TRANSMISSION MEDIA

The means through which data is transformed from one place to another is called transmission or
communication media. There are two categories of transmission media used in computer
communications.

 BOUNDED/GUIDED MEDIA
 UNBOUNDED/UNGUIDED MEDIA

1. BOUNDED MEDIA:

Bounded media are the physical links through which signals are confined to narrow path. These
are also called guide media. One of the key elements that determine bandwidth is the physical
nature of the cable being used. A signal becomes weaker and dies down eventually the longer it
travels along a cable. Therefore the length of cable determines the bandwidth of the link. For
instance the bandwidth of broadband DSL connection to the home is determined by the length of
copper cable between the house and the nearest telephone exchange.

Bounded media are made up o a external conductor (Usually Copper) bounded by jacket
material. Bounded media are great for LABS because they offer high speed, good security and
low cast. However, some time they cannot be used due distance communication. Three common
types of bounded media are used of the data transmission. These are

 Coaxial Cable
 Twisted Pairs Cable
 Fiber Optics Cable


COAXIAL CABLE:

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Coaxial cable consists of a solid copper core surrounded by insulation which is then surrounded
by a copper shielding and finally covered with a plastic sheath. Coaxial cable is widely used for
television wiring as it has enough bandwidth to handle a television signal over a typical run from
antenna to television. Computer networks also use coaxial cable with a bandwidth of 10Mbps.
But for high speed networks (100 Mbps and above) coax cable is no longer sufficient.

Coaxial cable is very common & widely used commutation media. For example TV wire is
usually coaxial.

Coaxial cable gets its name because it contains two conductors that are parallel to each other.
The center conductor in the cable is usually copper. The copper can be either a solid wire or
stranded martial.

Outside this central Conductor is a non-conductive material. It is usually white, plastic material
used to separate the inner Conductor form the outer Conductor. The other Conductor is a fine
mesh made from Copper. It is used to help shield the cable form EMI.

Outside the copper mesh is the final protective cover. (as shown in Fig)

The actual data travels through the center conductor in the cable. EMI interference is caught by
outer copper mesh. There are different types of coaxial cable vary by gauge & impedance.

Gauge is the measure of the cable thickness. It is measured by the Radio grade measurement, or
RG number. The high the RG number, the thinner the central conductor core, the lower the
number the thicker the core.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COAXIAL CABLE

 Low cost
 Easy to install
 Up to 10Mbps capacity
 Medium immunity from EMI
 Medium of attenuation

ADVANTAGES COAXIAL CABLE

 Inexpensive
 Easy to wire
 Easy to expand
 Moderate level of EMI immunity

DISADVANTAGE COAXIAL CABLE

 Single cable failure can take down an entire network

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Twisted Pair Cable

Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors (wires) are twisted together for
the purposes of cancelling out electromagnetic interference from external sources or other
twisted pairs. It was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Twisted pair is used to gain enough
bandwidth higher than coax cable.

The most popular network cabling is Twisted pair. It is light weight, easy to install, inexpensive
and support many different types of network. It also supports the speed of 100 mps. Twisted pair
cabling is made of pairs of solid or stranded copper twisted along each other. The twists are done
to reduce vulnerably to EMI and cross talk. The number of pairs in the cable depends on the
type. The copper core is usually 22-AWG or 24-AWG, as measured on the American wire
gauge standard. There are two types of twisted pairs cabling

1. Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

2. Shielded twisted pair (STP)

1. Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

Unshielded twisted pair or UTP cables are found in many local area networks and telephone
systems. A typical subset of these colours (white/blue, blue/white, white/orange, orange/white)
shows up in most UTP cables as shown above.

UTP cable is the most common cable used in computer networking and is often used in LAN because
of its relatively lower costs compared to optical fibre and coaxial cable. UTP is also finding
increasing use in video applications, primarily in security cameras.

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UTP is more common. It can be either voice grade or data grade depending on the condition.
UTP cable normally has an impedance of 100 ohm. UTP cost less than STP and easily available
due to its many use. There are five levels of data cabling

Category 1

These are used in telephone lines and low speed data cable.

Category 2

These cables can support up to 4 mps implementation.

Category 3

These cable supports up to 16 mps and are mostly used in 10 mps.

Category 4

These are used for large distance and high speed. It can support 20mps.

Category 5

This is the highest rating for UTP cable and can support up to 100mps.

UTP cables consist of 2 or 4 pairs of twisted cable. Cable with 2 pair use RJ-11(mostly for
Telephone Line) connector and 4 pair cable use RJ-45 connector.

Characteristics of UTP

 low cost
 easy to install
 High speed capacity
 High attenuation
 Effective to EMI
 100 meter limit

Advantages of UTP

 Easy installation
 Capable of high speed for LAN
 Low cost

Disadvantages of UTP

 Short distance due to attenuation

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2. Shielded twisted pair (STP)

Shielded twisted pair (STP) cables are often copper shielded in an attempt to prevent
electromagnetic interference and so allow bandwidth to be higher for any given length. This
shielding can be applied to individual pairs, to the collection of pairs or both.

