TOPIC FIVE

DATA COMMUNICATION
Introduction

In the previous topic we learned about the data processing, we also went further and
discussed the various modes of data processing. This topic introduces you to the process
of data communication which entails the transfer of the data from one point to another.
We also look in depth at networks the arrangement of computers in these networks as
well as the types of networks. The topic has five sections namely:

• Introduction to data
• Communication data
• Communication elements
• Introduction to networks
• Types of networks and network topologies

Objectives

By the end of the course unit a learner shall be able to:

1) Define computer network
2) Discuss the various transmission media
3) Discuss the process of selecting network devices and topologies for various
places

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 Activity 1

In your own understanding define, communication

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What is a computer network?

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What do you understand by the term data communication?

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Topic Overview
You will notice that in order to respond to any of the above questions, you have to have
known what communication is. However, there a lot of materials on data
communication and this tend to confuse learners. However, this topic is designed to help
you understand what data communication is by covering areas of computer networks
and network topologies. Hope you will enjoy

5.1 Introduction to Data Communication

Computers also communicate to one another. Computers that are in a communication
are said to be in a network and they share data and that is what is referred to as data
communication. To introduce ourselves to this new area we say: This is transfer of data

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from point to another using electronics means. In any communication process we have
the source, encoder, transmitter, transmission media receiver, decoder and destination.
The source of data can be sensor or human being this data has to be coded into form that
other parts of the system may understand. The data must be transformed into a form that
can be transmitted this is work of the encoder. The transmitter receives this code message
and transmits it over the media.

Since data in a computer has to be transmitted or transported it’s

important to note over what media it’s transported. We thus discuss the various
media below.

5.2 Transmission Media

A digital signal cannot be sent from one place to another without a medium of
communication. A transmission medium is a pathway used for carrying data and
information from one point to another. This communication media will in most cases
dictate the type of signal to be used to transmit a message. In essence data communication
media can be divided into two: This can be classified into guided and unguided media.
With guided media data transmission is constrained with a transmission channel e.g. a
pair of copper wire. In unguided media the data is transmitted over space and may be
Omni-directional. Next we now look at these two types of media.

5.2.1 Guided Media

The main distinguishing characteristic is that in the guided or bounded media data
signals are transmitted from the source to destination through a restricted pathway such
as through a cable. In guided media the electromagnetic wave signal is constrained
within what is known as physical media. There are several types of guided transmission
media but the most common ones are:

• Two wire open lines cable

• Twisted pair cable
• Coaxial cables
• Fibre optic cables

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Now let us discuss each of them for a better understanding

5.2.1.1 Twisted Pair Cable

A twisted pair cable is made up of two solid copper wire strands wound around each other
in a double helix manner. A cable a pair of wires are used to transmit information from point
to another. Several pair can be grouped together like to form a multi-core cable. The twisting
helps in overcoming cross talk or in simple terms it helps reduce the development of an
electromagnetic field around the wires as they transmit data. It has the advantage of
flexibility and cheap. However, it easily suffers from cross talk especially where cable in
parallel for some length. Starting and stopping electrical motors will affect the cables.
However, shielding has been used in critical areas.

Activity 2
At your own free time read and make notes on the two most common types of twisted
pair cables

What are the advantages and disadvantages of twisted pair cabling?

5.2.1.2 Co-axial Cable

The second type of guided media is the coaxial cable. A coaxial cable resembles a cable that
is used to connect television antenna to a television set. This cable has a central copper core
which may be of solid or stranded wires surrounded by an insulator. The dielectric material
is then surrounded by a hollow mesh conductor which is covered by

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a shield making the cable more resistant to electromagnetic interference than the twisted
pair cable. At high frequencies current flow is concentrated on the skin of a cable. This
means that remove the material of a wire may not affect transmission. In co – axial cable
we have an inner conducted

Figure 6: Co-axial cable

Surrounded by an outer conductor separated by spacers. The outer conductor acts as a

shield from electromagnetic interference as the return path. This cable has superior noise
characteristics but special terminators and is less flexible. Figure depicts a Co-Axial cable

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Co-axial cables?

