Physical layer in the OSI model plays the role of interacting with actual hardware and signaling mechanism. Physical layer is the only layer of OSI network model which actually deals with the physical connectivity of two different stations. This layer defines the hardware equipment, cabling, wiring, frequencies, pulses used to represent binary signals etc.
Physical layer provides its services to Data-link layer. Data-link layer hands over frames to physical layer. Physical layer converts them to electrical pulses, which represent binary data.The binary data is then sent over the wired or wireless media.
Signals
When data is sent over physical medium, it needs to be first converted into electromagnetic signals. Data itself can be analog such as human voice, or digital such as file on the disk.Both analog and digital data can be represented in digital or analog signals.
Digital Signals
Digital signals are discrete in nature and represent sequence of voltage pulses. Digital signals are used within the circuitry of a computer system.
Analog Signals
Analog signals are in continuous wave form in nature and represented by continuous electromagnetic waves.
Transmission Impairment
When signals travel through the medium they tend to deteriorate. This may have many reasons as given:
Attenuation
For the receiver to interpret the data accurately, the signal must be sufficiently strong.When the signal passes through the medium, it tends to get weaker.As it covers distance, it loses strength.
Dispersion
As signal travels through the media, it tends to spread and overlaps. The amount of dispersion depends upon the frequency used.
Delay distortion
Signals are sent over media with pre-defined speed and frequency. If the signal speed and frequency do not match, there are possibilities that signal reaches destination in arbitrary fashion. In digital media, this is very critical that some bits reach earlier than the previously sent ones.
Noise
Random disturbance or fluctuation in analog or digital signal is said to be Noise in signal, which may distort the actual information being carried. Noise can be characterized in one of the following class:
Thermal Noise
Heat agitates the electronic conductors of a medium which may introduce noise in the media. Up to a certain level, thermal noise is unavoidable.
Intermodulation
When multiple frequencies share a medium, their interference can cause noise in the medium. Intermodulation noise occurs if two different frequencies are sharing a medium and one of them has excessive strength or the component itself is not functioning properly, then the resultant frequency may not be delivered as expected.
Crosstalk
This sort of noise happens when a foreign signal enters into the media. This is because signal in one medium affects the signal of second medium.
Impulse
This noise is introduced because of irregular disturbances such as lightening, electricity, short-circuit, or faulty components. Digital data is mostly affected by this sort of noise.
Transmission Media
The media over which the information between two computer systems is sent, called transmission media. Transmission media comes in two forms.
Guided Media
All communication wires/cables are guided media, such as UTP, coaxial cables, and fiber Optics. In this media, the sender and receiver are directly connected and the information is send (guided) through it.
Unguided Media
Wireless or open air space is said to be unguided media, because there is no connectivity between the sender and receiver. Information is spread over the air, and anyone including the actual recipient may collect the information.
Channel Capacity
The speed of transmission of information is said to be the channel capacity. We count it as data rate in digital world. It depends on numerous factors such as:
Bandwidth: The physical limitation of underlying media.
Error-rate: Incorrect reception of information because of noise.
Encoding: The number of levels used for signaling.
Multiplexing
Multiplexing is a technique to mix and send multiple data streams over a single medium. This technique requires system hardware called multiplexer (MUX) for multiplexing the streams and sending them on a medium, and de-multiplexer (DMUX) which takes information from the medium and distributes to different destinations.
Switching
Switching is a mechanism by which data/information sent from source towards destination which are not directly connected. Networks have interconnecting devices, which receives data from directly connected sources, stores data, analyze it and then forwards to the next interconnecting device closest to the destination.
Switching can be categorized as:
Digital Transmission
Data or information can be stored in two ways, analog and digital. For a computer to use the data, it must be in discrete digital form.Similar to data, signals can also be in analog and digital form. To transmit data digitally, it needs to be first converted to digital form.
Digital-to-Digital Conversion
This section explains how to convert digital data into digital signals. It can be done in two ways, line coding and block coding. For all communications, line coding is necessary whereas block coding is optional.
Line Coding
The process for converting digital data into digital signal is said to be Line Coding. Digital data is found in binary format.It is represented (stored) internally as series of 1s and 0s.
