UNIT-1

1. BASICS OF DATA COMMUNICATION&OSI LAYER

1.1 DATA COMMUNICATION
Data communication is exchange of data between two computers. A computer generates a stream of
0’s & 1’s and send it to another computer which it is connected. The connection can be either a
simple wire (or) it can be through wireless media. The two computers can be in different rooms,
cities, states, countries (or)even continents.
In any data communication system three characteristics are needed
1. Correct delivery:-when a sender transmits data for an intended recipient the data must reach only
intended recipient and not someone else.
2. Accurate delivery:- The data sent must be received in the same form as the one in which it was
sent
3. Timely delivery:-The data must travel from sender to receiver in a finite amount of time. To
achieve the aspects of data communication systems transmission media and data communication
protocols are needed.
1.2 NEED FOR DATA COMMUNICATION NETWORKING.
When a large no of computers are inter connected for the purpose of data communication, then it is
called data communication networking.
Data communication network is necessary to perform the following tasks.
1. Transmission system utilization:- It refers to the need to make an efficient use of transmission
facilities that are shared among a number of communicating devices. Multiplexing is used to
allocate the total capacity of transmission medium among number of users
2. Signal generation:- All the data that are transmitted over the transmitting system propagate as
electromagnetic signals. Signal generation should be such that the resultant signal is capable of
being propagated through the transmission medium and interpretable as data at the receiver.
3. Interfacing:- The device must interface with the transmission system in order to communicate.
4. Synchronization:- Transmitter and receiver must be synchronized. Receiver should know when
the transmission of data starts and when it ends.
5. Exchange management:- If data are to be exchanged in both directions over a period of time,
the two parties must cooperate
6. Error detection and correction:-It is required in data processing system where errors can’t be
tolerated. At the receiver the errors present in the transmitted signal are detected and corrected by
using error detection & correction methods.
Error detection methods: Parity checking, LRC, VRC, CRCetc.
Error correction methods: Hamming code, ARQ etc.
7. Flow control of data:-It is required to assure that the source doesn’t overwhelm the destination
by sending data faster than that can be processed and absorbed
8. Adressing and Routing:-When more than two devices share a transmitting facility, a source
system must indicate the identity of the destination. The transmission system must ensure that the
data being sent or routed only to destination system.
1.3 DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ANALOG & DIGITAL DATA:
Analog data Digital data
1. Analog data is in the form of continuous 1. Digital data is in the form of discrete
variable such as electric current. quantities and has binary digits.
2. Cost of transmission is low . 2. Cost of transmission is high .
3. Efficiency is low 3. Efficiency is high.
4.Effect of noise is high. 4. Effect of noise is low.
5. Attenuation is high. 5. Attenuation is low.
6. Bandwidth requirement is low. 6. Bandwidth requirement is high.
7.Modulationtechniques:AM,PM,FM,PAM etc. 7.PCM,DM,ASK,PSK,FSK,QAM
 8.Requirement of power is high 8.Requirement of power is low.
9.Ex: Voice, video and radio transmission 9.Text ,Data & integers in CD/DVD
1.4 COMPUTER NETWORKING & IT’S NEED
Computer network is an interconnected collection of computers. The two computers are said to be
interconnected if they are able to exchange information. This interconnection may be through
telephone lines, cables, fiber optics, radio waves (or) communication satellites.
The following advantages may necessitate the computer networks in many organization.
1. RESOURCE SHARING: The resources of data programs peripherals (or) equipment located at
distant places can be shared through the computer network resources allocation & sharing are the
two primary factors in computer networking. Examples: sharing files, applications, printer etc.
2. COMMUNICATION MEDIUM: Computers network provides a powerful communication
medium among a group of people. Example: sending memos, reports and images to other people
using emails.
3. HIGH RELIABILITY: The computer network should provide a high reliability because the
redundancy can be incorporated in terms of hardware & software. Example: in the event of failure
of one computer worked can be taken over by another computer.
4. LOW COST: Small computers with low cost may have a letter price &performance than larger
once.
5. HIGH FLEXIBILITY: Computer network may give letter flexibility due to common among
heterogeneous systems.
6. INCREMENTAL EXPANSION: Computers and other equipment can be gradually added to
satisfy the need of organization at different points of time in networking environment.
1.5 OSI 7 LAYER MODEL(Layered Architecture)

