CHAPTER FIVE

DATA COMMUNICATIONS

5.1 Introduction

The term Communication has a history as old as the existence of life on earth. The
telegraph revolutionized long-distance communications almost everywhere, reducing
the time taken to communicate across a country from days to hours or minutes, or from
months to days between continents.

At the time of the invention of the telephone, most effort was directed towards the
development of a 'multiple' telegraph: one that could signal more than one code at a
time.

Data Communications concerns the transmission of digital messages to devices

external to the message source. "External" devices are generally thought of as being
independently powered circuitry that exists beyond the chassis of a computer or other
digital message source.

5.2 BASIC ELEMENTS OF A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Communication is the process of transferring messages and data from one point to
another. The three basic elements of any communication process are:

1) A sender (source) which creates the message to be transmitted.

2) A medium which carries the message.
3) A receiver (Sink) which receives the message.

5.2.1 Data Transmission Modes

Data transmission, whether analog or digital, may also be characterized by the direction
in which the signals travel over the media.
1. Simplex: In cases where signals may travel in only one direction, the
transmission is considered simplex. Simplex is sometimes called one-way, or
unidirectional, communication.
2. Half Duplex: In half-duplex transmission signals may travel in both directions
over a medium but in only one direction at a time. Half-duplex systems contain
only one channel for communication, and that channel must be shared for
multiple nodes to exchange information.
3. Full-Duplex: When signals are free to travel in both directions over a medium
simultaneously, the transmission is considered full duplex. Full duplex may also
be called bi-directional transmission or sometimes, simply duplex.
For example, computer will not be able to communicate on the network.
5.2.2 Transmission Basics
In data networking, the term transmission has two meanings. First, it can refer to the
process of issuing data signals on a medium. It can also refer to the progress of data
signals over a medium from one point to another.
Analog and Digital Signaling
One important characteristic of data transmission is the type of signaling involved. On a
data network.
Both types of signals are generated by electrical current, the pressure of which is
measured in volts. The strength of an electrical signal is directly proportional to its
voltage.
1. Analog Signaling: In analog signals, voltage varies continuously. An analog
signal’s voltage appears as a continuous wave when graphed over time, because
voltage is varied and imprecise in analog signals, analog transmission is more
susceptible to transmission flaws such as noise than digital signals.
2. Digital Signaling: In digital signals, voltage turns off and on repeatedly, pulsing
from zero voltage to a specific positive voltage. Unlike analog signals where
there is a smooth curve, digital signals jump directly to the next value.
Data rate: This is the rate, in bits per second (bps), at which data can be communicated.
Bandwidth: This is the maximum bandwidth of the transmitted signal as constrained by
the nature of the transmission medium or transmission channel, expressed in cycles
per second, or hertz (Hz).
Noise: The average level of noise over the communications path.
Error rate: The rate at which errors occur, where an error is the reception of a 1 when a 0
was transmitted or the reception of a 0 when a 1 was transmitted.

5.3 TYPES OF DATA TRANSMISSION MEDIA

Data Transmission Media is divided into two types

1. Bounded Media

2. Unbounded Media

Bounded Media: It is also known as guided media. Bounded transmission media

constrain and guide communication signals. Bounded media are great for LANs
because they offer high speed, good security, and low cost. However, sometimes they
cannot be used due to distance limitations.

Unbounded Media: Unbounded, or wireless, media does not use any physical
connectors between the two devices communicating. Usually the transmission is sent
through the atmosphere, but sometimes it can be just across a room.

