CSE2107: Data

Communication
Chapter 1 - Introduction
References

 Data and Computer Communications  William

Stalling, Prentice Hall, 5th Edition, 1997.
 Computer Networking  Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
 Data Communication and Networking  Forouzan B.
A., McGraw-Hill.
 Data Communications  Gupta P. C., Prentice-Hall.

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Data Communication
 The term datacommunication means communication at a
distance.
 The word data refers to information presented in whatever form
is agreed upon by the parties creating and using the data.
 Data communications are the exchange of data between two
devices via some form of transmission medium such as a wire
cable.
 Effectiveness depends on:
 Delivery
 Accuracy
 Timeliness

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Data Communication Cont.
 Delivery: The system must deliver data to the correct
destination. Data must be received by the intended device or
user and only by that device or user.
 Accuracy: The data communication system must deliver data to
the receiver without being altered or damaged. The receiver
should receive the exact same data which was sent by the
sender.
 Timeliness: The system must deliver data in a timely manner.
Data delivered late are useless. In the case of video, audio and
voice data, timely delivery means delivering data without
significant delay. This kind of delivery is called real-time
transmission.

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Communication System Components

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Communication System Components Cont.

 Message: The message is the information (data) to be

communicated. Popular forms of information include text,
numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
 Sender: The sender is the device that sends the data message. It
can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset, video
camera, and so on.
 Receiver: The receiver is the device that receives the message.
It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset,
television, and so on.

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Communication System Components Cont.

 Transmission medium: The transmission medium is the

physical path by which a message travels from sender to
receiver. Some examples of transmission media include twisted-
pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and radio waves.

 Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules that govern data

communications. It represents an agreement between the
communicating devices. Without a protocol, two devices may be
connected but not communicating, just as a person speaking
French cannot be understood by a person who speaks only
Japanese.

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Data Representation

 Text – represented as a bit pattern, a sequence of bit (0s or 1s);

codes often used: ASCII; Extended ASCII; Unicode

 ASCII, abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information

Interchange, is a character-encoding scheme. Originally based on
the English alphabet, it encodes 128 specified characters into 7-bit
binary integers. The characters encoded are numbers 0 to 9,
lowercase letters a to z, uppercase letters A to Z, basic punctuation
symbols, control codes that originated with Teletype machines, and
space.

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Data Representation
 Extended ASCII is eight-bit or larger character encodings that
include the standard seven-bit ASCII characters as well as
others.
 Today, the prevalent coding system is called Unicode, which
uses 32 bits to represent a symbol or character used in any
language in the world. ASCII now constitutes the first 127
characters in Unicode and is also referred to as Basic Latin.
 Numbers – represented by binary equivalent
 Images – bit patterns representing pixels
 Audio
 Video

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Functional Elements of Communication System:

Regardless of the particular application and configuration, all

information transmission systems involve three major
subsystems:
 a transmitter
 the channel
 and a receiver

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Functional Elements of Communication System:

Input Transducer:
 An input transducer is a device that converts information from
one form into another form that a communication system can
use.

 Information from the real world (like sound, light, or

temperature) cannot be sent directly through most
communication systems. So first, it must be converted into an
electrical signal.

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Functional Elements of Communication System:
How it works:
 The source produces a message (voice, image, data, etc.).
 The input transducer converts this message into an electrical
signal.
 This electrical signal is called the message signal.
 The message signal can then be processed, transmitted, and
received.
Examples:
 Microphone: Converts sound (speech) into electrical voltage
variations.
 Camera: Converts light into electrical signals.
 Temperature sensor: Converts temperature into electrical
signals.
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Functional Elements of Communication System:

Transmitter:

The purpose of the transmitter is to join the message to the

channel. It is often necessary to modulate a carrier wave
with the signal from the input transducer. Modulation is the
systematic variation of some attribute of the carrier, such as
amplitude, phase, or frequency, in accordance with a
function of the message signal.

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Functional Elements of Communication System:
Channel:

• The channel can have many different forms; the most familiar
is the channel that exists between the transmitting antenna of a
commercial radio station and the receiving antenna of a radio
station. In this channel, the transmitted signal propagates
through the atmosphere, or free space, to the receiving
antenna. Other forms of channels are:
• Transmission lines (such as twisted pair cables and co-axial
cables).
• Optical fiber channels.
• Electromagnetic waves

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Functional Elements of Communication System:

Receiver:

The receiver's function is to extract the desired message from the

received signal at the channel output and to convert it to a form
suitable for the output transducer. Although amplification may
be one of the first operations performed by the receiver, where
the received signal may be extremely weak, the main function of
the receiver is to demodulate the received signal.