The open system interconnection model is a layer architecture that standardizes the level of service
and types of interactions for computers exchanging information through a network. This
architecture was defined by ISO in 1997. OSI model consists of seven separate and related layers
each of which defines a segment of process of moving information across a network
The application layer is software running at the source node creates data to be transmitted to the
application layer software running at the destination node. The presentation layer receives data from
applications layer and add header and sent it to the next layer. The remaining layers (Session,
Transport, Network) adds its own header and sender to next layer. The lowest layer is physical layer
and the data is transmitted as voltages pulses across the communication medium.
Several different protocols perform the functions of various layers of OSI reference model. When a
message sent from one computer to another it travels down the layer of source computer and then
travels up through layers of destination computers
FUNCTIONS OF OSI LAYERS
1. Physical layer
Physical layer is concerned with sending bits between source and destination nodes. The functions
of physical layer are
 Signal encoding:-What voltages are used to represent the bits of 0s & 1s.
 Type of medium:-What is medium and what are its properties.
 Bit synchronization:-Is the transmission synchronous (or)asynchronous.
 Transmission type:- Is the transmission Serial (or) Parallel
 Transmission mode:- Is the transmission Simplex, half duplex (or) full duplex
 Topology: - What is the topology used (star, bus, mesh, tree)
 Types of multiplexing:- Is multiplexing used if so, what is its type TDM (or) FDM
 Bandwidth:- Is base band (or)broad band communication used.
 Interface:- How the systems are interfaced
 Signal type:- Are the signals analog (or) digital.
2. Data link layer
It is responsible for transmitting a group of bits between adjacent nodes. The groups of bits are
generally called frame or packet The data link layer mainly performs error control and flow control.
The data link layer is divided into two layers
1. Logic link control (LLC) layer 2. Medium access control (mac) layer
The functions of data link layer are
 Addressing:- Headers and tailors are added containing the physical address of adjacent nodes
and removed on successfully delivery
 Flow control:- This avoids over writing on the receiver buffer by regulating the amount of
data that can be transmitted
 Error control:- It checks the CRC to ensure the correctness of frame. If in correct,
retransmission takes place
 Media Access Control:- In LANs it decides who can send data and when & how much data.
 Synchronization:- Headers have bits which tells receiver when a frame is arriving. Trailers
mark the end of frame apart from containing the error control bits.
 Node to node delivery:- This DLL is responsible for error free delivery of entire frame or
packet to the next adjacent node
3. Network layer
This layer is responsible for routing a packet with in the sub net i.e., from source to destination
nodes across multiple nodes in same network or across multiple networks. This layer ensures the
successful delivery of packet to the destination node. To perform this it chooses a route. A router
can connect two networks with different protocols packet length and formats. The network layer
performs the following functions
1. Routing
2. Congestion control
 3. Logical addressing: Source and destination logical addresses (IP address)
4. Address transformations: Interpreting logical addresses to get their physical equivalent(ARP
protocol)
5. Accounting and billing
6. Source to destination error free delivery of a packet
4. Transport layer
This is the first end to end layer. All the lower layers were the protocols between adjacent nodes.
Therefore a header at transport layer contains information about destination nodes. This layer takes
care of error control and flow control both at the source and destination for the entire message,
rather than only for a packet.
The responsibilities of transport layers are
1. Host to host message delivery:- It ensures that all the packets of message send by a source
node arrived at intended destination.
2. Application-to- application communication:- Enable communication between two
applications running on different computers.
3. Segmentation and reassembling:- This layer breaks a message into packets and numbers them
by adding sequence number at dentition to reassemble the original message.
4. Connection: - It creates a logical connection between the source and destination for the
duration of complete message transfer.
5. Session Layer
The main functions of session layer is to establish, maintain and synchronize the interaction
between two communication hosts. The session layer checks and establishes connections between
the hosts of the two different users. The responsibilities of session layer are
1. Sessions and sub sessions:-The session layer divided session into sub session for avoiding
retransmission of entire messages by adding check pointing features.
2. Synchronization: - The session layer also decides the order in which data needs to be
transmitted to the transport layer.
3. Dialog control: - The session layer also decides which user/application sends data and at what
point of time and whether the communication is simplex (or) duplex.
4. Session closure: - It ensures that the session between the hosts is closed gracefully.
6. Presentation Layer
When two hosts are communicated with each other they may use different coding standards,
character set for representing data [ASCII, EBCDIC]. The presentation layer is responsible for data
translation and data compression. The responsibilities of this layer are
1.Translation :- . The translation between senders and receivers message format is done by
presentation layer if two formats are different.
2. Encryption: - For security purposes the presentation layer performs data encryption and decryption
3. Data compression: - For efficient transmission, it performs data compression before sending and
decompression at destination
7. Application Layer
It is the top most layers in OSI model. It enables a user to access the network. The application programs
using the network services also reside at this layer. This layer provides user interface for network
applications such as remote log in (TELNET) World Wide Web(WWW), File transfer Protocol), ElectroNIC
mail (email), Remote database access etc. The responsibilities of application layer are
1. Network abstraction: - The application layer provides an abstraction of underlying network to an
end user and an application
2. File access and transfer: - It allows a user to access, download or upload files from/to a remote
host.
3. Mail services: - It allows the users to use mail services [SMTP- Simple mail transfer protocol ]
 4. Remote login: - It allows logging in a remote host [TELNET].
5. World Wide Web (WWW): - Also provides accessing web pages.
1.6 TYPES OF DIFFERENT PHYSICAL TRANSMISSION MEDIA
Transmission media are physical infrastructure components that carry data from one computer
to another. Transmission media need not be in the form of physical wire. They can be invisible.
Examples for simple transmission media are telephone wires that connect telephones to central
offices. All transmission media can be divided into two main category’s i.e., guided & unguided as
shown in figure. Guided media can be further subdivided into three types. Twisted pair, Coaxial
cable &Optical fiber. Guided media physically based on some physical cables. Twisted pair and
coaxial cable carry signals in the form of electric current whereas optical fibers carry signal in the
form of light.

