1.

Definitions:
Analog Data: The term analog data refers to the information that is continuous.
Digital Data: Digital data refers to the information that has discrete states.
Analog signal: An analog signal is a continuously varying electromagnetic wave
that may be propagated over a variety of media, depending on spectrum.
An analog signal has infinitely many levels of intensity over a period of time. The
frequency level of an analog signal is changes by the time.(DCC)
Digital signal: A digital signal is a sequence of voltage pulses that may be
transmitted over a wire medium.
A digital signal is one in which the signal intensity maintains a constant level for
some period of time and then changes to another constant level.(DCC)
Frequency: Frequency is the rate at which the signal repeats.
Frequency refers to the number of periods in I s.
Period: Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to complete
1 cycle.
Spectrum: The spectrum of a signal is the range of frequencies that it contains.
Bandwidth: The bandwidth of a composite signal, is the difference between the
highest and the lowest frequencies contained in that signal.
Amplitude: The amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of its highest intensity,
proportional to the energy it carries.
Phase: The term phase describes the position of the waveform relative to time o.

2. What are the Transmission Impairments? Explain in brief.

Transmission Impairment
Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect. The imperfection
causes signal impairment. This means that the signal at the beginning of the
medium is not the same as the signal at the end of the medium. What is sent is not
what is received.
The three different causes of impairment are attenuation, distortion, and noise.

Attenuation:
Attenuation means a loss of energy. When a signal, simple or composite, travels
through a medium, it loses some of its energy in overcoming the resistance of the
medium. That is why a wire carrying electric signals gets warm, if not hot, after a
while. Some of the electrical energy in the signal is converted to heat. To
compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the signal. The following
figure shows the effect of attenuation and amplification.

Distortion:
Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape. Distortion can occur in
a composite signal made of different frequencies. Each signal component has its
own propagation speed (see the next section) through a medium and, therefore, its
own delay in arriving at the final destination. Differences in delay may create a
difference in phase if the delay is not exactly the same as the period duration. In
other words, signal components at the receiver have phases different from what
they had at the sender. The shape of the composite signal is therefore not the
same. The following figure shows the effect of distortion on a composite signal.
Noise:
Noise is another cause of impairment. Several types of noise, such as thermal
noise, induced noise, crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the signal. Thermal
noise is the random motion of electrons in a wire which creates an extra signal not
originally sent by the transmitter. Induced noise comes from sources such as
motors and appliances.

These devices act as a sending antenna, and the transmission medium acts as the
receiving antenna. Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other. One wire acts as
a sending antenna and the other as the receiving antenna. Impulse noise is a spike
(a signal with high energy in a very short time) that comes from power lines,
lightning, and so on. The following figure shows the effect of noise on a signal.
3. What is the Channel Capacity?

Channel capacity: The rate at which data can be transmitted over a given
communication path or channel, under given conditions, is referred to as the
channel capacity.

There are four concepts those are related to channel capacity:

Data rate: The rate, in bits per second, at which data can be communicated.

Bandwidth: The bandwidth of the transmitted signal is constraint by the

transmitter and the nature of the transmission medium. It can be expressed as
cycle per second or Hertz(Hz).

Noise: The average level of noise over the communication 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.
4. Define Nyquist Bandwidth formula.

Nyquist Bandwidth formula: If the channel is noise free the limitation of data
rate is simply the bandwidth of a signal. A formulation of this limitation due to
Nyquist states that,

“If the rate of signal transmission is 2W, then a signal with frequencies no greater
than W, is sufficient to carry the data rate. The converse is also true.”

Given a bandwidth of W, the highest signal rate that can be carried is 2W. With
multilevel signaling the Nquist formulation becomes,

Here,

M = Number of discrete signal

C = Channel capacity

W = Bandwidth of channel

5. What is the Shanon Capacity formula?

Shanon capacity formula: Shanon formula indicates that the maximum channel
capacity in bits per second obeys a equation that is,

C = B * log2(1+ S/N)
where C is the achievable channel capacity, B is the bandwidth of the line, S is the
average signal power and N is the average noise power.