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Functional Elements of Communication System:
Output Transducer:
 An output transducer is a device that converts the received
electrical signal back into its original physical form so that it
can be understood by humans.
 After transmission, the signal at the receiver is electrical, but
humans cannot directly sense electrical signals. The output
transducer converts them into sound, light, or images.
 How it works:
 The receiver gets an electrical signal.
 The output transducer converts this electrical signal into a physical
form.
 This reproduced signal is called the output message.

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Functional Elements of Communication System:
Examples:
 Loudspeaker: Converts electrical signals into sound waves.
 Display/Monitor: Converts electrical signals into images.
 Printer: Converts electrical signals into printed text or images.

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Direction of flow

 Communication between two devices can be simplex, half-duplex,

or full-duplex.
 Simplex Mode
• The communication is unidirectional, as on a one-way street.
• Only one of the two devices on a link can transmit; the other
can only receive.
• Keyboards and traditional monitors are examples of simplex
devices. The keyboard can only introduce input; the monitor
can only accept output.
• The simplex mode can use the entire capacity of the channel to
send data in one direction.

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Direction of flow Cont.

Half-Duplex Mode

• In half-duplex mode, each station can both transmit and receive,

but not at the same time. When one device is sending, the other
can only receive, and vice versa.
• In a half-duplex transmission, the entire capacity of a channel is
taken over by whichever of the two devices is transmitting at the
time.
• Walkie-talkies is an example of half-duplex systems

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Direction of flow Cont.

Duplex Mode
• In full-duplex mode, both stations can transmit and receive
simultaneously.
• In full-duplex mode, signals going in one direction share the
capacity of the link.
• This sharing can occur in two ways: Either the link must contain
two physically separate transmission paths, one for sending and
the other for receiving; or the capacity of the channel is divided
between signals travelling in both directions.

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Line Configuration

• Line configuration refers to the way two or more communication

devices attach to a link.

• There are two possible types of connections:

point-to-point and
multipoint.

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Line Configuration Cont.
• Point-to-Point: A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated
link between two devices. The entire capacity of the link is
reserved for transmission between those two devices. Most point-
to-point connections use an actual length of wire or cable to
connect the two ends, but other options, such as microwave or
satellite links, are also possible. When you change television
channels by infrared remote control, you are establishing a point-
to-point connection between the remote control and the television's
control system.

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Line Configuration Cont.
• Multipoint: A multipoint connection is one in which more than
two specific devices share a single link. In a multipoint
environment, the capacity of the channel is shared.

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Physical Topology
• The term physical topology refers to the way in which a network is
laid out physically.
• Two or more devices connect to a link; two or more links form a
topology.
• The topology of a network is the geometric representation of the
relationship of all the links and linking devices (usually called
nodes) to one another.
• There are four basic topologies possible: mesh, star, bus, and ring.

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 Mesh Topology

 Dedicated point-to-point
links to every other device
 Has n(n-1)/2 physical
channel to link n devices
(Show it → Home work)
 Devices have n-1 (I/O) ports.

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Mesh Topology-advantages and disadvantages
• A mesh topology is robust. If one link becomes unusable it does
not effect the whole system.

• Another advantage is privacy and security. When every message

sent travels along a dedicated line, only the intended recipient see
it.

• Point to point link makes fault identification and fault isolation

easy.

• The main disadvantages of the mesh are related to the amount of

cabling and number of I/O ports required.

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Star Topology
 Dedicated point-to-point links to central controller (hub)
 Controller acts as exchange

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Star Topology-advantages and disadvantages

• A star topology is less expensive than a mesh topology. This is

because each device needs only one link and I/O port to connect
it to any number of others. Far less cabling is required.

• Easy to install and configure.

• Other advantage includes robustness. If one link is failed only

that link is affected.

• However although star topology requires less cabling than

mesh topology, each node must be connected to a central hub.
For this reason more cabling is required in a star than in some
other topologies ( such as ring or bus)

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Bus Topology
 Multipoint configuration
 One cable acts as a backbone to link all devices
 Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps.
 A drop line is a connection running between the device and
the main cable.
 A tap is a connector.

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Bus Topology-advantages and disadvantages
• Advantages of bus topology include ease of installation.
Backbone cable can be laid along the most efficient path, then
connected to nodes by drop lines of various lengths. In this way,
a bus uses less cabling than mesh or star topologies.

