DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

COURSE DETAIL – (CSI – 655)

Course Name: Data Communication and Networks

Course Structure: Lectures: 2, Labs: 1 Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None
Objectives: To introduce students to the concept of computer communication.
Analogue & digital transmission. Network Layers, Network models (OSI, TCP/IP) and
Protocol Standards. Emphasis is given on the understanding of modern network
concepts.

Course Outline: Analogue and digital Transmission, Noise, Media, Encoding,

Asynchronous and Synchronous transmission, Protocol design issues. Network system
architectures (OSI, TCP/IP), Error Control, Flow Control, Data Link Protocols
(HDLC, PPP). Local Area Networks and MAC Layer protocols (Ethernet, Token ring),
Multiplexing, Switched and IP Networks, Inter-networking, Routing, Bridging,
Transport layer protocols TCP/IP, UDP. Network security issues. Programming
exercises, labs or projects involving implementation of protocols at different layers
Reference Material:
1. Introduction to Computer Networks /4, A. S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall 2003
2. Computer Networks and Internets, 5/E, 2008
Douglas E. Comer, Purdue University ISBN-10: 0136061273 ISBN-13:
9780136061274 Publisher: Prentice Hall
Data and Computer Communications By William Stallings Published by
th
Macmillan Pub. Co., 8 Edition 2006

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

LECTURE # 1

Over view of Today’s Lecture

1. Data Communication
2. Types Communication Structure
3. Characteristics of Data of Data Communication
4. Communication System
5. Components of Data Communication System

Data Communication:
Data communication is the combination of two words

1. Data (Text, Numbers, Audio & Video)

2. Communication (Exchange)

Definition of Data Communication

“Data Communication is the exchange of Information from one entity to the

other using a Transmission Medium”.

As you can clearly notice, the definition of Data Communication although Simple
leaves many questions unanswered:

Exchange??????
Information?????
Entities???????
Transmission????
Medium????

We will try to answer all these Questions in this Course

History of Data Communication

Data communications history represents a blend of histories, including:

The history of the telecommunications industry

The history of data communications, and
The history of the Internet

Telegraph 1837 Samuel Morse

Modern telecommunication industry began in 1837 with the invention of
the telegraph by Samuel Morse

This led to building a telecommunications infrastructure of poles and wires

as well as to the development of communication hardware and protocols

Telephone 1876 Alexander Graham Bell

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

Invention of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 and the

development of wireless communication technology by Guglielmo
Marconi in the 1890s set the stage for today’s communication industry
By 1950’s
By 1950s, telephone and telegraph companies had developed a network of
communication facilities throughout the industrialized world
1970’S
Although development of databases, languages, operating systems, and
hardware was strong from 1950s to 1970s, large-scale data communication
systems did not emerge until the 1970s.

This was stimulated by 3 major developments:

 Large-scale integration of circuits reduced cost and size of

terminals and communication equipment
 New software systems that facilitated the development of data
communication networks
 Competition among providers of transmission facilities reduced
the cost of data circuits

TODAY’S

Today’s fast world demands better, secure and most of all FAST ways of
communication
Gone are the days when you had to wait a couple of weeks to get a letter from
USA
Why wait ONE week when you can get the information you require in just a split
of a second, using what we know by the name of “DATA
COMMUNICATION”.

HOW TO ACHIEVE THIS?

How to achieve this ACCURACY, SECURITY and SPEED for the transfer of
this information?
What HARDWARE and the SOFTWARE is needed?
And, what should be the MEANS of sending this info?

ARE SOME OF TOPIC WE WILL BE EXPLORING DURING THE COURSE OF

OUR STUDY

DATA COMMUNICATION
When we communicate, we share information
o Information can be LOCAL or REMOTE
o Between Individuals LOCAL communication occurs face to face
o REMOTE communication occurs over a long distance
o When we refer to COMPUTER SYSTEMS, Data is represented in the form of
Binary Units (Bits) in the form of Zeros (0’s) and One’s (1’s)
Also the entities can most of the times be considered to be COMPUTERS

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

Data Communication Definition (Modified)

Therefore, our earlier definition can easily be modified to:

“Data Communication is the exchange of data (in the form of 0’s and 1’s)
between two devices (computers) via some form of the transmission medium.”

