BICOL STATE COLLEGE OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
College of Engineering and Architecture
Data Communications
III. TRANSMISSION MEDIA
The Physical Layer Fundamentals
1. Bit Rate
 number of bits sent in 1s (bps)
 used to describe digital signal
Example:
1) What is the required bit rate of a channel to
download text documents at the rate of 100 pages
per minute? (Assume that a page has an average of
24 lines with 80 characters in each line, and 8 bits for
each character)
1.636 Mbps
2) What is the required bit rate for digitized voice
channel if a 4-kHz bandwidth analog voice signal is
digitize by sampling the signal at twice the highest
frequency (2 samples per hertz). Assume that 8-bits
are required for each sample.
64 kbps
3) What is the bit rate for high-definition TV (HDTV)?
for HDTV:
aspect ratio – 16 : 9
resolution – 1920 x 1080
frame rate: 30 fps
Assume that each color pixel requires 24-bits.
approx. 1.5 Gbps (without compression) ans.
2. Bit Length – distance one bit occupies on the
transmission medium
𝐁𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡 = 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐱 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
3. Digital Signal Transmission
 Baseband Transmission – sending signal over a
channel without modulation or without digital-to-
analog signal conversion.
“a digital signal is a composite analog signal with an
infinite bandwidth”
 Broadband Transmission – sending a modulated
signal (digital-to-analog) over a channel.
4. Data Rate Limits
Three factors that affect the data rate:
 bandwidth available
 level of signals used
 quality of the channel (level of noise)
Instructor: Engr. Dominic P. Bolima
To compute the theoretical data rate:
Nyquist Bit Rate
𝐵𝑖𝑡𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 2 𝑥 𝐵𝑊 𝑥 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝐿 (𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙)
where:
BW = channel bandwidth
L = number of signal levels used to represent data
BitRate = bit rate, bps
Example: What is the maximum bit rate of a noiseless
channel with a bandwidth of 3 kHz when a signal is
transmitted with two signal levels? 6 kbps. ans.
ans. Shannon Capacity
𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 𝐵𝑊 𝑥 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 (1 + 𝑆𝑁𝑅)
where:
SNR = signal − to − noise ratio
Capacity = channel capacity in bps
ans. Example: What is the theoretical highest bit rate of a
regular telephone line with 3 kHz – bandwidth. The
SNR is 3162. 34.881 kbps ans.
5. Performance of the Network
 Bandwidth in Hertz – the range of frequencies a
channel can pass or contained in a composite
signal
 Badnwidth in Bits per Seconds – number of bits that
a channel or network can transmit for each
second
 Throughput – the measure of the actual rate of
data transfer through a network
Example: A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps
can pass only an average of 10,000 frames per
minute with each frame carrying an average of
10,000 bits. What is the throughput of this
network? 2 Mbps. ans.
 Latency (Delay) – the time it takes for an entire
message to completely arrive at the destination
from the time the first bit is sent out form the source
𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 = 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
+ 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑢𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
 Bandwidth-Delay Product – the number of bits that
can fill the link
 Jitter – the difference in packets delays
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 BICOL STATE COLLEGE OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
College of Engineering and Architecture
Data Communications Instructor: Engr. Dominic P. Bolima

TRANSMISSION MEDIUM  Categories of UTP Cables

is anything that can carry information from a
source to a destination such as free space, metallic
cable or fiber-optic cable.

Classes of Transmission Media

EIA developed the standards to classify UTP cable into

seven categories – with 1 as the lowest and 7 as the
highest.

 The most common UTP connector is RJ45

1. Guided Media – those that provide a conduit from one
device to another
 Twisted-Pair Cable
 consists of two conductors, each with its own
plastic insulation

 UTP Performance

 the two conductors are twisted together to cancel

out noise and reduce crosstalk
 UTP (unshielded twisted-pair)

 STP (shielded twisted-pair) – with metal foil or

braided mesh covering to improve the noise and
crosstalk reduction

 Used in telephone lines to provide voice and data

channels, DSL lines for high-data rate, and LANs

10BaseT and 100BaseT or Twisted-Pair Ethernet

o data rate of 10 and 100 Mbps
o uses 2-pair UTP
o uses star topology
o maximum length of 100 m

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 BICOL STATE COLLEGE OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
College of Engineering and Architecture
Data Communications Instructor: Engr. Dominic P. Bolima

 Coaxial Cable  Microwaves

 higher frequency of operation, bandwidth, and
attenuation than twisted-pairs
 categorized according to RG (radio government)
ratings
 frequencies 1 GHz – 300 GHz
 unidirectional and line-of-sight
 uses parabolic dish or horn
 used in cellular, satellite and Wireless LANs

 Infrared
 frequencies 300 GHz – 400 THz
 short-ranged and line-of-sight communication

10Base5 or Thick Ethernet or Thicknet

o data rate up to 10 Mbps
o uses thick coaxial cable
o uses bus topology
o maximum length of 500 m

10Base2 or Thick Ethernet

o data rate up to 10 Mbps
o uses thin coaxial cable
o uses bus topology
o maximum length of 185 m (approx. 200 m)

 Fiber-Optic Cable
 attenuation is lesser than in twisted-pair and
coaxial cables
 with much higher bandwidth and data rate up to
1600 Gbps
 immune to electromagnetic interference
 resistive to corrosion
 lighter weight
 greater immunity to tapping
 costly, more complex installation and
maintenance, and unidirectional

10Base-F or Fiber Ethernet

o data rate up to 10 Mbps
o uses 2 fibers
o uses star topology
o maximum length of 2000 m

2. Unguided Media (Wireless Communication) – transport

electromagnetic waves without using a physical
conductor.

 Radio Waves
 frequencies 3 kHz – 1 GHz
 uses omnidirectional antenna
 used in AM and FM

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