5.2.1.3 Fibre Optical Cable

Next we discuss fibre optic; this is one of the latest types of bounded medium to be
developed. Instead of carrying data signals or transmitting electronic signals the fibre
optic cable utilizes light to transmit data from one point to another on the network. The
cable consists of thin glass/plastic fiber surrounded by cladding that offers
environmental protection. Data is injected via photol/Laser diode into the cable as light
pulses that undergo total internal refraction and received other side by a photo diode. It
has the advantage of immunity from electromagnetic interference, has high capacity by
is expensive to implement.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of fibre optic?

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5.2.2 Un –Guided Media
After discussing at length about guided media let us now shift and focus on unguided
or wireless media. Wireless or unguided media is a type of media that is used to transmit
data from one point to another without using physical connection. In this case
transmitting antenna and receiver aerial facilitate this. This makes use of radio waves
that are transmitted over antennae and transmitted over space. This can be either via
ground wave, sky wave or space wave transmission. Satellite transmission is a form of
space transmission. A radio wave as a form of electromagnetic wave that can is radiated
out of antennae. Generally if a antennae is excited by an alternating signal, the magnetic
field will be changing direction at 180 degrees. For a magnetic wave to change direction
it has to collapse back into the antennae and requires some time to do this. At about 15
KHz the periodic time of wave become equal to the time for magnetic field to collapse
into the antennae. Any reduction in periodic time will mean that the magnetic field will
not have collapse before the wave changes. The will result in the collapsing field being
repelled into space. A changing magnetic field generates a changing electric field which
in turn generates a changing magnetic field. These self-generating fields referred to as
electromagnetic waves, moves through space at the speed of light.

A characteristic of any transmission media is the data transfer rate. This is expressed as
number of bits transmitted per second. The high the data rate the high the bandwidth.
Examples of wireless transmission include: microwaves, satellite radio waves and infra-
red transmission.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of wireless transmission

After understanding the transmission media let us now shift our focus onto
the communication system.

5.3 Basic Elements of a Communication System

The following are the basic requirements for working of a communication system.

1) The sender (source) who creates the message to be transmitted

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 2) A medium that carries the message
3) The receiver (sink) who receives the message

Receiver: This receives the data from the transmission media and passes it over to the
decoder.

Decoder: Changes the received signal to form to the form it was in before encoding
before applying it to the destination.

Encoder: This encodes the signal before transmission

Transmitter: This transmits the encoded signal into the appropriate medium.

The basic communication system is normally used in a network.

Following is a discussion on networks

Activity 3

In your own words define a network?

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5.4 Network
A network is an interconnection of computers. This interconnection leads to several
classifications of computer networks. Let us start with familiarizing ourselves with some
important terms that are normally used in networking.

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5.4.1 Important Terms Used in Networking
(a) Internet

The newest type of network to be used within an organization is an internet or internet

web. Such networks enable computers (or network) of any type to communicate easily.
The hardware and software needs are the same as for the internet, specifically TCP/IP,
server and browser software used for the World Wide Web. Because most organizations
have a need for more dynamic ways to link people and information, the internet market
is expanding day by day. Moreover, there is no need to adjust the network when a new
user joins in. With the help of Internet, all computers of an organization can work as
stand-alone systems, connected to a mainframe, or part of a LAN or WAN.

(b) E-Mail

E-mail stands for electronic mail. This is one of the most widely used features of Internet.
Mails are regularly used today where without the help of postage stamp we can transfer
mails anywhere in the world. With electronic mail the service is similar. But here data is
transmitted through Internet and therefore within minutes the message reaches the
destination.

