Chapter 1

Telecommunications
Technology Fundamentals
 Transmission Lines
Two prerequisites must be satisfied to have
successful communication.
• The first prerequisites is understandability. The
transmitter and receiver must speak the same
language.
• The second prerequisites is the capability to detect
errors as they occur and to have some procedure
for resolving those errors.
 Transmission Lines
If these two prerequisites understandability and error control are
met, the communication can occur.

There are five main types of transmission lines.

1. Circuits
2. Channels
3. Lines
4. Trunks
5. Virtual Circuits
 Transmission Lines
• Circuits
A circuit is the physical path that runs between two
or more points. It terminates on a port (i.e. a point
of electrical or optical interface), and that port can
be in a host computer, on a multiplexer, on a
switch, or in another device.
There are two types of circuits.
1. Two Wire Circuits
2. Four Wire Circuits
 Transmission Lines
• Two Wire Circuits
A two wire circuit has 2 isolated electrical
conductors: one wire is used for the
transmission of the information, and the
other wire acts as the return path to
complete the electrical circuit.
A B

Figure: A two wire

circuit
 Transmission Lines
• Four Wire Circuits
A four wire circuit has two pairs of conductors. That is, it has
two sets of one-way transmission paths: one part for each
direction and a complementary part to complete the
electrical circuit. Its used to strengthened the signal between
two long distance points. There are 2 types of four wire
circuits.

1. Physical Four Wire

2. Logical Four Wire
 Transmission Lines
• Physical Four Wire Circuit
In physical four wire, you can actually count four wires.
• Logical Four Wire Circuit
In logical four wire, physically there are only two wires, but you derive
the four individual paths by splitting the frequency. Half of the frequency
band carries the transmit signal, and the other half carries the receive
signal.
They need amplifier and repeaters for longer distance communications.
T R
Figure: A Four
Customer Carrier wire circuit
R T
 Transmission Lines
• Channels
A channel defines a logical conversation path. It is the
frequency band, time slot, or wavelength ( also referred to as
lambda) allocated to a single conversation.
• Lines and Trunks
Lines and trunks are basically the same thing, but they are
used in different situation. A line is a connection configured to
support a normal calling load generated by one Individual. A
trunk is a circuit configured to support the calling loads
generated by a group of users; it is the transmission facility
that ties together switching systems. There are 2 major types
of switching systems.
 Transmission Lines
• CPE Switches
The most prevalent form of switch in the customer premises
equipment environment is the (PBX) Private Branch Exchange. Its
used to establish a connection between two points. It establishes
connections between telephones that are internal to the
organization, and it establishes connections between internal
extensions and the outside world.
• Network Switches
A hierarchy of network switches has evolved over time, and the
appropriate switch is called into action, depending on which two
points the switch connect.
 Transmission Lines
• Using two Wire and four wire Circuits
Telephone Set

Telephone Set
International
Gateway
Toll Toll
Local Exchange Exchange Local
Exchange
Exchange

CITY A CITY B
 Transmission Lines International
Gateway

• Lines, Trunks, and Switches Interexchange

Trunks

Individual Local Toll/ Transit

User Station PBX Exchange Switch for
Lines, Or routing calls
Extensions to or from
other cities.

Subscriber
Line Local
Exchange Tandem/Jun
Residential ction for
Service PBX routing calls
between two
local
exchanges

Subscriber Tandem
Trunks
Line
Local Loop Local Exchange Class 5
Switch, Central Office
CPE
Backbone or Core
Network
 Transmission Lines
• Virtual Circuits
A virtual Circuit is a series of logical connections between
sending and receiving devices. A virtual circuit is a connection
between two devices that acts as though its direct connection,
but it may, in fact, be composed of a variety of different routes.
These routes might change at any time, and the incoming
return route does not have to mirror the outgoing route.
There are two types of Virtual Circuits.
1. Permanent Virtual Circuit
2. Switched Virtual Circuit.
 Transmission Lines
• A virtual Circuit
H3 H4
H2
HOST
B C
Virtual
H1 Circuit H5
A D
Switch
F E with an
trunk Internal
Routing
Table

H7 H6
 Types of Network Connections
Three major types of networks connections can be made:
Switched Network Connections- A switched network connection is referred
to as a dialup connection. This implies that it uses a series of network
switches to establish the connection between the parties.
Leased-Line Network Connections- A leased line is also referred to as
private line. With a leased line, the same locations or the same devices
as always connected, and transmission between those locations or
devices always occurs on the same path.
Dedicated Network Connections- In essence, a dedicated line works
exactly like a leased line. It always connected, and it always uses the
same path for transmission.
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
Frequency- The number of oscillations per second of an
electromagnetic wave is called its frequency.
Hertz- Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz), in honor of Heinrich
Hertz, a German physicist, who in, 1887, invented the oscillator. He also
discover the radio waves.
Wavelength- The wavelength is the distance between two consecutive
maxima or minima of the waveform.
Amplitude- Amplitude is a measure of the height of the wave,
which indicates the strength, or power, of the signal.
Phase- Phase describes the current state of something that
changes cyclically. It describes in the angles.
Bandwidth- The range of the frequencies ( i.e. the difference between
the lowest and highest frequencies carried) that make up a signal is
carried bandwidth.
 Analog and Digital Transmission
Analog Transmission- An analog waveform (or signal)
is characterized be being continuously variable
along amplitude and frequency.

Digital Transmission- is quite different from analog

transmission. For one thing, the signal is much
simpler. Rather than being a continuously variable
waveform, it’s a series of discrete pulses,
representing one bits and zero bits.
 Analog and Digital Transmission
Conversion: Codec and Modems

Codec- A codec converts analog signals into digital

Signal.
Modem- A modem ( which is a contraction of the
terms modulate and demodulate) is used to infuse
digital data onto transmission facilities.
 Analog and Digital Transmission
Codecs and Modems

Computers
Analog ANALOG Analog Connected
Computers Modem TRANSMI Modem
Multiplexing Multiplexing to Modems
Connected SSION
to Modems

Telephones
DIGITAL Digital
Telephones Digital Codec Connected
Codec TRANSMI Multiplexing
Connected Multiplexing to Codec
SSION
to Codec
 Multiplexing
Multiplexers, often called muxes, are extremely
important to the telecommunications. Their
main reason for being to reduce network
costs by minimizing the number of
communications links needed between two
points.
Various Techniques in the Multiplexing- FDM,
TDM, STDM,CDMA,WDM,DWDM AND
CWDM.
 Standard Organizations
• International- ITU, ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D,
IEC, ISO
• Australia- ACA, ACC,AIIA, ATUG
• EUROPE- AFNOR, CEN, CENLEC,
CEPT,DIN,ETSI,EU
• JAPAN- JISC, TTC
• NEW ZEALAND- ITANZ
• NORTH AMERICA- ANSI, EIA, FCC, IEEE, NIST,
SCC