Communication Standards

and
Protocols
 Digital Data Transmission Modes
Based on number of data bits transmitted or number of data lines
used to transmit the digital data-

Data Transmission

Parallel Data Serial Data

Transmission Transmission

Synchronous AsynchronousTransmission
Transmission
 Parallel Transmission
• In parallel transmission of data, all the bits of data are transmitted
simultaneously on separate lines or wires.

• So multiple wires should be connected between two devices for

communication

• For example parallel data transmission between a computer and

printer connected to computer.
 Serial Transmission
• In serial transmission, the bits of data are transmitted bit by bit.

• For serial data transmission only one wire is needed between

the transmitter and the receiver.
 Types of Serial Transmission

• Synchronous Data Transmission

• Asynchronous Data Transmission

Synchronous Data Transmission
 Synchronous Data Transmission
• It is a data transfer method.

• Continuous stream of data signals is accompanied by

timing signals (generated by an electronic clock) to
ensure that the transmitter and the receiver are in step
(synchronized) with one another.
• The data is sent in blocks (called frames or packets)
spaced by fixed time intervals.
• Synchronous transmission modes are used when
large amounts of data must be transferred very quickly
from one location to the other.

• The speed of the synchronous connection is attained

by transferring data in large blocks instead of
individual characters.
 Asynchronous Data Transmission

Receiver samples data in center of Bit Time

Idle Idle
State State
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Minimum of one
Start bit
stop bit

t
Bit Time = 1 / f
• Asynchronous communication is not
synchronized by a timer mechanism or clock

• Asynchronous devices are not bound to send or

receive information at an exact transmission rate.
• Instead, the sender and receiver negotiate
transmission speeds based on hardware
limitations.
• Maintain a reliable flow of information.
Asynchronous transmission is mainly suitable for
low-speed transmission,

• But speeds can be increased by using data

compression.
Asynchronous Data Transmission
 RS-232 Standards
• RS-232 defines the signals connecting between DTE and DCE.

• Here, DTE stands for Data Terminal Equipment and an example for
DTE is a computer.
• DCE stands for Data Communication Equipment or Data Circuit
Terminating Equipment and an example for DCE is a modem.

• RS232 was introduced in 1960’s and was originally known as EIA

(Electronic Industries Association) Recommended Standard 232.

• RS232 is one of the oldest serial communication standards with

ensured simple connectivity and compatibility across different
manufacturers.
The following image illustrates a typical RS232 application between a Computer
and a Modem. Here, the PC or Computer is the DTE and the Modem is the DCE.
The Computer and Modem communicate with each other using RS232 interface and
the communication between the modems is established using telecommunication
links.
• RS232 uses serial communication, where one bit of data is
sent at a time along a single data line. This is contrast to
parallel communication, where multiple bits of data are sent at
a time using multiple data lines.

• The advantage of using serial communication over parallel

communication is the number of wires required to make a full
duplex data transmission will be very less (two wires are
sufficient without considering electrical lines).

• But the main drawback of RS232 standard is data rate and

length of cable. RS232 supports a maximum baud rate of
19200 bps and the maximum length of the cable is 20 meters.
RS232 doesn’t use the TTL specific 5V and GND logic levels.

• The logic ‘1’ in RS232 is described as being in the voltage range

of -15V to -3V.

Typically, the logic ‘1’ in RS232 will be -12V

• The logic ‘0’ is described as the voltage range of +3V to +15V

Typically, the logic ‘0’ will be +12V.

All the above mentioned voltages are with respect to a common

ground ‘GND’ pin. Any voltage between -3V and +3V is considered
to be an undefined logic state.

i.e. low level voltage is logic ‘1’ and high level voltage is logic ‘0’.
RS232 specify the sequence of operations that must be carried out when a DTE
and DCE are connected.
• Assume a computer (DTE) is connected to a Modem (DCE) through RS232
interface. In order to send data from computer to Modem, the following
procedure must be followed.
1. When DTE is ready to transmit, it will send DTR signal.

2. When Modem (DCE) is ready to receive, it will send a DCE ready signal
(DSR).
3. When the computer (DTE) is ready to send the data, it sends a

Ready to Send (RTS) signal.