Following are the types of unbounded media:

1. Radio Waves: it have frequencies between 10 KHz and 1GHz.

 Short-wave
 Very-high frequency (VHF) television and radio
 Ultra-high frequency (UHF) television and radio Micro waves
2. Microwaves: travel at higher frequencies than radio waves and provide better
throughput as a wireless network media.
 Terrestrial Microwaves: transmit wireless signals across a few miles
 Satellite Microwaves: transmit signals throughout the world
3. Infrared: allow high-speed data transmissions, is similar to the use of a remote
control for a television
 Point-to-point: utilize highly focused beams to transfer signals directly between
two systems
 Broadcast: use a spread signal, one broadcast in all directions, instead of a direct
beam

5.4 MODULATION TECHNIQUES

Data modulation is a technology used to modify analog signals in order to make them
suitable for carrying data over a communication path. In modulation, a simple wave,
called a carrier wave, is combined with another analog signal to produce a unique signal
that gets transmitted from one node to another.
There are three forms of modulation- amplitude, frequency and phase modulation. They
are described below:
1) Amplitude modulation (AM): is a technique used in electronic communication,
most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave.
2) Frequency Modulation (FM): In telecommunications, frequency modulation (FM)
conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency (contrast this
with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while
its frequency remains constant).
3) Phase modulation (PM): It is a form of modulation that represents information
as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave.
5.4.1 Modems: The word "modem" is a contraction of the words modulator-
demodulator. A modem is typically used to send digital data over a phone line.

The sending modem modulates the data into a signal that is compatible with the phone
line, and the receiving modem demodulates the signal back into digital data. Wireless
modems convert digital data into radio signals and back.

A modem is the peripheral used to transfer information between several computers

over a wire transmission medium (e.g. telephone lines).
5.4.2 Analog versus Digital Transmission
As a technology, analog is the process of taking an audio or video signal (the human
voice) and translating it into electronic pulses. Digital on the other hand is breaking the
signal into a binary format where the audio or video data is represented by a series of
"1"s and "0"s.

Analog is a transmission standard that uses electrical impulses to emulate the audio
waveform of sound.

Digital Signal A method of storing, processing and transmitting information through the
use of distinct electronic or optical pulses that represent the binary digits 0 and 1.

Advantages of Analog
1. Uses less bandwidth

2. More accurate

Disadvantages of Analog

1. The effects of random noise can make signal loss and distortion impossible to
recover

Advantages of Digital

a. Less expensive
 b. More reliable
c. Easy to manipulate
d. Flexible
e. Compatibility with other digital systems
f. Only digitized information can be transported through a noisy channel
without degradation

g. Integrated networks

Disadvantages of Digital

a. Sampling Error
b. Digital communications require greater bandwidth than analogue to
transmit the same information.
c. The detection of digital signals requires the communications system to be
synchronized, whereas generally speaking this is not the case with
analogue systems.

5.5 MULTIPLEXING
A form of transmission that allows multiple signals to travel simultaneously over one
medium. In order to accommodate multiple signals, the single medium is logically
separated into multiple channels, or sub channels.In telecommunications and computer
networks, multiplexing (also known as mixing) is a process where multiple analog
message signals or digital data streams are combined into one signal over a shared
medium.

For each type of multiplexing, a device that can combine many signals on a channel, a
multiplexer (mux), is required at the sending end of the channel. At the receiving end, a
demultiplexer (demux) separates the combined signals and regenerates them in their
original form.

Multiplexing is commonly used on networks to increase the amount of data that can be
transmitted in a given time span.

5.5.1 Time division multiplexing (TDM): is a type of digital or (rarely) analog

multiplexing in which two or more signals or bit streams are transferred apparently
simultaneously as sub channels in one communication channel, but are physically
taking turns on the channel.

For example, if five stations are connected to a network over one wire, five different
time slots would be established in the communications channel. Workstation A may be
assigned time slot 1, workstation B time slot 2, workstation C time slot 3, and so on.
Time slots are reserved for their designated nodes no matter whether the node has data
to transmit or not. If a node does not have data to send, nothing will be sent during its
time slot. This arrangement can be inefficient if some nodes on the network rarely send
data.
5.5.2 Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM): In FDM, available bandwidth of a
physical medium is divided into several smaller, disjoint logical bandwidths. Each
component bandwidth is used as a separate communication line (channel). Figure 5.14
illustrates FDM process.