1.7 CROSS SECTION AND APPLICATIONS OF TWISTED PAIR CABLEs( UTP,STP), CO-
AXIAL CABLE AND OPTICAL FIBER
Unshielded Twisted Pair:-The most commonly used medium in telephone systems is UTPIt can
carry both voice as well as data. It consists of two conductors and are twisted as shown in the figure.
This results in reduction of noise to a great extent. The copper conductors are covered by PVC or
any other insulator.

UTP is flexible ,cheap& easy to install. EIA has developed standards for UTP cables.
Category1:- This is the basic cable used in telephone system for voice communication.
Category2:- Suitable for voice and data communication up to the speed of 4Mbps.
Category3:- It can carry voice and data up to 10Mbps. It requires minimum 3 twist per foot. Today
these are more regularly used in telephone network.
Category4:-Similar to category3 & can handle data up to 16Mbps.
Category5:-It has data speed of 100Mbps .

Shielded Twisted Pair:- a part from insulator the twisted pair itself is covered by metal shield and
finally the plastic cover as shown in figure. The metal sheet prevents penetration of electro-
magnetic noise. It also eliminates crosstalk, an effect where one wire mix up with some of the
signal travelling on the other wire. This effect can be observed during telephonic
 conversations. The shield prevent such unwanted sounds. The STP is more expensive than UTP

Applications
1.Used for both analog & digital signal transmission
2. Most commonly used medium in telephone network.
3.In LAN STP are mainly used for low cost , low performance applications.
Coaxial Cable:-It has an inner central conductor surrounded by an insulating shield which in turn is
enclosed in the outer conductor. The outer conductor also acts as a shield against noise. The outer
conductor

is covered by plastic cover as shown in figure.