3. The Modem (DCE) then sends a Clear to Send (CTS) signal to

indicate that data can be sent by computer (DTE).
4. Finally, the Computer (DTE) sends data on Transmit Data (TxD) line to
the Modem (DCE).
 Practical Implementation of RS232
The voltage levels of RS232 are very different from most of the
systems designed today. Hence, we need a level converter of some
sorts to implement RS232 interface. This job is performed by
dedicated level converter ICs like MAX232 by Maxim Integrated for
example.

These ICs take in the RS232 signals and generate a TTL level
voltages. These ICs also invert the signals as low voltage levels in
RS232 are logic ‘1’ and high voltage levels in RS232 are logic ‘0’.
The following image shows the implementation of RS232 Driver
in a real time application.
• Here, the UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter)-
generates and receives the necessary signals for serial
communication and the RS232 Driver is responsible for
converting signals between TTL and RS232 interface.

• The communication system mentioned in this example is of

asynchronous type and it requires synchronization bits i.e. Start
and Stop and error checking bit i.e. Parity.

• The UART in the above example is responsible for generating

the Start, Stop and Parity bits when transmitting the data and
also detecting errors while receiving data.
• In RS232, the data is transmitted serially in one direction over
a single data line. In order to establish two way communication,
we need at least three wires (RX, TX and GND) apart from the
control signals. A byte of data can transmitted at any time
provided the previous byte has already been transmitted.

• RS232 follows asynchronous communication protocol i.e. there

is no clock signal to synchronize transmitter and receiver.
Hence, it uses start and stop bits to inform the receiver when to
check for data.
• Hardware Handshaking
In Hardware Handshaking, the transmitter first asks the receiver
whether it is ready to receive the data. The receiver then checks its
buffer and if the buffer is empty, it will then tell the transmitter that it
is ready to receive.

The transmitter will transmit the data and it is loaded into the
receiver buffer. During this time, the receiver tells the transmitter not
to send any further data until the data in the buffer has been read by
the receiver.
The RS232 Protocol defines four signals for the purpose of
Handshaking:
Ready to Send (RTS)
Clear to Send (CTS)
Data Terminal Ready (DTR) and
Data Set Ready (DSR)
With the help of Hardware Handshaking, the data from the transmitter
is never lost or overwritten in the receiver buffer. When the transmitter
(DTE) wants to send data, it pulls the RTS (Ready to Send) line to
high.Then the transmitter waits for CTS (Clear to Send) to go high
and hence it keeps on monitoring it. If the CTS line is low, it means
that the receiver (DCE) is busy and not yet ready to receive data.

When the receiver is ready, it pulls the CTS line to high. The
transmitter then transmits the data. This method is also called as
RTS/CTS Handshaking.

Additionally, there are two other wires used in Handshaking. They are
DTR (Data Terminal Ready) and DSR (Data Set Ready). These two
signals are used by the DTE and DCE to indicate their individual
status. Often, these two signals are used in modem communication.
The newer standards of RS232 define an 8 signal Hardware
Handshaking.
 Limitations of RS232
1. RS232 Protocol requires a common ground between the
transmitter (DTE) and receiver (DCE). Hence, the reason for
shorter cables between DTE and DCE in RS232 Protocol.

2. The signal in the line is highly susceptible to noise. The noise

can be either internal or external.

3. If there is an increase in baud rate and length of the cable,

there is a chance of cross talk introduced by the capacitance
between the cables.

4. The voltage levels in RS232 are not compatible with modern

TTL or CMOS logics. We need an external level converter.
 Applications
Though RS232 is a very famous serial communication protocol,
it is now has been replaced with advanced protocols like USB.

Previously they we used for serial terminals like Mouse, Modem

etc.

