3.

3 TRANSMISSION MEDIA

Computers and other telecommunication devices use signals to represent data. These signals

are transmitted from one device to another in the form of electromagnetic energy.

Electromagnetic signals can travel through a vacuum, through air, or through other

transmission media.

Transmission media can be divided into two broad categories or types:

 Guided (Wired).

 Unguided (Wireless).

Guided or Wired media are those in which the signal energy is contained and guided within a

solid medium, and wireless or unguided media are those in which the signal propagates in the

form of unguided electromagnetic signals. Copper twisted pair, copper coaxial cable and

optical fiber are examples of guided media. The atmosphere and outer space are example of

unguided media that provide a means of transmitting electromagnetic signals but do not guide

them.

Wired and Wireless media differ in a fundamental way. Wired media provide communication

from point-to-point. By interconnecting wires at various repeaters or switching points, wired

media lead to well-defined discrete network topologies. Additional transmission capacity

can be procured by adding more wires. Unguided media, on the other hand, can achieve only

limited directionality and can be transmitted, as in the case of broadcast radio, in all

directions making the medium broadcast in nature. This condition leads to a network

topology that is continuous in nature. In addition, all users within receiving range of each

other must share the frequency band that is available and can thus interfere with each other.

Unlike wired media, the ratio spectrum is finite, and it is not possible to procure additional

capacity. A given frequency band can be reused only in a sufficiently distant geographical

area.
Another difference between wired and wireless media is that wired media require

establishing a right-of-way through the land that is traversed by the cable. This process is

complicated, costly and time-consuming. On the other hand, systems that use wireless media

do not require the right-of-way and can be deployed by procuring only the sites where the

antennas are located. Wireless system can therefore be deployed more quickly and at lower

cost.

Guided Transmission Media(Wired Media)

Guided media, which are those that provide a channel from one device to another include:

 Copper Media

 Twisted-pair cable

 Coaxial Cable

 Fiber-optic Cable.

A signal traveling along any of these media is directed and contained by the physical limits of

the medium. Twisted-pair and Coaxial cable are Copper media which use metallic (copper)

conductors that accept and transport signals in the form of electrical current. Optical fiber is a

glass or plastic cable that accepts and transports signals in the form of light.

Copper Media

Twisted Pair

The least-expensive and most widely used guided transmission medium is twisted pair.

Physical Description: A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a

regular spiral pattern. A wire pair acts as a single communication link. Typically, a number of

these pairs are bundled together into a cable by wrapping them in a tough protective sheath.

Over longer distances, cables may contain hundreds of pairs. The signal is transmitted

through one wire in the pair while a ground reference is transmitted through the other. The
 twisting tends to decrease the cross talk interference between adjacent pairs in a cable. Cross

talk refers to the picking up of electrical signals from other adjacent wires. Because the wires

are unshielded, there is also a tendency to pick up noise, or interference from other

electromagnetic sources such as broadcast radio.

Transmission Characteristics: Twisted pair may be used to transmit both analog and digital

signals. For analog signals, amplifiers are required about every 5 to 6 km. For digital signals,

repeaters are required every 2 or 3 km.

Compared to other commonly uses guided transmission media (coaxial cable, optical fiber),

twisted pair is limited in distance, bandwidth and date rate. Twisted pair are more prone to

attenuation (loss of signal strength with distance), noise and interference. Shielding the wire

with metallic braid or sheathing reduces interference. The twisting of the wire reduces low-

frequency interference, and the use of different twist lengths in adjacent pairs reduces cross

talk.

Twisted-pair cable comes in two forms:

 Unshielded

 Shielded

Unshielded Twisted-pair cable (UTP)

Unshielded twisted-pair cable is the most common type of telecommunication medium in use

today.

The two conductors (copper wires) have their own colored plastic insulation. The plastic

insulation is color-banded for identification. Colors are used both to identify the specific

conductors in a cable and to indicate which wires belong in pairs and how they relate to other

pairs in a larger bundle.

 Fig. 13. Twisted-pair cable

Advantages of UTP are cost and ease of use. UTP is cheap, flexible, and easy to install.

Higher grades of UTP are used in many LAN technologies, including Ethernet and Token

ring.

Fig.14. Cable with 5 unshielded twisted pairs of wires.