Digital signal is denoted by discreet signal, which represents digital data.There are three types of line coding schemes available:
Uni-polar Encoding
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.
Polar Encoding
Polar encoding scheme uses multiple voltage levels to represent binary values. Polar encodings is available in four types:
Polar Non-Return to Zero (Polar NRZ)
It uses two different voltage levels to represent binary values. Generally, 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.
Return to Zero (RZ)
Problem with NRZ is that the receiver cannot conclude when a bit ended and when the next bit is started, in case when sender and receiver’s clock are not synchronized.
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.
Manchester
This encoding scheme is a combination of RZ and NRZ-L. Bit time is divided into two halves. It transits in the middle of the bit and changes phase when a different bit is encountered.
Differential Manchester
This encoding scheme is a combination of RZ and NRZ-I. It also transit at the middle of the bit but changes phase only when 1 is encountered.
Bipolar Encoding
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.
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.
After block coding is done, it is line coded for transmission.
Analog-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 is one of the most commonly used method to convert analog data into digital form. It involves three steps:
- Sampling
- Quantization
- Encoding.
Sampling
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 yields 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.
Transmission Modes
The transmission mode decides how data is transmitted between two computers.The binary data in the form of 1s and 0s can be sent in two different modes: Parallel and Serial.
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. Both computers distinguish between high order and low order data lines. The sender sends all the bits at once on all lines.Because the data lines are equal to the number of bits in a group or data frame, a complete group of bits (data frame) is sent in one go. Advantage of Parallel transmission is high speed and disadvantage is the cost of wires, as it is equal to the number of bits sent in parallel.
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.
Asynchronous Serial Transmission
It is named so because there’is no importance of timing. Data-bits have specific pattern and they help receiver recognize the start and end data bits.For example, a 0 is prefixed on every data byte and one or more 1s are added at the end.
Two continuous data-frames (bytes) may have a gap between them.
Synchronous Serial Transmission
Timing in synchronous transmission has importance as there is no mechanism followed to recognize start and end data bits.There is no pattern or prefix/suffix method. Data bits are sent in burst mode without maintaining gap between bytes (8-bits). Single burst of data bits may contain a number of bytes. Therefore, timing becomes very important.
It is up to the receiver to recognize and separate bits into bytes.The advantage of synchronous transmission is high speed, and it has no overhead of extra header and footer bits as in asynchronous transmission.
Analog Transmission
To send the digital data over an analog media, it needs to be converted into analog signal.There can be two cases according to data formatting.
Bandpass:The filters are used to filter and pass frequencies of interest. A bandpass is a band of frequencies which can pass the filter.
Low-pass: Low-pass is a filter that passes low frequencies signals.
When digital data is converted into a bandpass analog signal, it is called digital-to-analog conversion. When low-pass analog signal is converted into bandpass analog signal, it is called analog-to-analog conversion.
Digital-to-Analog Conversion
When data from one computer is sent to another via some analog carrier, it is first converted into analog signals. Analog signals are modified to reflect digital data.
An analog signal is characterized by its amplitude, frequency, and phase. There are three kinds of digital-to-analog conversions:
Amplitude Shift Keying
In this conversion technique, the amplitude of analog carrier signal is modified to reflect binary data.
When binary data represents digit 1, the amplitude is held; otherwise it is set to 0. Both frequency and phase remain same as in the original carrier signal.
Frequency Shift Keying
In this conversion technique, the frequency of the analog carrier signal is modified to reflect binary data.
This technique uses two frequencies, f1 and f2. One of them, for example f1, is chosen to represent binary digit 1 and the other one is used to represent binary digit 0. Both amplitude and phase of the carrier wave are kept intact.
Phase Shift Keying
In this conversion scheme, the phase of the original carrier signal is altered to reflect the binary data.
When a new binary symbol is encountered, the phase of the signal is altered. Amplitude and frequency of the original carrier signal is kept intact.
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
QPSK alters the phase to reflect two binary digits at once. This is done in two different phases. The main stream of binary data is divided equally into two sub-streams. The serial data is converted in to parallel in both sub-streams and then each stream is converted to digital signal using NRZ technique. Later, both the digital signals are merged together.
