TRANSMISSION MEDIA

 DEFINITION:
 A transmission media is a system or substance that can mediate the propagation of
signals for the purpose of telecommunication.
 Signals are typically imposed on a way of some kind subtitled for the chosen
medium. Signal can travel through vacuum, air or other types of media.

 There are two types of transmission media;

a. Guided Transmission Media
b. Unguided Transmission Media

 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA:

 The transmission media where the sender and the receiver are connected through
cables or wires are called guided transmission media.
 There are three types of guided transmission media;
a. Twisted Pair Cable
b. Co-axial Cable
c. Optical Fiber Cable

 TWISTED PAIR CABLE:

 This cable is invented by Alexander Graham bell.

 This is a pair of insulated copper wire twisted over each other in a spiral pattern.
 Each cable consists of one or more twisted pair covers with protective materials.
 Each pair consists of single communication link.
 One cable is used for forward circuit and other cable is used for return circuit.
 This cable protects from crosstalk on multi pair cable and create telecommunication
network for long time.
 This cable also reduces noise from outsider.
 This cable is used to create small network like Ethernet. So that it is also called
Ethernet cable.
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Twisted pair cable is of two types.
i. Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable(UTP)
ii. Shielded Twisted Pair Cable(STP)
 In case of STP there is a protective layer over the cable. But in UTP there is no any
cover.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF TWISTED PAIR CABLE:
 Transmit electrical signal
 Very high external interference
 Data transmission speed 10 Mbps to 10Gbps
 Inexpensive & Easy installation
 Use in telephone lines to provide voice and data channels.
 Local-area networks, such as lOBase-T and lOOBase-T, also use twisted-pair cables.

 CO-AXAIL CABLE:

This cable consists of two conductors.

i. Inner
ii. Outer
 The inner conductor is called as core conductor. Core conductor is a copper wire.
 The outer conductor is covered the inner conductor and consist of guided metal
shield.
 Both the conductor shares a central axis, so that it is called as co-axial.
 Both the conductors are covered by a plastic jacket.
 Both conductors are combined to protect the outside effect and electromagnetic
interference.
 This cable is generally used in cable TV and Ethernet network.
 There are two types of co-axial cable.
i. Baseband
ii. Broadband
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CO-AXAIL CABLE:
 High bandwidth
 Long distance networking
 Low external interference
 Transmit electrical signal
 Transmission speed 100 Mbps
 Average expensive
 Fairly easy installation
 OPTICAL FIBER CABLE:
 This type of cable is flexible, thin and transparent and consists of standard glass or
plastic.
 The diameter of the cable is same as human hair. It transmits light pulse in the
principle of total internal reflection.
 Each light pulse represents a bit of data. Thousands of optical cable bundle together
by using plastic cover to create optical fiber cable.
 This cable consists of 3 materials, i.e. core, cladding and buffer coating.

CORE: The core is the center thin plastic or glass rod through which signal is
transmitting.

CLADDING: It is the optical materials cover the core and reflect the light back to the
core.

BUFFER COATING: It is the plastic cover protects damage or moisture of the cable.

 CHARACTERISTICS OF OPTICAL FIBER CABLE:

 Without amplification signal can travel long distance
 External interference is nil
 Transmit optical signal & light weight
 Transmit data very high speed greater than 100 Gbps
 More expansive as compare to other cable
 Difficult to install
 Higher bandwidth
 Unidirectional light propagation

 UNGUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA:

 If data is transmitted over air or vacuum that is called as wireless or unguided
transmission media.
 Wireless data are transmitted through ground propagation, sky propagation, and
line of-sight propagation.
 This medium transmits the data through carrier wave. Carrier wave is the
electromagnetic wave. This wave transmits original data same speed of light.
 The electromagnetic wave those are used for data transmission are;
i. Radio Wave
ii. Micro Wave
iii. Infrared Wave

 RADIO WAVE:
 Frequency range is 3 KHz to 300 GHz.
 It is omnidirectional in nature.
 This wave penetrates any solid material or object.
 It can be used in long distance transmission.
 It is generally use in codeless mobile, phone, FM and AM radio broadcast.
  CHARACTERISTICS OF RADIO WAVE:
 Signal transmitted uniformly all direction.
 There is no need of set alignment of transfer and receiver.
 Less expensive than cable medium.
 It transmits the data in difficult situation.
 To set up radio web transmission, require permission from the authority.
 Less secure transmission
 Transmission is interfered by electronic equipment.

 MICRO WAVE:
 This wave frequency range is 0.3 GHz to 300 GHz.
 It is unidirectional in nature.
 This wave transmits in a straight line direction.
 Don’t penetrate through solid object.
 To use this wave put the towers at the highest place and put the antenna at the top
of the tower.

 CHARACTERISTICS OF MICRO WAVE:

 Quick installation
 Less expensive then guided medium
 They are used in cellular phones, satellite networks & wireless LANs.
 Required proper alignment between transmitter and receiver

 INFRARED WAVE:
 This wave frequency range is 300 GHz to 400 THz.
 Wavelength lies between 1mm to 770nm.
 This frequency range is just below the frequency of red color of visible spectrum.
 This wave use communication in short distance that is with in 5m.
 This wave use in TV remote control, wireless mouse etc.

 CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRARED WAVE:

 It provides line of side transmission, so that the signal is not leakage to other
device. Due to line of side transmission only two devices communicate at a time.
 Don’t penetrate solid object.
 The signal is propagated in one direction.
 If the distance is increase, performance is decrease.

REFERENCE : DATA COMMUNICATIONS & NETWORKING, Fourth Edition

By Behrouz A. Forouzan