The Physical Layer

Introduction
In the study of data communications, functions and procedures
at the physical layer play the most important role.
Information on this layer exists in logical as well as physical form.
So does the connection.
The limitations due to channel bandwidth, channel noise and
external interference are all taken care by the physical layer
protocols.
The general responsibilities of the physical layer protocols deal
with the mechanical, electrical, functional, procedural and
transmission characteristics of the interface between a
computer (terminal) and a network (user-network interface
node).
Specifying the connector shape and pin configuration, voltage
levels and tolerances, signal types and signaling sequences are
all needed at the physical layer.
With the advent of high-speed and wireless networks,
responsibilities of the physical layer protocols have increased.

Channel Impairments
Due to the signal spreading and the resistance
of the medium, the signal strength reduces as
it travels on a cable or in the air.
Such reduction in signal strength is called as
attenuation.
For each medium, the attenuation can usually
be predicted from the knowledge of medium
characteristics.

Attenuation and Propagation Loss

There are more factors that impact the received
signal energy in an unguided medium than in
guided media.
In guided media, the resistance of the cable
increases as a function of length, resulting in an
increase of signal attenuation.
The effect of distance is more pronounced in
wireless media though.
Usually, the attenuation increases (signal
strengthen reduces) in proportion to the square
of distance or worse.

Figure : Signal Strength as Function of Distance

Delay Distortion
The result of delay distortion is dispersion of the signal
energy out of its time-limited range.
If many signals are transmitted one after the other, then
each signal spreads in time.
This causes adjacent signals to overlap as they propagate
along a medium.
In order to design a communications system to combat ISI,
we have to do several things, such as design pulse shapes
and perform equalization.
Equalization restores the delay distortion in such a manner
that all signal components seem to be arriving at the same
time.
Equalizers do this by simulating the inverse channel
behavior.

Noise
Noise in electronic communications plays a
key role in the system design.
It can be defined as the spurious signals added
to the communications signal by channel,
equipment, electromagnetic coupling, and
clicking of switches.
There are several types of noise that affect the
quality of reception.

Noise
Thermal Noise : arises naturally from the thermal agitation of
electrons in all electronic devices.
Crosstalk is a type of noise originally observed in the form of
phone conversation spilling from one user (circuit) to another.
It results from electromagnetic coupling of wires at close
proximity from one another.
Impulse Noise : This is another type of noise that plays a
significant role in data communications. It is due to the
clicking of switches and results in either audible click sounds
during conversation or spikes in digital bit transmission.
Another source of impulse noise could be sparking due to
imperfect insulations.

Multipath
Multipath is very similar to echo in concept. It is
the phenomenon in which a signal arrives at the
receiver from reflections and sometime including
the direct line of sight (LoS).
The resulting signal is a sum of its replicas with
different arrival times.
The study of multipath is important especially in
the wireless communication systems and offers
the most significant challenge to the system
designers.

Continue to Transmission Media