(c) Voice Messaging

It is a new communication approach which is similar to electronic mail except that it is

audio message rather than text messages that are processed. A sender speaks into a
telephone rather than typing, giving the name of the recipient and the message. That
sender's voice signal is then digitized and stored. The system can then either deliver the
message at a specified time in future or it can be retrieved from a database by the
recipient. The message is reconverted back into its analog format when it is delivered or
retrieved so that the recipient hears it as the original sender's voice on a telephone. Voice
messaging requires a computer with an ability to store the audio messages in digital
form and then convert them back in an audio form upon verification. Each user has a
voicemail box in secondary storage and special equipment converts. The audio

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message to and from the digital form. The main advantage of voice mail over electronic
mail is that the sender does not have to type. Voice mail also makes it easy to include
people in the firm's environment in a communication network.

(d) E-Commerce

Electronic commerce or e-commerce as it is popularly known refers to the paperless

exchange of business information using Electronic Data Interchange Electronic mail,
Electronic Bulletin Boards, Electronic Fund Transfer and other network based technologies.
Electronic Commerce (EC) not only automates manual process and paper transactions, but
it also helps organizations to move into a fully electronic environment and change the way
they usually operate. Few organizations have recently started conducting EC over Internet,
the network of networks. Internet has also helped EC to boost up because it is a low cost
alternative to the proprietary networks. EC standards are however underdevelopment.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is still the dominant part of EC. Information Technology
has transformed the way people work. Electronic Commerce (EC) has unearthed yet another
revolution which is changing the way business houses buy and sell products and services.
EC is associated with buying and selling of products and services over computer
communication networks. EC transfers information electronically from computer to
computer in autonomous way. EC has, in fact, transformed the way organizations operate.

(e) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard format.

These formats look much like standard forms and are highly structured.

(f) Teleconferencing

It refers to electronic meetings that involve people who are at physically different sites.
Telecommunication technology allows participants to interact with one another without
travelling to the same location.

Define the term computer network? State four advantages of networking

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 After knowing the common terms in networking let us now talk about the
types of networks available.

5.4.2 Types of Networks

Computer networks can be classified using several aspects but the most common
classification is using size. Currently, there are several types of such networks but the
three most common ones are:

LAN – Local area network and is the interconnection of computer with a small area such
as a University campus. It has a higher data transfer rate and less error. It’s usually
owned by one organization.

MAN_ Metropolitan area network this is interconnection of computer with a

metropolitan area.

WAN – Wide are network an interconnection of computer globally. The speed a low
and it has a higher error rate.

Explain the three most common types of computer networks in use today.

After talking about the types of networks it’s good to focus our discussion on
a new area in networking called network topologies.

5.4.3 Network Topologies

The term network topology refers to the way in which computers and other devices
have been arranged or how data is passed from one computer to another in a network.
A network topology can be viewed in two ways, physical or logical. Physical Topology
is the actual layout of a network and its connections. Logical Topology is the way in
which data accesses the medium and transmits packets. There are several network
topologies and we discuss each of them in the following section:

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5.4.3.1 Bus Topology
In this topology, the computers are attached to a bus shown in diagram figure below.
The bus must be terminated at end to avoid reflections. The advantages are that it easier
to a computer to the network to system. A failure of any one computer does not bring
the system down. However, a failure of cable causes the whole system to fail. It also
required a complex communication protocols to arbitrate. Any computer can send data
of the bus but must include the destination address and at no time should to computers
transmit at the same time. Carrier sense multiple access with collision detect
(CSMA/CD) is the protocol used.

Figure 7: BUS Network

Advantages

• In expensive to install.

• Easy to add stations.

• Use less cable compared to other topologies.
• Works well for small networks.

Disadvantages

• No longer recommended, due to frequent collisions of packets

• If back bone breaks, whole network down
• Limited no of devices can be attached
• Difficult to isolate problems.

