Transmission Media

Transmission media is a pathway that carries the information from sender to receiver. We use different types of cables or waves to transmit data. Data is transmitted normally through electrical or electromagnetic signals.

Wired transmission media

Bound transmission media are the cables that are tangible or have physical existence and are limited by the physical geography.

Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable

The twisted-pair cable is generally a common form of transmission medium. It consists of two wires or conductors twisted together, each with its own plastic insulation. The twisted wires cancel out electromagnetic interference that can cause, the noise generated by adjacent pairs. Undesired coupling of a signal from one circuit, part of a circuit, or channel, to another. The most common connector used for twisted-pair cable is RJ-45.

• Shielded Twisted Pair Cable

The Shielded Twisted-Pair or STP is another form of twisted-pair cable. Twisted-pair cable wires that consist of anouter covering or shield. Its four pairs of colour-coded wires are each wrapped in metallic foil, and all four are then collectively wrapped in a layer of metallic braid or foil. Finally, this layer is wrapped with a plastic outer jacket.

• Coaxial Cable

The coaxial cable, often referred to as ‘coax’, consists of a single copper wire surrounded by at least three layers. They are an insulating material, a woven or braided metal and a plastic outer coating. This cable is often used as cable television (CATV) network wiring because it can be cabled over longer distances in comparison to the twisted-pair cable. This type of cable makes used of the BNC (Bayonet Neill–Concelman)connectors.

• Fibre Optic Cable

The fibre optic cable is a networking medium that uses light for data transmission. The intensity of light is increased and decreased to represent binary one and zero. The binary system is a way of counting using just the two numbers 0 and 1. Its core consists of dozens or hundreds of thin strands of glass or plastic which uses light to transmit signals. Each strand, called an optical fibre, is as thin as a human hair.

Wireless transmission media

Unbound transmission media are the ways of transmitting data without using any cables. These media are not bounded by physical geography.

• Satellite

This is a space station that receive microwave signals from an earth-based station, amplifies the signals, and broadcasts the signal back over a wide area to any number of earth-based station. A transmission from the earth to a satellite is called an uplink; a transmission from a satellite to an earth station is called a downlink. Communication satellites are used in application such as air navigation, television and radio broadcast , videoconferencing and paging.

• Microwave

These are radio waves that provides a high-speed signal transmission; from one microwave station to another; which are normally located on the top of buildings, towers or mountain . Microwave signals must be transmitted in as straight line with o obstructions between microwave antennas.

• Infrared 

Is a wireless transmission media that sends signals using infrared light waves. Infrared transmission requires a line of sight transmission, that is the sender and receiver must be aligned so that nothing obstructs the path of infrared light wave.

• Bluetooth

This is an open wireles protocol for exchanging data over short distances (using short radio waves) from fixed and mobile devices. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.