Chapter 3

Data and Signals

3.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 • One of the major functions of the physical layer is to move data in the form

of electromagnetic signals across a transmission medium

• Generally, the data usable to a person or application are not in a form that

can be transmitted over a network, e.g., picture

To be transmitted, data must be transformed to electromagnetic

signals.

3.2
 3-1 ANALOG AND DIGITAL

Data can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers to information that is continuous; digital

data refers to information that has discrete states.

• Analog data take on continuous values, e.g., analogue clock.
• Digital data take on discrete values, e.g., digital clock.

• Analog data, such as the sounds made by a human voice, take on continuous values.
• When someone speaks, an analog wave is created in the air. This can be captured by a microphone and converted to an analog signal or sampled and

converted to a digital signal.

• Digital data take on discrete values. For example, data are stored in computer memory in the form of 0s and 1s. They can be converted to a digital signal or

modulated into an analog signal for transmission across a medium.

3.3
 Note

Like data, signals can be analog or digital.

Analog signals can have an infinite number of values in a range.

Digital signals can have only a limited

number of values.

3.4
 Figure 3.1 Comparison of analog and digital signals

The simplest way to show signals is by plotting them on a pair of perpendicular axes.

3.5
 • Both analog and digital signals can be periodic or nonperiodic.

• A periodic signal completes a pattern within a measurable time frame, called a period, and repeats that pattern over subsequent identical

periods. The completion of one full pattern is called a cycle.

• A nonperiodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern or cycle that repeats over time.

Note

In data communications, we commonly use periodic analog signals

and nonperiodic digital signals.

3.6
 3-2 PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite. A simple periodic analog signal, a

sine wave, cannot be decomposed into simpler signals. A composite

periodic analog signal is composed of multiple sine waves.

Topics discussed in this section:

Sine Wave

Wavelength

Time and Frequency Domain

Composite Signals

Bandwidth

3.7
 Figure 3.2 A sine wave

The sine wave is the most fundamental form of a periodic analog signal and can be represented by

three parameters: the peak amplitude, the frequency, and the phase

cycle

3.8
 Figure 3.3 Two signals with the same phase and frequency,
but different amplitudes

The peak amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of its highest intensity, proportional to the energy it carries. For electric

signals, peak amplitude is normally measured in volts.

3.9
 • Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to complete 1 cycle.
• Frequency refers to the number of periods in 1 second.

• Period is formally expressed in seconds. Frequency is formally expressed in Hertz (Hz), which is cycle per

second.

Note

Frequency and period are the inverse of each other.

3.10
 Figure 3.4 Two signals with the same amplitude and phase, but different frequencies

3.11
 Table 3.1 Units of period and frequency

3.12
 Example 3.3

The power we use at home has a frequency of 60 Hz. The period of this sine wave can be

determined as follows:

3.13
 Example 3.4

Express a period of 100 ms in microseconds.

Solution
−3 6
From Table 3.1 we find the equivalents of 1 ms (1 ms is 10 s) and 1 s (1 s is 10 μs). We make

the following substitutions:.

3.14
 Example 3.5

The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in kilohertz?

Solution

First we change 100 ms to seconds, and then we calculate the frequency from the period (1 Hz =
−3
10 kHz).

3.15
 Note

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.

3.16
 Note

If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is zero.

If a signal changes instantaneously, its frequency is infinite.

3.17
 Note

Phase describes the position of the waveform relative to time 0.

• If we think of the wave as something that can be shifted backward or forward along the time axis, phase

describes the amount of that shift. It indicates the status of the first cycle.

3.18
 Figure 3.5 Three sine waves with the same amplitude and frequency,
but different phases

Phase is measured in degrees or radians [360° is 2π rad; 1° is 2π /360 rad, and 1 rad is 360/(2π)]. A phase shift of 360° corresponds to a shift of a

complete period; a phase shift of 180° corresponds to a shift of one-half of a period; and a phase shift of 90° corresponds to a shift of one-

quarter of a period

3.19
 Example 3.6

A sine wave is offset 1/6 cycle with respect to time 0. What is its phase in degrees and radians?