The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) has developed standards to grade UTP cables by

quality. Categories are determined by cable quality, with 1 as lowest and 5 (now 6 and 7) as

highest. The optimal choice for any use is the cable with the minimal quality necessary to do

the desired job safely and effectively. Each EIA category is suitable for certain uses and not

for others. Category 6 and 7 are not EIA standards.

Category 1: The basic twisted-pair cabling used in telephone systems. This level of quality is

fine for voice but inadequate for all but low-speed data communication.

Category 2: Suitable for voice and for low- speed digital data transmission of up to 4Mbps.

Category 3: Required to have at least 3-4 twists per foot, four pairs grouped together in a

plastic sheath for protection, and can be used for data transmission of up to 16 Mbps. It is
now the standard cable for most telephone systems. Can be used for Ethernet LANs, Fast

Ethernet LANs, and token ring LANs.

Category 4: Must also have at least three twists or more per foot as well as other conditions

to bring the possible transmission rate from 16 to 20 Mbps. Used for data and voice

transmission. Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, token ring LANs.

Category 5: Used for voice and data transmission up to 100 Mbps. Much more tightly

twisted - 3 to 4 twists per inch for less cross talk and better quality signal over longer

distances. Contains four pair of wires. Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet,

token ring, and ATM.

Enhanced Category 5(developing nonstandard cabling): Same as Cat 5 but manufacturing

process is refined. Data rates of 1000Mbps. Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit

Ethernet, token ring, and ATM. Also known as Cat 5E.

Category 6: 250 MHz rating (more than 1 Gbps). Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet,

Gigabit Ethernet, token ring, and ATM. Also can handle 550 MHz broadband video. High

speed performance that is more reliable over long distances.

Category 6 (Class E): Similar to Cat6 and is proposed international standard.

Category 6 (STP): Shielded twisted pair. Rated at 600 MHz for data transmission. Suitable

for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, token ring, and high speed ATM.

Category 7: 600MHz rating. Can achieve higher speeds than Cat6. Will probably require

new connectors instead of current RJ-45. Cat7 (Class E) is the proposed international

standard.

Of these, it is category 3 and category 5 cable that have received the most attention for LAN

applications.

Shielded Twisted pair (STP):

 STP cable has a metal foil or braided-mesh covering that encases each pair of insulated

conductors (fig 15). The metal casing prevents the penetration of electromagnetic noise. It

also can eliminate a phenomenon called cross talk, which is the undesired effect of one circuit

(or channel) on another circuit (or channel). Shielding each pair of a twisted-pair cable can

eliminate most of the effects of cross talk. STP has the same quality considerations as UTP.

STP also uses the same connectors as UTP, but the shield must be connected to a ground.

Materials and manufacturing requirements make STP more expensive than UTP but less

susceptible to noise. STP can carry data at a faster speed than UTP. But it is more difficult to

handle and less flexible.

Fig. 15. Shielded twisted-pair cable

Coaxial Cable
Physical Description: Coaxial cable (or coax) carries signals of higher frequency ranges than

twisted-pair cable, and so it can span longer distances at higher speeds. Its frequency ranges

are 100 KHz to 500 MHz.

Instead of having two wires, coax has a central core conductor of solid (stiff) or stranded wire
(usually copper) enclosed in an insulating sheath, which in turn, encased in an outer
conductor of metal foil, braid or a combination of the two (also usually copper). The outer
metallic wrapping serves both as a shield against noise and as the second conductor, which
completes the circuit. This outer conductor is also enclosed in an insulating sheath and the
whole cable is protected by a plastic cover (fig 16).

Fig.16. Coaxial Cable

Transmission characteristics: The construction and shielding of the coaxial cable give it a

good combination of high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity. The bandwidth possible

depends on the cable length. For 1-km cables, a data rate of 1 to 2 Gbps is feasible. Longer

cables can also be used, but only at lower data rates or with periodic amplifiers.

Two kinds of coaxial cables are widely used:

 Base band- 50-0hm cable, commonly used for digital transmission.

 Broad band- 75-0hm cable, commonly used for analog transmission.

(Base band means digital and broadband means analog)

Baseband Coaxial is widely used in Local Area Networks. 10Base 5 (popularly called Thick

Coax) and 10Base 2 (Thin Coax) are the popular baseband cables used in 802.3 (Ethernet
LAN) cabling. 10Base 5 means that it operates at 10 Mbps, uses baseband (digital) signaling

and can support segments of up to 500 meters. 10Base 2 means it can support segments of up

to 200 meters with same characteristics of 10Base 5.