The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) is usually expressed in decibels (dB) given by the
formula:

10 * log10(S/N)

so for example a signal-to-noise ratio of 1000 is commonly expressed as

10 * log10(1000) = 30 dB

6. What is transmission media? Describe different types of transmission

media.

Transmission Media: In a data transmission system, the transmission medium

is the physical path between transmitter and receiver.
Two types of transmission media are:

1. Guided Transmission Media

2. Wireless Transmission

Guided Transmission Media: When the transmission is done between the source
and destination through a physical link, is called guided media and this transmission
is called guided transmission.

There are three types of guided media:

i.Twisted Pair: The least expensive and most widely used guided transmission
medium is twisted pair.

Physical description: A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires

arranged in a regular spiral pattern. A wire pair acts as a single communication link.
Typically, a number of these pairs are bundled together into a cable by wrapping
them in a tough protective sheath. Over longer distances, cables may contain
hundreds of pairs.

Application:

1. It can use to transmit both analog and digital signals.

2. Most commonly used medium in the telephone network and is the workhorse
for communications within buildings.
3. It is the most common medium used for digital signaling.
4. Used within a building for local area networks supporting personal
computers.
5. It is much less expensive than the other commonly used guided
transmission media (coaxial cable, optical fiber) and is easier to work with.

Transmission Characteristics:

Twisted pair may be used to transmit both analog and digital transmission. For
analog signals, amplifiers are required about every 5 to 6 km. For digital
transmission (using either analog or digital signals), repeaters are required every 2
or 3 km.
Two types of twisted pair is Unshielded and Shielded Twisted Pair.

2.Coaxial Cable:

Physical Description: Coaxial cable, like twisted pair, consists of two conductors,
but is constructed differently to permit it to operate over a wider range of
frequencies. It consists of a hollow outer cylindrical conductor that surrounds a
single inner wire conductor. The inner conductor is held in place by either regularly
spaced insulating rings or a solid dielectric material. The outer conductor is covered
with a jacket or shield.

Applications: Coaxial cable is a versatile transmission medium, used in a wide

variety of applications. The most important of these are
• Television distribution
• Long-distance telephone transmission
• Short-run computer system links
• Local area networks
Transmission Characteristics: Coaxial cable is used to transmit both analog
and digital signals. Coaxial cable has frequency characteristics that are superior to
those of twisted pair and can hence be used effectively at higher frequencies and
data rates. Because of its shielded, concentric construction, coaxial cable is much
less susceptible to interference and crosstalk than twisted pair. The principal
constraints on performance are attenuation, thermal noise, and intermodulation
noise. The latter is present only when several channels (FDM) or frequency bands
are in use on the cable.

3.Optical Fiber:

Physical Description: An optical fiber is a thin (2 to ), flexible medium

capable of guiding an optical ray. Various glasses and plastics can be used to make
optical fibers. The using fiber is ultrapure silica. Ultrapure fiber is difficult to
manufacture. An optical fiber cable has a cylindrical shape and consists of three
concentric section: 1. Core 2. Cladding 3. Jacket.

Application:

i. Greater capacity
ii. Smaller size and lighter weight
iii. Lower attenuation
iv. Electromagnetic isolation
v. Greater reapeter spacing

Transmission characteristics: Optical fiber systems operate in the range of

about 1014 to 1015 Hz. This covers portions of the infrareds and the visible
spectrums. The principle of optical fiber transmission is as follows. Light from a
source enters the cylindrical glass or plastic core. Rays at shallow angles are
reflected and propagated along the fiber. Other rays are absorbed by the
surrounding materials.

Wireless Transmission/Unguided Transmission Media: Unguided media

transports electromagnetic waves without using a physical conductor. This types
of communication is often referred to as wireless communication.

