Data communications

ETT05203
Reference Books
• Data and Computer Communications by William
Stallings , Sixth Edition , Publisher Prentice Hall
• Data Communications and Networking by
Behrouz A Forouzan, Behrouz Forouzan, 4th
Edition
• Andrew S. Tanebaum, Computer networks 5th
Ed(2011), Prentice Hall
Introduction Lecture Outline
• Data communication concepts
• Data communication components
• Data communication criteria
• Data representation
• Data transmission modes (data flow)
• Data transmission methods
• Types of networks

3
Data communication concepts
• Data is referred to as information formatted in a
special way
• Data can exist in a variety of forms, such as
 numbers or text on pieces of paper,
 bits and bytes stored in electronic memory,
 facts stored in a person's mind
• Strictly speaking, data is the plural of datum, a
single piece of information
• In electronics terms data is a digital bit or
digitized analog signal
• Communication can be defined as the exchange
of information between two or more bodies
Data communication concepts
• In engineering, exchange of information is not
only between people, information exchange also
takes place between machines or systems
• Transmission of data from source to destination
usually takes place via some transmission
media and this depends on two main factors;
quality of signal being transmitted and
characteristics of transmission medium.
• Data transmission always uses the form of
electromagnetic waves classified as
 guided electromagnetic waves
 unguided electromagnetic waves
Data communication concepts
• Examples of guided waves – through
 Twisted pair
 coaxial cable
 optical fiber
• Examples of unguided waves
 propagation of the waves through air, vacuum and
seawater
• Data communication can therefore be defined
as the exchange of data between two devices
via some form of transmission medium which
can be wired or wireless
Data communication concepts
• At both the source and destination, data are in
digital form; however, during transmission, they
can be in digital or analog form
• Information is carried by signal, which is a
physical quantity that changes with time
• The fundamental purpose of data
communication is to exchange information
• Information exchange between devices follows
certain rules and regulations called protocols
and standards
 Data communication components

• Basic Components of data communication are

 Source: It is the transmitter of data. Examples are:
Terminal, Computer, Mainframe etc.
 Medium: The communications stream through which
the data is being transmitted. Examples are: Wired
medium (UTP, Coaxial and Fiber optics cables),
wireless medium (Microwaves, Radio waves, Infrared
waves)
Data communication components
 Receiver: The receiver of the data transmitted.
Examples are: Printer, Terminal, Mainframe, and
Computer
• Below is the simplified block diagram
Data Communication Criteria
• The effectiveness of data communications
system depends on four fundamental
characteristics
 Delivery. The system must deliver data to the correct
destination.
 Accuracy. The system must deliver the data accurately.
 Timeliness. The system must deliver data in a timely
manner. Data delivered late are useless.
 Jitter. Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival
time. It is the uneven delay of delivery of audio or video
packets.
Data Representation
• Text (Email, articles, etc)
 Coding (Unicode, ASCII)
• Numbers
 Direct conversion
• Images
 Pixels, resolution, gray scale, RGB, YCM
• Audio
 Continuous, signal conversion (ADC/DAC)
• Video
 Movie, continuous/discrete
Data Transmission Modes
• Data transmission may either be Simplex, half
duplex of full duplex
• All the three modes are summarized in the
below figure
Data Transmission Modes
• Simplex transmission
 Data flow is unidirectional (e.g. one-way street)
 Only one of the two devices on a link can transmit;
the other can only receive
 The entire capacity of the channel is used to send
data in one direction
 Examples: keyboards, traditional monitors, TV and
radio broadcasting etc.