Fig. 17 (a) 10 base 5 (b) 10 base 2 (c) 10 base T

Connections to 10Base 5 are generally made using vampire taps, in which a pin is carefully

forced halfway into the coaxial cable’s core. It can support 100 machines per cable segment.

Connections to 10Base 2 are made using industry standard BNC (bayonet network connector)

connector to form T junction with a T-connector. BNC connector pushes on and locks into

place with a half turn into a T-connector. T-connector is a commonly used connector in thin

Ethernet. Thin Ethernet is much cheaper and easier to install, but it can run for only 200

meters and can handle only 30 machines per cable segment.

Terminators are another type of connectors, which are required for bus topologies where one

main cable acts as a backbone with branches to several devices but does not itself terminate

in a device. If the main cable is left unterminated, any signal transmitted over the line echoes

back and interferes with the original signal. A terminator absorbs the wave at the end, and

eliminates echo-back.

Broad Band Coaxial: The other kind of coaxial cable system uses analog transmission on

standard cable television cabling. It is called broadband. Broadband systems are divided up
into multiple channels, frequently the 6 MHz channels used for television broadcasting. Each

channel can be used for analog television, CD-quality audio (1.4 Mbps), or a digital bit

stream, independent of the others. Television and data can be mixed on one cable.

Applications:

The most important applications of coaxial cable are:

 Cable Television distribution & Cable Modem

 Long-distance telephone transmission

 Short-run computer system links

 Local Area Networks & Ethernet LANS

Cable Television distribution & Cable Modem: A cable TV system can carry dozens or

even hundreds of TV channels at ranges up to miles. Existing cable television systems are

arranged in a tree-and-branch topology as shown in fig..

Fig.18. Tree-and-Branch topology of conventional cable TV systems.

The master television signal originates at a head-end office, and unidirectional amplifiers

maintain the signal level. The signal is split along different branches until all subscribers are

reached. Because all the information flows from the head-end to the subscribers, cable

televisions were designed to be unidirectional. However, the coaxial network was not

designed to provide communications from the user to the network. Fig. 9 shows how coaxial

cable networks are being modified to provide upstream communications (for data) through
the introduction of unidirectional split-band amplifiers that allow information to flow in both

directions.

Fig19. Topology of hybrid fiber-coaxial systems

Long-distance telephone network: Coaxial cable has traditionally been an important part of

the long-distance telephone network. Today, it faces increasing competition from optical

fibers, microwave, and satellite. Using frequency division multiplexing (FDM), a coaxial

cable can carry over 10,000 voice channels simultaneously.

Short-run Computer system Links: Coaxial cable is also commonly used for short-range

connections between devices. Using digital signaling, coaxial cable can be used to provide

high-speed I/O channels on computer systems.

Local Area Networks & Ethernet LANs: Usage of 10Base 5 and 10Base 2 coaxial cables in

LAN’s have already been discussed earlier.

Fiber-Optic Media

The deployment of digital transmission systems using twisted pair and coaxial cable systems

established the trend towards digitization of the telephone network during the 1960’s and

1970’s. These new digital systems provided significant economic advantages over previous

analog systems. Optical Fiber transmission systems, which were introduced in the 1970’s

offered even greater advantages over copper-based digital transmission systems. Copper
(metallic) cables transmit signals in the form of current whereas optical fiber, on the other

hand, is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the form of light.

The typical T-1 or coaxial system requires repeaters about every 2 km. Optical fiber systems,

on the other hand, have maximum repeater spacing in the order of ten to hundreds of

kilometers. The introduction of optical fiber system has therefore resulted in great reduction

in the cost of digital transmission. Optical fiber systems have also allowed dramatic

reductions in the space required to house the cables. A single fiber strand is much thinner

than twisted pair or coaxial cable. Because a single optical fiber can carry much higher

transmission rates than copper systems, a single cable of optical fibers can replace many

cables of copper wires. In addition, optical fibers do not radiate significant energy and do not

pick up interference from external sources. Thus compared to electrical transmission, optical

fibers are more secure from tapping and are also immune to interference and cross talk.