Analog-to-Analog Conversion
Analog signals are modified to represent analog data. This conversion is also known as Analog Modulation. Analog modulation is required when bandpass is used. Analog to analog conversion can be done in three ways:
Amplitude Modulation
In this modulation, the amplitude of the carrier signal is modified to reflect the analog data.
Amplitude modulation is implemented by means of a multiplier. The amplitude of modulating signal (analog data) is multiplied by the amplitude of carrier frequency, which then reflects analog data.
The frequency and phase of carrier signal remain unchanged.
Frequency Modulation
In this modulation technique, the frequency of the carrier signal is modified to reflect the change in the voltage levels of the modulating signal (analog data).
The amplitude and phase of the carrier signal are not altered.
Phase Modulation
In the modulation technique, the phase of carrier signal is modulated in order to reflect the change in voltage (amplitude) of analog data signal.
Phase modulation is practically similar to Frequency Modulation, but in Phase modulation frequency of the carrier signal is not increased. Frequency of carrier is signal is changed (made dense and sparse) to reflect voltage change in the amplitude of modulating signal.
Transmission Media
The transmission media is nothing but the physical media over which communication takes place in computer networks.
Magnetic Media
One of the most convenient way to transfer data from one computer to another, even before the birth of networking, was to save it on some storage media and transfer physical from one station to another. Though it may seem old-fashion way in today’s world of high speed internet, but when the size of data is huge, the magnetic media comes into play.
For example, a bank has to handle and transfer huge data of its customer, which stores a backup of it at some geographically far-away place for security reasons and to keep it from uncertain calamities. If the bank needs to store its huge backup data then its,transfer through internet is not feasible.The WAN links may not support such high speed.Even if they do; the cost too high to afford.
In these cases, data backup is stored onto magnetic tapes or magnetic discs, and then shifted physically at remote places.
Twisted Pair Cable
A twisted pair cable is made of two plastic insulated copper wires twisted together to form a single media. Out of these two wires, only one carries actual signal and another is used for ground reference. The twists between wires are helpful in reducing noise (electro-magnetic interference) and crosstalk.
There are two types of twisted pair cables:
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable
STP cables comes with twisted wire pair covered in metal foil. This makes it more indifferent to noise and crosstalk.
UTP has seven categories, each suitable for specific use. In computer networks, Cat-5, Cat-5e, and Cat-6 cables are mostly used. UTP cables are connected by RJ45 connectors.
Coaxial Cable
Coaxial cable has two wires of copper. The core wire lies in the center and it is made of solid conductor.The core is enclosed in an insulating sheath.The second wire is wrapped around over the sheath and that too in turn encased by insulator sheath.This all is covered by plastic cover.
Because of its structure,the coax cable is capable of carrying high frequency signals than that of twisted pair cable.The wrapped structure provides it a good shield against noise and cross talk. Coaxial cables provide high bandwidth rates of up to 450 mbps.
There are three categories of coax cables namely, RG-59 (Cable TV), RG-58 (Thin Ethernet), and RG-11 (Thick Ethernet). RG stands for Radio Government.
Cables are connected using BNC connector and BNC-T. BNC terminator is used to terminate the wire at the far ends.
Power Lines
Power Line communication (PLC) is Layer-1 (Physical Layer) technology which uses power cables to transmit data signals.In PLC, modulated data is sent over the cables. The receiver on the other end de-modulates and interprets the data.
Because power lines are widely deployed, PLC can make all powered devices controlled and monitored. PLC works in half-duplex.
There are two types of PLC:
Narrow band PLC
Broad band PLC
Narrow band PLC provides lower data rates up to 100s of kbps, as they work at lower frequencies (3-5000 kHz).They can be spread over several kilometers.
Broadband PLC provides higher data rates up to 100s of Mbps and works at higher frequencies (1.8 – 250 MHz).They cannot be as much extended as Narrowband PLC.
Fiber Optics
Fiber Optic works on the properties of light. When light ray hits at critical angle it tends to refracts at 90 degree. This property has been used in fiber optic. The core of fiber optic cable is made of high quality glass or plastic. From one end of it light is emitted, it travels through it and at the other end light detector detects light stream and converts it to electric data.
