DATA RATE LIMITS

LECTURE 5
Data Rate
Data rate → A very important consideration in data communications
Calculated as bits per second
Depends on three factors:
1. Bandwidth
2. Level of signals we use
3. Quality of the channel (the level of noise)

Two theoretical formulas were developed to calculate the data rate:

◦ Nyquist → noiseless channel
◦ Shannon → noisy channel
Nyquist Bit Rate
For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist bit rate formula defines the
theoretical maximum bit rate
𝐵𝑖𝑡𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 2 𝑥 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ 𝑥 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝐿
Where,
bandwidth → is the bandwidth of the channel,
L → is the number of signal levels/ number of discrete signal/ voltage
levels used to represent data, and
BitRate → is the bit rate in bits per second
Nyquist Bit Rate
According to the formula, we might think that, given a specific
bandwidth, we can have any bit rate we want by increasing the number
of signal levels.
The idea is theoretically correct, practically there is a limit.
When increase the number of signal levels, we impose a burden on the
receiver.
◦ If the number of levels in a signal is just 2, the receiver can easily distinguish
between a 0 and a 1.
◦ If the level of a signal is 64, the receiver must be very sophisticated to
distinguish between 64 different levels.

So, increasing the levels of a signal reduces the reliability of the system.
Examples
Problem: Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz
transmitting a signal with two signal levels. What can be the maximum
bit rate?
Solution :
𝐵𝑖𝑡𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 2 𝑥 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ 𝑥 𝑙𝑜𝑔2
BitRate = 2 * 3000 * log 2 (2) = 6000bps
Examples
Problem: We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a
bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many signal levels do we need?
Solution:
265000 = 2 * 20000 * log 2 (L)
log 2 (L) = 6.625
L = 26.625 = 98.7 levels
Shannon Capacity
We cannot have a noiseless channel → the channel is always noisy
In 1944, Claude Shannon introduced a formula, called the Shannon
capacity, to determine the theoretical highest data rate for a noisy
channel:
Capacity = bandwidth X log 2 (1 +SNR)
In this formula, Bandwidth → is the bandwidth of the channel, SNR → is
the signal-to noise ratio, and Capacity → is the capacity of the channel
in bits per second
In the Shannon formula there is no indication of the signal level, which
means that no matter how many levels we have, we cannot achieve a
data rate higher than the capacity of the channel
Example
Problem: 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-
Solution:
C=B log 2 (1 + SNR) =B log 2 (l + 0) =B log 2 1 = 0
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.
Using Both Limits
In practice, we need to use both methods to find the limits and signal
levels.
Problem: We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this
channel is 63. What are the appropriate bit rate and signal level?
Solution: First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit.
C =B log 2 (l + SNR) = 106 log 2 (1 + 63) = 106 log 2 64 = 6 Mbps
Using Both Limits
The Shannon formula gives us 6 Mbps, the upper limit.
For better performance we choose something lower, 4 Mbps, for
example.
Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the number of signal levels.
4Mbps=2 x 1 MHz x log 2 L
So, L=4
The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit
The Nyquist formula tells us how many signal levels we need
Network Performance: Quality
of service (QoS)
Network Performance → Quality of service (QoS)
The Internet and its underlying local area and wide area networks must
include a QoS capability to provide differing levels of service to different
types of application traffic
A QoS capability can deal with
◦ Priority,
◦ Delay constraints,
◦ Delay variability constraints, and
◦ other similar requirements
Network Performance:
Bandwidth
Network Performance → Bandwidth
Bandwidth: One characteristic that measures network performance is
bandwidth.
The term can be used in two different contexts with two different
measuring values:
◦ bandwidth in hertz and
◦ bandwidth in bits per second
Network Performance:
Bandwidth
Bandwidth in Hertz → Range of frequencies contained in a composite
signal or the range of frequencies a channel can pass
For example, the bandwidth of a subscriber telephone line is 4 kHz
Bandwidth in Bits per Seconds → Refer to the number of bits per
second that a channel, a link, or even a network can transmit
For example, one can say the bandwidth of a Fast Ethernet network (or
the links in this network) is a maximum of 100 Mbps
Network Performance:
Bandwidth Example
Examples 1: The bandwidth of a subscriber line is 4 kHz for voice or
data. The bandwidth of this line for data trans mission can be up to
56,000 bps using a sophisticated modem to change the digital signal to
analog.
Example 2: If the telephone company improves the quality of the line
and increases the bandwidth to 8 kHz, we can send 112,000 bps by
using the same technology as mentioned in Example 3.42.
Network Performance:
Throughput
Throughput → A measure of how fast we can send data through a
network.
Throughput is an actual measurement of how fast we can send data
Imagine a highway designed to transmit 1000 cars per minute from one
point to another. However, if there is congestion on the road, this figure
may be reduced to 100 cars per minute. The bandwidth is 1000 cars per
minute; the throughput is 100 cars per minute.

Example: We may have a link with a bandwidth of 1 Mbps, but the

devices connected to the end of the link may handle only 200 kbps. This
means that we cannot send more than 200 kbps through this link.
Network Performance:
Throughput
Problem: A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an
average of 12,000 frames per minute with each frame carrying an
average of 10,000 bits. What is the throughput of this network?
Solution:
12,000 𝑥 10,000
Throughput is = = 2 Mbps
60
Network Performance:
Latency (Delay)
Latency or delay: Time it takes for an entire message to completely
arrive at the destination from the time the first bit is sent out from the
source
𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 = 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 +
𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑢𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦

Propagation Time → The time required for a bit to travel from the
source to the destination
𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 = 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 / (𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑)
Network Performance:
Latency (Delay)
Transmission Time → Time between the first bit leaving the sender and
the last bit arriving at the receiver
The transmission time of a message depends on the size of the message
and the bandwidth of the channel.
𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 = (𝑀𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒) / 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ
Queuing Time → The time needed for each intermediate or end device
to hold the message before it can be processed
Queuing time is not a fixed factor changes with the load imposed on the
network; when there is heavy traffic on the network, the queuing time
increases
Processing Time → Time for processing
Bandwidth-Delay Product
Bandwidth and delay are two performance metrics of a link
Bandwidth-delay product is very important in data communications
The product of bandwidth and delay is the number of bits that can fill
the link
Case Study: Filling the link with
bits
Let assume that we have a link with a bandwidth of 1 bps (unrealistic,
but good for demonstration purposes) We also assume that the delay of
the link is 5 s (also unrealistic). What the bandwidth-delay product
means in this case?
Looking at figure, we can say that this product 1 x 5 is the maximum
number of bits that can fill the link. There can be no more than 5 bits at
any time on the link. The bandwidth-delay product defines the number
of bits that can fill the link.
Bandwidth-Delay Product
This measurement is important if we need to send data in bursts and
wait for the acknowledgment of each burst before sending the next
one. To use the maximum capability of the link, we need to make the
size of our burst 2 times the product of bandwidth and delay; we need
to fill up the full-duplex channel (two directions).
The sender should send a burst of data of (2 × bandwidth × delay) bits.
The sender then waits for receiver acknowledgment for part of the
burst before sending another burst. The amount 2 × bandwidth × delay
is the number of bits that can be in transition at any time.