandwidth
multichannel transmissions

Terrestrial Microwave
Transmission Disadvantages
line of sight requirement
expensive towers and repeaters
subject to interference such as passing airplanes
and rain

34

Satellite Microwave
a microwave relay station in space
Satellite receives on one frequency, amplifies or repeats
signal and transmits on another frequency
Satellite transmission Link :
earth stations communicate by sending signals to the
satellite on an uplink
the satellite then reply those signals on a downlink
geostationary satellites
remain above the equator at a height of 22,300 miles/35,784km
(geosynchronous orbit)

Applications : the distribution of television programming,

telephone, Internet, Private Business Network (ATM)
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Satellite Transmission Process

satellite
transponder

dish

dish
22,300 miles

uplink station

downlink station
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Satellite Broadcast Link

Satellite Advantages
can reach a large geographical area
high bandwidth
cheaper over long distances

Satellite Disadvantages
high initial cost
susceptible to noise and interference
propagation delay
38

Broadcast Radio

Omnidirectional
FM radio
UHF and VHF television
Requires line of sight
Suffers from multipath interference
Reflections

39

Infrared
Achieved using tranceivers that modulate
noncoherent infrared light
Requires line of sight (or reflection)
Blocked by walls
e.g. TV remote control, Infrared port

40

Common Carriers
a government-regulated private company
involved in the sale of infrastructure services in
transportation and communications
required to serve all clients indiscriminately
services and prices from common carriers are
described in tariffs

41

Leased (or Dedicated) Lines

permanently or semi-permanently connect between
two points
economical in high volume calls between two points
no delay associated with switching times
can assure consistently high-quality connections
voice grade channels
normal telephone lines
in the range of 300 Hertz to 3300 Hertz

conditioning or equalizing
reduces the amount of noise on the line, providing
lower error rates and increased speed for data
communications

42

Integrated Services Digital

Network (ISDN)
all-digital transmission facility that is designed to
replace the analog PSTN
basic ISDN (basic rate access)
two 64Kbps bearer channels + 16Kbps data channel
(2B+D) = 144 Kbps

broadband ISDN (primary rate access)

twenty-three 64Kbps bearer channels + 64 data
channels (23B+D) = 1.536 Mbps
North American standard

30B (64 kbps) + D (64 kbps) = 1.984 Mbps

European standard
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ISDN Channel Definitions

B (bearer) channels
64 kbps channels that may be used to carry voice,
data, facsimile, or image

D (demand) channels
mainly intended for carrying signaling, billing and
management information to control ISDN services
(out-of-band control messages)
may be either 16 or 64 kbps

44

Past Criticism of ISDN

Why so much criticism?
high price of equipment
delay in implementing infrastructure
incompatibility between providers' equipment.

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