CHAPTER 6

T 17 INTERFACES
In order to interconnect the various types of digital equipment supplied by different manufactures or to interconnect the devices in a distributed data processing system, international standards are developed and adhered to. The ISO and the CCITT are currently defining a hierarchy of coordination procedures for interconnecting computers, computers to terminals and terminals to terminals. Such a standard defined a set of conventions governing the format and relative timing of messages (protocol) to make communication possible between terminals and networks. The first layer of the OSI model i.e., the physical layer concerns itself with the links physical interfaces e.g., EIA Rs.232C, CCITT V24 and V28. These connect DTE such as computers, teletypewriters, business machine and printers to ONE or more specifically modems or data sets. This standard is defined for serial binary data communications and ensures. a) b) c) Compatible voltage and signal levels Common pin wiring configurations. A minimum amount of control information between DTE and DCE.

The R.S. 232 C standard not only conforms to the V24 standard but also specifies the mechanical connector type and pin assignments for each signal. In addition to the protective and signal grounds, all circuits carry bipolar voltage signals. Voltages at the connector pins with respect to the signal ground may not exceed + 25V. Any pin must be able to withstand a short circuit to any other pin without sustaining damage to itself or any associated equipment. With a 3 to 7 K load, the driven output represents a logic 0 for voltages between +5 to +15 V and a logic 1 for 5 to 15V. A voltage at the receiver from +3 to +15V represents 0, while a voltage between 3 to 15V represents 1. Voltages between +3 and 3V are undefined. This is showed in Fig. 6.1. The R.S.232C standard is applicable to signalling rates upto 20000 bps. The female side of the 25 pin connector is associates with the DCE. Since cables must not present more than 2500 PF at the interface poi9nt, the distance between the DCE and DTE are usually kept to 100M. Practically a short cable of 15M are recommended. Two of the real drawbacks of the RS-232C standard are the limited data transmission rate of 20kbps and the 15Mts. Cable length. The unbalanced nature of the circuitry employed is the main cause for this. In a single ended operation using an unbalanced line, induced noise is added to the signal voltage as a result of magnetic or electric coupling of adjacent signal lines and as a result of any ground voltage difference due to the presence of 50Hz. There is no way of removing such noise once it is present in the system.

Fig. 6.1 R.S. 232 C Interchange Circuit

Interchange Circuit.

Pin Assignment

Mnemonic

Data Control Timing DCEFrom

Description

AA AB BA BB CA CB CC CD CE CF CG CH CL DA DB DD SBA SBB SCA SCB SCF

1 7 2 3 4 5 6 20 22 8 21 23 24 15 17 14 16 19 13 12

Protective Ground Signal Ground/Common Return Transmitted data Request to send Clear to send Data Set Reading Data Terminal Reading Ring Indicator Received Line Signal Detector Signal Quality Detector Data signal Rate Selector (DTE) Data Signal Rate Selector (DCE) Transmitter Signal Element Timing (DTE) Transmitter Signal Element Timing (DCE) Receiver Signal Element Timing (DCE) Secondary Transmitter Data Secondary Receiver Data Secondary Request to send Secondary clear to send Secondary Received line signal Detector.

PG SG TD RD RTS CTS DSR DTR RI DCD SQ TEST TEST RSET (S) TD (S) RD (S) RTS (S) CTS (S) DCD

In addition the logic ground at receiver may be different from the logic ground at the driver. This causes severe voltage sensing problems.

DCEToDCEFromDCEToDCEFromDCETo

The balanced line can ignore any ground voltages since they are common to both lines. Moreover, the differential operations is insensitive to any inductively or capacitively coupled noise which is commonly found in both conductors of the balanced line. 6.2 RS 422-A, RS 423-A (CCITT V.11 AND X27), (CCITT V.10 and X26): In order to improve upon the signalling rate and distance characteristics of the EIA RS232A, that employ differential inputs to the receiver. Although the RS 423-A still uses an unbalanced line, only one end is ground, preventing low frequency ground current loops. Also, each signal has its non ground return line preventing the accumulation of large current flow in the return path as in the case of the RS-232C standard. For a 100Mt. Cable length, the maximum data signalling rate would be 80 Kbps to ensure less than IV peak near end crosstalk. For signalling rates beyond 90 Kbps, the maximum cable length is inversely proportional to the data rate. For operation on a 60Mt. cable, the signalling rate is limited to 2Mb/s. 1.3 RS 449 Interface: This standard in conjunction with the RS 422 A and 232C standard. This standard offers greater immunity to noise and permits greater cable lengths and higher data signalling rates. In addition, it defines 10 new interchange circuits, chiefly for controlling and testing purposes. It also accommodates in balanced interchange circuits. It uses a 37-pin connector and a 9 pin connector. The later is used to accommodate secondary channel interchange circuits. This RS 449 specification divides the interchange circuits into two categories; Category I circuits provide interconnection of either balanced (RS422) or unbalanced (RS-423) generators via a pair of wires with a differential receiver. Category II circuits provide interconnection of only unbalanced generators (RS-423) via a single wire to an unbalanced receiver which uses a common signal return circuit. 1.4 X.21: There is an economic way to have the benefits of RS-449 interface with fewer circuits but having more DTE and DCE interface logics. This approach is adopted for X.21 interface standards. This interface uses a 15-pin connector, although presently only 8 pins are being used. Transmit and receive circuits are there in both directions. But unlike RS-232 and Rs-449, these carry both data and control informations. Other two circuits control(C) and Indication(I) carry control and status informations in both directions. X.21 works an synchronous operations. One signal Element timing (S) circuit is used for this. C and I circuits do not carry any digital signal. They will be in either ON or OFF state. Normally, N, R, C, I and S circuits are used. Sometimes, a Byte timing (B) circuit is also used. Though generally the interface works on balanced mode, it can work in unbalanced mode also. This interface is mostly used for a circuit switched communication network. DTE can have three states. DTE ready indicates that DTE is ready to operate and T is 1 and C is OFF. DTE uncontrolled not ready indicates that DTE cannot be in operational phase due to any abnormal condition. Here T is 0 and C is OFF. DTE controlled not ready indicates DTE is operational but is unable to accept calls. T is