But, RS232 is still being used in some Servo Controllers, CNC

Machines, PLC machines and some microcontroller boards use
RS232 Protocol.
MAX 233
RS-485
Network topology with RS485
Network topology is probably the reason why RS485 is now the favorite of
the four mentioned interfaces in data acquisition and control applications.
RS485 is the only of the interfaces capable of internetworking multiple
transmitters and receivers in the same network. When using the default
RS485 receivers with an input resistance of 12 kΩ it is possible to connect
32 devices to the network. Currently available high-resistance RS485 inputs
allow this number to be expanded to 256.
RS485 repeaters are also available which make it possible to increase
the number of nodes to several thousands, spanning multiple
kilometers. And that with an interface which does not require intelligent
network hardware: the implementation on the software side is not much
more difficult than with RS232. It is the reason why RS485 is so popular
with computers, PLCs, micro controllers and intelligent sensors in
scientific and technical applications.
 Communication Protocols

Wired Protocols Wireless Protocols

Serial Protocols Parallel Protocols

 Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C)

• Developed and patented by Philips for connecting low speed peripherals to a

motherboard, embedded system or cell phone.

• Multi-master, two wire bus ,

Data transfer rates up to 100 kbits/sec

It has single cable connectivity with two wires : One Serial data line (SDA)One
Serial Clock Line (SCL).

Master controls clock for slaves

Each connected slave has a unique 7-bit address. i.e. 7-bit addressing is used

7-bit addressing allows a total of 128 devices to communicate over shared I2C bus.

It is a high speed serial bus protocal.

Extended 10-bit addressing version is used to access 1024 devices.

Complete I2C Transfer
 7 field - 20 bit format
S 7-bit Slave address R/W bit ACK bit data bits(8-bits) NACK Stop Bit

First field of 1 bit : START bit : Denotes the start of frame transmission.
Second field of 7 bits: Address field : It defines the slave address which is
being sent by the master using SDA and SCL.
Third field of 1 control bit: Control field 1: It defines whether a read or write
cycle is in progress.
Fourth field of 1 control bit: Acknowledgement: It defines whether the
present data is an acknowledgement ( from slave).

Fifth field of 1 data byte: Data field 1: Data field for I2C device data byte.
Sixth field of 1 bit: NACK- Negative Acknowlwdgement (Acknowledgement
from receiver)
Seventh field of 1 bit: STOP Bit: It is sent by master.
 Protocol
• Data transfers are byte oriented, MSB first
• Start: SDA goes low while SCL is high

• Master sends address of slave (7-bits) on next 7 clocks

• Master sends read/write request bit

– 0-write to slave

– 1-read from slave

• Slave ACKs by pulling SDA low on next clock

• Data transfers now commence

 Data Transfer on the I2C Bus
• Start Condition
• Slave address + R/W
– Slave acknowledges with ACK
• All data bytes
– Each followed by ACK
• Stop Condition

SDA

ACK from ACK from

Slave Receiver

SCL
Remember : Clock is produced by Master Stop
Start

52 of 40
Master Writes to Slave
Master Reads from Slave
 2
I C Bus Definitions
• Master:
– Initiates a transfer by generating
start and stop conditions
– Generates the clock
– Transmits the slave address
– Determines data transfer direction
• Slave:
– Responds only when addressed
– Timing is controlled by the clock line
 I2C Extensions
• 10 bit addressing (up to 1024 addresses)
• Fast mode – up to 400 kbits/sec
• High-Speed – up to 3.4 Mbits/sec

S 11110 X X R/W A1 remaining 8-bit address A2 Data

 What is CAN BUS?
CAN BUS – Controller Area Network bus
An automotive serial bus system developed to satisfy the
following requirements:

Network multiple microcontrollers with 1 pair of wires.

Allow microcontrollers communicate with each other.
High speed, real-time communication.
Provide noise immunity in an electrically noisy environment.
Low cost
Maximum data transfer rate is 1 Mbps.

58
 CAN bus
• CAN (Controller Area Network) is a serial bus system used to

communicate between several embedded 8-bit and 16-bit

microcontrollers.

