DATA COMMUNICATION, COMPUTER NETWORK AND INTERNET

DATA COMMUNICATION
Data communication is the exchange of data between two devices via some form of
transmission medium such as a wire cable. For data communications to occur, the
communicating devices must be part of a communication system made up of a combination of
hardware (physical equipment) and software (programs).

Components of data communication

Message: The message is the information (data) to be communicated. Popular forms of
information include text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
Sender: The sender is the device that sends the data/message. It can be a computer, workstation,
telephone handset, video camera, and so on.
Receiver: The receiver is the device that receives the message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, television, and so on.
Transmission medium: The transmission medium is the physical path by which a message
travels from sender to receiver. Some examples of transmission media include twisted-pair wire,
coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and radio waves.
Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications between computers in a
network. It represents an agreement between the communicating devices. Without a protocol,
two devices may be connected but not communicating.

Different types of Transmission Media are:

Conducted or guided media: It uses a conductor such as a wire or a fiber optic cable to move
the signal from the sender to the receiver.
Wireless or unguided media: It uses radio waves of different frequencies and do not need a
wire or cable conductor to transmit signals.

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Twisted-Pair Cable: A twisted pair consists of two conductors (normally copper), each with its
own plastic insulation, twisted together. One of the wires is used to carry signals to the receiver,
and the other is used only as aground reference. The receiver uses the difference between the
two. It is of two types: Unshielded twisted Pair Cable (UTP) and Shielded Twisted-Pair Cable
(STP)

Coaxial Cable: Coaxial cable (or coax) carries signals of higher frequency ranges than those in
twisted pair cable. coax has a central core conductor of solid or stranded wire (usually copper)
enclosed in an insulating sheath, which is, in turn, encased in an outer conductor of metal foil,
braid, or a combination of the two. The outer metallic wrapping serves both as a shield against
noise and as the second conductor, which completes the circuit. This outer conductor is also
enclosed in an insulating sheath, and the whole cable is protected by a plastic cover.

Fiber optics cable: A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the
form of light. Optical fibers use reflection to guide light through a channel. A glass or plastic
core is surrounded by a cladding of less dense glass or plastic. The difference in density of the
two materials must be such that a beam of light moving through the core is reflected off the
cladding instead of being refracted into it.

Data Transmission mode

It is the direction of the flow of data between two communicating devices. Transmission mode is
divided in to three types:

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1. Simplex transmission mode
2. Half duplex transmission mode
3. Full Duplex transmission mode/ Duplex transmission mode

Simplex transmission mode: In simplex data can only travel in one direction. It used if only
one direction is necessary. e.g. Television picture which is passed to a television receiver aerial,
but there is no way to send data in the other direction.

2. Half duplex transmission mode:

• In half duplex mode, data can pass in both directions, but only in one direction at a time.
• Used if both directions are necessary but not at the same time.
• E.g. CB radio system in which each handset can either be set to receive mode or send
mode.

3. Full Duplex transmission mode: In this mode, data can pass in both directions at the
same time. Used if both directions are necessary at the same time. E.g. A telephone
conversation as both users can speak and be heard at the same time.

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COMPUTER NETWORKS
A computer network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected by communication
links. A node can be a computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending and/or receiving
data generated by other nodes on the network.

Categories of networks
Network divided in to three primary categories: LAN, MAN, WAN. In to which category a
network falls is determined by its Size, Ownership, Distance it covers, and Physical architecture.

1. LOCAL-AREA NETWORK(LAN) :
LAN is usually privately owned and Links devices in single office, building or campus. LAN
size is Limited to few kilometres. LANs are designed to allow resources (i.e. hardware or
software) to be shared between PCs and workstations. LAN will use a single transmission
media. The most common LAN Topologies are Ring, bus, star.

2. METROPOLITAN-AREA NETWORK (MAN):

A MAN is designed to extend over an entire city. It may be single network such as cable
television network, or it may be a means of connecting number of LANs in to a larger networks.
A MAN be wholly Owned and operated by a private company, or it may be a Service provider
by Public company such as a local telephone company.
3. WIDE-AREA NETWORK(WAN):

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WAN provides long-transmission of data, voice, image and video information over large
geographic areas that may comprise a country, a continent or even the whole world.
WAN that is wholly owned and used by a single company is often referred to as an enterprise
network.

NETWORK STUCTURES/ TOPOLOGY:

Topology refers to the way in which a network is laid out physically. The topology of a network
is the geometric representation of the relationship of all the links and linking devices (usually
called nodes) to one another.

Categories of topology:
There are four basic topologies possible.

MESH TOPOLOGY
In a mesh topology, every device has a dedicated point-to-point link to every other device. The
term dedicated means that the link carries traffic only between the two devices it connects.

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ADVANTAGES:
1. The use of dedicated links guarantees that each connection can carry its own data load, thus
eliminating the traffic problems
2. A mesh topology is robust. i.e. If one link becomes unusable, it does not incapacitate the
entire system.
3. There is the advantage of privacy or security.
4. point-to-point links make fault identification and fault isolation easy.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. Because every device must be connected to every other device, installation and
reconnection are difficult.
2. The bulk of the wiring can be greater than the available space (in walls, ceilings, or
floors) can accommodate.

STAR TOPOLOGY
In a star topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point link only to a central controller,
usually called a hub. The devices are not directly linked to one another. A star topology does not
allow direct traffic between devices. The controller acts as an exchange:
If one device wants to send data to another, it sends the data to the controller, which then relays
the data to the other connected devices.

ADVANTAGES:
1. A star topology is less expensive than a mesh topology.
2. It is easy to install and reconfigure.