A single coaxial cable has a diameter of 1to2.5cm. It is more expensive and less flexible and more
difficult to install where more no of twists and turns are required. It is more reliable and can carry
far and higher data rates. Coaxial cables are divided into various categories depending upon size of
shields and outer coating considerations. They are different types RG-8,RG-9,RG-11,RG-58,RG-
59(RG- Radio Government).
Applications
1. Used to transmit analog &digital signals at high data rates.
2. In television distribution(or)cable TV networks.
3. For long distance telephone transmission.
4. Short run computer system links.
5. Local area networks.
Optical Fiber:-Optical fibers use light instead of electrical signals as a means of signal
propagation .they are made of glass fibers that are enclosed in a plastic jacket. This allows the fiber
to bend andnot break. In the fiber the cladding covers the core depending upon the size. The
cladding protects the fiber from moisture. Finally an outer jacket surrounds the entire cable. This
can be made of Teflon, plastic or metal. Teflon is more expensive than plastic but both don’t
provide structural strength to fiber. Metal can provide that but it is very heavy and expensive.

A transmitter at the center end of optic fiber uses a light emitting diode or a laser to send pulses of
light across the fiber. LED is used for short distance. As the laser provides a very focused beam,it is
used for long distances and the receiving device must have a photo sensitive cell which can detect
the absence or presence of light to indicate 0 or 1.
Advantages
1.Resistant to noise: As light rays are used for communication rather than electrical signals there is
no noise interference.
2.Huge bandwidth: The bandwidth offered is huge as compared to twisted pair and coaxial cable.
3.High signal carrying capacity: The signals carried by optical fiber travel longer distances without
needing regeneration.
Applications
1. Long haul trunks i.e.,, telephone networks [up to 1500kms].
2. Metropolitan trunks without repeaters [up to 12kms].
3. Rural exchange trunks to link towns & villages.
4. Subscriber loops from central exchange to business subscribers capable of handling voice, data,
image &video.
5.LANs capacity of 100Mbps to 10Gbps and can support 100’s of systems in an office building.
INFRARED AND LIGHT WAVE TRANSMISSION
Infrared transmission: Infrared transmission refers to energy in the region of EM spectrum at
wave lengths larger than visible light and shorter than radio waves. So infrared frequencies are
higher than micro waves and lower than visible light. Transmitting IR data from one device to
another is referred to as beaming. Infrared waves are used for short range communication. They are
directional cheaper and easy to build. They don’t pass through solid objects like room walls etc.
However they don’t interfere with similar systems in adjacent rooms or buildings.
The infrared radiation spectrum is divided into three regions.
1.Near IR band : Contains energy in the range of wavelengths closest to visible light i.e, 750nm to
1300nm.
2.Middle IR band: Consists of energy in the range of 1300nm to 3000nm.
3.Far IR band: It extends energy from 3000nm to 14000nm.
It doesn’t require any FCC license. Infrared is used in variety of wireless communication,
monitoring &control applications. The examples are
1. Home entertainment remote control boxes. ((TV, Audio Systems, DVD players)
2. Wireless LAN’s.
3. Links between notebook computers &desktop computers.
4. Wireless modems.
5. Fire sensors, medical diagnostic equipment, missile guidance systems.
6. Geological monitoring devices.
7. Night vision systems
8. Motion detectors.
Light wave transmission: Unguided optical signals (or) light waves can be used to connect the
LANs in two buildings. This is possible with the help of lasers and photo detectors mounted on the
top of roofs. Optical signals are unidirectional and therefore each building must have its own laser
and photo detector. This system offers low cost with very high bandwidth and easy to install. It
doesn’t require any FCC license. The main limitation of this is optical signals of laser cannot
penetrate through thick fog (or) rain (or) the directionality is effected by heat waves.
1.11Comparison of characteristics of different transmission media
S.No. Medium Speed Cost Security Attenuation
1 UTP 1-100 Mbps Low Low High
2 STP 1-150 Mbps Medium Low High
3 Coaxial Cable 1Mbps-1Gbps Medium Low High
4 Optical fiber 10Mbps-2Gbps High High Low
5 Radio 1-10 Mbps Medium Low Medium
transmission
6 Terrestrial 1Mbps-10Gbps High High Variable
Microwave
7 Satellite 1Mbps-10Gbps High High Variable
8 Cellular 1.6-1.2 Kbps High High Low
Differences between guided and unguided media.
Guided media Unguided media.
1.Transmission is through wire or cable. 1Transmission is through air (or) space.
2.Propagates through a cable. 2.Propagates in all directions.
3.Travels up to few kilometers 3.Travels up to thousands of kilometers
4.Installation of transmission media is 4.No need of installation of transmission
needed. media.
5.Expensive equipment’s are not needed for 5.Expensive equipment are needed for
transmission and reception.. transmission and reception.
6.ex:- LAN, telephone networks. 6.Radarcommunication, satellite TV , cell
phone communication etc…
1.8 MODES OF DATA TRANSMISSION
There three modes of data transmission
1Simplex transmission:-It is unidirectional communication. In this one of the communicating
devices can only send the data whereas the other devices can only receive the data.Keyboard to
computer monitor data transmission is an example for simplex mode transmission. An example for
simplex transmission is shown in the figure in which one host can only send data and the other can
only receive it.

