Transmission media:

• A transmission media is defined as the means of communication between two

networking devices that helps to transfer data from sender to receiver and vice
versa.
o Transmission channel is the path through which data are transmitted
from source to destination.
o The path through which data transmit form source to destination is
known as communication media.

• As an example we can connect the computer and the Wi-Fi router using the
ethernet (twisted) cable in Local Area Network.
• Transmission media can be divided into two parts Guided Media and
Unguided Media.

Bounded / Guided / wired Media:

Guided Media are those communication channel which directly link with each other
through cables or other physical media.
 • Data are transmitted in closed path through transmission media.
• Data gets transmitted through wires or cables in guided media.
• In guided media there is direct connection between source and destination
nodes.
• Guided media has high bandwidth, low cost and high security.
• Data transmission is faster than wireless.
• The most commonly used guided media are: Twisted Pair cable, Coaxial
Cable and Fiber Optics.

Twisted pair cable:

• Twisted pair cables have two conductors that are generally made up of copper
and each conductor is finally surrounded by outer insulating jacket.
• One wire of the pair is used for receiving data signal and the other wire is used
for transmitting data.
• The wires are twisted in order to reduce unwanted noise and interference from
external sources and used for both analog and digital transmission.
• It is available for different category such as category 4, category 5, category
6 and category 7.
• It is available in two forms:
1. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
2. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

1) Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) :

o These are a pair of two insulated copper wires twisted together without
any other insulation or shielding and hence are called unshielded
twisted pair cables.
o They reduce the external interference due to the presence of color
plastic insulation.
o Unshielded twisted pair cables are arranged in pairs so that we can add
a new connection whenever required.
o UTP cable has lower bandwidth maximum of 10Mbps and it may
interfere by an external sources. The DSL or telephone lines in our
houses have one extra pair in them.

2) Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) :

• These types of cables have extra insulation or protective covering over the
conductors.
• It has metal foil or braided mesh covering each pair of insulated conductors.
• It has more bandwidth 100Mbps up to 1000 Mbps.
• The shielding ensures that the induced signal can be returned to the source via
ground and only circulate around the shield without affecting the main
propagating signal.
S.NO Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
1. Electromagnetic interference and STP cable reduce electrical noise
noise is more in UTP within the
cable and from outside of the cable.

2 It offers speed or throughput of It offers speed or throughput of

about 10 to 1000 Mbps. about 10 to
100 Mbps.
3 The cost of UTP is less when STP is costlier than UTP.
compared to that of STP.
4 UTP is widely used for data STP is mainly used for connection
transmission within short distance of
and is very popular for home enterprises over a long distance.
network connecting
5 It offers maximum cable length of It supports maximum segment of
about 100 length
meters. about 100 meters

Advantages of Twisted pair cable :

1. It are often wont to carry both analog and digital data.
2. It’s relatively easy to implement and terminate.
3. It is the smallest amount expensive media of transmission for brief distances.
4. If portion of a twisted pair cable is broken it doesn’t effect the whole network.
 5. Less vulnerable to electrical interference caused by nearby equipment or
wires.
6. It cause interference themselves.
7. Best performance in short distances.
8. High-cost performance
9. The twisted-pair cable is low in weight.
10.Twisted pair cable is flexible to use
11.Twisted Pair cable is easy to connect.
12.These cable are suitable for Data and voice infrastructure.

Disadvantages of Twisted pair cable :

1. It is not possible to transmit data for long distance (maximum up to 200).
2. As they are thin so can be easily breakable.
3. Low durability (must be maintained regularly).
4. It emits electromagnetic interference (EMI).
5. It is not suitable for analog data such as video transmission.

Coaxial cable:
• Coaxial Cable is a type of guided media made of Plastics, and copper wires
which transmit the signal in electrical form rather than light form. Coaxial
cable is also known as coax.
• It is primarily used by cable TV companies to connect their satellite antenna
facilities to customer homes and businesses.
• Coaxial cable contains two conductors inner and outer, which are separated
by an insulator. These two conductors lies parallel to each other.
• The inner conductor is made up of copper wire which is covered by an inner
insulator. The inner insulator is again covered by outer conductor or metal
foil.
• Outer metal wrapping is used as a protection against noise and as the second
conductor which completes the circuit. The outer conductor is covered with
an insulating cover.
Copper conductor: A central conductor, which consists of copper. The
conductor is the point at which data is transmitted.

Insulator: Dielectric plastic insulation around the copper conductor. it is used

to maintain the spacing between the center conductor and shield.

Braided mesh: A braided mesh of copper helps to shield from

electromagnetic interference, The braid provides a barrier against EMI
moving into and out of the coaxial cable.

Protective plastic layer: An external polymer layer, which has a plastic

coating. It is used to protect internal layers from damage.

Coaxial cable is of two types:

(a) Baseband transmission (Thin net coaxial cable): It is defined as the
process of transmitting a single signal at high speed. It is also known as
10Base2 which refer to the specifications for thin net coaxial cable
carrying 10 mbps signal maximum up to 200 meters. This cable is popular
in bus topology network.
 (b) Broadband transmission (Thick net coaxial cable): It is defined as the
process of transmitting multiple signals simultaneously. It is also known
as 100Base5 which refer to the specifications for thin net coaxial cable
carrying 100 mbps signal maximum up to 500 meters. This cable is popular
in Cable TV network.