• It was originally designed for use in the automotive industry but is

used today in many other systems (e.g. home appliances and

industrial machines).
 CAN BUS Physical Layer
Physical medium – two wires terminated at both ends by resistors.
Differential signal - better noise immunity.
Benefits:
▪ Reduced weight, Reduced cost

▪ Fewer wires = Increased reliability

Conventional multi-wire looms CAN bus network

vs.

http://canbuskit.com/what.php

61
CAN BUS and the OSI Model

62
 Data Information – Frame Format

• SOF – Start of Frame

• Identifier – Tells the content of message and priority
• RTR – Remote Transmission Request
• IDE – Identifier extension (distinguishes between CAN standard,11
bit identifier, and CAN extended, 29 bit identifier.)
• DLC – Data Length Code
• Data – holds up to 8 bytes of data
• CRC – “Cyclic Redundant Check” sum
• ACK – Acknowledge
• EOF – End of Frame
• IFS – Intermission Frame Space. Minimum number of bits
separating consecutive messages.
• CAN bus – Controller Area Network bus
Summary
• Primarily used for building ECU networks in automotive applications.
• Two wires
• OSI - Physical and Data link layers
• Differential signal - noise immunity
• 1Mbit/s, 120’
• Messages contain up to 8 bytes of data
• CAN (Controller Area Network) is a serial bus system used to communicate between several embedded
8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers
• Data Information
– Frame Format
– Protocol – message oriented
– Error Detection
• Message level (CRC, frame check, ACK errors)
• Bit level (monitoring, bit stuffing)
• Implementations
– Basic CAN
– Full CAN
– FIFO
– Enhanced Full CAN
• Over 20 different chip manufacturers produce microcontrollers with on-chip CAN interfaces
including Cygnal, Intel, and Motorala.
 Universal Serial Bus
• USB is a wired high speed serial bus for data
communication.

• It follows a star topology with a USB host at the center and

one or more USB peripheral devices or USB Hub.
• Using USB, a number of devices can be networked using
Master / Slave architecture.
• A USB host can support connections upto 127, including
slave peripheral devices and other USB hosts
• A USB device can be self powered. USB can supply 500mA
current to the devices.

• There are many different types of USB ports and connectors

available. The upstream connection always uses a Type-A port
and connector, while the device uses Type B ports and
connectors.

• Type A --> It is used for connecting the cable to the host device
also known as upstream end. They are flat in shape and have
four connections in line.

• Type B--> It is used to connect cable to peripheral device and

also known as downstream end. They are square in shape and
have two connections on both sides of centre.
Mini and Micro connectors were initially developed for USB

On-The-Go,

which is a USB specification that allows devices that would normally

Micro-A

act as slaves to become hosts but later they were adopted in devices

as they had smaller size as compared to type B.

Micro-B
 Pin Connections for Standard USB
Pin No. Name Function
1 VBUS +5 V Supply
2 D- Differential data line (D-)
3 D+ Differential data line (D+)
4 GND Signal ground

Pin Connections for Mini & Micro USB

Pin No. Name Function

1 VBUS +5 V Supply
2 D- Differential data line (D-)
3 D+ Differential data line (D+)
4 ID Identifies Type A or B
5 GND Signal ground
 USB Interfaces
There are 3 USB versions.

USB 1.0- Released in 1995.

Specifies data rates of 1.5 Mbit/S .

Low- Bandwidth.

It is mostly used for Human Input Devices (HID) such as Keyboards,

mouses, joysticks.

High Speed - Full Bandwidth

with data rate 12 Mbit/S.

It is still used by some devices that don't need faster data transfer
rates
 USB Interfaces
USB 2.0- Released in 2000.

Signaling rate of 480 Mbit/S . (Hi-speed)

USB 3.0- Released in 2008.

Added transmission rates upto 5 Gbit/S . (Super speed)

 Features of USB
• Data rates- USB 1.0 supports 1.5Mbps data rate.

USB 1.1 supports 12 Mbps data rate.

USB 2.0 supports 480 Mbps data rate.

USB 3.0 supports 5Gbps data rate.

• Plug and Play- USB supports plug and play i.e. we can connect
USB devices to the hub or the host without any need for
configuration settings or without need of extra drivers. Most
devices like mouse, pendrive, card reader are directly plugged
and they start working without installing any drivers.
 Features of USB
• Self Powered- USB devices are powered through the USB port,
so they do not need extra power adapter which makes it easy to
use them. It can also be used to power certain devices without
exchanging data i.e. charging a mobile handset.