• Half duplex transmission

 In half-duplex mode, each station can both transmit
and receive, but not simultaneously
Data Transmission Modes
 the entire capacity of a channel is taken over by
whichever of the two devices is transmitting
 Examples: walkie-talkie, single lane road with traffic
allowed in both direction (narrow bridge)
• Full duplex transmission
 In full-duplex mode, both stations can transmit and
receive simultaneously
 Examples: Telephone network, a two lane road
Digital Data Transmission Methods
• There are two methods used to transmit data
between digital devices – serial and parallel
• In serial mode, 1 bit is sent with each clock tick
• In parallel mode, multiple bits are sent with
each clock tick
• The data transmission modes are summarized in
the figure below
Digital Data Transmission Methods
• Parallel transmission
 A group of n bits instead of 1 are sent between
communicating devices at a time
 Advantage: increased speed
 Disadvantages:
 expensive - it requires n communication lines just to
transmit the data stream
 limited to short distances (crosstalk effect as signal weaken)
 Used – typically inside PC and in printers
Digital Data Transmission Methods
• Serial Transmission
 One bit is transmitted over the channel at a time
 Need only one channel to transmit data
 Advantages:
 Reduces cost as compared to parallel transmission – only
one channel is required, hence suitable for long distances
 Reliable - data bit is only sent if the previous data bit has
already been received
 Disadvantage: Since communication within devices is
parallel, conversion devices are required (parallel-
serial-parallel)
 Serial transmission occurs in one of three ways:
asynchronous, synchronous, and isochronous.
Digital Data Transmission Methods
 Synchronous Transmission
 Send bits one after another without start or stop bits
 Source and target need to be synchronized
 Since no start or stop bits, the data transfer rate is quicker
 Suitable for real time communication
 It’s necessary to regularly re-synchronize the clocks
 Check bits are also used to detect errors due to fault clock
 Examples: chartrooms, video conferencing, telephonic
conversations
Digital Data Transmission Methods
• Asynchronous Transmission
 One byte or a character is sent at a time
 One Start bit at the beginning and one stop bit at the
end of each byte are sent – no need for a clock
 There may be gaps between each byte
 It is straightforward, quick, cost-effective
 Examples: emails, forums, letters, radios, TV
Digital Data Transmission Methods
• Isochronous Transmission
 combines the features of an asynchronous and
synchronous data transfer system
 sends blocks of data asynchronously, in other words
the data stream can be transferred at random
intervals.
 Once the start bit is transmitted, the data must be
delivered with a guaranteed bandwidth
 No error detection mechanism – time constraints
 used where data must be delivered within certain
time constraints, like streaming video
Types of Network
• Computer networks can be characterized by
their size as well as their purpose
• The size of a network can be expressed by
 Geographical area covered
 Number of computers that are part of the network
• Networks can cover anything from a handful
of devices within a single room to millions of
devices spread across the entire globe
Personal Area Network (PAN)
 interconnection of devices within the range of an
individual person, typically within a range of 10
meters.
Types of Network
 A laptop, PDA and a portable printer
interconnected wirelessly, the network formed is a
PAN
 The devices may be communicating together only or
also connecting to the internet via PDA
 If multiple individuals use this same network within a
residence then we can refer to it as the Home Area
network (HAN)
 In this case, the devices are connected together
using both wired and/or wireless
Types of Network
• The figure below shows a PAN
Types of Network
• Local Area Network (LAN)
 Usually privately owned and links the devices in
a single office, building, or campus
 Spans from as simple as two desktops and a printer
in someone’s home office or it may extend
throughout a company and include audio and video
peripherals
 Limited to few kilometers
 Use only one type of transmission medium
 Designed to allow resources to be shared between
personal computers or workstations
 Early LAN speeds (4-16Mbps), today’s (100 or
1000Mbps)
Types of Network
 Wireless LANs (WLAN) are the newest evolution in
LAN technology
• Below figure shows a LAN
Types of Network
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
 A network with a size between a LAN and a WAN
 Covers the area inside a town or a city
 designed for customers who need a highspeed
connectivity, normally to the internet
 A good example of a MAN is part of the telephone
company network that can provide a high-speed data
 Below figure shows a MAN
Types of Network
Types of Network
• Wide Area Network
 Provides long-distance transmission of data, image,
audio, and video information over large geographic
areas that may comprise a country, a continent, or
even the whole world
 The best example of WAN is the Internet (Connects
many smaller LANs and MANs through ISP). The
Figure below shows a simple WAN
Types of Network
• Types of WAN Connections
Dedicated Connection
Switched Connection
• Dedicated Connection
A dedicated connection is a communications
medium or other facility dedicated to a particular
application. Examples- telephony network, ISP
Types of Network
• Examples of Dedicated connections
 Leased Lines
 A dedicated point to point connection which provides pre-establish
WAN communication path through ISP to a remote destination.
 Leased Lines provides very high-speed data transmission up to 64Gbps.
 It is very expensive

 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

 It provides the connection between ISP to a customer through a
telephone line.
 It is a broadband technique which provides the same upstream and
downstream
Types of Network
 Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
 ADSL is a type of modern digital subscriber line technology,
that enables data transmission at high speed over the
telephone line.
 It is the same as a digital subscriber line but the only
difference is that upstream and downstream occurs at
different time
• Switched Connections
There are three basic types of switched connections:
 Circuit Switched Network.
 Packet Switched Network.
 Cell Switched Network.
Types of Network
• The below figure shows a switched WAN
Types of Network
• Circuit Switched Connection
 Circuit switched connection is just like a phone call
 Whenever you have data to transmit, open the circuit,
transmit the data and close the circuit.
 you only need to pay when you actually use it
 you have to establish an end to end connection every time
you have data to transmit
 it charges per-minute
 Typically Circuit Switched connections are used for
secondary backup solution in offices as well as for temporary
low speed connection in home network
Types of Network
• Packet Switched Connection
 Cost effective solution of leased line connection
 allow bandwidth sharing with others to save money
 you will get full bandwidth if no other is sending data at that
time
 suitable for burst type data transmission
 Both leased line and circuit switched connection use a
physical circuit path to connect two sites
 While leased line uses same circuit path every time, circuit
switched connection builds path every time a data call is
made
 Packet switched connections use a different approach,
instead of physical path, it builds logical path over the
physical path and uses that to connect two sites
 These logical circuits are called virtual circuits (VCs)
Types of Network
• Cell Switched Connection
 enhanced version of packet switched connection
 uses fixed length (53 bytes) packets known as cell to
transmit the data
 ATM is the example of Cell switched Network
 If you want to connect multiple remote sites with a
single router interface then Packet Switched or Cell
switched connections are the best options.
Types of Network
• Examples of WANs
 Internet
 Network providers
 A network of bank cash dispensers
 Airline companies network
 Cable companies