Solution

We know that 1 complete cycle is 360°. Therefore, 1/6 cycle is

3.20
 Figure 3.6 Wavelength and period

• Wavelength is a property of any type of signal and depends on both the frequency and the medium.
• The wavelength is the distance a simple signal can travel in one period.

• Wavelength can be calculated if one is given the propagation speed (the speed of light) and the period of the signal
• If we represent wavelength by λ, propagation speed by c (speed of light), and frequency by f, we get

Wavelength = propagation speed/ frequency

• It is measured in micrometers (microns) and is different for different media like vacuum, air and cable.

3.21
 Figure 3.7 The time-domain and frequency-domain plots of a sine wave

• Time-domain plot shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to time (amplitude-versus-time plot).
• A frequency-domain plot is concerned with only the peak value and the frequency. Changes of amplitude during one period are not shown in

frequency-domain.

3.22
 Note

A complete sine wave in the time domain can be represented by one

single spike in the frequency domain.

3.23
 Example 3.7

The frequency domain is more compact and useful when we are dealing with more

than one sine wave. For example, Figure 3.8 shows three sine waves, each with

different amplitude and frequency. All can be represented by three spikes in the

frequency domain.

3.24
 Figure 3.8 The time domain and frequency domain of three sine waves

3.25
 Note

A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in data communications;

we need to send a composite signal, a signal made of many simple

sine waves.

3.26
 Example 3.8

Figure below shows a periodic composite signal with frequency f. This type of signal is not typical

of those found in data communications. We can consider it to be three alarm systems, each with a

different frequency. The analysis of this signal can give us a good understanding of how to

decompose signals.

3.27
 Figure 3.10 Decomposition of a composite periodic signal in the time and
frequency domains

3.28
 Note

The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference between the

highest and the lowest frequencies contained in that signal.

3.29
 Figure 3.12 The bandwidth of periodic and nonperiodic composite signals

3.30
 Example 3.10

If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves with frequencies of 100, 300, 500, 700, and

900 Hz, what is its bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming all components have a maximum

amplitude of 10 V.

Solution

Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then

The spectrum has only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz (see Figure 3.13).

3.31
 Figure 3.13 The bandwidth for Example 3.10

3.32
 3-3 DIGITAL SIGNALS

In addition to being represented by an analog signal, information can also be represented by a

digital signal. For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a 0 as zero voltage.
• A digital signal can have more than two levels. In this case, we can send more than 1 bit for

each level.

We send 1 bit per level in part a of the figure and 2 bits per level in part b of the figure. In general, if a

signal has L levels, each level needs log2L bits.

3.33
 Figure 3.16 Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and the other
with four signal levels

3.34
 Example 3.16

A digital signal has eight levels. How many bits are needed per level? We calculate the number of

bits from the formula

Each signal level is represented by 3 bits.

3.35
 Baseband transmission: Transmission of Digital Signal

• Baseband transmission means sending a digital signal over a channel without

changing the digital signal to an analog signal

• Baseband transmission requires that we have a low-pass channel, a channel with a

bandwidth that starts from zero. This is the case if we have a dedicated medium

with a bandwidth constituting only one channel, e.g.,

• Entire bandwidth of a cable connecting two computers is one single channel
• Connect several computers to a bus, but not allow more than two stations to communicate at a time.

3.36
 Note

A digital signal is a composite analog signal with an infinite

bandwidth.

3.37
 Note

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.

In baseband transmission, the required bandwidth is proportional to

the bit rate;

if we need to send bits faster, we need more bandwidth.

3.38
 Figure 3.23 Bandwidth of a bandpass channel

• If the available channel is a bandpass channel, we cannot send the digital signal directly to the channel; we need to

convert the digital signal to an analog signal before transmission.

