DATA COMMUNICATION NETWORKING

Course Objectives:

Students will be able to:

 Understand types of signals
 Know the data transmission media
 Familiarize the data communication
 Gain knowledge on various functionality of the protocol layers

Course Outcomes:

Upon completing this course, the student will be able to

1. Know the Categories of signals
2. Functions of various Data transmission Medias.
3. Analyze of various Data communication.
4. Know the significance of physical layer
5. Functioning of various data link and network layer Protocols
6. Demonstrate the mechanism of in upper layers.

Unit-1 Introduction to Data

Study of Signals: Analog and Digital, Periodic and A periodic Signals, Analog
Signals, Time and Frequency Domains, Composite Signals, Digital Signals

3.1
DATA COMMUNICATION
 Data Communication is a process of exchanging data or information
 In case of computer networks this exchange is done between two devices over
a transmission medium.
 This process involves a communication system which is made up of hardware
and software. The hardware part involves the sender and receiver devices and
the intermediate devices through which the data passes. The software part
involves certain rules which specify what is to be communicated, how it is to
be communicated and when. It is also called as a Protocol.
 The following sections describes the fundamental characteristics that are
important for the effective working of data communication process and is
 followed by the components that make up a data communications system.

Computer networks are designed to transfer data from one point to another. During
transit data is in the form of electromagnetic signals. Hence it is important to study
data and signals before we move to further concepts in data communication.

Data can be Analog or Digital.

1. Analog data refers to information that is continuous; ex. sounds made by a human
voice
2. Digital data refers to information that has discrete states. Digital data take on
discrete values.
3. For example, data are stored in computer memory in the form of Os and 1s
.

Signals can be of two types:

Signals can be analog or digital.

1. Analog Signal: They have infinite values in a range.

2. Digital Signal: They have limited number of defined values

3.2

Periodic & Non Periodic Signals

Signals which repeat itself after a fixed time period are called Periodic Signals. Signals
which do not repeat itself after a fixed time period are called Non-Periodic Signals.

In data communications, we commonly use periodic analog signals and non-periodic

digital signals.
 Periodic analog signals need less band width

Non-periodic digital signals can represent variations in data

PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite.

A simple periodic analog signal, a sine wave, cannot be decomposed into simpler signals.

A composite periodic analog signal is composed of multiple sine wave

i) Sine Wave

An analog signal has infinitely many levels of intensity over a period of time.

As the wave moves from value A to value B, it passes through and includes an
infinite number of values along its path as it can be seen in the figure below.

3.3 A sine wave is characterized by three parameters:

1. Peak Amplitude

2. Frequency

3. Phase

Peak Amplitude

The amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of its intensity at time t

The peak amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of the highest intensity.

The amplitude of a signal is proportional to the energy carried by the signal

 Frequency

Frequency refers to the number of cycles completed by the wave in one second. Period
refers to the time taken by the wave to complete one second.

Frequency is the rate of change with respect to time. Change in a short span of time
means high frequency means high frequency. Challenge over a long span of time means
low frequency.

If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is zero. If a signal changes instantaneously,
its frequency is infinite.
3.4
 Period:

Relation between Frequency & Period

Frequency & Period are inverse of each other. It is indicated by the following
formula:

Ex: The power we use at home has a frequency of 60 Hz. The period of this sine
wave can be determined as follows:

Ex: Express a period of 100 ms in microseconds.

3.5 we find the equivalents of 1 ms (1 ms is 10−3 s) and 1 s (1 s is 106 μs). We make the
following substitutions:.

The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency frequency in kilohertz?
Solution First we change 100 ms to seconds seconds, and then we calculate the
frequency from the period (1 Hz = 10−3 kHz).
 Phase

Phase describes the position of the waveform with respect to time (specifically
relative to time 0)

Phase indicates the forward or backward shift of the waveform from the axis
3.6
It is measured in degrees or radian

The figure above shows the sine waves with same amplitude and frequency but
different phases

Ex: A sine wave is offset 1/6 cycle with respect respect to time 0. What is its phase
in degrees and radians? Solution We know that 1 complete cycle is 360°. Therefore,
1/6 cycle is
 Time Domain and Frequency domain representation of signals

1. A sine wave can be represented either in the time domain or frequency

domain.
2. The time-domain plot shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to
time. It indicates time and amplitude relation of a signal.
3. The frequency-domain plot shows signal frequency and peak amplitude.
4. The figure below show time and frequency domain plots of three sine waves.