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5.4.3.2 Ring Topology
Similar to a bus network is the ring topology, in this topology rings have nodes daisy
chained, but the end of the network in a ring topology comes back around to the first
node, creating a complete circuit. Each node takes a turn sending and receiving
information through the use of a token. The token along with any data is sent from the
first node to the second node which extracts the data addressed to it and adds any data
it wishes to send. Then second node passes the token and data to the third node, etc.
until it comes back around to the first node again. Only the node with the token is
allowed to send data. All other nodes must wait for the token to come to them.

Advantages
• Data packets travel at great speed

• No collisions

• Easier to fault find

• No terminators required

Disadvantages
• Requires more cable than a bus

• A break in the ring will bring it down

• Not as common as the bus–less devices available

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5.4.3.3 Star Topology
Another topology worth our discussion is the star topology. In a star network, each node
is connected to a central device called a hub. The hub takes a signal that comes from any
node and passes it along to all the other nodes in the network. A hub does not perform
any type of filtering or routing of the data. A hub is a junction that joins all the different
nodes together.

Advantages

• As compared to Bus topology it gives far much better performance, signals don’t
necessarily get transmitted to all the workstations.
• A sent signal reaches the intended destination after passing through no more
than 3-4 devices and 2-3 links.
• Performance of the network is dependent on the capacity of central hub.
• Easy to connect new nodes or devices.
• In star topology new nodes can be added easily without affecting rest of the
network.
• Similarly, components can also be removed easily.
• Centralized management. It helps in monitoring the network.
• Failure of one node or link doesn’t affect the rest of network.
• At the same time, it is easy to detect the failure and troubleshoot it.

Disadvantages

• Too much dependency on central device has its own drawbacks. If it fails whole
network goes down.

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 • The use of hub, a router or a switch as central device increases the overall cost of
the network.

Activity 4

List two types of network software

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Give three examples of protocols used in networking
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5.4.3.4 Mesh Topology

Another topology is the mesh topology. This is the most common type of topology used
in wide area network where there are many paths between different locations. Each
computer is connected to each other resulting in it being robust but uses are a lot of
cabling and the interconnection increases rapidly with increase in number of computers.
A network setup where each computer and network device is interconnected with one
another, allowing for most transmissions to be distributed, even if one of the
connections go down. This topology is not commonly used for most computer networks
as it is difficult and expensive to have redundant connection to every computer.
However, this topology is commonly used for wireless networks.

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Advantages of Mesh topology
• Data can be transmitted from different devices simultaneously. This topology
can withstand high traffic.
• Even if one of the components fails there is always an alternative present. So
data transfer doesn’t get affected.
• Expansion and modification in topology can be done without
disrupting other nodes.

Disadvantages of Mesh topology

1) There are high chances of redundancy in many of the network connections.

2) Overall cost of this network is way too high as compared to other network
topologies.
3) Set-up and maintenance of this topology is very difficult. Even administration of
the network is tough.

5.3.3.5 Tree Topology

Another topology that we would appreciate visiting in our discussion is the tree topology.
Alternatively referred to as a star bus topology or hierarchical, tree topology is one of the
most common network setups that are similar to a bus topology and a star topology. A tree
topology connects one star network to other star networks. Below is a visual example of a
tree topology, with a simple computer set up on a network using the star topology,
connected to another network using the star topology?

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Advantages of Tree Topology

• It is an extension of Star and bus Topologies, so in networks where these

topologies can't be implemented individually for reasons related to scalability,
tree topology is the best alternative.
• Expansion of network is possible and easy.
• The whole network into segments (star networks), which can be easily
managed and maintained.
• Error detection and correction is easy.
• Each segment is provided with dedicated point-to-point wiring to the central
hub.
• If one segment is damaged, other segments are not affected.

