CCOOMMUMN U

I CN
A TIICO NAST I O N S

THE BASICS OF
DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
This article defines data communication as a whole. The
various topics under discussion are transmission types,
topologies, protocols, modulation methods, and practical
examples in which data communication methods are used

teristics, namely, delivery, accuracy, and

timeliness. The system must accurately
deliver the data to the right destination
and at the time it is required.

Transmission networks
ARATHI SELVARAJ

ata communication can be defined

as the exchange of data in the
form of 0s and 1s between two
devices using a transmission medium. Data
communication takes place when the communicating devices are part of a communication system that is made up of a combination of hardware and software. Data
communication via various electronic devices helps us to transmit data at high
speeds over large areas. Information may
be passed on to various destinations, thus
reducing the need to type in the same
data over and over.

signals, voice signals, and pictures.

Sender. It is the device used to send
the data; for example, computer, workstation, and telephone.
Receiver. It is the device that receives
the data; for example, computer, workstation, etc.
Medium. The transmission medium is
the physical path that the data uses to
travel from the sender to the receiver; for
example, twisted pair wire, coaxial cable,
fibre-optic cable, satellite, or microwave.
Protocol. The set of rules that govern
the data to be communicated is known as
a protocol.
The efficiency of a data communication system is measured by three charac-

Parallel transmission. Binary data is

organised into groups of n bits. The data
is then sent n bits at a time using n
channels (refer Fig. 2).
Serial transmission. Data is sent one
bit at a time, hence only one communication channel rather than n channels is
needed (refer Fig. 3). Thus the cost of
transmission is reduced by a factor of n.
Asynchronous transmission. Data is
received and translated by agreed upon

Fig. 2: Parallel transmission

The system
A data communication system (refer Fig.
1) comprises data, sender, receiver, medium, and protocol.
Data. Data is the information that is
to be communicated; for example, data
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Fig. 1: Data communication system

Fig. 3: Serial transmission

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Fig. 4: Asynchronous transmission

Fig. 5: Synchronous transmission

patterns. Patterns are based on grouping

bits of data into bytes. The receiver
recognises a new group of data through
an additional bit called the start bit (usually 0). The end of a group is found
using the stop bit (usually 1). Hence
timing of the signal is unimportant. The
transmission may then be followed by a
gap of varying duration (refer Fig. 4).
Synchronous transmission. Bit
streams are combined to form frames
containing multiple bytes. There is no gap
between the transmission of two
consecutive bytes. The task of decoding
and separating bytes is left to the
receiver. Thus data is transmitted as an
unbroken series of 1s and 0s. There
are no gaps or start and stop bits, hence
it is the responsibility of the receiving
device to keep count of bits coming
in and also to synchronise itself to the
speed at which data is coming in (refer
Fig. 5).

an exchange. The data that needs to be

sent from one device to another is first
sent to the controller, which then sends
the data to the desired device (refer Fig.
6).
In ring topology, each device is connected to the two devices on either side
of it by a point-to-point
dedicated line. A signal is
passed from one device to
the next in only one direction
until it reaches its
destination. If a device
encounters the data intended
for another device, the repeater generates bit patterns and passes
on the data (refer Fig. 7).
The multipoint bus topology uses a
long cable to link all the devices in the
network. Nodes or devices are connected
to the cable using drop lines or taps (refer
Fig. 8).

Protocols
Protocols may be defined based on the
layer in which they are used.
Layer 1. The physical layer is concerned with signaling. It includes several

Fig. 7: Ring topology

Topologies
The way in which the data communication network is laid (physically or logically) out is known as topology. Star, ring,
and bus are the three widely used
topologies.
In star topology, each device is connected to a central controller called the
hub through a dedicated point-to-point
link. As devices are not directly connected
to one another, the controller behaves as

Fig. 6: Star topology

Fig. 8: Bus topology

standards such as V.35, RS232, and X.21.

Layer 2. The data link layer is an
implementation of the ISO HDLC standard called link access procedure balanced
(LAPB) and provides an error-free link
between two connected devices.
Layer 3. The network layer provides
communication between devices connected
to a common network. In the case of X.25,
this layer is referred to as the X.25 packet
layer protocol (PLP) and is primarily concerned with network routing functions and
multiplexing of simultaneous logical connections over a single physical connection.

Types of modulation used

The data that needs to be transmitted must
be first converted into an analogue or digital signal, depending on the medium via
which it must be sent. The conversion
required may be any one of pulse amplitude modulation, pulse code modulation,
delta modulation, amplitude shift keying,
frequency shift keying, phase shift keying, or quadrature amplitude modulation.
Pulse amplitude modulation. The analogue signal is sampled (measuing the amplitude of the signal at equal intervals)
and a series of pulses based on the results
of the sampling are taken. Pulses arising
from pulse amplitude modulation (refer
Fig. 9) are of varying amplitudes and hence
are analogue rather than digital.
Digitisation is done using pulse code
modulation.
Pulse code modulation. The amplitude-modulated pulses are quantised by
assigning integral values (Fig. 10) in a
specific range to sample instances. Each
value is then coded into an 8-bit binary
equivalent (Fig. 11) with the eighth bit
representing sign. The binary digits are
then transformed into a digital signal using digital-to-digital encoding techniques.
Differential pulse code modulation, delta
modulation, and adaptive delta modula-

