Lecture #9 8th November 2021

DATA COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER NETWORKS

Guided Media
Guided media, which are those that provide a conduit from one device to another, include Twisted-Pair Cable,
Coaxial Cable, and Fiber-Optic Cable. A signal travelling along any of these media is directed and contained by
the physical limits of the medium.

Unguided Media
Wireless or open-air space is said to be unguided media, because there is no connectiv ity between the sender
and receiver. Information is spread over the air, and anyone including the actual recipient may collect the
information.

The process of converting from Analog to Digital

In the real world, analog signals are signals that have a continuous sequence with continuous values (there are
some cases where it can be finite). These types of signals can come from sound, light, temperature and motion.
Digital signals are represented by a sequence of discrete values where the signal is broken down into sequences
that depend on the time series or sampling rate (more on this l ater). The easiest way to explain this it through a
visual! Figure 1 shows a great example of what analog and digital signals look like.

The process of converting from Digital to Analog

The digital signal such as the binary signal exist in the form of bits & it is the combination of 1’s & 0’s (or High & low
voltage levels). The DAC converts these bits into an analog voltage or current.

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Reading Materials
• https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/engineering-resource-basics-of-analog-to-digital-converters
• https://www.electricaltechnology.org/2020/04/digital-to-analog-converter-dac.html

Open System Interconnect Reference Model

OSI or OSIRM
Concept of Layered Tasks

i. The main objective of a computer network is to be able to transfer the data from sender to receiver. This task
can be done by breaking it into small sub tasks, each of which are well defined.
ii. Each subtask will have its own process or processes to do and will take specific inputs and give specific
outputs to the subtask before or after it. In more technical terms we can call these sub tasks as layers.
iii. In general, every task or job can be done by dividing it into sub task or layers. Consider the example of
sending a letter where the sender is in City A and receiver is in city B.
iv. The process of sending letter is shown below:

v. The above figure shows

a. Sender, Receiver & Carrier
b. Hierarchy of layers

vi. At the sender site, the activities take place in the following descending order:
a. Higher Layer: The sender writes the letter along with the “sender” and “receivers” address and puts it
in an envelope and drop it in the mailbox.
b. Middle Layer: The letter is picked up by the post man and delivered to the post office

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c. Lower Layer: The letters at the post office are sorted and are ready to be transported through a
carrier.

vii. During transition the letter may be carried by truck, plane or ship or a combination of transport modes before it
reaches the destination post office.
viii. At the Receiver site, the activities take place in the following ascending order:
a. Lower Layer: The carrier delivers the letter to the destination post office
b. Middle Layer: After sorting, the letter is delivered to the receiver’s mail box
c. Higher Layer: The receiver picks up the letter, opens the envelope and reads it.
ix. Hierarchy of layers: The activities in the entire task are organized into three layers. Each activity at the sender
or receiver side occurs in a particular order at the hierarchy.
x. x. The important and complex activities are organized into the Higher Layer and the simpler ones into middle
and lower layer.

The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model was developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

ISO is the organization, OSI is the model

It was developed to allow systems with different platforms to communicate with each other. Platform could mean
hardware, software or operating system.

It is a network model that defines the protocols for network communications.

It is a hierarchical model that groups its processes into layers. It has 7 layers as follows: (Top to Bottom)

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Each layer has specific duties to perform and has to co-operate with the layers above and below it.

Physical Layer
The lowest layer of the OSI Model is concerned with electrically or optically transmitting raw unstructured data bits across
the network from the physical layer of the sending device to the physical layer of the receiving device. It can include
specifications such as voltages, pin layout, cabling, and radio frequencies. At the physical layer, one might find “physical”
resources such as network hubs, cabling, repeaters, network adapters or modems.

