Communication Interface

Lecture 3

Dr. E Effah
 Communication Interface

• Communication interface is essential for communicating with various

subsystems of the embedded system and with the external world

• The communication interface can be viewed in two different

perspectives; namely;
1. Device/board level communication interface (Onboard Communication
Interface)
2. Product level communication interface (External Communication Interface)
 Device/board level communication interface (Onboard Communication Interface)

• The communication channel which interconnects the various

components within an embedded product is referred as Device/board
level communication interface (Onboard Communication Interface)
Examples: Serial interfaces like I2C, SPI, UART, 1-Wire etc
and Parallel bus interface
 Device/board level communication interface (Onboard Communication Interface)

• These are classified into

•
• I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) Bus
•
• SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) Bus
•
• UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter)
•
• 1-Wires Interface
•
• Parallel Interface
1.HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface): It helps to transmit uncompressed video or
digital audio data to the Computer Monitor, Digital TV, etc.

2.CSI (Camera Serial Interface) Camera Interface: it connects the Broadcom Processor and
Pi camera. This interface also connects two devices electrically.

3.DSI (Display Serial Interface): It is a fast High-resolution display interface specifically used
for sending video data directly from GPU to the LCD display via a 15-pin ribbon cable.

4.Composite Video and Audio Output: This port carries video along with audio signal to the
Audio/Video systems.

5.Power RED colored LED: It is a Power indicator that turns ON when a 5V Power is
connected to the RPi and starts to blink whenever the supply voltage drops below the 4.63V
threshold.

6. ACT PWR: ACT PWR is Green LED which shows the SD card activity.

7. General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) Pins

I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) Bus:
Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus (I2C - Pronounced „I square C‟) is a synchronous bi-
directional half duplex (one-directional communication at a given point of time) two-
wire serial interface bus.

The concept of the I2C bus was developed by „Philips Semiconductors‟ in the early
1980‟s.

The original intention of I2C was to provide an easy way of connection between a
microprocessor/microcontroller system and the peripheral chips in Television sets.

The I2C bus is comprised of two bus lines, namely; Serial Clock – SCL and Serial Data
– SDA.
I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) Bus:
I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) Bus:
• SCL line is responsible for generating synchronization clock pulses and SDA is responsible for
transmitting the serial data across devices.
• I2C bus is a shared bus system to which many numbers of I2C devices can be connected. Devices
• connected to the I2C bus can act as either Master device or Slave device.
• The Master device is responsible for controlling the communication by initiating/terminating data
transfer, sending data and generating necessary synchronization clock pulses.
Slave devices wait for the commands from the master and respond upon receiving the commands.
Master and Slave devices can act as either transmitter or receiver. Regardless whether a master is acting
as transmitter or receiver, the synchronization clock signal is generated by the Master device only. I2C
supports multi masters on the same bus.

The sequence of operation for communicating with an I2C slave device is shown in Lecture Notes.
The GPIO pins allow the RPi to connect with or control general purpose I/O devices, thus acting as the
physical interface between the RPi and the outside world. Any of these pins are programmed according
to the designer's decisions and need to interact with the external devices that are monitoring the event
of interest. The RPi 3 model B took out 26 GPIO pins on board.
Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) Bus:
The Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI) is a synchronous bi-directional full duplex four wire serial
interface bus. The concept of SPI is introduced by Motorola. SPI is a single master multi-slave system.
➢ It is possible to have a system where more than one SPI device can be master, provided the condition only one master device is active at any given point of
time, is satisfied.
➢ SPI is used to send data between Microcontrollers and small peripherals such as shift registers, sensors, and SD cards.
Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) Bus:
SPI requires four signal lines for communication. They are:

Master Out Slave In (MOSI): Signal line carrying the data from master to slave device. It is also known as
Slave Input/Slave Data In (SI/SDI)

Master In Slave Out (MISO): Signal line carrying the data from slave to master device. It is also known as
Slave Output (SO/SDO)

Serial Clock (SCLK): Signal line carrying the clock signals

Slave Select (SS): Signal line for slave device select. It is an active low signal.
Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) Bus:
Master device selects the required slave device by asserting the corresponding slave devices slave select
signal LOW.

The data out line (MISO) of all the slave devices when not selected floats at high impedance state
The serial data transmission through SPI Bus is fully configurable.
SPI devices contain certain set of registers for holding these configurations.