Physical Description:

Optical transmission system has three components:

 The light source

 The transmission medium

 The detector

Conventionally, a pulse of light indicates a 1 bit and the absence of light indicates a zero bit.

The transmission medium is an ultra-thin fiber of glass (2 to 125 µm), flexible, and capable

of conducting an optical ray. Various glasses and plastics can be used to make optical fibers.

Ultra pure fused silica is also used as optical fiber and gives lowest losses but it is difficult to

manufacture. Multi component glass fibers have higher losses but are more economical and

provide good performance. Plastic fiber is even less costly and can be used for short-haul

links, for which moderately high error rates (loss of signal) are acceptable.
An optical fiber cable has a cylindrical shape and consists of three concentric sections: the

core, the cladding and the jacket. (Fig.20)

Fig.20. (a) Side view of a single fiber (b) End view of a sheath with three fibers

At the center is the glass core through which light propagates. The core is surrounded by a

glass cladding with a lower index of refraction than the core, to keep all the light in the core.

Next comes a thin plastic jacket to protect the cladding. Fibers are typically grouped together

in bundles, protected by an outer sheath. (Fig 20 (b)). The detector or the receiving end of an

optical fiber consists of a photodiode, which gives off an electrical pulse when struck by

light.

Two kinds of light sources can be used to do the signaling, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes)

and semiconductor lasers.

Transmission Characteristics

The Nature of Light: Light is a form of electromagnetic energy. It travels at its fastest in a

vacuum: 300,000 kilometers/second (approximately 186,000 miles/sec). The speed of light

depends on the density of the medium through which it is traveling (the higher the density the

slower is the speed).When a light ray passes from one medium to another, for example, from
fused silica to air, the ray is refracted (bent) at the silica/air boundary (fig 21).

Air/silica boundary

Silica
Light source
Total internal reflection

(a) (b)

Fig 21 (a) Three examples of a light ray from inside a silica fiber impinging on the

air/silica boundary at different angles.

(b) Light trapped by total internal reflection

The amount of reflection depends on the properties of the two media (in particular, their

indices of refraction). For angle of incidence above a certain critical value, the light is

refracted back into the Silica; none of it escapes into the air. Thus a light ray incident at or

above the critical angle is trapped inside the fiber; as shown in fig-21 (b), and can propagate

for many kilometers with virtually no loss.

Propagation Modes: Fig 21(b) shows only one trapped ray, but since any light ray incident on

the boundary above the critical angle will be reflected internally, many different rays will be
bouncing around at different angles. Each ray is said to have a different mode so a fiber

having this property is called a multimode fiber.

Reflected path

Direct path

(a) Multimode fiber: multiple rays follow different paths

(b) Single mode: only direct path propagates in fiber

Fig 22. Multi-mode and Single-mode Optical fiber

Applications:

The following characteristics distinguish optical fiber from twisted pair or coaxial cable:

 Greater capacity (higher bandwidth).

 Smaller size and lighter weight.

 Lower attenuation.

 Electro magnetic isolation (not affected by power surges, electromagnetic interference

or power failures or corrosive chemicals).

 Difficult to Tap, do not leak light

 Greater repeater spacing.

 Lower installation cost.

Following basic categories of application have become important for optical fiber:

Long – Haul Trunks: Optical fibers are becoming common in telephone network Backbone.

Local Area Networks: 10 BASE-FP Ethernet physical layer standard; Fiber Distribution

Data Interface (FDDI) ring-topology LAN, 100 BASE-FX Fast Ethernet physical layer

standard, Gigabit Ethernet (1000 BASE-X standards; 1000 BASE-SX & 1000 BASE-LX) all

use optical fibers.

Wireless Communication (Unguided Media)

For mobile users who need to be on-line all the time, who want to have connectivity even in

an air plane to read their e-mail through laptop, notebook, palmtop etc; twisted pair, coax and

fiber optics are of no use. Wireless also has advantages for even fixed devices in some

circumstances. For example, if running a fiber to a building is difficult due to the terrain

(mountains, jungles, swamps etc.) wireless may be preferable.

When electrons move, they create electromagnetic waves that can propagate through free

space (even in vacuum). The number of oscillations per second of an electromagnetic wave is

called its frequency, f, and is measured in Hz.

By attaching an antenna of the appropriate size to an electrical circuit, the electromagnetic

waves can be broadcast efficiently and received by a receiver some distance away. All

wireless communication is based on this principle.