• Broadband transmission or modulation means changing the digital signal to an analog signal for transmission.
• Modulation allows us to use a bandpass channel-a channel with a bandwidth that does not start from zero.

3.39
 Figure 3.24 Modulation of a digital signal for transmission on a bandpass
channel

3.40
 Example 3.24

An example of broadband transmission using modulation is the sending of computer data through a

telephone subscriber line, the line connecting a resident to the central telephone office. These lines

are designed to carry voice with a limited bandwidth(0-4KHz). The channel is considered a

bandpass channel. We convert the digital signal from the computer to an analog signal, and send the

analog signal. We can install two converters to change the digital signal to analog and vice versa at

the receiving end. The converter, in this case, is called a modem.

3.41
 3-4 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect. 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.

3.42
 Figure 3.26: Attenuation

• Attenuation means a loss of energy.

• When a signal, simple or composite, travels through a medium, it loses some of its energy in

overcoming the resistance of the medium. That is why a wire carrying electric signals gets

warm, if not hot, after a while.

• Some of the electrical energy in the signal is converted to heat. To compensate for this loss,

amplifiers are used to amplify the signal

3.43
 Example 3.26: Decibels

• To show that a signal has lost or gained strength, we use the unit of the decibel.
• The decibel (dB) measures the relative strengths of two signals or one signal at two different points.
• Note that the decibel is negative if a signal is attenuated and positive if a signal is amplified.

Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium and its power is reduced to one-half. This means that P2

is (1/2)P1. In this case, the attenuation (loss of power) can be calculated as

A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half the power.

3.44
 Example 3.27

A signal travels through an amplifier, and its power is increased 10 times. This means that P 2 =

10P1 . In this case, the amplification (gain of power) can be calculated as

3.45
 Example 3.29

Sometimes the decibel is used to measure signal power in milliwatts. In this case, it is referred to

as dBm and is calculated as dBm = 10 log10 Pm , where Pm is the power in milliwatts. Calculate

the power of a signal with dBm = −30.

Solution

We can calculate the power in the signal as

3.46
 Figure 3.28: Distortion

• Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape.

• Distortion can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies. Each signal component has its own propagation speed.
• Differences in delay may create a difference in phase if the delay is not exactly the same as the period duration
• Signal components at the receiver have phases different from what they had at the sender

3.47
 Figure 3.29: Noise

• Noise is another cause of impairment. Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced noise, crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the

signal.
• Thermal noise is the random motion of electrons in a wire which creates an extra signal not originally sent by the transmitter.
• Induced noise comes from sources such as motors and appliances. These devices act as a sending antenna, and the transmission medium acts as the

receiving antenna.
• Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other. One wire acts as a sending antenna and the other as the receiving antenna.
• Impulse noise is a spike (a signal with high energy in a very short time) that comes from power lines, lightning, and so on.

3.48
 Example 3.31: SNR

• To find the theoretical bit rate limit, we need to know the ratio of the signal power to the noise

power.
• SNR is actually the ratio of what is wanted (signal) to what is not wanted (noise).
• A high SNR means the signal is SNR average by
less corrupted

signal power
noise; a low SNR means the signal is more
average noise power
corrupted by noise.
SNRdB  10 log10 SNR

The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the noise is 1 μW; what are the values of SNR and SNR dB ?

Solution

The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as follows:

3.49
 3-5 DATA RATE LIMITS

A very important consideration in data communications is how fast we can send data, in bits per

second, over a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:

1. The bandwidth available

2. The level of the signals we use

3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)

Two theoretical formulas were developed to calculate the data rate:

1. Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

2. Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity

3.50
 For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical maximum bit

rate
Bit Rate  2  bandwidth  Log 2 L
• We can have any bit rate we want by increasing the number of signal levels, but the idea is theoretically correct, practically there is

a limit.
• Receiver must be very sophisticated to distinguish between 64 different levels
• Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the reliability of the system.

