Digital Data Transmission

• Do we send one bit at a time or do we group bits into

larger groups and if so, How?
 Parallel Transmission
• Binary data consisting of 1s and 0s may be organized
into groups of ‘n’ bits each

• By grouping we can send data ‘n’ bits at a time

instead of one bit
Parallel Transmission
 Parallel Transmission
 Advantage of Parallel Transmission
 SPEED

 Disadvantage of Parallel Transmission

 COST
 Serial Transmission

• One bit follows another, so we need only one channel

rather than ‘n’ to transmit data between two devices

• Conversion devices are required at the

interface
Serial Transmission
 Serial Transmission

• Advantage
– COST
 Types of Serial Transmission

• There are two types of Serial Transmission:

– Asychronous Transmission

– Synchronous Transmission
 Asynchronous Transmission

• It is so named because the timing of the signal is

unimportant. Instead information is received and
translated by agreed upon patterns

• Start and Stop Bits

Asynchronous Transmission
Asynchronous Transmission
• Advantages
– Cheap
– Effective

• Disadvantages
– Slow
 Synchronous Transmission
• Data is transmitted as an unbroken string of 1’s and
0’s and the receiver separates that string into the
bytes or characters it need to reconstruct the
information
Synchronous Transmission
 Synchronous Transmission
• Advantage
– Speed
 Multiplexing

Set of techniques that allows the simultaneous

transmission of multiple signals across a single
data link
Multiplexing
 Frequency Division
Multiplexing
• Signals modulate different carrier frequencies

• Channel - Bandwidth range to accommodate a

modulated signal
Frequency Division
Multiplexing
FDM Multiplexing
Time Domain
FDM Multiplexing
Frequency Domain
FDM Demultiplexing
Time Domain
FDM Demultiplexing
Frequency Domain
 Wave Division Multiplexing
• Conceptually the same as FDM

• Light signals transmitted through fiber optic

channels

• Combining different signals of different frequencies

(wavelengths)
Wave Division Multiplexing
 Prisms in WDM
• Combining and splitting of light sources are easily
handled by a Prism

• Prism bends a light beam based on the incidence

angle and the frequency
Prisms in WDM
 Time Division Multiplexing
• Portions of signals occupy the link sequentially

• Synchronous TDM and asynchronous TDM

Time Division Multiplexing
 Synchronous TDM
• Multiplexer allocates exactly the same time slot to
each device at all times

• Time slots are grouped into frames

– For n input lines, each frame has at least n slots
– It is possible to accommodate varying data rates
Synchronous TDM
 Interleaving
• Interleaving can be done by bit, by byte, or by any
other data unit

• The interleaved unit is of the same size in a given

system
Interleaving
 Demultiplexing Process
• Demultiplexer decomposes each frame by extracting
each data unit in turn

• Weakness of synchronous TDM

– Waste of empty slots
Demultiplexing Process
 Framing Bits
• Various factors can cause timing inconsistencies

• One or more synchronization bits (framing bits) are

usually added to the beginning of each frame
Framing Bits
Synchronous TDM Example