• Disadvantages include difficult reconfiguration and fault

isolation. It is difficult to add new devices. Adding new devices
may therefore require modification or replacement of the
backbone.

• In addition, a fault or break in the bus cable stops some

transmission.

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Ring Topology
 Dedicated point-to-point configuration to neighbors\
 A signal is passed along the ring in one direction from device to
device until it reaches destination
 Each device functions as a repeater
 When a device receives a signal intended for another device its
repeater regenerates the bits and passes them along.

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Ring Topology-advantages and disadvantages
• A ring is relatively easy to install and reconfigure. Each
device is linked only to its immediate neighbours . To add or
delete a device requires moving only two connections. The
only constraint is the maximum ring length and number of
devices.

• Fault identification is simplified. Generally in ring a signal is

circulating all times. If one device does not receive a signal
within a specified period, it can issue an alarm.

• However, unidirectional traffic can be disadvantages. In a

simple ring, a break in the ring can disable the entire
network.

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Hybrid Topology
• Often a network combines several topologies as subnetworks
linked together in a large topology. For instance, one department
of a business may have decided to use a bus topology while
another department has a ring. The two can be connected to each
other via a central controller in a star topology.

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Categories of Networks

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected

by communication links. A node can be a computer, printer, or any
other device capable of sending and/or receiving data generated by
other nodes on the network. A link can be a cable, air, optical fiber,
or any medium which can transport a signal carrying information.

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Local Area Network

 Usually privately owned and links the devices in a single office,

building, or campus
 LAN size is limited to a few kilometers.
 LANs are designed to allow resources to be shared (hardware ,
software and data )
 Today LANs have data rates of 100 Mbps to 10Gbps
 Backbone Networks (BN), have a scale of a few hundred meters to
a few kilometers. Include a high speed backbone linking the LANs
at various locations.

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Local Area Network (cont.)

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Local Area Network (cont)

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Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

 Designed to extend over an entire city.

 It may be a single network such as a cable television network.
 It may be a means of connecting a number of LANs into a
larger network so that resources may be shared LAN-to-LAN
as well as device to device.
 For example, a company can use a MAN to connect the LANs
in all of its offices throughout a city.

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Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) Cont.

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Wide Area Network

 WAN provides long distance transmission of data, voice,

image, and video information over large geographical areas
 Comprise a country, a continent, or even the whole world
 Low data transmission rate (below 1 Mbps)
 Unlimited number of miles example: Internet Network

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Wide Area Network

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Internetworks

 Connection of two or more networks by the use of

internetworking devices which include routers and
gateways
 The term internet (lowercase) is a generic term used to
mean an interconnection of networks
 The Internet (uppercase) is the name of a specific
worldwide network.

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Internetworks (cont)

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The Internet

 Collaboration of more than hundreds of thousands interconnected

networks
 1969 – started as ARPAnet, a small network of connected
computers
 1972 - Cerf and Khan – packet delivery and Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP)
 Shortly thereafter – evolution of TCP/IP
 History (Read it Yourself)

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Protocols

• In computer networks, communication occurs between

entities in different systems.
• An entity is anything capable of sending or receiving
information. Examples include application programs, file
transfer packages, database management systems and
electronic mail software.
• A system is a physical object that contains one or more
entities. Examples include computers and terminals.

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Protocols Cont.

• But two entities cannot just send bit streams to each other and
expect to be understood.
• For communication to occur, the entities must agree on a
protocol.
• As defined before a protocol is a set of rules that govern data
communication.
• A protocol defines what is communicated, how it is
communicated, when it is communicated.

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Protocols Cont.
The key elements of a protocol are Syntax, Semantics and Timing.

Syntax: Syntax refers to the structure or format of the data,

meaning the order in which they are presented. For example, a
simple protocol might expect the first eight bits of data to be the
address of the sender, the second eight bits to be the address of
the receiver and the rest of the stream to be the message itself.

Semantics: Semantics refers to the meaning of each section of bits.

How is a particular pattern to be interpreted and what action is
to be taken based on that interpretation? For example, identify
the route to be taken or the final destination of the message.

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Protocols Cont.

Timing: Timing refers to two characteristics: when data should

be sent and how fast they can be sent. For example, if a sender
produces data at 100 Mbps but the receiver can produce data
at only 1 Mbps, the transmission will overload the receiver
and data will be largely lost.

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