3.7

A complete sine wave in the time domain can be represented by one single spike in
the frequency domain
 . Composite Signal

A composite signal is a combination of two or more simple sine waves with

different frequency, phase and amplitude.

For data communication a simple sine wave is not useful, what is used is a
composite signal which is a combination of many simple sine waves.

According to Fourier analysis, any composite signal is a combination of simple sine

waves with different frequencies, amplitudes and phase

3.8
 If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of signals with
discrete frequencies;

if the composite signal is non-periodic, the decomposition gives a combination of

sine waves with continuous frequencies

3.9

The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference between the

difference between the highest and the lowest frequencies contained in that
signal.
 EX: If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves with frequencies of 100,
300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what is its bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming all
components have a maximum amplitude of 10 V. Solution Let fh be the highest
frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then The spectrum has
only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz

3.10

EX: A periodic signal has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. The highest frequency is 60 Hz.
What is the lowest frequency? Draw the spectrum if the signal contains all
 frequencies of the same amplitude. Solution Length be the highest frequency, fl the
lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then

The spectrum contains all integer frequencies. We show this by a series of spikes

Digital Signal

Information can also be explained in the form of a digital signal. A digital signal
can be explained with the help of following points:

3.11
 A digital is a signal that has discrete values. The signal will have value that is not
continuous.

Information in a digital signal can be represented in the form of voltage levels.

Ex. In the signal shown below, a ‘1‘ is represented by a positive voltage and a ‘0‘ is
represented by a Zero voltage.

In general, if a signal has L levels then, each level need Log2L bits

Example: Consider a digital Signal with four levels, how many bits are required per
level?

Answer: Number of bits per level = Log2L

= Log24

=2

Hence, 2 bits are required per level for a signal with four levels.

BIT LENGTH or Bit Interval (Tb)

It is the time required to send one bit and It is measured in seconds.

BIT RATE

It is the number of bits transmitted in one second. It is expressed as bits per

second (bps).

Relation between bit rate and bit interval can be as follows

3.12
Bit rate = 1 / Bit interval

Baud Rate

It is the rate of Signal Speed, i.e the rate at which the signal changes. A digital signal
with two levels ‘0‘ & ‘1‘ will have the same baud rate and bit rate & bit rate. The
diagram below shows three signal of period (T) 1 second

a) Signal with a bit rate of 8 bits/ sec and baud rate of 8 baud/sec

b) Signal with a bit rate of 16 bits/ sec and baud rate of 8 baud/sec

c) Signal with a bit rate of 16 bits/ sec and baud rate of 4 baud/sec
 A DIGITAL SIGNAL AS A COMPOSITE ANALOG SIGNAL

3.13
 TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL SIGNAL

Types Of Channels

Each composite signal has a lowest possible(minimum) frequency and a highest

possible (maximum) frequency. From the point of view of transmission,

There are two types of channels:

Low pass Channel This channel has the lowest frequency as ‘0‘and highest
frequency as some non-zero frequency ‘f1‘. This channel can pass all the
frequencies in the range 0 to f1.

Band pass channel This channel has the lowest frequency as some non-zero
frequency ‘f1‘ and highest frequency as some non-zero frequency ‘f2‘. This channel
can pass all the frequencies in the range f1 to f2

3.14

BASEBAND TRANSMISSION

The signal is transmitted without making any change to it (ie. Without modulation)

In baseband transmission, the bandwidth of the signal to be transmitted has to be

less than the bandwidth of the channel.
 Ex. Consider a Baseband channel with lower frequency 0Hz and higher frequency
100Hz, hence its bandwidth is 100 (Bandwidth is calculated by getting the
difference between the highest and lowest frequency).

We can easily transmit a signal with frequency below 100Hz, such a channel whose
bandwidth is more than the bandwidth of the signal is called Wideband channel

Logically a signal with frequency say 120Hz will be blocked resulting in loss of
information, such a channel whose bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of the
signal is called Narrowband channel

Broad band Transmission

Given a band pass channel, a digital signal cannot be transmitted directly through it

In broadband transmission we use modulation, i.e we change the signal to analog

signal before transmitting it.

The digital signal is first converted to an analog signal, since we have a bandpass
channel we cannot directly send this signal through the available channel. Ex.