Fiber Optic provides the highest mode of speed. It comes in two modes, one is single mode fiber and second is multimode fiber. Single mode fiber can carry a single ray of light whereas multimode is capable of carrying multiple beams of light.
Fiber Optic also comes in unidirectional and bidirectional capabilities. To connect and access fiber optic special type of connectors are used. These can be Subscriber Channel (SC), Straight Tip (ST), or MT-RJ.
Wireless Transmission
Wireless transmission is a form of unguided media. Wireless communication involves no physical link established between two or more devices, communicating wirelessly. Wireless signals are spread over in the air and are received and interpreted by appropriate antennas.
When an antenna is attached to electrical circuit of a computer or wireless device, it converts the digital data into wireless signals and spread all over within its frequency range. The receptor on the other end receives these signals and converts them back to digital data.
A little part of electromagnetic spectrum can be used for wireless transmission.
Radio Transmission
Radio frequency is easier to generate and because of its large wavelength it can penetrate through walls and structures alike.Radio waves can have wavelength from 1 mm – 100,000 km and have frequency ranging from 3 Hz (Extremely Low Frequency) to 300 GHz (Extremely High Frequency). Radio frequencies are sub-divided into six bands.
Radio waves at lower frequencies can travel through walls whereas higher RF can travel in straight line and bounce back.The power of low frequency waves decreases sharply as they cover long distance. High frequency radio waves have more power.
Lower frequencies such as VLF, LF, MF bands can travel on the ground up to 1000 kilometers, over the earth’s surface.
Radio waves of high frequencies are prone to be absorbed by rain and other obstacles. They use Ionosphere of earth atmosphere. High frequency radio waves such as HF and VHF bands are spread upwards. When they reach Ionosphere, they are refracted back to the earth.
Microwave Transmission
Electromagnetic waves above 100 MHz tend to travel in a straight line and signals over them can be sent by beaming those waves towards one particular station. Because Microwaves travels in straight lines, both sender and receiver must be aligned to be strictly in line-of-sight.
Microwaves can have wavelength ranging from 1 mm – 1 meter and frequency ranging from 300 MHz to 300 GHz.
Microwave antennas concentrate the waves making a beam of it. As shown in picture above, multiple antennas can be aligned to reach farther. Microwaves have higher frequencies and do not penetrate wall like obstacles.
Microwave transmission depends highly upon the weather conditions and the frequency it is using.
Infrared Transmission
Infrared wave lies in between visible light spectrum and microwaves. It has wavelength of 700-nm to 1-mm and frequency ranges from 300-GHz to 430-THz.
Infrared wave is used for very short range communication purposes such as television and it’s remote. Infrared travels in a straight line hence it is directional by nature. Because of high frequency range, Infrared cannot cross wall-like obstacles.
Light Transmission
Highest most electromagnetic spectrum which can be used for data transmission is light or optical signaling. This is achieved by means of LASER.
Because of frequency light uses, it tends to travel strictly in straight line.Hence the sender and receiver must be in the line-of-sight. Because laser transmission is unidirectional, at both ends of communication the laser and the photo-detector needs to be installed. Laser beam is generally 1mm wide hence it is a work of precision to align two far receptors each pointing to lasers source.
Laser works as Tx (transmitter) and photo-detectors works as Rx (receiver).
Lasers cannot penetrate obstacles such as walls, rain, and thick fog. Additionally, laser beam is distorted by wind, atmosphere temperature, or variation in temperature in the path.
Laser is safe for data transmission as it is very difficult to tap 1mm wide laser without interrupting the communication channel.
Multiplexing
Multiplexing is a technique by which different analog and digital streams of transmission can be simultaneously processed over a shared link. Multiplexing divides the high capacity medium into low capacity logical medium which is then shared by different streams.
Communication is possible over the air (radio frequency), using a physical media (cable), and light (optical fiber). All mediums are capable of multiplexing.
When multiple senders try to send over a single medium, a device called Multiplexer divides the physical channel and allocates one to each. On the other end of communication, a De-multiplexer receives data from a single medium, identifies each, and sends to different receivers.