LOCAL and REMOTE Data Communication

LOCAL
Data communication is considered to be local if the communicating devices
are present in the same building or a similarly restricted geographical area
REMOTE
Data Communication is considered remote, if the devices are farther apart.

Data Communication System

For Data Communication to occur, the communicating devices must be a part of a
communication system made up of some specific kind of hardware and software This
type of a system is known as a
“DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM”

Characteristics of Data Communication

The effectiveness of any data communications system depends upon the following four
fundamental characteristics:

1. 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.

2. Timeliness:

The system must deliver data in a timely manner. Data delivered late are useless. In
the case of video and audio, timely delivery means delivering data as they are
produced, in the same order that they are produced, and without significant delay.
This kind of delivery is called real-time transmission.

3. Accuracy:

The communication system should deliver the data accurately, without introducing
any errors. The data may get corrupted during transmission affecting the accuracy of
the delivered data.

4. Jitter:

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival time. It is the uneven delay in the
delivery of audio or video packets. (System has ability to deliver the message in
Sequence).

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

Components of Data Communication Systems

Any system is made up of more than one component. Similarly, a data communication
system is made up of 5 components as shown in the fig:

 Message
 Sender
 Receiver
 Medium
 Protocol

MESSAGE

• Information or Data to be communicated

• Can be text, numbers, video or any combination of these
• In short anything that can be represented using binary bits

Data Communication Messages

 Files (meaningful collections of records)

 Data/information requests (database queries, Web page requests,
etc.)
 Responses to requests and commands or error messages
 Status messages (about the network’s functional status)
 Control messages transmitted between network devices to control
network traffic
 Correspondence among network users

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

SENDER

• Device that sends the data message

• Can be a Computer, Workstation, Video camera etc
• As already discussed, the data from the sender might not be in the
appropriate format for the transmission medium and will need to be
processed

RECEIVER

• Device that receives the message

• Can be a computer, workstation, Television etc
• At times, the data received from the transmission medium may not
be in a proper form to be supplied to the receiver and it must be
processed

MEDIUM

• Physical path that a message uses to travel from the Sender to the
Receiver
• Can be a Copper Cable (Telephone), Coaxial Cable (Cable TV),
Fiber Optic Cable, LASERS or Radio Waves (Wireless Medium)
• We will see that Data needs to be transferred in the form of
ELECTROMAGNETIC signals and The Transmission Medium
should be capable of carrying these EM Signals

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

TRANSMISSION MEDIUM

PROTOCOL

• Set of Rules Governing Communication

• Represents an Agreement between communication devices
• Without Protocol, two devices may be connected but they will not be
able to communicate

EXAMPLE: Consider the communication between two

individuals. They can only communicate provided they both
speak the same language.

A little more complex Communication System

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

EXAMPLE – ELECTRONIC MAIL

Explanation In Terms of a little more complex Comm. System

SENDER SIDE

• Input device and transmitter are components of a Personal Computer

• User of a PC wishes to send a message ‘m’
• User activates electronic mail package e.g. hotmail
• Enters the message via input device (keyboard)
• Character string is buffered in main memory as a sequence of bits ‘g’
• PC is connected to some trans system such as a Telephone Network
via an I/O Transmitter like Modem
• Transmitter converts incoming stream ‘g’ into a signal ‘s’

RECEIVER SIDE

• The transmitted signal ‘s’ is subject to a number of impairments

depending upon the medium
• Therefore, received signal ‘r’ may differ from ‘s’.
• Receiver attempts to estimate original ‘s’ based on its knowledge of
the medium and received signal ‘r’
• Receiver produces a bit stream g’(t)
• Briefly buffered in the memory
• Data is presented to the user via an output device like printer, screen
etc.
• The data viewed by user m’ will usually be an exact copy of the data
sent ‘m’

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DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS LECTURE # 1

EXAMPLE-Telephone System

• Input to the Telephone is a message ‘m’ in the form of sound waves

• The sound waves are converted by telephone into electric signals of
the same frequency
• These signals are transmitted w/o any modification over the
telephone line
• Hence g(t) and s(t) are identical
• S(t) will suffer some distortion so that r(t) will not be the same
as s(t)
• R(t) is converted back to sound waves with no attempt of
correction or improvement of signal quality
• Thus m’ is not an exact replica of m

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