Consider the band pass channel with lower frequency 50Hz and higher frequency
80Hz, and the signal to be transmitted has frequency 10Hz.

To pass the analog signal through the band pass channel, the signal is modulated
using a carrier frequency.

Ex.The analog signal (10Hz) is modulated by a carrier frequency of 50Hz resulting

in an signal of frequency 60Hz which can pass through our band pass channel.
3.15 The signal is demodulated and again converted into an digital signal at the other end
as shown in the figure below.
 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT:

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect. The imperfection
causes signal impairment. This means that the signal at the beginning of the medium
is not the same as the signal at the end of the medium. What is sent is not what is
received.

Three causes of impairment are attenuation, distortion, and noise.

3.16
 Attenuation:

Attenuation means loss of energy when a signal simple or composite travels through
a medium it losses some of its energy in overcoming the resistance of the medium.
This typically is measured in decibels (dB) or voltage and can occur due to a variety
of factors

Distortion:

Distraction means that the signal changes its form or shape. Distortion can be
occurred in a composite signal made up of different frequencies each signal
component has its own propagation speed through a medium and therefore its own
delay in arriving at the final destination while transmitting the composite signal.

If a certain delay happens between the frequency components then there may be
chance that the frequency components will reach the receiver end with different delay
3.17 constraint from its original which leads to change in the shape of the signal
 Noise :

Noise is an unwanted signal which interferes with the original message signal and
corrupts the parameters of the message signal. This alteration in the communication
process makes the message to get altered after reaching. It is most likely to be entered
at the channel or the receiver. Hence, it is understood that noise is some signal which
has no pattern and no constant frequency or amplitude. It is quite random and
unpredictable. Measures are usually taken to reduce it, though it can’t be completely
eliminated. Various kind of noise are short noise, induced noise, cross talk, impulse
noise and thermal noise….etc

DATA RATE LIMITS:

A very important consideration in data communications is how fast we can send data,
in bits per second, over a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:

1. The bandwidth available

3.18 2. The level of the signals we use

3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)

Two Theoretical Formula Were Derived

1. Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

2. Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity Using Both Limits

1. NYQUIST BIT RATE :

The Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical maximum bit rate for a noiseless channel

Bitrate = 2 x Bandwidth x Log2 L

 Where,

Bitrate is the bitrate of the channel in bits per second Bandwidth is the bandwidth of
the channel L is the number of signal levels.

Example

What is the maximum bit rate of a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 5000 Hz
transmitting a signal with two signal levels

The bit rate for a noiseless channel according to Nyquist Bit rate can be calculated
as follows: BitRate = 2 x Bandwidth x Log2 L = 2 x 5000 x log2 2 =10000 bps

2. SHANNON CAPACITY

The Shannon Capacity defines the theoretical maximum bit rate for a noisy channel

Capacity=bandwidth X log2 (1 +SNR)

Where,
Capacity is the capacity of the channel in bits per second
Bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel
SNR is the Signal to Noise Ratio

Shannon Capacity for calculating the maximum bit rate for a noisy channel does not
consider the number of levels of the signals being transmitted as done in the Nyquist
bit rate.

Example: Calculate the bit rate for a noisy channel with SNR 300 and bandwidth of
3.19 3000Hz Solution: The bit rate for a noisy channel according to Shannon Capacity can
be calculated as follows:

Capacity=bandwidth X log2 (1 +SNR) = 3000 x log2 (1 + 300) = 3000 x log2 ( 301)

= 3000 x 8.23 = 24,690bps

Example: Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value of the signal-to-
noise ratio is almost zero. In other words, the noise is so strong that the signal is faint.
For this channel the capacity C is calculated as
 This means that the capacity of this channel is zero regardless of the bandwidth. In
other words, we cannot receive any data through this channel

Example: We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone
line. A telephone line normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio
is usually 3162. For this channel the capacity is calculated as

This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is 34.860 kbps. If we want
to send data faster than this, we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or
improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

Example: The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels.Assume that SNRdB =

36 and the channel bandwidth is 2 MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be
calculated as

Example : For practical purposes, when the SNR is very high, we can assume that
SNR + 1 is almost the same as SNR. In these cases, the theoretical channel capacity
can be simplified to

3.20
For example, we can calculate the theoretical capacity of the previous
example as

Note: The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit; the Nyquist formula
tells us how many signal levels we need.