Advantages of coaxial cable:

1. It has higher bandwidth than unshielded twisted pair cable.
2. It is faster and reliable than twisted pair cable.
3. It can support multiple channels in a medium.

Disadvantages of coaxial cable:

1. It is not appropriate for relatively larger distance.
2. It is expensive than twisted pair cable.
3. It is rarely used in computer network.

Optical fiber cable:

Optical fiber cable is made up of glass or plastic that transmits signals in the form of
light. It is made up of a light conducting glass or plastic core through which light
propagates. The core is surrounded by a glass cladding with lower index of refraction
than the core to keep the light source in the core. Next a thin plastic jacket is used to
protect the cladding.
Features:
o» Data are transmitted in the form of light signals.
o» It is made up of glasses or plastics cover with fiber to protect.
o» It is difficult to install.
o» It has high bandwidth.
o» Data can transfer longer and faster than twisted pair and coax cable.
Core
This is the actual physical channel that carries optical data signals from a connected
light source to a receiver.

Cladding
This is the thin coating that covers the fiber core, acts as a barrier, and reflects light
waves, allowing information to travel the entire length of the fiber segment.

Coating
This plastic coating covers the core and cladding to fortify and safeguard the fiber
core. Coatings might be anywhere between 250 and 900 microns thick.

Bolstering fibers(strength Member)

During installation, these parts aid in defending the core from crushing forces and
too much stress. The materials can be made of Kevlar®, wire strands, or sleeves
filled with gel.

Cable sleeve(outer jacket)

Any cable’s outer layer is this. Although some varieties of fiber optic cables can
have black or yellow jackets, the majority of them have orange ones.
Advantages of optical fiber cable:
1. It has higher bandwidth that means it can handle large volume of data.
2. This medium can be used for long distance transmission.
3. It is the most secured and error free transmission medium.

Disadvantages of optical fiber cable:

1. It is one of the expensive type of transmission media.
2. It is not used for short distance transmission.
3. Highly qualified and technical manpower are required to operate on fiber optics.
4. Difficult to install and Fragile in nature

Wireless / Unguided Media / Unbound Transmission Media:

Unbound transmission is also called wireless or unguided media. If there is no
physical connectors (wires) between the two communicating device is called
wireless transmission media. Its types are as follows.
1. Radio Wave
2. Microwave
3. Infrared
4. Satellite Communication:

Radio Wave
1. Radio wave are the signals ranging frequency in between 3 KHz and 1 GHz.
 2. When the antenna transmits the radio wave; they are propagated in all
directions. Due to this the sending and receiving antenna doesn’t need to be
in line of sight position.
3. Antenna is responsible for converting outgoing data packets into radio waves
and vice-versa.

Features:
• It is wireless communication technology that transmits voice or data over the
air using a lower frequency band than microwaves.
• The signal is travel in up and down manner so that it can reach any place until
the strength of waves falls.
• AM and FM radios and cordless phones use radio waves for transmission

Advantages:
1. It is inexpensive and easy to produce.
2. It cover larger geographical area.

Disadvantages:
1. The data transfer rate is slower than that in wired media.
 2. The quality of data transmission is very poor.

Microwave
• High frequency electromagnetic wave (more than 1GHz) is known as
microwave.
• It cannot bend and pass obstacles like hill or building so it requires line of
sight transmission.
• The line of sight due to the earth's curvature is only 50 kilometre to the
horizon. Therefore, the microwave must be placed within the distance.
• microwave is used in WAN or MAN communication, satellite communication
and telephone communication.

Advantages
1. It has a high bandwidth than radio wave.
2. The quality of data transmission is better than radio wave.

Disadvantages
 1. It cannot bend and pass obstacles so requires line of sight for data
transmission.
2. It does not cover very large space because of earth's curvature.

Satellite
• Satellite is set in the geostationary orbits of the earth, which is approx. 22000
miles above from the earth surface.
• It continuously rotates the earth in the same orbit so that it appears
stationary from the earth.
• The communication is done through uplink and downlink from the earth's
stations.
• Transmitting a signal from ground to satellite is called uplink; the reverse is
called downlink.
• Communication satellites are used for telecommunication, radio television
transmission, mobile communication, global positioning system (GPS), etc.

Advantages
1. It covers all geographical area of earth.
 2. It has higher bandwidth than radio or microwave data transmission.

Disadvantages
1. It is very expensive for installation and for maintenance.
2. It may experience signal propagation delay.

IR( Infrared Radiation)

1. It can be used for short-distance communication which cannot penetrate
the wall.
2. Its application includes wireless LANs, cordless mobiles, fire sensor, wireless
mouse and keyboard.
3. The data rate of Infrared communication is about 1Gbps and can be used
for sending information like video signal.

Advantages

1. Infrared transmission requires minimum power to operate and can be

set up at a low cost.
2. This is a secure way to transfer data between devices as the signal
cannot pass beyond a room or chamber.

Disadvantages
1. The speed of data transfer in infrared is slow.
2. Infrared can be used for a small range distance.
3. Infrared signals are interpreted by objects and people.
4. These signals are impacted by weather conditions.