For transmission, the antenna radiates electromagnetic energy into the medium (usually air),

and for reception, the antenna picks up electromagnetic waves from the surrounding medium.

There are basically two types of configurations for wireless transmission: directional or omni

directional. For the directional configuration, the transmitting antenna puts out a focused

electromagnetic beam; the transmitting and receiving antennas must therefore be carefully

aligned. In the omni directional case, the transmitted signal spreads out in all directions and
can be received by many antennas. In general, the higher, the frequency of a signal, the more

it is possible to focus it into a directional beam.

Electromagnetic transmission in air can be radio or microwave transmission depending on the

frequency.

Radio Transmission

Radio waves are easy to generate, can travel long distances and penetrate buildings easily, so

they are widely used for communication, both indoors and outdoors. Radio waves also are

omni directional, meaning that they travel in all directions from the source, so that the

transmitter and receiver do not have to be carefully aligned physically.

The properties of radio waves are frequency dependent. At low frequencies, radio waves pass

through obstacles well, but the power falls off sharply with distance from the source. At high

frequencies, radio waves tend to travel in straight lines and bounce off obstacles. They are

also absorbed by rain. At all frequencies, radio waves are subject to interference from motors

and other electrical equipment.

Microwave Transmission

Above 100MHz, the waves travel in straight lines and can therefore be narrowly focused.

Concentrating all the energy into a small beam using a parabolic antenna (like the familiar

satellite TV dish) gives a much higher signal to noise ratio, but the transmitting and receiving

antennas must be accurately aligned with each other.

In addition, this directionality allows multiple transmitters lined up in a row to communicate

with multiple receivers in a row without interference. Before fiber optics, for decades these

microwaves formed the heart of the long distance telephone transmission system.

Since the microwaves travel in a straight line, if the towers are too far apart, the earth will get

in the way. Consequently, repeaters are needed periodically. The higher the towers are, the
further apart they can be. The distance between repeaters goes up very roughly with the

square root of the tower height. For 100-m high towers, repeaters can be spaced 80 kms apart.

Unlike radio waves at lower frequencies, microwaves do not pass through buildings well. In

addition, even though the beam may be well focused at the transmitter, there is still some

divergence in space.

Physical Description:

Microwaves do not follow the curvature of the earth and therefore require line-of-sight

transmission and reception equipment. The distance coverable by a line-of-sight signal

depends on the height of the antenna: the taller the antennas, the longer the sight distance.

Height allows the signal to travel farther without being stopped by the curvature of the planet

and raises the signal above many surface obstacles, such as low hills and tall buildings that

would otherwise block transmission. Typically, antennas are mounted on towers that are in

turn often mounted on hills or mountains.

Microwave signals propagate in one direction at a time, which means that two frequencies are

necessary for two-way communication such as a telephone conversation. One frequency is

reserved for transmission in one direction and the other for transmission in the other. Each

frequency requires its own transmitter and receiver. Today, both pieces of equipment usually

are combined in a single piece of equipment called a transceiver, which allows a single

antenna to serve both frequencies and functions.

Repeaters: To increase the distance served by terrestrial microwave a system of repeaters

can be installed with each antenna. A signal received by one antenna can be converted back

into transmittable form and relayed to the next antenna (fig. 23)
 Fig 23. Terrestrial Microwave

Terrestrial microwave with repeaters provides the basis for most contemporary telephone

systems worldwide.

Satellite Communication

A communication satellite can be thought of as a big microwave repeater in the sky. It

contains several transponders, each of which listens to some portion of the spectrum,

amplifies the incoming signal, and then rebroadcasts it at another frequency, to avoid

interference with the incoming signal. The downward beam can be broad, covering a

substantial fraction of the earth’s surface, on narrow, covering an area only hundreds of

kilometers in distance.

Fig.24. Satellite Communication

Satellite microwave can provide transmission capability to and from any location on earth, no

matter how remote. This advantage makes high-quality communication available to

undeveloped parts of the world without requiring a huge investment in ground-based

infrastructure. Satellite themselves are extremely expensive, but leasing time or frequencies

on one can be relatively cheap. Based on the location of the orbit, satellites can be divided

into three categories: Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), and Middle-

Earth Orbit (MEO).