Frequency Division Multiplexing
When the carrier is frequency, FDM is used. FDM is an analog technology. FDM divides the spectrum or carrier bandwidth in logical channels and allocates one user to each channel. Each user can use the channel frequency independently and has exclusive access of it. All channels are divided in such a way that they do not overlap with each other. Channels are separated by guard bands. Guard band is a frequency which is not used by either channel.
Time Division Multiplexing
TDM is applied primarily on digital signals but can be applied on analog signals as well. In TDM the shared channel is divided among its user by means of time slot. Each user can transmit data within the provided time slot only. Digital signals are divided in frames, equivalent to time slot i.e. frame of an optimal size which can be transmitted in given time slot.
TDM works in synchronized mode. Both ends, i.e. Multiplexer and De-multiplexer are timely synchronized and both switch to next channel simultaneously.
When channel A transmits its frame at one end,the De-multiplexer provides media to channel A on the other end.As soon as the channel A’s time slot expires, this side switches to channel B. On the other end, the De-multiplexer works in a synchronized manner and provides media to channel B. Signals from different channels travel the path in interleaved manner.
Wavelength Division Multiplexing
Light has different wavelength (colors). In fiber optic mode, multiple optical carrier signals are multiplexed into an optical fiber by using different wavelengths. This is an analog multiplexing technique and is done conceptually in the same manner as FDM but uses light as signals.
Further, on each wavelength time division multiplexing can be incorporated to accommodate more data signals.
Code Division Multiplexing
Multiple data signals can be transmitted over a single frequency by using Code Division Multiplexing. FDM divides the frequency in smaller channels but CDM allows its users to full bandwidth and transmit signals all the time using a unique code. CDM uses orthogonal codes to spread signals.
Each station is assigned with a unique code, called chip. Signals travel with these codes independently, inside the whole bandwidth.The receiver knows in advance the chip code signal it has to receive.
Network Switching
Switching is process to forward packets coming in from one port to a port leading towards the destination. When data comes on a port it is called ingress, and when data leaves a port or goes out it is called egress. A communication system may include number of switches and nodes. At broad level, switching can be divided into two major categories:
Connectionless: The data is forwarded on behalf of forwarding tables. No previous handshaking is required and acknowledgements are optional.
Connection Oriented: Before switching data to be forwarded to destination, there is a need to pre-establish circuit along the path between both endpoints. Data is then forwarded on that circuit. After the transfer is completed, circuits can be kept for future use or can be turned down immediately.
Circuit Switching
When two nodes communicate with each other over a dedicated communication path, it is called circuit switching.There 'is a need of pre-specified route from which data will travels and no other data is permitted.In circuit switching, to transfer the data, circuit must be established so that the data transfer can take place.
Circuits can be permanent or temporary. Applications which use circuit switching may have to go through three phases:
Establish a circuit
Transfer the data
Disconnect the circuit
Circuit switching was designed for voice applications. Telephone is the best suitable example of circuit switching. Before a user can make a call, a virtual path between caller and callee is established over the network.
Message Switching
This technique was somewhere in middle of circuit switching and packet switching. In message switching, the whole message is treated as a data unit and is switching / transferred in its entirety.
A switch working on message switching, first receives the whole message and buffers it until there are resources available to transfer it to the next hop. If the next hop is not having enough resource to accommodate large size message, the message is stored and switch waits.
This technique was considered substitute to circuit switching. As in circuit switching the whole path is blocked for two entities only. Message switching is replaced by packet switching. Message switching has the following drawbacks:
Every switch in transit path needs enough storage to accommodate entire message.
Because of store-and-forward technique and waits included until resources are available, message switching is very slow.
Message switching was not a solution for streaming media and real-time applications.
Packet Switching
Shortcomings of message switching gave birth to an idea of packet switching. The entire message is broken down into smaller chunks called packets. The switching information is added in the header of each packet and transmitted independently.
It is easier for intermediate networking devices to store small size packets and they do not take much resources either on carrier path or in the internal memory of switches.
Packet switching enhances line efficiency as packets from multiple applications can be multiplexed over the carrier. The internet uses packet switching technique. Packet switching enables the user to differentiate data streams based on priorities. Packets are stored and forwarded according to their priority to provide quality of service.
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