• Hot Plugging- USB devices can be connected and disconnected

while the system is running without switching off the device.

• Expandability- Using USB host, the number of ports of each host

can be increased.
Communication Protocol- The communication between the host
and the devices is in the form of packets. Short data packets are
exchanged for handshaking, acknowledgements and for
informing the capabilities of the devices.

When a device is plugged in, the host automatically gets the

complete information about the device, either directly or through
the hub.
 Synchronous Serial Protocol (SSP)
• Synchronous Serial Protocol or High- Level Data Link Protocol-

The Synchronous Serial Protocol (SSP) module is a serial

interface useful for communicating with other peripherals or
microcontroller devices. These peripheral devices may be
EEPROMs, Shift Register, Display Drivers, A/D converters etc.

The SSP module can operate in one of two modes-

1. Inter Integrated Circuit (I2C)

2. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)

 SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface)

Single Slave
SPI

Multi Slave
SPI
SPI requires four signal lines for communication-
1. SCLK- Serial Clock- Signal line carrying the clock signals.

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

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

4. SS- Slave Select- Signal line for slave device select. It is an

active low signal.
 Parallel Communication Protocol
PCI- ( Peripheral Component Interconnect)
The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus is a high-
performance bus for interconnecting chips, expansion boards (e.g.
a video card that plugs into a main board like a Pentium mother
board) and processor memory subsystem. The PCI bus is
originated at Intel in 1990s, and was first used in personal
computers in 1994 along with Intel 486 processors.
PCI bus protocol include transfer rates of 127.2 to 508.6 Mbits/S,
32 -bit addressing, synchronous bus architecture and
multiplexed 32- bit data/address lines. The later additions to the
specification of the PCI bus extend the protocol to allow 64-bit
data and addressing while maintaining compatibility with the
32-bit schemes.
Introduced in 1999 and developed by IBM, HP, and Compaq,
PCI-X offered more speed than PCI and steadily increased to
quite 30 times that of the first PCI bus. The peak bandwidth of
the PCI-X bus is having a range from 133 to 4262 MB/second.
Although a greatly enhanced Version 2.0 was introduced in
2002, it had been not widely used, and PCI-X altogether its
versions were superseded by PCI Express (PCIe). For data rate
comparisons of all PCI technologies. The improvement in setup
time allows a rise in frequency to 133 MHz.
PCI-X is basically having a complete specification for both 32
and 64-bit PCI connectors, and PCI-X 2.0 added a 16-bit variant
for embedded applications. It has been replaced in modern
designs by the PCI Express with a completely different connector
and a really different electrical design, having one or more
narrow but fast serial connection lanes instead of a number of
slower connections in parallel.

PCI-X is a complicated version of PCI conventional buses. It

works like a pipe that data transfers between devices. It
increases the clock speed from 66 MHz to 133 MHz, essentially
providing a bigger, faster pipe for data to flow through.
 Wireless Communication Protocol
The wired protocol has limitation of range. Also as the devices
increases, the connection cost and complexity increases.

To overcome these limitations, various wireless protocols are

introduced.

The wireless protocols use air as medium.

 IrDA (Infra-red Data Association)

UART
(Packetizer/ Encoder /
Processor Decoder
De-packetizer)

Transceiver
LED/Photodiode
IrDA protocol architecture

Higher Layers (
Application, Ir comm )

Link Management Protocol

(Ir LMP)

Link Access Protocol

( Ir LAP)

Physical Layer
( Ir PHY)
Features:
• Advantages-
• Disadvantages-
Applications:
 Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a global standard for wireless connectivity.
Features
• Bluetooth is a low cost, low power, short range wireless technology
for data and voice communication.

• Bluetooth operates at 2.4GHz of Radio Frequency Spectrum &

uses Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS).

• It supports a data rate of upto 1Mbps.

• Transmission range is upto 10 meters.

• Bluetooth uses a radio-based link so it doesn't require a line of

sight connection for communication.

• Bluetooth communication follows packet based data transfer.