Geosynchronous Satellites (GEO): Line-of-sight propagation requires that the sending and

receiving antennas be locked onto each other’s location at all times (one antenna must have
the other in sight). For this reason, a satellite that moves faster or slower than the earth’s

rotation is useful only for short periods of time (just as a stopped clock is accurate twice a

day). To ensure constant communication, the satellite must move at the same speed as the

earth so that it seems to remain fixed above a certain spot. Such satellites are called

geosynchronous.

Because orbital speed is based on distance from the planet, only one orbit can be

geosynchronous.

But one geosynchronous satellite cannot cover the whole earth. One satellite in orbit has line-

of-sight contact with a vast number of stations, but the curvature of the earth still keeps much

of the planet out of sight. It takes a minimum of three satellites equidistant from each other in

geosynchronous orbit to provide full global transmission. Fig. 25 shows three satellites, each

120 degrees from another in geosynchronous orbit around the equator.

Fig. 25. Satellites in geosynchronous orbit

A new development in the communication satellite world is the development of low-cost

micro stations, sometime called VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals). These tiny

terminals have 1-meter antenna and can put out about 1 watt of power. In many VSAT

systems, the micro stations do not have enough power to communicate directly with one

another (via the satellite). Instead, a special ground station, the hub with a large, high-gain

antenna is needed to relay traffic between VSATs, as shown in Fig. 26.

 Fig 26. VSATs using a hub

In this mode of operation, either the sender or the receiver has a large antenna and a powerful

amplifier.

MEO Satellites: At much lower orbits we have MEO (Medium-Earth Orbit) satellites. As

viewed from earth, these drift slowly taking 6 hours to circle the earth. Because they are

lower than GEOs, they have a smaller footprint on ground and require less powerful

transmitters to reach them. The 24 GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites orbiting at

about 18,000 km and operated by US Department of Defence are examples of MEO satellites.

GPS is used by military forces, navigation (a driver of a car can find location of car), and

clock synchronization ( cellular telephone system uses GPS to create time synchronization

between the base stations.

LEO Satellites: Moving down in altitude, we have LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) satellites. Due

to their rapid motion, large numbers of them are needed for a complete system. Because the

satellites are so close to the earth, the ground stations do not need much power. Three

examples of LEOs are Iridium, Globalstar, and Teledesic. Iridium is targeted at telephone

users located at odd places. These are used for paging, navigation, voice and data. Iridium

relays calls from satellite to satellite in space whereas Globalstar routes call from satellite to

ground based terrestrial network where it is switched from one to another to reach the
 destination satellite and from there to the user. Teledesic is targeted at Internet users all over

the world providing broadband services.

Applications:

 Television Distribution: Because of their broadcast nature, satellites are well suited to

television distribution. Programs are transmitted to the satellite and then broadcast down to a

number of stations, which then distribute the programs to individual viewers.

 Long distance Telephone Transmission: Satellite transmission is also used for point-to-

point trunks between telephone exchange offices in public telephone networks.

 Private Business Networks: The satellite provider can divide the total capacity into a

number of channels and lease these channels to individual business users. A user equipped

with the antennas at a number of sites can use a satellite channel for a private network. VSAT

systems have provided a low-cost alternative. A number of subscriber stations are equipped

with low cost VSAT antennas. Using some protocol, these stations share a satellite

transmission capacity for transmission to a hub station. The hub station can exchange

messages with each of the subscribers as well as relay messages between subscribers.

Infrared and Millimeter Waves

Unguided infrared and millimeter waves are widely used for short-range communication.

The remote controls used on televisions, VCRs and stereos all use infrared communication.

They are relatively directional, cheap and easy to build, but have a major drawback: they do

not pass through solid objects. An advantage of this is that an infrared system in one room of

a building will not interface with a similar system in adjacent rooms. Security of infrared

systems against eaves dropping is better than radio systems. No government license is needed

o operate an infrared system, in contrast to radio systems.

Applications: Used in indoor wireless LANs. The computers and offices in a building can be

equipped with relatively unfocused (somewhat omni directional) infrared transmitters and
receivers. In this way, portable computers with infrared capability can be on the local LAN

without having to physically connect to it. When several people show up for a meeting with

their portables, they can just sit down in the conference room and be fully connected without

having to plug in. Infrared communication cannot be used outdoors because the sun shines as

brightly in the infrared as in the visible spectrum.