It is similar to UTP but has a mesh shielding that’s protects it from EMI which allows for higher
transmission rate.

IBM has defined category for STP cable.

Type 1

STP features two pairs of 22-AWG

Type 2

This type include type 1 with 4 telephone pairs

Type 6

This type feature two pairs of standard shielded 26-AWG

Type 7

This type of STP consist of 1 pair of standard shielded 26-AWG

Type 9

This type consist of shielded 26-AWG wire

Characteristics of STP
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  Medium cost
 Easy to install
 Higher capacity than UTP
 Higher attenuation, but same as UTP
 Medium immunity from EMI
 100 meter limit

Advantages of STP:

 Shielded
 Faster than UTP and coaxial

Disadvantages of STP:

 More expensive than UTP and coaxial

 More difficult installation
 High attenuation rate

Fiber Optics

Fibre optics is a technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibres) to transmit data. A fibre
optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting
messages modulated onto light waves.

Fibre optics is a particularly popular technology for local-area networks. In addition, telephone
companies are steadily replacing traditional telephone lines with fibre optic cables. In the future,
almost all communications will employ fibre optics.

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Fiber optic cable uses electrical signals to transmit data. It uses light. In fiber optic cable light
only moves in one direction for two way communication to take place a second connection must
be made between the two devices. It is actually two stands of cable. Each stand is responsible for
one direction of communication. A laser at one device sends pulse of light through this cable to
other device. These pulses translated into “1’s” and “0’s” at the other end.

In the center of fiber cable is a glass stand or core. The light from the laser moves through this
glass to the other device around the internal core is a reflective material known as CLADDING.
No light escapes the glass core because of this reflective cladding.

Fiber optic cable has bandwidth more than 2 gbps (Gigabytes per Second)

Characteristics Of Fiber Optic Cable:

 Expensive
 Very hard to install
 Capable of extremely high speed
 Extremely low attenuation
 No EMI interference

Advantages Of Fiber Optic Cable:

Fibre optics has several advantages over traditional metal communications lines:

 Fiber optic cables have a much greater bandwidth than metal cables. This means that they
can carry more data.
 Fiber optic cables are less susceptible than metal cables to interference.
 Fiber optic cables are much thinner and lighter than metal wires.
 Data can be transmitted digitally (the natural form for computer data) rather than
analogically.
 Fast
 Low attenuation
 No EMI interference

Disadvantages Fiber Optics:

 The main disadvantage of fibre optics is that the cables are expensive to install. In
addition, they are more fragile than wire and are difficult to splice.
 Very costly
 Hard to install

Bandwidth:

In computer networks, bandwidth is often used as a synonym for data transfer rate - the amount
of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second).
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This kind of bandwidth is usually expressed in bits (of data) per second (bps). Occasionally, it's
expressed as bytes per second (Bps)

UNBOUNDED/UNGUIDED MEDIA

Wireless networks:

Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by cables of any
kind. It is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise (business)
installations avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection
between various equipment locations. Wireless telecommunications networks are generally
implemented and administered using a transmission system called radio waves.

Wireless Network

If you've been in an airport, coffee shop, library or hotel recently, chances are you've been right
in the middle of a wireless network. Many people also use wireless networking, also called WiFi
or 802.11 networking, to connect their computers at home, and some cities are trying to use the
technology to provide free or low-cost Internet access to residents. In the near future, wireless
networking may become so widespread that you can access the Internet just about anywhere at
any time, without using wires.

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WiFi has a lot of advantages. Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They're also
unobtrusive -- unless you're on the lookout for a place to use your laptop, you may not even
notice when you're in a WiFi hotspot.

Choosing the appropriate network medium is a must knowledge for answering questions for the
given scenario in CIE exams. Following points must be considered:

Speed (Bandwidth):
Speed or bandwidth is especially important when transmitting large files. Industrial standards
specify the performance/bandwidth of the medium.

• Fiber Optic up to 2.5 Gbps

• Twisted pair Cat 6 up to 1000 Mbps

• UTP Coaxial cable 1000 Mbps

• 802.11g up to 54Mbps

• 802.11n Greater than 100Mbps

• Bluetooth 700 kbps - 1 Mbps

Distance:
The further that data travels the signal becomes attenuated (become weaker). Distances may be
affected by the environment and the amount of network noise (interference).

• Twisted pair Cat 5e/6 distances of up to 100m

• Fiber Optic 2 Kilometers

• Coaxial cable 500 m

• WiFi 802.11n Up to 100m

• Bluetooth 10 m

• Infrared IrDa 1 m

Environment:
Interference (static) that destroys the integrity of signals on a medium line. Noise can come from
a variety of sources, including radio waves, nearby electrical wires, lightning, and bad

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connections. One of the major advantages of fibre optic cables over metal cables, light and radio
waves is that they are much less susceptible to noise.
Security:
The less susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI) the less prone to eavesdropping. Fibre
Optic Cables are not susceptible to EMI.

