Barchelor of Science Computer Science / Bachelor of Information Technology

COPPERSTONE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF ICT
DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING

Local Asynchronous Communication

1.0 Introduction

Digital devices, such as computers use bits to represent data. Transmitting data across a network means
sending bits. Physically, a communication system can use
 electric current
 radio waves
 or light to transfer information
This lecture shows describes how bits can be encoded, discusses mechanisms for sending characters and
introduces the two-channel measurement, bandwidth and delay.
The need for asynchronous communication
Communication is called asynchronous if the sender and receiver do not need to synchronize before each
transmission. This means that a transmitter and receiver do not explicitly coordinate each data
transmission. A sender can wait arbitrarily long between transmissions and the receiver must be ready to
receive data when it arrives. Asynchronous communication is used, for example, when transmitter such as
a keyboard may not always have data ready to send. The term Asynchronous may also mean no explicit
information about where data bits begin and end. To ensure a meaningful exchange, the transmitter sends
a start bit before character and one or more stop bits after the character.
Using electric current to send bits
A simple communication system uses a small electric current to encode data, e.g. a negative voltage
represents a one (1) and a positive voltage represents a zero (0). This is illustrated in the waveform
diagram of Figure 1. The sender places a negative voltage on the wire for a short time and then returns the
voltage to zero - this represents a one. The receiver senses the negative voltage and records that a one
arrived.

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Barchelor of Science Computer Science / Bachelor of Information Technology

Figure 1: Positive and negative voltages

Standards for communication

The encoding scheme leaves several questions unanswered:
 How long will voltage last for each bit?
 How soon will next bit start?
 How will the transmitter and receiver agree on timing?

To ensure that communications hardware built by different vendors will interoperate, the specifications
for communications systems are standardized. Examples of organisations that publish these specifications
as standards are:
 International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
 Electronic Industries Association (EIA)
 Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

The Standard documents answer questions about a particular technology

 Timing of signals
 Electrical details of voltage and current

One such popular standard produced by EIA is RS-232 for serial transmission where bits travel one after
another on the wire
RS (Recommended Standard)-232
This particular standard produced by the EIA is widely used to transfer characters across copper wires
between a computer and a device such as a keyboard, modem, or terminal. The RS-232 defines serial
communication because the bits travel on the wire one after another. The transmission is asynchronous
because the sender and receiver do not co-ordinate before transmission. The RS-232 standard
specification is as follows
 Voltage between +5 and +15 volts represents a 0 bit (SPACE)
 Voltage between -5 and -15 volts represents a 1 bit (MARK)
 Least-significant bit transmitted first
 Bits are recognized by timing

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Barchelor of Science Computer Science / Bachelor of Information Technology

RS-232 hardware never leaves a zero voltage on the wire, so the sender and receiver must agree on the
length of time the voltage will be held for each bit. In order for the receiver to distinguish between an idle
line and a 1 bit, the sender transmits a zero before transmitting the bits of a character; this is called the
start bit and is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Using RS-232

The sender must leave the line idle for a minimum time; this is usually the time to transmit one bit and is
called the stop bit (the standard allows one or two stop bits). Although Figure 2 shows seven data bits, all
modern systems transmit eight bits (plus the start and stop bits).
Baud rate, framing, and errors
Instead of specifying the time per bit (which is a fraction of a second), communication systems specify
the number of bits that can be transferred in a second. Early RS-232 connections operated at 300 bits per
second (bps), modern systems use 19,200 bps and 33,600 bps. Baud rate measures the number of signal
changes per second. A number of bits may be sent together as a signal/symbol. The Bit rate is given as the
product of the baud rate and the number of bits per signal/symbol (that is, baud rate * number of bits per
signal/symbol). Bits per second measures number of bits transmitted per second. In RS-232, each signal
change represents one bit, so baud rate and bits per second are equal. If each signal change represents
more than one bit, the bits per second may be greater than baud rate
Framing
The Start and stop bits represent framing of each character. If transmitter and receiver are using different
speeds, stop bit will not be received at the expected time. Such a problem is called a framing error. RS-
232 devices may send an intentional framing error called a BREAK
Full-duplex Asynchronous Communication

All electrical circuits require a minimum of two wires - the current flows out on one wire and back on
another called the ground. In many applications, we require data to flow in two directions at the same
time, for example, communication between a terminal and a computer. Simultaneous transfer in two
directions is called full-duplex, as distinguished from half-duplex (one direction or the other, but not at
the same time) and simplex (one direction only). The RS-232 standard defines a 25-pin connector and
specifies how the hardware uses the 25 wires for control or data. For example, a receiver willing to accept
characters supplies a voltage on one of the control lines that the sender interprets as clear to send (CTS).
Cheap RS-232 hardware can be configured to ignore control signals and assume the other end is working.
The full duplex communication is illustrated in Figure 3.

