Saturday, December 17, 2011

Classification of Transmission Media

Transmission media may be classified in Two broad categories namely Guided & Unguided.

In both cases, communication is in the form of electromagnetic waves. With guided media, the waves are guided along a physical path; examples of guided media are twisted pair, coaxial cable, and optical fiber.

Unguided media provide a means for transmitting electromagnetic waves but do not guide them; examples are propagation through air, vacuum and seawater.

The term direct link is used to refer to the transmission path between two devices in which signal propagate directly from transmitters to receivers with no intermediate devices, other than amplifiers or repeaters used to increase signal strength. This term can apply to both guided and unguided media.

A transmission may be
  • Simplex
  • Half-duplex
  • Full duplex
In simplex transmission, signals are transmitted in only one direction; one station is a transmitter and the other is the receiver. In the half-duplex operation, both stations may transmit, but only one at a time. In full-duplex operation, both stations may transmit simultaneously. In the latter case, the medium is carrying signals in both directions at same time.

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