3.51
 Example 3.34

Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz transmitting a signal with two signal

levels. The maximum bit rate can be calculated as

3.52
 Example 3.36

We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many signal

levels do we need?

Solution

We can use the Nyquist formula as shown:

Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either increase the number of levels or reduce the

bit rate. If we have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we have 64 levels, the bit rate is 240 kbps.

3.53
 Example 3.37: Shannon Capacity

In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel; the channel is always noisy. In 1944, Claude Shannon introduced a formula, called the

Shannon capacity, to determine the theoretical highest data rate for a noisy channel:

Capacity  bandwidth  log 2 (1  SNR )

where bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel, SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio, and capacity is the max. capacity of the channel in

bits per second

Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value of the signal-to-noise ratio is almost zero. In other words, the noise is so strong

that the signal is faint. For this channel the capacity C is calculated as

This means that the capacity of this channel is zero regardless of the bandwidth. In other words, we cannot receive any data through this

channel.

3.54
 Example 3.38

We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone line. A telephone line

normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is usually 3162. For this channel the

capacity is calculated as

• This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is 34.860 kbps.
• If we want to send data faster than this, we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or improve

the signal-to-noise ratio.

3.55
 Example 3.39

The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels. Assume that SNRdB = 36 and the channel

bandwidth is 2 MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be calculated as

3.56
 Example 3.41

We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is 63. What are the

appropriate bit rate and signal level?

Solution

First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit.

3.57
 Example 3.41 (continued)

The Shannon formula gives us 6 Mbps, the upper limit. For better performance we choose

something lower, 4 Mbps, for example. Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the number of

signal levels.

3.58
 Note

The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit; the Nyquist formula

tells us how many signal levels we need.

3.59
 3-6 PERFORMANCE

One important issue in networking is the performance of the network—how good is it? We discuss

quality of service, an overall measurement of network performance, in greater detail in Chapter

24. In this section, we introduce terms that we need for future chapters.

Topics discussed in this section:

Bandwidth

Throughput

Latency (Delay)

3.60
 Note

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.

❏ The second, bandwidth in bits per

second, refers to the speed of bit

transmission in a channel or link.

3.61
 Example 3.44

• The throughput is a measure of how fast we can actually send data through a network. Bandwidth in bits per second and throughput

seem the same, they are different. e.g.,

• Imagine a highway designed to transmit 1000 cars per minute from one point to another. However, if there is congestion on the road,

this number may be reduced to 100 cars per minute. The bandwidth is 1000 cars per minute; the throughput is 100 cars per minute.

A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an average of 12,000 frames per minute with each frame carrying an average of

10,000 bits. What is the throughput of this network?

Solution

We can calculate the throughput as

• The throughput is almost one-fifth of the bandwidth in this case.

3.62
 Example 3.45

The latency or delay defines how long it takes for an entire message to completely

arrive at the destination

Latency =propagation from
time +transmission the time
time +queuing time the first bit
+ processing delayis sent out from the source

• Transmission time refers to the time it takes to push all the bits of a packet onto the link.
• Propagation time is the time it takes for the signal to propagate through media excluding queuing and

processing time.
Distance Message size
Propagation Time= Transmission time 
Propagation Speed Bandwidth
8
What is the propagation time if the distance between the two points is 12,000 km? Assume the propagation speed to be 2.4 × 10 m/s in

cable.

Solution

We can calculate the propagation time as

The example shows that a bit can go over the Atlantic Ocean in only 50 ms if there is a direct cable between the source and the

destination.

3.63
 Example 3.46

What are the propagation time and the transmission time for a 2.5-kbyte message (an e-mail) if

the bandwidth of the network is 1 Gbps? Assume that the distance between the sender and the
8
receiver is 12,000 km and that light travels at 2.4 × 10 m/s.

Solution

3.64