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Barchelor of Science Computer Science / Bachelor of Information Technology

Figure 4: Full-duplex RS-232

A computer transmits on pin 2 and receives on pin 3, while a modem transmits on pin 3 and receives on
pin 2. Technically, the computer is a piece of Data Communication Equipment (DCE) and the modem is a
piece of Data Terminal Equipment (DTE).

Limitations of real hardware

Our earlier waveform diagram shows the ideal case. In practice all electronic devices are analogue in
nature and cannot produce an exact voltage or change from one voltage to another instantly. In addition,
as electric current flows down a wire, the signal loses strength. Figure 4 illustrates how a bit might appear
on a real communication line.

Figure 5: Real vs ideal voltages

The RS-232 standard recognizes that real hardware is imperfect. The standard specifies how close to a
perfect waveform a transmitter must be and how tolerant of imperfection a receiver must be. For example,
the standard recommends taking samples during the middle of the time allocated to one bit, allowing it to
accept signals like the one in Figure 4.
Hardware bandwidth and the transmission of bits
Each transmission system has a limited bandwidth, which is the maximum rate that the hardware can
change the signal. The limitations on time to change voltages imposes upper limit on number of changes
per second. If a sender tries to transmit changes faster than the bandwidth, the hardware will not keep up
and some changes will be lost. Bandwidth is the maximum rate that hardware can change a signal. It is
measured in cycles per second or Hertz (Hz) and is the fastest oscillating signal that can be sent across the
hardware. Bandwidth limitations arise from physical properties and energy. Every physical transmission
system has a limited bandwidth.

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Barchelor of Science Computer Science / Bachelor of Information Technology

Nyquist discovered (1920s) a relationship between the bandwidth and bit rate of a transmission system.
His famous theorem relates the maximum data rate D in bits per second (bps) to the bandwidth B of the
transmitted signal in Hz, where K is the number of discrete signal levels: D = 2Blog 2K. If the system
uses two possible values of voltage, the maximum data rate (D) that can be achieved for a bandwidth, B is
2B i.e., D =2B. If system uses K possible values of voltages instead of two, the maximum data rate (D) is
D = 2B log2 K bps
The effect of noise on communication
Nyquist's theorem provides a theoretical maximum that cannot be achieved in practice. A real
communication system is subject to small amount of background interference called noise. Shannon
extended Nyquist’s theorem (1948) that takes into account noise in a transmission system
C = B log2 (1 + S/N) bps
where C represents the capacity; effective limit on the channel capacity
S is the average signal power
N is the average noise power
Significance of Nyquist’s and Shannon for data networking
Nyquist and Shannon theorems have consequences for engineers:
I. Nyquist's work has provided an incentive to explore complex ways to encode bits on signals:
 Nyquist's theorem encourages engineers to explore ways to encode bits on a signal
 because a clever encoding allows more bits to be transmitted
II. Shannon's Theorem informs engineers that no amount of clever encoding can overcome the laws
of physics. This places a fundamental limit on the rate that can be achieved in a real
communication system.

Shannon's Theorem helps explain how fast one can send data across a voice telephone call. Let us
consider the following example:
 A voice telephone system has a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of approximately 30 dB and a
bandwidth of approximately 3000 Hz . SNR (dB) = 10 log(S/N).
 The maximum number of bps is limited to:
C = 3000 log2( 1 + 1000 ) = approximately 30,000 bps
 Faster speeds will only be possible if S/N ratio can been improved

Current telephone systems filter out frequencies below 300 Hz (so as not to pick up hum at 50 Hz or 60
Hz caused by electrical equipment in the telephone network) and above 3,400 Hz (bandwidth is expensive
:-), yielding a bandwidth of 3,100 Hz.
Thus for a binary signal (K = 2), the theoretical maximum speed we can expect through a modem is 6,200
bps. Distortion lowers this to a more practical value of 2,400 bps. Different technologies offer higher data
rates, e.g. Ethernet (10 Mbps) and Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps).

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