Fig. 9: Pulse amplitude modulation

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of the signal remains constant
channel, i.e. the channels take turns to
during each bit duration and
use the link. This multiplexing becomes
its value depends on the bit
inefficient when the traffic is intermittent,
0 or 1. Since the amplitude
because the time slot is allocated even
and phase of the carrier signal
when the channel has no data to transmit.
remain constant, the signal is
Statistical time division multiplexing
unaffected by noise (refer Fig.
overcomes the inefficiency of time divi13).
sion multiplexing. It uses a variable time
Phase shift keying (PSK).
slot and allows channels to view for any
The phase of the carrier is
free slot space. A buffer memory tempovaried to represent binary 0
rarily stores the data during periods of
or 1; 0 phase is used to
peak traffic. This allows no time wastage
Fig. 10: Quantised pulse amplitude modulation using
magnitude and sign
represent binary 0 and 180
of a high-speed line with inactive chanphase is used to represent
nels.
binary 1. The amplitude and the freFrequency division multiplexing. It inquency of the carrier remain constant
volves simultaneous transmission of
while the phase changes. The phase of
multiple separate signals through a shared
the signal for every bit-duration is conmedium by modulating, at the transmitstant and its value depends on the bit
ter, the separate signals into separable
Fig. 11: Pulse code modulation
(refer Fig. 13).
frequency bands and adding the results
Quadrature amplitude modulation. It
linearly either before transmission or
tion (a more advanced version of delta
is similar to phase shift keying, except
within the medium. The combined sigmodulation) are the improved categories
that the amplitude is
of pulse code modulation.
also varied. Thus with
Delta modulation. The analogue sigfour phase shifts and
nal is integrated and compared with the
two amplitude shifts, a
original analogue signal at equal intervals
total of eight binary
of time. The difference between the two
numbers
can
be
values is the output of the modulator. A
represented (refer Fig.
single bit is sufficient for encoding the
14). This factor limits
difference. The encoding bit is set to 1 if
the potential bitrate.
the difference increases and to 0 if the
Generally, the number of
difference decreases. If there is no change
phase shifts is greater
in the signal amplitude, it remains the
than the number of
same as the previous bit (refer Fig. 12).
amplitude shifts, as
Amplitude shift keying (ASK). The
amplitude changes are
amplitude of the carrier signal is varied to
susceptible to noise.
represent binary 1 or 0. Which voltage
represents a 1 or a 0 is entirely up to
Multiplexing
the system designer. Both the frequency
and the phase remain constant, and only
Multiplexing is combinthe amplitude changes. An amplitude shift
ing several signals over
keying based transmission is highly susa single medium for
ceptible to noise. A binary 1 may be
transmission. The sigchanged to a binary 0 and vice versa
nals are combined at the
(refer Fig. 13).
transmitting end by a
Frequency shift keying (FSK). The fremultiplexer and split up Fig. 13: Digital-to-analogue conversion
quency of the carrier signal is varied to
at the receiving end by
represent a binary 0 or 1. The frequency
nals may be amplified, conducted, transa demultiplexer.
lated in frequency, and routed toward the
Code division multiplexing. In this
destination as a single signal.
type of multiplexing the transmitter
Wave division multiplexing or dense
encodes the signal using a pseudorandom
wave division multiplexing is a type of
sequence that the receiver also knows and
frequency division multiplexing that is
can use to decode the received signal.
used for optical fibre transmission. The
Each random sequence corresponds to a
technique relies on the fact that a laser
different communication channel.
can be designed to emit monochromatic
Time division multiplexing. In time
light. Each signal to be trasmitted is atdivision multiplexing two or more chantached to a laser that emits a different
nels of information are transmitted over
colour light beam. All the light beams are
the same link by allocating a different time
sent at the same time and a receiving
interval (slot) for the transmission of each
Fig. 12: Delta modulation
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Fig. 14: Quadrature amplitude modulation;

two amplitudes, four phases

device splits the colours into the original

signals again.

Practical examples
Digital subscriber line. The digital subscriber line makes use of the existing telecommunication networks (such as telephone lines) to send data at high speeds.
The advantage of an asymmetric digital
subscriber line is that it provides higher
bitrate for upstream direction (from subscriber site to telephone office). The asymmetric digital subscriber line operates by
dividing the bandwidth of a twisted pair

cable into three bands. The bands are used

for telephonic communication, upstream
data, and downstream data, respectively.
PC-to-PC communication. PC-to-PC
communication can take place via the
Internet. For this, a modem is used, which
is basically a modulator and a
demodualtor in one device. A modulator
modifies an analogue signal to encode
information in a basic signal for transmission. A demodulator detects the digital
information from the modulated signal at
the receiving end.
Modems can be classified into various categories based on their range (shorthaul, voice-grade, and wide band), line
type (dial-up, leased, and private), operation mode (half-duplex, full duplex, and
simplex), synchronisation (asynchronous
and synchronous), modulation (amplitude,
frequency, and pulse modulation), and
data rate.
Satellite communication system. Satellite communication is an economical
solution for meeting bandwidth requirements of a heavy traffic. For instance, the
direct-to-user system used in the Satellite
Business System, USA, covers a range of
government and business users who re-

quire high-speed data links. Low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellites can be used for
this purpose. These satellites operate in
the store-and-forward mode by collecting
data from one part of the world and then
transmitting it to another. One such
application is the satellite telephone that
can send voice, fax, and data.
Microwave communication. Although
microwave is highly advantageous for
communication over difficult terrain, the
bandwidth allocation is very limited and
the links are highly susceptible to noise.
Hence these systems cannot support highspeed data links.
Mobile communication. As transmitter powers are very limited, the communication is restricted to a small region
called a cell. When a call is placed, it is
directed to the independent transmitter of
that cell. The mobile switching centre allocates any available channel within the
current cell to the call. As the call reaches
the boundary of the current cell, it is
propagated to the next cell and is assigned
a new channel within that cell. The call
thus gets forwarded from cell to cell until
it reaches the required destination.

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