Data Communications 

Data  Communications 
and 
Networking
Overview
Data Communication

Exchange
g of data between two
devices via some form of transmission
medium such as wire cable

¾Components

¾Data Representation

¾Direction of Data Flow

Data Communication

The effectiveness of the data

communication system depends on
the following characteristics
1. Delivery
2 Accuracy
2.
3. Timeliness
Five components of data communication
Components
¾Message
¾Information to be communicated
¾Sender
¾Device that sends the data message
¾Receiver
e ce tthat
¾Device at receives
ece es tthe
e message
essage
¾Medium
¾Physical path by which a message travels from
sender to receiver.
¾Protocol
¾Set of rules that governs data communications
communications. It
represents an agreement between the communicating
devices
Data Representation

¾Text
¾ASCII
¾Extended ASCII
¾Unicode
¾ISO
¾Numbers
¾Images
¾Audio
¾Video
Direction of Data Flow
Simplex
Half‐duplex
Full‐duplex
Networks

Distributed Processing

Network Criteria

Physical Structures

Categories
Ca ego es of
o Networks
e o s
Distributed Processing

• In
In which a task is divided among multiple 
which a task is divided among multiple
computers.
• Instead of a single large single machine 
Instead of a single large single machine
responsible for all aspects of a process, each 
separate computer handles a subset
separate computer handles a subset.
Advantages

• Security/Encapsulation
• Distributed databases
• Faster problem solving
bl l i
• Security through redundancy
• Collaborative processing
Network Criteria
• To be considered effective and efficient, a network must meet the 
following criteria
following criteria
– Performance
• Can be measured in many ways
– Transit time
» Amount of time required for a message to travel from one device to another
f df lf d h
» Elapsed time between an inquiry and a response.
– Response time
• Depends on the following
– Number of users
Number of users
– Type of transmission medium
– Hardware 
– Software
– Reliabilityy
• Measured by frequency of failure
• Time taken by the link to recover from a failure
• Catastrophe
– Security
• Unauthorized access
• Viruses
Physical structures
Types of Connection
Point‐to‐point connection
Multipoint connection
Types of physical topology
Categories of topology
Fully connected mesh topology (for five devices)
Star topology
Bus topology
Ring topology
Categories of networks
LAN
LAN (Continued)
MAN
WAN
The Internet
Internet today
Protocols

• Set of rules that govern data communication
• Defines what is communicated, how it is 
communicated, and when it is communicated.
• Key elements of a protocol
Key elements of a protocol
– Syntax
• Structure or the format of the data meaning the order in which 
they are presented
they are presented
– Semantics 
• Meaning of each section of bits
• How a particular pattern to be interpreted?
How a particular pattern to be interpreted?
– Timing
• When the data should be sent and how fast they can be sent.
Protocol Standards
• Provides a model for development that makes it 
possible for a product to work regardless of the
possible for a product to work regardless of the 
individual manufacturer
• Categories of standards
Categories of standards
– De jure (By Law)
• That have been legislated by an officially recognized body
– De Facto (By Fact)
• Proprietary
– Wholly owned by the company that invented the products
Wholly owned by the company that invented the products
– Closed standards
• Non Proprietary
– Developed by the groups
Developed by the groups
– Open Standards