• It supports point to point (device to device) and point to
multipoint (device to multiple device broadcasting) wireles
communication.

• A Bluetooth device can function as either master or slave.

When a network is formed with one Bluetooth device as master and
more than one device as slaves, it is called a Piconet.

A piconet supports a maximum of seven slaves,

Bluetooth is mostly used for short range data communication in

handheld embedded devices.

It is used for transferring ringtones, music files, pictures, media files

etc. between neighbouring Bluetooth enabled phone.
• Advantages:
Low power consumption

2.4GHz radio frequency ensures worldwide operation.

No Line of sight connection is required, hence can connect through
any obstacle.
Avoid interference from other wireless devices.
Very cheap
Easy to install
• Disadvantages:
Allows only short range communication between devices.
Data rate is less as compared to IrDA.
Low bandwidth.
Sharing the same frequency range so interference is possible.
 Applications
• For cell phones
• Laptops and notebooks
• Printers
• PDA's (Personal Digital Assistant)
• Wireless communication (WAN)
 Zigbee
• Zigbee is a low power, low cost, wireless network communication
protocol based on IEEE 802.15.4-2006 standard.
• Zigbee is targeted for low power, low data rate and secure
applications for Wireless Personal Area Networking (WPAN).
• The Zigbee specifications support a robust mesh network
containing multiple nodes.
• This networking strategy makes the network reliable by permitting
messages to travel through a number of paths to get from one
node to another.
• Zigbee operates worldwide at the unlicensed bands of Radio
Spectrum, mainly at 2.4 to 2.484 GHz, 902 to 928 MHz and
868.0 to 868.6 MHz.

• Zigbee supports an operating distance of upto 100 metres and

a data rate of 20 to 250kbps.
 Zigbee Device category
• Zigbee Co-ordinator (ZC)/Network Co-ordinator:
The Zigbee co-ordinator 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 (ZR) / Full Function Device (FFD):
Responsible for passing information from device to another device or to
another ZR.
• Zigbee End Device (ZED) / Reduced Function Device (RFD):
End device containing Zigbee functionality for data communication. It
can talk only with ZR or ZC and does not have the capability to act as a
mediator for transferring data form one device to another
 Zigbee Device category
ZED ZED

ZR ZC ZR
ZED

ZED
ZED

A Zigbee network model

IEEE 802.11 Architecture
The components of an IEEE 802.11 architecture are as follows
1) Stations (STA) − Stations comprise all devices and equipments
that are connected to the wireless LAN. A station can be of two types:
Wireless Access Points (WAP) − WAPs or simply access points (AP)
are generally wireless routers that form the base stations or access.
Client. − Clients are workstations, computers, laptops, printers,
smartphones, etc.
Each station has a wireless network interface controller.
2) Basic Service Set (BSS) −A basic service set is a group of
stations communicating at physical layer level. BSS can be of
two categories depending upon mode of operation:

Infrastructure BSS − Here, the devices communicate with other

devices through access points.

Independent BSS − Here, the devices communicate in

peer-to-peer basis in an ad-hoc manner.

3) Extended Service Set (ESS) − It is a set of all connected BSS.

4) Distribution System (DS) − It connects access points in ESS.

Wi-Fi network
 Master-to-Slave Data Transfer
• Clock is controlled by master

• Data is written to slave on next 8 clock pulses

• Data receipt is ACKnowledged by slave on 9th pulse

by pulling SDA low.

• When slave releases SDA, master can send next

byte

• Master will eventually set a Stop condition by making

a low to high transition on SDA with SCL is high
 CAN Data Frames
Note 1: It is worth noting that the presence of an Acknowledgement Bit on the bus does
not mean that any of the intended addressees has received the message. The only
thing we know is that one or more nodes on the bus has received it correctly
Note 2: The Identifier in the Arbitration Field is not, despite of its name, necessarily
identifying the contents of the message.
• CAN 2.0A (“standard CAN” 11-bit ID) Data
Frame.

CAN 2.0B (“extended CAN” 29-bit ID) Data

Frame.

110
CAN Bus Characterstics

111