Signals are normally broadcast through free space and thus are available to
anyone who has a device capable of receiving them.

There are three types of unguided media:

1.Terrestrial Microwave:

Physical Description: The most common type of microwave antenna is the

parabolic “dish.”A typical size is about 3 m in diameter. The antenna is fixed
rigidly and focuses a narrow beam to achieve line-of-sight transmission to the
receiving antenna. Microwave antennas are usually located at substantial
heights above ground level to extend the range between antennas and to be
able to transmit over intervening obstacles.
Application:

i. The primary use for terrestrial microwave systems is in long-haul

telecommunications service, as an alternative to coaxial cable or optical
fiber.
ii. Another increasingly common use of microwave is for short point-to-point
links between buildings.
iii. Another important use of microwave is in cellular systems.

Transmission characteristics: Microwave transmission covers a substantial

portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Common frequencies used for
transmission are in the range 1 to 40 GHz. The higher the frequency used, the
higher the potential bandwidth and therefore the higher the potential data rate.

2.Satellite Microwave:

Physical Description: A communication satellite is, in effect, a microwave

relay station. It is used to link two or more ground-based microwave
transmitter/receivers, known as earth stations, or ground stations. The satellite
receives transmissions on one frequency band (uplink), amplifies or repeats the
signal, and transmits it on another frequency (downlink). A single orbiting
satellite will operate on a number of frequency bands, called transponder
channels, or simply transponders.

Application:

• Television distribution
• Long-distance telephone transmission
• Private business networks
• Global positioning

Transmission characteristics: The optimum frequency range for satellite

transmission is in the range 1 to 10 GHz. Below 1 GHz, there is significant noise
from natural sources, including galactic, solar, and atmospheric noise, and
human made interference from various electronic devices. Above 10 GHz, the
signal is severely attenuated by atmospheric absorption and precipitation.

3.Broadcast Radio:
Physical Description: The principal difference between broadcast radio and
microwave is that the former is omni directional and the latter is directional.
Thus broadcast radio does not require dish-shaped antennas, and the antennas
need not be rigidly mounted to a precise alignment.

Applications: Radio is a general term used to encompass frequencies in the

range of 3 kHz to 300 GHz. We are using the informal term broadcast radio to
cover the VHF and part of the UHF band: 30 MHz to 1 GHz. This range covers FM
radio and UHF and VHF television. This range is also used for a number of data
networking applications.
 Transmission Characteristics: The range 30 MHz to 1 GHz is an effective one
for broadcast communications. Unlike the case for lower-frequency
electromagnetic waves, the ionosphere is transparent to radio waves above 30
MHz.

7. Describe VSAT configuration.

VSAT configuration: VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal and refers
to receive/transmit terminals installed at dispersed sites connecting to a central
hub via satellite using small diameter antenna dishes (0.6 to 3.8 meter).
Traditionally, the satellite is a radio relay station that receives, amplifies and
redirects analog and digital signals contained within a carrier frequency. These
signals contain data, voice, and video communications. VSAT systems can be
configured for bi-directional or receive-only operation. In bi-directional
operation, the dish both sends (uplinks) and receives (downlinks) the
information for use in LANs.

8. Describe Infrared.

Infrared: Infrared communications is achieved using transmitter/receivers

(transceivers) that modulate non coherent infrared light. Transceivers must be
in line of sight of each other, either directly or via reflection from a light colored
surface such as the ceiling of the room. Infrared waves, with frequencies from
300 GHz to 400 GHz, can be used for short range communications. It has high
frequencies, cannot penetrate walls. One important difference between infrared
and microwave transmission is that the former does not penetrate wall.
9. Describe Electromagnetic Spectrum.

Electromagnetic Spectrum: The electromagnetic spectrum is a continuum of

allelectromagnetic waves arranged according to frequency and wavelength.