Fig: simplex mode

2. Half duplex Transmission:- It is a bidirectional communication but not at the same time. In this
mode both the devices can transmit the data but not at the same time. When one device is sending
the data the other device can only receive it and vice versa. The example for half duplex
communication is shown in the figure.

3. Full duplex transmission:- In this mode both the devices can transmit data at the same time i.e,
both the devices are capable of sending as well as receiving the data at same time. It is similar to a
mobile communication.
1.9Bandwidth and throughput of a physical medium:
Bandwidth:
One characteristics that measures network performance is bandwidth. However the term can be used
in two different context with two different measuring values, bandwidth in herz and bits per
seconds.
Banwidth in herz:
It is range of frequencies contained in composite signal.
Bandwidth in bits per second:
It is refers for number of bits per second in channel.
Throughput:
The throughput of a communication channel is defined by the number of bits trsnsferd over a
communication link.
Throughput = transfer size
Latency
Latency: latency defines the time it takes to transmit one packet from source to destination.
Latency delay consist of propagation delay transmission time and buffering time.
Latency = Tx + Tp + Tb
Where
Tx= transmission time.
Tp= propagation delay
Tb= buffering time
A two was latency is called round trip time (RTT)
Transmission time:
It is time that it takes to transmit one bit on a transmission channel
Tx = packet size (bits)
Bandwidth
1.10 CIRCUIT SWITCHING& PACKET SWITCHING-SWITCHING MECHANISMS
A switched network consists of a series of inter linked nodes. Switches are hardware and software devices
capable of creating temporary connections between two or more devices linked to the switch for
transmission of data (voice, videos& images) beyond a local area network Communication is achieved by
transmitting data from the source to destination through a network of intermediate switches . The switching
nodes are not concern with the content of data but they provide switching facility that they move data from
node to node until they reach their destination. There are three types of switching methods

CIRCUIT SWITCHING
In the circuit switching a dedicated communication path is established between two stations. The
communication path is a connected sequence of links between network nodes. The communication
through circuit switching involves three phases.
1. Circuit (or) Connection Establishment: phase: Before the signal can be transmitted an end to
end
connection must be established.
2. Data Transfer phase : In this phase the data can be transmitted through dedicated connection.
3. Circuit (or) Connection release phase: When the communication is over nodes send a
request for terminating the connection and the connection will be released. Circuit switching was
developed to handle voice traffic for telephone communications. In telephone calls this types of
temporary dedicated connection is useful for the duration of call. In circuit switching the connection
is used for the entire duration even no data is being transferred . Once the connection is established
the network is efficiently transparent to user. Information is transmitted at a fixed rate with no delay
other than propagation delay of transmission links. Circuit switching treats all communication
requests as equal.(No message priority) This method is good for large volumes of continuous traffic.

Fig. Circuit Switching

Advantages of circuit switching:
• Guaranteed bandwidth
• Simple abstraction
• Simple forwarding
• Low per-packet overhead
Disadvantages of Circuit Switching
• Wasted bandwidth
• Blocked connections
• Connection set-up delay
• Network state
PACKET SWITCHING
Packet switching was designed to provide more efficient facility than Circuit switching for burst
data traffic. In this data to be send is divided into small blocks called packets. Packet is of variable
length and contains data to be transferred and the control information such as sender and destination
address. The packets also help in recovering form error transmission quicker and more easily. There
are two types of Packet switching.
1. Datagram approach
2. Virtual circuit approach
Datagram Switching
In the datagram approach of packet switching each packet is considered as a totally independent
packet from all packets. Even there are multiple packets sent by the same source to the same
destination for the same message. Each packet is independent of all other packets from the point of
view of the underlying network and actually can follow different routes or path. Fig shows the
packet switching
 Fig. Datagram switching
Computer A is sending different packets belong to the same original message but travel via different
routes and also can arrive at the destination D in a different order than how the source A sent them.
A buffer memory stores all the packets at destination and at the end re-sequence them to form the
original message. Each packet must have a header containing the source and destination address,
packet number, CRC etc. In data gram approach of packet switching each packet is treated
independently from all others
Virtual Circuit Switching
Virtual Circuit switching is different from packet switching. All packets belonging to same message
take same route from source to destination. A single route is chosen between source and destination
before the actual data transfer takes place Once the route is established all the packets follow the
same route through the network. A unique Virtual Circuit number (VC number) is allocated to that
path.

