Important Concepts at the

Physical Layer

2-1

Transmission Media

2- 2

Various Characteristics
Guided media v.s. unguided media
E.g., twisted pair v.s. air

Point-to-point v.s. multipoint link

E.g., A cross-over Ethernet cable connecting
two PCs v.s. an Ethernet coaxial cable
connecting multiple PCs

Full-duplex v.s. half-duplex v.s. simplex

E.g., Ethernet v.s. Ethernet v.s. ?
2- 3

Transmission Signal

2- 4

A Signal Is Made of Many Frequencies

2- 5

A Signal Can Be Expressed in the

Frequency Domain
f
3f

4/[sin(2ft) + (1/3)sin(2(3f)t)]
2- 6

Frequency, Spectrum, Bandwidth

The spectrum of a signal
The range of frequencies that
it contains. (can be infinite.)

The absolute bandwidth of

a signal

f
3f

The width of the spectrum

The (effective) bandwidth

of a signal
The band of frequencies
where most of the energy of
the signal is contained.

BW = 3f f = 2f
2- 7

 For a given data

rate (bits/sec), if we
are willing to use
more bandwidth to
send a signal, its
quality at the receiver
will be better, and the
receiver can thus
more correctly
interpret the
transmitted bits.
There is a trade-off between BW and BER.2- 8

Link Bandwidth v.s. Signal Bandwidth

When people say that the bandwidth of a
link is 100 Mbps, what they mean is that the
transmission links characteristics can only
allow frequencies that are below 100Mbps
to effectively propagate.
Do not be confused with the bandwidth of a
signal.

2- 9

Transmission Impairments Limit a

Links Bandwidth
Attenuation and attenuation distortion
Different frequency components are attenuated
at different factors.

2- 10

Delay distortion
Different frequency components are delayed at
different factors.

2- 11

Noise
Thermal, impulse, crosstalk, etc.

2- 12

Multipath interference (wireless broadcast)

The same signal may be reflected and
propagated along multiple different paths.
These signals may take different times to
arrive at the receiver. (delay distortion)
When they arrive at the receiver, their signal
strengths may vary a lot. (attenuation distortion)

2- 13

Channel Capacity
Data rate, bandwidth, noise, and error rate are
closely related.
Nyquist bandwidth
C = B log2(M), M is the number of discrete
signals or voltage levels.

Shannon capacity
C = B log2( 1 + SNR), SNR is signal to noise ratio
(SNR)db = 10 log10 (signal power/noise power)
2- 14

Some Facts
The higher the data rate of a signal, the
greater is its effective bandwidth.
The higher the bandwidth of signal, the
higher link bandwidth is required to
correctly receive and interpret the signal.
The higher the date rate of a signal, the
greater is its BER (bit error rate).

2- 15

Data Encoding

2- 16

The Four Different Applications Are

All Possible
Digital data -> digital signal
E.g. Ethernet (our focus)

Digital data -> analog signal

E.g., Modem

Analog data -> digital signal

Voice/Video over IP

Analog data -> analog signal

E.g. AM/FM

2- 17

Metrics for Data Encoding Schemes

Required bandwidth
A lack of high-frequency components means that less
bandwidth is required for transmission.
Clocking
The transmitter and receivers clocks need to be
precisely synchronized.
Error detection
Is it easy to detect an error?
Noise immunity
Is the code robust to errors?
Cost and complexity
Is the code easy to implement?
2- 18

802.3 Ethernet
802.5 token ring
2- 19

No way to know when a string of bits has started or

ended if a string of 0s is transmitted.

2- 20

The Advantages and Disadvantages of

Manchester Encoding
Advantages:
Synchronization is embedded in the signal
No DC component
No physical attachment is needed. Only AC coupling is needed.
Provide better electrical isolation.
Easier error detection
If there is no transition in a bit time, there is an error.
Higher noise immunity
To invert a bit is harder. You need to precisely invert the first and
second half of a bit signal.

Disadvantage:
Require higher bandwidth
In every bit time, there is a transition.
Therefore, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet do not use
2- 21
this scheme.

Digital to
Analog
Modulation
Schemes

2- 22

Analog to
Analog
Modulation
Schemes
Why do we use a
modulation scheme to
transmit an analog signal?

2- 23

Propagation Delay

2- 24

Propagation Delay Cannot be Improved

Propagation delay is the time a signal takes to
travel from one end to the other end of a
transmission link.
Propagation delay cannot be shortened.
Unless you can find something that goes faster than the
light!
In contrast, the link bandwidth has been improved
(increased) a lot to 10^12 bit/sec.

Propagation delay thus is the performance

bottleneck of some distributed systems and control
mechanisms (e.g. congestion control or shower
temperature control)

2- 25

Propagation Delay Has Nothing to

Do With Bandwidth
No matter whether we use 10 Mbps Ethernet, 100
Mbps Fast Ethernet, or 1000 Mbps Gigabit
Ethernet, the propagation delay from Taiwan to
the U.S. are all the same.
In 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet, bits are
transmitted denser than in 10 Mbps Ethernet.
However, they do not arrive at the receiver
quicker!
2- 26

Data Transmission Time + Signal

Propagation Delay
For a piece of data to arrive at the receiver, the
total time needed is:
The transmission time of the data on the link + the
signal propagation delay of the link
Why?
We need the data transmission time to put the last bit of
the data onto the link.
Then the last bit needs the link propagation delay to reach
the receiver.
Only at that time, the whole piece of data can be picked
up by the receiver.
2- 27