The Serial Peripheral Control Register holds the various configuration parameters like
master/slave selection for the device, baud rate selection for communication, clock signal control, etc.

The status register holds the status of various conditions for transmission andreceptions works on the
principle of „Shift Register‟.

The master and slave devices contain a special shift register for the data to transmit or receive.

The size of the shift register is device dependent. Normally it is a multiple of 8.

1-wire interface (protocol)
• 1- Wire is a device communications bus system designed by Dallas Semiconductor Corp. that provides low-
speed data, signaling, and power over a single conductor.
• 1-Wire is similar in concept to I²C, but with lower data rates and longer range. It is typically used to
communicate with small inexpensive devices such as digital thermometers and weather instruments.
• One distinctive feature of the bus is the possibility of using only two wires: data and ground. To accomplish
this, 1-Wire devices include an 800 pF capacitor to store charge, and to power the device during periods when
the data line is active.
• There is always one master in the overall charge, which may be a PC or a microcontroller. The master initiates
activity on the bus, simplifying the avoidance of collisions on the bus. Protocols are built into the software to
detect collisions. After a collision, the master retries the required communication.
1-wire interface (protocol)
• Many devices can share the same
bus. Each device on the bus has a unique
64-bit serial number. The least significant
byte of the serial number is an 8-bit
number that tells the type of the device.
The most significant byte is a standard
(for the 1-wire bus) 8-bit CRC.
• The master starts a transmission with
a reset pulse, which pulls the wire to 0
volts for at least 480 µs. This resets every
slave device on the bus. After that, any
slave device, if present, shows that it
exists with a "presence" pulse: it holds
the bus low for at least 60 µs after the
master releases the bus.
PARALLEL
COMMUNICATION:
• In data transmission, parallel communication is a
method of conveying multiple binary digits (bits)
simultaneously. It contrasts with communication. The
communication channel is the number of electrical
conductors used at the physical layer to convey bits.
•
• Parallel communication implies more than one such
conductor. For example, an 8-bit parallel channel will
convey eight bits (or a byte) simultaneously, whereas a
serial channel would convey those same bits
sequentially, one at a time. Parallel communication is
and always has been widely used within integrated
circuits, in peripheral buses, and in memory devices
such as RAM.
Example

Serial communication or the UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter)

pins provide a way to communicate between two microcontrollers or the
computers. TX pin is used to transmit the serial data and RX pin is used to receive
serial data coming from a different serial device.
I2C (Inter Integrated Circuit) or the Two Wire Interface (TWI) protocol is a short- distance,
master-slave, synchronous serial protocol that communicates data between two devices at
pins 27 and 28. An I2C device has a 7-bit or 10-bit unique address that must be referred to
anytime the master wants to access it. The applications of I2C include reading RTC (Real
time clock), accessing external EEPROM memory, gyro/magnetometer sensor modules,
etc.
Product level communication interface
(External Communication Interface):
• The Product level communication interface (External Communication Interface) is responsible for data
transfer between the embedded system and other devices or modules. The external communication interface can
be either wired media or wireless media and it can be a serial or parallel interface.
•
➢ Examples for wireless communication interface: Infrared (IR), Bluetooth (BT), Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi),
Radio Frequency waves (RF), GPRS etc.
➢ Examples for wired interfaces: RS-232C/RS-422/RS 485, USB, Ethernet (TCP-IP), IEEE 1394 port, Parallel
port, etc.
It is classified into two types
•
1. Wired communication interface
2. Wireless communication interface:
 Product level communication interface
(External Communication Interface):
• RS-232C:
➢ RS-232 C (Recommended Standard number 232, revision C from the
Electronic Industry Association) is a legacy, full duplex, wired,
asynchronous serial communication interface
➢ RS-232 extends the UART communication signals for external data
communication.
➢ UART uses the standard TTL/CMOS logic (Logic „High‟
corresponds to bit value 1 and Logic „LOW‟ corresponds to bit
value 0) for bit transmission whereas RS232 use the EIA standard for
bit transmission.
➢ As per EIA standard, a logic „0‟ is represented with a voltage
between +3 and +25V, and a logic „1‟ is represented with a voltage
between -3 and -25V.
➢ In EIA standard, logic „0‟ is known as „Space‟ and logic „1‟ as
„Mark‟.
•
• The RS232 interface define various handshaking and control signals
for communication apart from the „Transmit‟ and „Receive‟ signal lines
for data communication RS-232 supports two different types of
connectors, namely; DB-9: 9-Pin connector and DB-25:
• 25-Pin connector.
Product level communication interface (External Communication Interface):
USB (UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS):
• External Bus Standard that allows connection of peripheral devices.
• Connects Devices such as keyboards, mice, scanners, printers, joysticks, audio devices, disks.
• Facilitates transfers of data at 480 (USB 2.0 only), 12 or 1.5 Mb/s (mega-bits/second).
• Developed by a Special Interest Group including Intel, Microsoft, Compact, DEC, IBM, Northern
Telecom and NEC originally in 1994.
• Low-Speed: 10 – 100 kb/s
• 1.5 Mb/s signaling bit rate
• Full-Speed: 500 kb/s – 10 Mb/s 12 Mb/s signalling bit rate
• High-Speed: 400 Mb/s
• 480 Mb/s signaling bit rate
• NRZI with bit stuffing used
• SYNC field present for every packet
• There exist two pre-defined connectors in any USB system - Series “A” and Series “B” Connectors.
• Series “A” cable: Connects USB devices to a hub port.
• Series “B” cable: Connects detachable devices (hot- swappable)
 Bus Topology:
Connects a computer to peripheral
devices.
➢ Ultimately intended to replace parallel
and serial ports
➢ Tiered Star Topology
➢ All devices are linked to a common
point referred to as the root hub.
➢ specification allows for up to 127 (27 -
1) different devices.
➢ Four wire cable serves as interconnect
of system - power, ground and two
differential signalling lines.
•
➢ USB is a polled bus-all transactions are
initiated by host.
• USB HOST: Device that controls entire system usually a
PC of some form. Processes data arriving to and from the USB
port.