Fig. Virtual Circuit switching

Computer A wants to send the message to computer D. As shown in fig there is more than one
possible route However one route is finalized during the connecting establishment phase. Once the
route is fixed all the packets of that message are routed via the same route even through alternate
routes are available. This is the data transfer phase Finally the virtual connections is released during
connection release phase.
Differences between Datagram and Virtual Circuit Switching

Issue Data gram Virtual circuit

1.Connection setup Not required Required

2.Addressing information Every packet contains full source Every packet contains a short VC
and destination address number
3.Routing Each packet may travel via a All packets follow same route
different route
4.Band Width availability Dynamic Fixed
5.Potential for BW wastage Yes No
6.Store& Forward mechanism Yes No
7.Order of Packets No assumptions about ordering of Packets are arrived at the
 packet at the destination. destinations in the same order as
they were sent
8.Billing Per Datagram Per minute

1.11 DISTINGUISH BETWEEN CIRCUIT SWITCHING & PACKET SWITCHING

Feature Circuit Switching Packet Switching

1. Dedicated path Yes No

2. Call set up Required Not required
3.Band Width availability Fixed Dynamic
4 Potential for BW wastage Yes No
5.Store& Forward No Yes
Transmission
6. Data flow Continuous In the form of packets
7. Alternative Route(in case Not available Available
of connection failure)
8. Time delay During the establishment of During data transfer
connection
9.Billing Per minute Per packet
1.12 Message switching:
A mode of data transmission in which a message is sent as a complete unit and routed via a
number of intermediate nodes at which it is stored and then forwarded.
1. In message switching, if a station wishes to send a message to another station, it first adds the
destination address to the message.
2.Message switching does not establish a dedicated path between the two communicating
devices i.e. no direct link is established between sender and receiver.
3.Each message is treated as an independent unit.
4.In message switching, each complete message is then transmitted from device to device through
the internetwork i.e. message is transmitted from the source node to intermediate node.
5.The intermediate node stores the complete message temporarily, inspects it for errors and
transmits the message to the next node based on an available free channel and its routing
information. Because of this reason message switched networks are called store and forward
network as shown in fig.
6.The actual path taken by the message to its destination is dynamic as the path is established as it
travels along.
7.When the message reaches a node, the channel on which it came is released for use by another
message.
8.As shown in Figure message Ml is transmitted from A to D and M2 is transmitted C to B.
Message Ml follows the route A --> I --> II --> III --> D and M2 follows the route C --> IV --> II
--> B depending upon the availability of free path at that particular moment.
9.The first electromechanical telecommunication system used message switching for telegrams. The
message was punched on paper tape off-line at the sending office and then read in and transmitted
over a communication line to the next office along the way, where it was punched out on paper tape.
An operator there tore the tape off and read it in on tape readers.
                        

Advantages of Message Switching

 The various advantages of message switching are:
 1. It provides efficient traffic management by assigning priorities to the messages to be switched.
2. No physical connection is required between the source & destination as it is in circuit switching.
3. It reduces the traffic congestion on network because of store & forward facility. Each node can
store the message until communication channel becomes available.
4. Channels are used effectively and network devices share the data channels.
5. It supports the message length of unlimited size.
 Disadvantages of Message Switching
 The various disadvantages of message switching are:
1. As message length is unlimited, each switching node must have sufficient storage to buffer
message.
2. Storing & forwarding facility introduces delay thus making message switching unsuitable for real
time applications like voice and video.