Disadvantages of Tree Topology

• Because of its basic structure, tree topology, relies heavily on the main bus
cable, if it breaks whole network is crippled.
• As more and more nodes and segments are added, the maintenance becomes
difficult.
• Scalability of the network depends on the type of cable used.
5.4.3.6 Hybrid Topology
Hybrid networks use a combination of any two or more topologies in such a way that
the resulting network does not exhibit one of the standard topologies (e.g., bus, star,
ring, etc.). A hybrid topology is always produced when two different basic network
topologies are connected. Two common examples for Hybrid network are: star/ring
network and star bus network. A Star/ring network consists of two or more star
topologies connected using a multi- station access unit (MAU) as a centralized hub. A
Star Bus network consists of two or more star topologies connected using a bus trunk
(the bus trunk serves as the network's backbone).

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Advantages

• Reliable: Unlike other networks, fault detection and troubleshooting is easy in this
type of topology. The part in which fault is detected can be isolated from the rest
of network and required corrective measures can be taken, WITHOUT affecting
the functioning of rest of the network.
• Scalable: It’s easy to increase the size of network by adding new components,
without disturbing e x i s t i n g architecture.
• Flexible: Hybrid Network can be designed according to the requirements of the
organization and by optimizing the available resources. Special care can be given
to nodes where traffic is high as well as where chances of fault are high.
• Effective: Hybrid topology is the combination of two or more topologies, so we can
design it in such a way that strengths of constituent topologies are maximized while
their weaknesses are neutralized. For example, we saw Ring Topology has good data
reliability (achieved by use of tokens) and Star topology has high tolerance capability
(as each node is not directly connected to other but through central device), so these
two can be used effectively in hybrid star-ring topology.

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Disadvantages

• Complexity of design: One of the biggest drawbacks of hybrid topology is its

design. It’s not easy to design this type of architecture and it’s a tough job for
designers. Configuration and installation process needs to be very efficient.
• Costly hub: The hubs used to connect two distinct networks, are very expensive.
These hubs are different from usual hubs as they need to be intelligent enough
to work with different architectures and should be function even if a part of
network is down.
• Costly infrastructure: As hybrid architectures are usually larger in scale, they
require a lot of cables; cooling systems, sophisticate network devices, etc.

In this topic you have learnt what Data Communication is, we went ahead to discuss
the Data communication model as well as transmission media. After this discussion we
went ahead to explore networks as well as classified the networks according to the
physical arrangement of computers.

In topic 6, we will discuss data Representation, that is, the way the data we input into
the computer is represented. We will also look at how you can easily convert data from
one system to another. But before you go topic 6, let us see how well you have
understood topic 5.

Self-Check

a) Describe two characteristics of each of the following:

(i) UTP cable (ii) Fiber cable (iii) Blue tooth (6 Marks) b). Using a well labeled
diagram, describe the following network topologies clearly
identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Mesh topology (4mks)

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 Bus topology (4mks)
Ring topology (4mks)

c). Identify and briefly explain the five components of a data communications
system. 5mks)

d). For data communications to occur, the communicating devices must be part of a
communication system made up of a combination of hardware (physical equipment)
and software (programs). The effectiveness of a data communications system depends
on four fundamental characteristics. Describe these fundamental characteristics. (8mks)

Scoreboard
Marks Remarks
25–30 Excellent
20–25 Very Good
15–20 Good
10–15 Fair
0- 10 Go through the topic again

Further Reading

Tanen, A.S. (1996). Computer Networks. New Delhi: Prentice Hall.

Mburu, S., & Chemwa, G. (2010). Computer Studies: Book 4. London:

Longhorn publishers

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 Learning Outcomes

You have now completed topic Five, the learning outcomes are listed below;

Check (√) the column which reflects your understanding of the various concepts
about writing.
S/No Learning Outcome Sure Not Sure
1 I can now explain what data communication is
2. I can discuss the various transmission media
3. I can identify the different types of network topologies
4. I can now discuss the various factors being used
to select network devices

If you have checked the “not sure” column, please go back and study that section in
the topic before proceeding.

If you are “sure” then you are ready for the next topic.

Congratulations you can proceed to the next topic!

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