010101..and C is OFF. DCE can have two states. DCE ready shows that DCE is ready to operate. Here R is 1 and I is OFF. DCE not ready indicates that DCE cannot give any service. R is 0 and I is OFF.

X.21 is a futuristic version of RS-449 and is more flexible and cheaper. Fig.6.2 shows X.21 interface. This standard interface can work OSI layers I to 3. The physical layer of X.21 provides a general interface for using the station attachment to a circuit or packet switched network. The data link layer of X.21 guides the control information transfer between DTE and DCE over the transmit and receive circuits, through synchronous character oriented protocol. Network layer specifies the identification procedures for the DTE and requesting, establishing and terminating data connections. 1.5 X.25: In a packet switched network, the data must be broken up into packets, which contain the control informations as well data, Data transfer can be connection oriented (Virtual circuit mode) or connectionless (datagram mode). The most widely used standard interface for packet switching is X.21. This interface works on physical level, link level and packet level. At link level, the interface may operate over single line vide single link procedure (SLP) or Multilink Procedure (MLP). The former works with Asynchronous Balanced Mode(ABM). If a multiple link environment is there between DTE and DCE then each link uses SLP. When multiple link procedure receives a packet for transmission, any available link is chosen. To identify individual packets, a 12-bit sequence number called Multilink Control (MLC) precedes each X.25 packet, both together rooms an MLP frames. The whole thing is then encapsulated is an SLP frame. In the packet level, a virtual circuit service is specified, which provides two types-a dynamically established virtual circuit using X.21 set up procedure, and a permanent network assigned virtual circuit. The former is known as virtual call, while the later is permanent virtual circuit, which does not need call set up or clearing.

Fig. 6.3 shows an X.25 virtual call sequence.

X.25 specifies that the network must support a maximum user field length of 128 octets and may allow selection of some other maximum field length of 16 to 4096 octets. DTE forms the control packets and brakes data in data packets and transmits to DCE. The data packet includes user data, virtual circuit number, transmit and receive sequence number, flow control bit (D), packet type bit(M) and a data type bit (Q). Control packets include a virtual circuit number, a packet type identifier and additional information related to the control function. X.25 allows multiplexing by which a DTE can established upto 4095 simultaneous virtual circuits with other DTEs through a single physical DTE-DCE link, which provides full duplex statistical multiplexing. To identify the packets to their virtual circuits, each packet has 12 bit virtual circuit number (4 bits logical group number and 8 bits logical channel number). Virtual circuits can be only incoming, only outgoing or both way working. Each data packet has a 3-bit packet send sequence number and a 3-bit packet receive sequence number P(S) and P(R) respectively. Flow control on data is either local or end to end basis. If D bit is 0 acknowledgement is from DCE and of D is 1, it is from remote DTE. X.25 provides another facility to identify a contiguous packet sequence, which is helpful for keeping data track on message basis. The packets can be classified as A (if M bit is 1) and B (M is 0). A packet indicates that additional complete packet sequences are to follow the present packet. The sequence of A-packets is ended with one B-packet. Interrupt packets are available in X.25 which bypasses the flow control procedures. This packet does not have any send or receive sequence number and is not blocked by Receive Not ready signal. Interrupt packet confirmation is only on an end-to-end basis. X.25 provides optional user facilities, which may be provided by the network and can be employed by a particular user. 1.6 X.400:

This interface standard is for Message Handling System and is used in AUTOMEX. These do not directly deal with the user interface but define the services which are available to the user for sending messages via the network. This interface model has two different units-User Agent (UA) and Message Transfer Agent (MTA). The former interacts directly with the user, prepares messages and submit them for routing to destination. The source and destination Uas interact. The messages are submitted by UA to MTA for transmission. The interaction of UA to MTA and other UA is defined by X.400. MTA routes the message to the destination through other MTAs. Store and forward action is now-a-days used in this type of transmission. A single or multiple system can be implemented. The end users can have shared or dedicated workstations. Connections among separate systems can be of any form of communication facility. This X.400 standard is basically an application layer facility. It can be subdivided into user application sublayer and a message transfer sublayer. The interaction between the Uas is carried by Interpersonal Messaging Protocol(P2), where the protocol data unit consists of the user message plus a header. The header gives information regarding identity of the message and class of services i.e. all informations regarding the user. This protocol also have status reports. The message transfer sublayer contains MTA Entity and submission/delivery Entity. The interactions between MTAEs are guided by the Message Transfer Protocol (P1). If a common MTAE is used by sender and receiver, then this protocol is not needed. The message protocol data units are classified as user, delivery report and probe. In user PDU, the header is known as Envelope, which contains the information needed for message handling. E.g., the network name for the receiver, unique identifier, priority, delivery report needed or not. The services facilitated by X.400 interface can be grouped as basic, essential optional and additional optional. Basic services must be implemented. The essential optionals are to be offered by the vendor but user is to take decisions. The additional optional services may or may not be provided by the vender.

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