• Twisted Pair Less Susceptible

• UTP Very Susceptible

• STP Good resistance

• Coaxial Good resistance

• WiFi Very Susceptible

Cost:
You pay for speed, distance and security. The most expensive and difficult cable to install is
Fibre Optic. The cheapest and easiest cable to install is twisted pair. Wireless networking is
relatively inexpensive and very easy to install but there is a greater need for router encryption.
What is attenuation?
Attenuation is the data loss experienced in a transmission media as a function of length.
Attenuation increases as the distance a signal increases. Attenuation will eventually prevent a
signal reaching its intended destination.

Common Network Environments

Probably the largest network in use is the Internet. The internet provides facilities to link
computers world-wide, usually using telecommunications systems. It allows fast
communications between people, the transfer of data between computers and the distribution of
information.
Messages are passed from the source computer, through other computers, to the destination
computer.
The Internet provides

• the World Wide Web,

• electronic mail,
• file transfer.

In order for this system to work, there are Internet Service Providers (ISP) who connect a
subscriber to the backbone of the Internet. These providers then pass data between them and onto
their respective clients. Fig. 3.8 (c)1 shows how data, including electronic mail, are passed from
one computer to another.

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An intranet is a network offering the same facilities as the Internet but solely within a particular
company or organization.

An intranet has to have very good security for confidential information. Sometimes the
organization allows the public to access certain parts of its intranet, allowing it to advertise. This
Internet access to an intranet is called an extranet.

Suitable software is required to make these systems work. Browsers allow a user to locate
information using a universal resource locator (URL). This is the address for data on the Internet.
The URL includes the transfer protocol to be used, for example http, the domain name where the
data is stored and other information such as an individual filename.

e.g. http://www.bcs.org.uk/ will load the British Computer Society's home page.
Domain names are held in an hierarchical structure. Each name is for a location on the Internet.
Each location has a unique name. The names in the various levels of the hierarchy are assigned
by the bodies that have control over that area.
Consider the domain name
PC195-staff.acadnet.wlv.ac.uk

The domain is uk and the ac would be assigned to a particular authority. (In this case UKERNA).
This authority would then assign the next part, i.e. wlv. As this is Wolverhampton University, it
is responsible for all the parts prior to wlv. Those in charge of acadnet are responsible for
PC195-staff.

Each computer linked to the Internet has a physical address, a number called its IP (Internet
protocol) address. This numeric address uniquely identifies the physical computer linked to the
Internet. The domain name server converts the domain name into its corresponding IP address.

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Confidentiality of Data
Once an organisation opens some of its network facilities up, there is a problem of
confidentiality of data. An organisation may well wish that potential customers have access to
their product database. However, they will not want them to have access to employee files.

A first step is to encrypt the confidential data and this is addressed in the next Section.

Another solution is to install firewalls. These sit between WANs and LANs. The firewall uses
names, Internet Protocol addresses, applications, and so on that are in the incoming message to
authenticate the attempt to connect to the LAN. There are two methods of doing this. These are
proxies and stateful inspection. Proxies stop the packets of data at the firewall and inspect them
before they pass to the other side. Once the packets have been checked and found to be
satisfactory, they are passed to the other side. The message does not pass through the firewall but
is passed to the proxy. This method tends to degrade network performance but offers better
security than stateful inspection.

Stateful inspection tracks each packet and identifies it. To do this, the method uses tables to
identify all packets that should not pass through the firewall. This is not as secure as the proxy
method because some data do pass through the firewall. However, the method uses less network
resources. Another way of ensuring privacy of data is to use authorisation and authentication
techniques. These are explained in the next Section.

Encryption, Authorisation and Authentication

Encryption is applying a mathematical function, using a key value, to a message so that it is
scrambled in some way. There are many techniques for this. The problem is to make it virtually
impossible for someone to unscramble the message. Clearly, whatever function is applied to the
original message must be reversible. The problem is to make it very difficult for anyone to find
the inverse of the original function. It also means that there is a problem of many people needing
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to decrypt a message. All these people need the key to unlocking the message. This makes it
highly likely that an unauthorised person will get hold of this key. One method of overcoming
this is to use Public Private Key technology. This involves the sender having a public key to
encrypt the message and only the receiver having the private key to decrypt the message.

Authentication is used so that both parties to the message can be certain that the other party is
who they say they are. This can be done by using digital signatures and digital certificates.
Digital signatures require encryption. Basically, a digital signature is code that is attached to a
message.

In order to understand how public key cryptography works, suppose Alice and Bob wish to send
secure mail to each other:

• First, both Bob and Alice need to create their public/private key pairs. This is usually done with
the help of a Certification Authority (CA).

• Alice and Bob then exchange their public keys. This is done by exchanging certificates.

• Bob can then use his private key to digitally sign messages, and Alice can check his signature
using his public key.

• Bob can use Alice's public key to encrypt messages, so that only she can decrypt them.

A primary advantage of public-key cryptography is the application of digital signatures, which

help combat repudiation, i.e. denial of involvement in a transaction. Since the owner keeps their
private key secret, anything signed using that key can only have been signed by the owner.

The predominant public-key algorithm is RSA, which was developed in 1977 by, and named
after, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. The RSA algorithm is included as part of
Web browsers from Netscape and Microsoft and also forms the basis for many other products.
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