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3. Other advantages include robustness
4. Easy fault identification and fault isolation.
DISADVANTAGE:
The dependency of the whole topology on one single point, the hub. If the hub goes down, the
whole system is dead.

BUS TOPOLOGY:
A bus topology, is multipoint connected. One long cable acts as a backbone to link all the
devices in a network. Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps. A drop line is
a connection Running between the device and the main cable. A tap is a connector that either
splices into the main cable or punctures the sheathing of a cable to create a contact with the
metallic core.

ADVANTAGES
1. Advantages of a bus topology include ease of installation
2. Bus uses less cabling.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. Difficult reconnection and fault isolation is also difficult.
2. Signal reflection at the taps can cause degradation in quality.

RING TOPOLOGY:
In a ring topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point connection with only the two
devices on either side of it.
A signal is passed along the ring in one direction, from device to device, until it reaches its
destination. Each device in the ring incorporates a repeater. When a device receives a signal

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intended for another device, its repeater regenerates the bits and passes them along.

ADVANTAGE:
1. A ring is relatively easy to install and reconfigure.
2. Fault isolation is simplified.
DISADVANTAGE: Unidirectional traffic can be a disadvantage.

TREE TOPOLOGY:
A tree topology is a variation of star topology. As in star, nodes in a tree are linked to a central
hub that controls the traffic to the network. However, not every device plugs directly into the
central hub. The majority of devices connect to a secondary hub that in turn connected to the
central hub. The central hub in the tree is an active hub (i.e. an active hub contains a repeater
which regenerates signal.). The secondary hubs may be active or passive hub(i.e. the passive
hub provides a simple physical connection between the attached devices)

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Advantages
It allows more devices to be attached to a single central hub and can therefore increase the
distance a signal can travel between devices.
It allows the network to isolate and prioritize communication from different computers.
Disadvantage
The dependency of the whole topology on one single point, the central hub. If the central hub
goes down, the whole system is dead.

HYBRID TOPOLOGY:
Often a network combines a several topologies as subnet works linked together in a larger
topology. For example, one department of a business may have decided to use a bus topology
while another department has a ring . The two can be connected to each other via a central
controller in a star topology.

NETWORKING DEVICES
Different Networking Devices are: Repeater, Hub, Switch, Bridge, Router, Gateway & NIC
Repeater:
A repeater is an electronic device which is used or installed in the link that it will receive the
signals before it becomes weak or corrupted. It regenerates the original bit pattern and puts the
refreshed copy back unto the link so a repeater is also known as a regenerator.

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Hub:
• A common connection point for devices in a network.
• It connects PCs together in a network, but it actually refers to a multi-port repeater.
• A hub contains multiple ports. When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the otherports
so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.

Switch:
• Switches are also known as intelligent hubs.
• Switches operate on hardware addresses to transfer data across devices connected to them.
• The reason switches are known as intelligent hubs is because they build address table in
hardware to keep track of different hardware addresses and the port to which each hardware
address is associated.
Bridge:
• It is interconnecting device which interconnects two segments of LAN.
• It also regenerate signal.
Router
• It is a interconnecting device which interconnects two different networks.
• Routers relay packets among multiple interconnected networks.
Gateway
• Gateways provide translation services between incompatible LANs or application
• Gateway is a protocol converter.
• It is software which installed in the router.
Network interface card (NIC)
A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer
so that it can be connected to a network.

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• Transmits and receives signals to the LAN. Computers cannot communicate on LAN without
this device.
• Each Network Card has a Media Access Control (MAC) address. This is also known as the
physical address or Ethernet address.

SERVICES OF INTERNET
Different services of internet are FTP, E-Mail, WWW, IRC, Web Conferencing, Online
Shopping etc.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP):

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard mechanism for copying a file from one host to
another.
World Wide Web:
The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW or W3 and commonly known as the Web.
It is the collection of web resources like web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and
other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC):
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous
conferencing.
It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also
allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer,
including file sharing.
Email: Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail.
It is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients, all
having accounts on internet. Web Conferencing:
Web Conferencing is conducting live meetings, presentations, training, collaborations, or
marketing and product launches via the Internet.
Online Shopping:
The purchase of products and services on the Internet.
Advantages:

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Wide selection of products and services
Offers greater convenience than shopping at multiple online shops
Consumers can make multiple purchases in one transaction.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF INTERNET CONNECTIVITY:

The connection types in this section include:
1) Dial-up Connections:
A dial-up connection allows you to connect to the internet via a local server using a standard 56k
modem. Your PC literally dials (hence the name) a phone number (provided by your ISP) and
connects to the server and therefore the internet.
2) Leased Line Connection:
Leased connection is also known as direct Internet access.
It is the secure, dedicated and most expensive, level of Internet connection.
With leased connection, our computer is dedicatedly and directly connected to the Internet using
high speed transmission lines. It is on-line twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
3) ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscribers Line) Connections:
The connections work by splitting your phone line into two separate channels, one for data
(internet) and one for voice (phone calls), which means you can talk on the phone and be
connected to the internet at the same time.
4) Cable connections:
Through the use of a cable modem you can have a broadband Internet connection that is
designed to operate over cable TV lines. Cable Internet works by using TV channel space for
data transmission, with certain channels used for downstream transmission, and other channels
for upstream transmission.
5) VSAT (very small aperture terminal):
It is an earthbound station used in satellite communications of data, voice and video signals,
excluding broadcast television. A VSAT consists of two parts, a transceiver that is placed
outdoors in direct line of sight to the satellite and a device that is placed indoors to interface the
transceiver with the end user’s communications device, such as a PC.

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