University of Technology

Computer Science
Department.

Physical Layer in Network

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1-Introduction
the physical layer is responsible for carrying individual bits in a frame across the
link. there is another hidden layer, the transmission media under in the physical
layer. Two devices are connected by a transmission medium (cable or air) so the bits
received in a frame from the data-link layer are transformed and sent through the
transmission media. For transmission, data needs to be changed to electromagnetic
signals.

1.2 Analog and Digital Data

Data can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers to information that is
continuous .For example an analog clock that has hour, minute gives information in a
continuous form

Digital data refers to information that has discrete states ex: digital clock that
reports the hours and the minutes will change suddenly from 8:05 to 8:06.

1.3 Signals
Signals can be either analog or digital. An analog signal has infinitely many levels of
intensity over a period of time and it periodic signals that completes a pattern within
a measurable time frame, and repeats that pattern over subsequent similar periods.
The completion of one full pattern is called a cycle.

Digital signal can have only a limited number of defined values. Although each
value can be any number, it is often as simple as 1 and 0 .itis non periodic signal that
changes without display a pattern or cycle that repeats over time.

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite. A simple

periodic analog signal is a sine wave is the most fundamental form of a periodic
analog signal is sine wave can be represented by three parameters:
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1-peak amplitude
2-frequency
3-phase.
Ex: The voltage of a battery is a constant this constant value can be considered a sine
wave.

1-peak amplitude (‫عة‬$$‫ )ذروة الس‬of a signal is the absolute value of its highest
intensity, proportional (‫ )متناسب‬to the energy it carries. For electric signals, peak
amplitude is normally measured in volts

2-phase or phase shift, describes the position of the waveform relative to time 0.

3-Frequency is the rate of change with respect to time. Change in a short span of
time means high frequency. Change over a long span of time means low frequency.

Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to complete 1 cycle.
Frequency refers to the number of periods in 1s.period and frequency are just one
characteristic defined in two ways. Period is the inverse of frequency, and frequency
is the inverse of period, as show:
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.
Wave length: is another characteristic of a signal traveling through a transmission
medium. Wavelength connect the period or the frequency of a simple sine wave to
the Propagation speed of the medium

Wavelength = propagation speed x period

= propagation speed/frequency

Time and Frequency Domains

The time-domain plot: shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to time (it is
an amplitude-versus-time plot). Phase is not explicitly shown on a time-domain plot.

Frequency-domain plot: is interested with only the peak value and the frequency.
Changes of amplitude during one period are not shown. A complete sine wave in the
time domain can be represented by one single spike in the frequency domain

Composite periodic analog signal

we need to send a composite signal to communicate data. A composite signal is made
of many simple sine waves because If we had only one single sine wave to convey a
conversation over the phone, it would make no sense and carry no information. We
would just hear a buzz.
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If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of signals with
discrete frequencies; if the composite signal is non periodic, the decomposition
gives a combination of sine waves with continuous frequencies.

1.3.2 Digital signal

Digital signal can have more than two levels. In this case, we can send more than 1
bit for each level .the Figure shows two signals, one with two levels and the other
with four. We send 1 bit per level in part (a) and 2 bits per level in part (b) of the
figure. Number of bits per level = log28 = 3

Bandwidth
The range of frequencies contained in a composite signal is its bandwidth .The
bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference between the highest and the
lowest frequencies contained in that signal Example:

If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves with frequencies of 100, 300,
500, 700,and 900 Hz, what is its bandwidth? Solution
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then

In networking, we use the term bandwidth in two contexts:

❑The first, bandwidth in hertz, refers to the range of frequencies in a composite
signal or the range of frequencies that a channel can pass.
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❑The second, bandwidth in bits per second, refers to the speed of bit transmission in
a channel or link.

Bit Rate
Another term—bit rate (instead of frequency)—is used to describe digital signals.
The bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1s, expressed in bits per second (bps)

EX: Assume we need to download text documents at the rate of 100 pages per
second. What is the required bit rate of the channel?

A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in each line. If we assume that

one character requires 8 bits, the bit rate is
100 * 24 *80 * 8 =1,536,000 bps = 1.536 Mbps
Bit Length
The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium.
Bit length= propagation speed * bit duration

1.4 Transmission of Digital Signals

Based on Fourier analysis a digital signal is a composite analog signal with
bandwidths are infinite if the digital signal is periodic or non periodic, but the
periodic signal has discrete frequencies while the non periodic signal has continuous
frequencies.

We can transmit a digital signal by using one of two different approaches: baseband
transmission or broadband transmission (using modulation).

1.4.1-Baseband transmission: Sending a digital signal without changing into an

analog signal .Baseband transmission of a digital signal that preserves the shape of
the digital signal is possible only if we have a low-pass channel with an infinite or
very wide bandwidth.
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1.4.2-Broadband transmission or modulation means changing the digital signal to

an analog signal for transmission. Modulation allows us to use a band pass channel—
a channel with a bandwidth that does not start from zero. This type of channel is
more available than a low-pass channel. Figure show Modulation of a digital signal
for transmission on a band pass channel

1.5 Transmission Impairment

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. Three causes of impairment are: attenuation, distortion,
and noise.

