Transmission Media

Transmission is the process of transporting information between end points of a system or network. Transmission systems may use copper cable, optical cable, or radio channels to interconnect far-end and near-end equipment.

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Transmission Media
Guided
Twisted Pair Cable Fiber Medium more important than the signal

Unguided
Atmosphere Outer Space Signal more important than the medium
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Spectrum for telecommunications

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Twisted Pair
Two insulated copper wires in a spiral Number of pairs are bundled together Twisting decreases crosstalk Most common form for analog and digital Used in telephone system Subscriber loops From a persons home to the local office of the phone company LANS 10Mbps with newer at 100Mbps

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Twisted pair
Long Distance
4 Mbps ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

Digital
Repeaters required every 2 3 kilometers

Analog
Amplifiers required every 5-6 kilometers Bandwidth of 250KHz, carry a few voice channels

Susceptible to noise, shielded (STP) and unshielded (UTP). Compared to optical and coax twisted pair is limited in bandwidth, distance, and data rate
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Parallel lines are often used as part of antenna arrays. Ordinary television twinlead, is an example of a parallel transmission line; Figure (a). Parallel lines can be shielded to reduce interference problems, as illustrated 6 in Figure (b).

Coaxial Cable
Hollow outer cylindrical conductor surrounding a single view Most versatile of mediums, used for TV, long distance telephone,and LANS

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Coaxial Cable
Part of long distance telephone network With FDM can carry over 10,000 voice channels Transmits both analog and digital signals Frequency characteristics superior to twisted pair Less susceptible to noise For long distance Amplifiers needed every few kilometers Repeaters needed every kilometer or so

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Coaxial Cable Applications

For coaxial cable, the characteristic impedance is given by:

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Optical fiber
Thin, flexible light passing material made from glass or plastic Grouped into cables

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Optical fiber
Better than coaxial cable or twisted pair Data rates of 2Gbps over 10s of Km Light weight good for buildings Lower attenuation than coax or twisted Not effected by extreme electromagnetic fields Crosstalk and impulse Very difficult to tap good security Applications Long Haul trunks, metro trunks, rural exchange trunks, more recently beginning to displace twisted pair in subscriber loops and in LANS

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Optical Fiber
Operates in range 1014 to 1015 Hz Infrared and visible spectrum Multimode Variety of angles of light will reflect and propagate Single Mode Radius of the core = order of a wavelength Only single angle passes Superior performance Two different light sources both emit light when voltage applied LED Light Emitting Diode less costly, longer life ILD - Injection Laser Diode greater data rate
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Wireless
Antennae Directional Focused EM beam The higher frequency the more focused Omnidirectional Lower frequency Spreads out to multiple receivers Three ranges of frequencies 26GHz 40GHz --- microwave 30 MHz 1GHz --- broadcast radio 3x10**11 to 2x10**14 Hz --- infrared
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Terrestrial Microwave
Parabolic dish Narrow beam line of sight on towers to avoid obstacles Series of towers for long distance Applications: Long haul telephone Voice and TV Short point to point between buildings Main Source of loss Attentuation especially with rainful Repeaters or amplifiers 10 to 100km Interference with overlapping bands
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Satellite Microwave
It is essentially a microwave relay station Uplink Receives transmission on one frequency Downlink Transmits on a second frequency Operates on a number of frequency bands known as transponders Point to Point Ground station to satellite to ground station Multipoint Ground station to satellite to multiple receiving stations 11/1/2010

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Satellite Microwave
Satellite orbit 35,784 Km, to match earth rotation Stays fixed above the transmitter/receiver station as earth rotates Satellites need to be separated by distance Avoid interference Applications TV, long distance telephone, private business networks Optimum frequency range 1 10 GHz Below 1GHz results in noise, above 10GHz results in severe attenuation
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Broadcast Radio
Omnidirectional unlike satellite Does not require dish like antennae Frequency range Radio - 3kHz to 300Ghz Broadcast radio 30MHz to 1GHz Broadcast radio Transmission limited to line of sight Less sensitive to attenuation from rainfall than microwave Prime source of interference is multipath

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Infrared
Tranceivers must be within line of sight of each other or via reflection Does not penetrate walls like microwave No frequency allocation or licensing

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Transmission Equipment in the Network

Many different systems are needed in the telecommunications network to transmit signals via various different channels. We review the most common transmission devices or systems in this section, such as:
Modems Terminal Multiplexers Add/Drop Multiplexers Digital Cross-Connect Systems Regenerators or Intermediate Repeaters Optical Line Systems WDM

Optical Amplifiers Microwave Relay Systems

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Figure :Transmission equipment and system topology

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Modems
A modem is a piece of equipment that includes a modulator and demodulator. Modems are used to transmit digital signals over an analog channel. The microwave radio systems are sometimes also called modems because they send digital information over a microwave radio link, and in order to do this, they also carry out modulation and demodulation processes.
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Terminal Multiplexers
Terminal multiplexers (TMs) or multiplexers combine digital signals to make up a higher bit rate for highcapacity transmission. The digital multiplexing hierarchies in use are PDH and SDH, which are replacing older generation PDH systems.
PDH : Plesiochronous Digital

Next generation Ethernet over SDH

Hierarchy. SDH : Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
Terminal Node
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Add/Drop Multiplexers
The add/drop multiplexers are used in these configurations to take out (drop) some channels from the high-rate data stream and add or insert other channels into it. A transmission system in the network may be just a point-to-point system or it may be built as a chain or as a ring system. These configurations make efficient use of the high system capacity feasible when only a small fraction of the total transmission capacity is needed on each equipment site.
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Digital Cross-Connect Systems

The digital cross-connect (DXC) systems are network nodes that can rearrange channels in data streams. The basic functionality of DXC is the same as the functionality of digital exchanges that establish speech or ISDN connections. They make the network configuration of the transmission network flexible, because, with the help of these nodes, a network operator is able to control actual transmission paths in the network remotely from the network management center.
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Regenerators or Intermediate Repeaters

Intermediate repeaters are needed if the communication distance is very long. They amplify an attenuated signal and regenerate the digital signal into its original form and transmit it further.

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Optical Line Systems

Optical line systems contain two terminal repeaters at each end of the fiber. They convert an electrical digital signal into an optical one and vice versa.

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WDM (wavelength-division multiplexing)

WDM has become popular and it can increase fiber capacity by a factor from 10 to 100.

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Optical Amplifiers
The section length of a long-haul optical system from optical transmitter to receiver is limited to some tens of kilometers depending on the transmission data rate although attenuation of a fiber is quite low. There are many different optical amplifiers, but erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) in particular have become popular in long-distance transmissions of high-capacity DWDM signals.
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Microwave Relay Systems

Microwave radio relay systems usually operate at radio frequencies in the range from 1 to 40 GHz. These frequencies are focused with parabolic dish antennas and applicable communication distances range from a few kilometers up to approximately 50 km depending on the frequency in use and the characteristics of the system.

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Tugas :
1. Explain how the radio wave propagation modes differ at (a) low-frequency, (b) medium frequency, and (c) and ultra high frequency bands. 2. What is SDH and what advantages does it provide over PDH? 3. What are the advantages of (a) optical transmission, (b) microwave radio transmission, and (c) satellite transmission? Compare their characteristics.
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