i. The Physical Layer provides a standardized interface to physical transmission media, including:
a. Mechanical specification of electrical connectors and cables, for example maximum cable length
b. Electrical specification of transmission line
c. Bit-by-bit or symbol-by-symbol delivery

ii. On the sender side, the physical layer receives the data from Data Link Layer and encodes it into signals to
be transmitted onto the medium. On the receiver side, the physical layer receives the signals from the
transmission medium decodes it back into data and sends it to the Data Link Layer as shown in the figure
below:

iii. Interface: The Physical Layer defines the characteristics of interfaces between the devices & transmission
medium.
iv. Representation of bits: The physical layer is concerned with transmission of signals from one device to
another which involves converting data (1‘s & 0‘s) into signals and vice versa. It is not concerned with the
meaning or interpretation of bits.
v. Data rate: The physical layer defines the data transmission rate i.e. number of bits sent per second. It is the
responsibility of the physical layer to maintain the defined data rate.
vi. Synchronization of bits: To interpret correct and accurate data the sender and receiver have to maintain the
same bit rate and also have synchronized clocks
vii. Line configuration: The physical layer defines the nature of the connection i.e. a point-to-point link, or a
multi-point link.
viii. Physical Topology: The physical layer defines the type of topology in which the device is connected to the
network. In a mesh topology it uses a multipoint connection and other topologies it uses a point-to-point
connection to send data.
ix. Transmission mode: The physical layer defines the direction of data transfer between the sender and
receiver. Two devices can transfer the data in simplex, half duplex or full duplex mode
x. Main responsibility of the physical layer: Transmission of bits from one hop to the next.

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Data Link Layer
At the data link layer, directly connected nodes are used to perform node-to-node data transfer where data is packaged
into frames. The data link layer also corrects errors that may have occurred at the physical layer.

The data link layer encompasses two sub-layers of its own. The first, media access control (MAC), provides flow control
and multiplexing for device transmissions over a network. The second, the logical link control (LLC), provides flow and
error control over the physical medium as well as identifies line protocols.

Network Layer
The network layer is responsible for receiving frames from the data link layer, and delivering them to their intended
destinations based on the addresses contained inside the frame. The network layer finds the destination by using logical
addresses, such as IP (internet protocol). At this layer, routers are a crucial component used to quite literally route
information where it needs to go between networks.

Transport Layer
The transport layer manages the delivery and error checking of data packets. It regulates the size, sequencing, and
ultimately the transfer of data between systems and hosts. One of the most common examples of the transport layer is
TCP or the Transmission Control Protocol.

Session Layer
The session layer controls the conversations between different computers. A session or connection between machines is
set up, managed, and terminated at layer 5. Session layer services also include authentication and reconnections.

Presentation Layer
The presentation layer formats or translates data for the application layer based on the syntax or semantics that the
application accepts. Because of this, it at times also called the syntax layer. This layer can also handle the encryption and
decryption required by the application layer.

Application Layer
At this layer, both the end user and the application layer interact directly with the software application. This layer sees
network services provided to end-user applications such as a web browser or Office 365. The application layer identifies
communication partners, resource availability, and synchronizes communication.

A message travels from device A to device B, it may pass through many intermediate nodes. These intermediate nodes
usually involve only the first three layers of the OSI model as shown below.

The Data Link layer determines the next node where the message is supposed to be forwarded and the network layer
determines the final recipient.

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Communication & Interfaces

For communication to occur, each layer in the sending device adds its own information to the message it receives from
the layer just above it and passes the whole package to the layer just below it. Each layer in the receiving device removes
the information added at the corresponding layer and sends the obtained data to the layer above it.

Every Layer has its own dedicated function or services and is different from the function of the other layers.

On every sending device, each layer calls upon the service offered by the layer below it.

On every receiving device, each layer calls upon the service offered by the layer above it.

Between two devices, the layers at corresponding levels communicate with each other .i.e layer 2 at receiving end can
communicate and understand data from layer 2 of sending end. This is called peer –to – peer communication.

For this communication to be possible between every two adjacent layers there is an interface. An interface defines the
service that a layer must provide. Every layer has an interface to the layer above and below it as shown in the figure
below

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Encapsulation of Data

As shown in the figure above the data at layer 7 i.e the Application layer along with the header added at layer 7 is given to
layer 6, the Presentation layer. This layer adds Its header and passed the whole package to the layer below.

The corresponding layers at the receiving side removes the corresponding header added at that layer and sends the
remaining data to the above layer.

The above process is called encapsulation

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