Physical Aspects

Concepts and Terminology

Transmission Terminology

Transmission medium - the medium over which communication occurs Guided Media - electromagnetic waves of transmission are guided along a physical path (wires, cables.) (2x108m/s) Unguided Media - no physical guide (air, vacuum, seawater) (Speed of light, i.e. 3x108m/s) Direct Link- a transmission path between two devices in which signals propagate directly from transmitter of one to receiver of the other with no intermediate devices (other than amplifiers/repeaters)

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1CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects

Point-to-point - if direct link is shared between only two devices Multipoint - if direct link shared between multiple devices Simplex- one way transmission (commercial radio/TV) Half-duplex - one way transmission at a time, endpoints take turns Full-Duplex - simultaneous two way transmission NOTE: These are US (ANSI) definitions, in Europe (CCITT) simplex refers to half-duplex and duplex to full-duplex

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2CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects

Frequency, Spectrum and Bandwidth

Time domain (examining the signal over time):

n n

n n

Continuous signal - a signal that has no breaks or discontinuities Discrete signal - a signal that takes on only a finite number of values Periodic signal - one which repeats after a period T Amplitude - the instantaneous value of a signal at any time, s(t) -volts Frequency - inverse of the period (1/T) in cycles per second, Hertz, Hz Phase - measure of relative position in time within a single period

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3CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects

Frequency Domain (signal viewed as a function of frequency):

n

n n

n n

if all components are integer multiples of one frequency, that frequency is the fundamental frequency the period of total signal is period of fundamental frequency using Fourier analysis, any signal is made up of components at various frequencies, each of which is a sinusoid, defined by S(f) Spectrum- the range of frequencies in a signal Absolute bandwidth - is the width of the spectrum (fn - f1) where fn is largest frequency in signal and f1 is the smallest Effective bandwidth (bandwidth) - width of spectrum containing most of the energy in the signal DC component- component of the signal of zero frequency

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4CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects
u

Basics

periodic signal s(t + T) = s(t) general wave s (t ) = A sin(2pft + F )

amplitude frequency phase

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5CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects
u

Periodic signals

Sta97 fig 2.3

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6CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects
Sta97 fig 2.4

A sin(2pft + f)
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Physical Aspects
u

How does one represent a signal

example s (t ) = sin( 2pf1t ) + 1 3 sin( 2pf 2t ) add 2 frequencies frequency spectrum

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8CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

What does it take?

u

Want is a square wave?

What frequency components are digital signals composed of? How many components do I need to recreate a square wave? What is a realistic spectrum? Where is the main energy of the signal? This is a representation of a square wave with amplitude A:

s( t ) =

A4 1 sin(2pkft ) p k odd ,k =1 k
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Physical Aspects
u

Limited Bandwidth

Fourier Analysis
n =1 n =1

v (t ) = a0 + an cos nw0t + bn sin nw0t

a0 = an = bn =

1 v (t )dt T 0 2 v (t ) cos(nw0t )dt T 0 2 v (t ) sin(nw0t )dt T 0

v (t ) = voltage as a function of time w0 = fundamental frequency component in radians / second f 0 = fundamental frequency in Hz T = 1 f 0 = period in seconds
T T

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10CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3

Physical Aspects
u

Limited Bandwidth (cont.)

Unipolar
v (t ) = V 2V 1 1 + {cosw0t - cos 3w0t + cos 5w0t -...} 2 p 3 5

Bipolar
v (t ) = 4V 1 1 {cosw0t - cos 3w0t + cos 5w0t -...} p 3 5

How much bandwidth do we need? What are the trade-offs if we compromise bandwidth?

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11CS420/520: Data Communications, Lecture 3