Attenuation (‫وهين‬$$‫ )ت‬means a loss of energy. When a signal, simple or composite

travels through a medium To compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify
the signal.

The decibel (dB) :To show that a signal has lost or gained strength, engineers use the
unit of the decibel it measures the relative strengths of two signals or one signal at
two different points. The decibel is negative if a signal is attenuated and positive if
signal is amplified.
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Distortion (‫ )تشويه‬means that the signal changes its form or shape. Distortion can
occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies.

Noise is another cause of impairment. Several types of noise, such as thermal noise,
induced noise, crosstalk, and impulse noise(‫)الضوضاء النبضية‬, may corrupt the signal.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)

To find the theoretical bit rate limit, we need to know the ratio o the signal power to
the noise power. The signal-to-noise ratio is defined as:

SNR is actually the ratio of what is wanted (signal) to what is not wanted (noise).
A high SNR means the signal is less corrupted by noise; a low SNR means the signal
is more corrupted by noise. Because SNR is the ratio of two powers, it is often
described in decibel units SNRdB, defined as: SNRdB = 10 log10 SNR

1.6 Digital-to-Digital Conversion

Represent digital data by using digital signals. The conversion involves three
techniques: line coding, block coding, and scrambling coding

1.6.1-Line coding: is the process for converting digital data into digital signal.
Digital data is represented (stored) internally as series of 1s and 0s., digital data are
encoded into a digital signal that is denoted by discreet signal, digital data are
recreated by decoding the digital signal. There are three types of line coding schemes
available:

a-Unipolar encoding schemes: use single voltage level to represent data. In this case,
to represent binary 1, high voltage is transmitted and to represent 0, no voltage is
transmitted. It is also called Unipolar-Non-return-to-zero, because there is no rest
condition i.e. it either represents 1 or 0.
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b- Polar encoding scheme uses multiple voltage levels to represent binary values. it
is available in four types: Polar Non-Return to Zero (Polar NRZ),Return to Zero
(RZ), Manchester, Differential Manchester.

b.1-Polar NRZ: It uses two different voltage levels to represent binary values.
positive voltage represents 1 and negative value represents 0. It is also NRZ because
there is no rest condition. NRZ scheme has two variants: NRZ-L and NRZ-I.NRZ-
L changes voltage level at when a different bit is encountered whereas NRZ-I
changes voltage when a 1 is encountered.

b.2- Return to Zero : RZ uses three voltage levels, positive voltage to represent 1,
negative voltage to represent 0 and zero voltage for none. Signals change during bits
not between bits.

c- Bipolar encoding: uses three voltage levels, positive, negative and zero. Zero
voltage represents binary 0 and bit 1 is represented by altering positive and negative
voltages.
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1.6.2-Block coding: To ensure accuracy of the received data frame redundant bits are
used. For example, in even-parity, one parity bit is added to make the count of 1s in
the frame even. This way the original number of bits is increased. It is called Block
Coding.

Block coding is represented by slash notation, mB/nB .Means, m-bit block is

substituted with n-bit block where n > m. Block coding involves three steps:
 Division
 Substitution
 Combination

1.7Analog-to-Digital Conversion
Microphones create analog voice and camera creates analog videos, which are treated
is analog data. To transmit this analog data over digital signals, we need analog to
digital conversion. Analog data is a continuous stream of data in the wave form
whereas digital data is discrete. To convert analog wave into digital data, we use
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM).

PCM: PCM is one of the most commonly used method to convert analog data into
digital form. It involves three steps:
 Sampling
 Quantization
 Encoding

Sampling
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The analog signal is sampled every T interval. Most important factor in sampling is
the rate at which analog signal is sampled. According to Nyquist Theorem, the
sampling rate must be at least two times of the highest frequency of the signal.

Quantization
Sampling produces discrete form of continuous analog signal. Every discrete pattern
shows the amplitude of the analog signal at that instance. The quantization is done
between the maximum amplitude value and the minimum amplitude value.
Quantization is approximation of the instantaneous analog value.

Encoding: In encoding, each approximated value is then converted into binary

format.

1.8 Transmission Modes

The transmission mode decides how data is transmitted between two computers .The
binary data can be sent in two different modes: Parallel and Serial.

1.8.1-parallel transmission
The binary bits are organized in-to groups of fixed length. Both sender and receiver
are connected in parallel with the equal number of data lines The sender sends all the
bits at once on all lines. Advantage of Parallel transmission is high speed and
disadvantage is the cost of wires.
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1.8.2-Serial Transmission
In serial transmission, bits are sent one after another in a queue manner. Serial
transmission requires only one communication channel. Serial transmission can be
either asynchronous or synchronous.
a- Asynchronous
Patterns are based on grouping, each group usually 8 bits, is sent along the link as a
unit. The sending system handles each group independently, relaying it to the link
whenever ready, without regard to a timer .it is added to the beginning of each byte
the start bit (0s) to known the receiver that the byte is finished and one or more end
bit (1s) append to the end of the byte. There may be a gap between bytes.

b- Synchronous
In synchronous transmission, we send bits one after another without start or stop
bits or gaps. It is the responsibility of the receiver to group the bits. it advantage is
high speed, and it has no overhead of extra header and footer bits as in asynchronous
transmission.