• USB HUB: Tests for new devices and maintains status

information of child devices. Serve as repeaters, boosting the
strength of up and downstream signals. Electrically isolates
devices from one another - allowing an expanded number of
devices.
Wireless communication interface
A wireless communication interface is an interface used for the transmission of information over a distance
without the help of wires, cables, or any other forms of electrical conductors.

• They are basically classified into the following types

• Infrared
• Bluetooth/BLE
• Wi-Fi
• Zigbee
• GPRS
• LTE
• GSM
• NB-IoT
• Other Cellular Techs.
 The frequencies from left to right:
• AM Radio: Around 10MHz
Wireless • FM Radio: Around 100MHz
communication • Television: Many frequencies from 470MHz to 800MHz, and
interface: Wireless others.
• Cellular phones: 850MHz, 1900MHz, and others
spectrum • Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz
• Satellite: 3.5GHz
• Wi-Fi: 5GHz
 Wireless
communication
interface: Wireless
spectrum
INFRARED:
•
 Infrared is a certain region in the light spectrum
 Ranges from .7µ to 1000µ or .1mm
 Broken into near, mid, and far infrared
 One step up on the light spectrum from visible light
 Measure of heat
• Most of the thermal radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared. Infrared radiation is used
in industrial, scientific, and medical applications. Night-vision devices using active near-infrared illumination
allow people or animals to be observed without the observer being detected.
 • IR transmission:
• The transmitter of an IR LED inside its circuit,
which emits infrared light for every electric pulse
INFRARED: given to it. This pulse is generated as a button on the
remote is pressed, thus completing the circuit, and
providing bias to the LED.
 • The LED on being biased emits light of the wavelength of 940nm as a series of pulses, corresponding
INFRARED: to the button pressed. However, since along with the IR LED many other sources of infrared light
such as us human beings, light bulbs, sun, etc, the transmitted information can be interfered. A
solution to this problem is by modulation. The transmitted signal is modulated using a carrier
frequency of 38 KHz (or any other frequency between 36 to 46 KHz).

• The IR LED is made to oscillate at this frequency for the time duration of the pulse. The information
or the light signals are pulse width modulated and are contained in the 38 KHz frequency.

• IR supports data rates ranging from 9600bits/second to 16Mbps

• Serial infrared: 9600bps to 115.2 kbps
• Medium infrared: 0.576Mbps to 1.152 Mbps
• Fast infrared: 4Mbps
 BLUETOOTH:
• Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for short distances (using a short-wavelength UHF band from 2.4 to 2.485
GHz)for exchanging data over radio waves in the ISM and mobile devices, and building personal area networks (PANs).
Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS- 232 data
cables.
• Bluetooth uses a radio technology called frequency- hopping spread spectrum. Bluetooth divides transmitted data into
packets, and transmits each packet on one of 79 designated Bluetooth channels. Each channel has a bandwidth of 1
MHz. It usually performs 800 hops per second, with Adaptive Frequency-Hopping (AFH) enabled
• Originally, Gaussian frequency-shift keying (GFSK) modulation was the only modulation scheme available. Since the
introduction of Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, π/4-DQPSK (Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) and 8DPSK modulation
may also be used between compatible devices. Bluetooth is a packet-based protocol with a master-slave structure. One
master may communicate with up to seven slaves in a piconet. All devices share the master's clock. Packet exchange is
based on the basic clock, defined by the master, which ticks at312.5 µs intervals.
• A master BR/EDR Bluetooth device can communicate with a maximum of seven devices in a piconet (an ad-hoc
computer network using Bluetooth technology), though not all devices reach this maximum. The devices can switch
roles, by agreement, and the slave can become the master (for example, a headset initiating a connection to a phone
necessarily begins as master— as an initiator of the connection—but may subsequently operate as a slave).
Wi-Fi
• Wi-Fi is the name of a popular wireless
networking technology that uses radio waves to
provide wireless high-speed Internet and network
connections
• Wi-Fi follows the IEEE 802.11 standard
• Wi-Fi is intended for network communication,
and it supports Internet Protocol (IP) based
communication
• Wi-Fi-based communications require an
intermediate agent called a Wi-Fi router/Wireless
Access point to manage the communications.
• The Wi-Fi router is responsible for restricting
access to a network, assigning an IP address to
devices on the network, and routing data packets
to the intended devices on the network.
Wi-Fi
➢ Wi-Fi enabled devices contain a wireless adaptor for transmitting and receiving data in the
form of radio signals through an antenna.
➢ Wi-Fi operates at 2.4GHZ or 5GHZ of radio spectrum and they co-exist with other ISM band
devices like Bluetooth.
➢ A Wi-Fi network is identified with a Service Set Identifier (SSID). A Wi-Fi device can
connect to a network by selecting the SSID of the network and by providing the credentials if
the network is security enabled
➢ Wi-Fi networks implement different security mechanisms for authentication and data transfer.
➢ Wireless Equivalency Protocol (WEP), Wireless Protected Access (WPA) etc are some of the
security mechanisms supported by Wi-Fi networks in data communication.
ZIGBEE
➢ Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high- level communication protocols used to
create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical
device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which
need wireless connection. Hence, zigbee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity (i.e., personal
area) wireless ad hoc network.

➢ The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other
wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi .

➢ Applications include wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home displays, traffic management
systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that require short-range low-rate wireless data
transfer.

➢ Its low power consumption limits transmission distances to 10– 100 meters line-of-sight, depending on power
output and environmental characteristics. Zigbee devices can transmit data over long distances by passing
data through a mesh network of intermediate devices to reach more distant ones.
 ZIGBEE
• Zigbee Coordinator: The ZigBee coordinator acts as the root of
the ZigBee network. The ZC is responsible for initiating the
Zigbee network and it has the capability to store information
about the network.

• Zigbee Router: Responsible for passing information from one

device to another device or to another ZR.

• Zigbee end device: End device containing ZigBee functionality

for data communication. It can talk only with a ZR or ZC and
doesn’t have the capability to act as a mediator for transferring
data from one device to another.

• Zigbee supports an operating distance of up to 100 metres at a

data rate of 20 to 250 Kbps.
 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS):
• General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet-oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication
system's global system for mobile communications (GSM).GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI) GPRS usage is typically charged based on the volume of data transferred, contrasting with circuit
switched data, which is usually billed per minute of connection time. Sometimes billing time is broken down to every third of a
minute. Usage above the bundle cap is charged per megabyte, speed limited, or disallowed.
•
• Services offered:
➢ GPRS extends the GSM Packet circuit switched data capabilities and makes the following services possible:
➢ SMS messaging and broadcasting
➢ "Always on" internet access
➢ Multimedia messaging service (MMS)
➢ Push-to-talk over cellular (PoC)
➢ Instant messaging and presence-wireless village Internet applications for smart devices through wireless application protocol
(WAP).
➢ Point-to-point (P2P) service: inter-networking with the Internet (IP).
➢ Point-to-multipoint (P2M) service]: point-to- multipoint multicast and point-to-multipoint group calls.