DATA

COMMUNICATION

Prepared by
Akshay
Borkar(GL)
Chetan Patil

Introduction
Terminologies of Data communication
Data- Information that has been
processed, organized and stored.
Data communication-transmission,
reception & processing of digital
information.
Network/ nodes/ stations- set of devices
interconnected by media links
Simple- two computers or a computer with a
printer
Complex- one or more main frame
computers with a thousand remote
terminals.

What is Data
Communications?
Exchange of digital information between two
digital devices is data communication

History of Data
Communication
1838: Samuel Morse & Alfred Veil Invent
Morse Code
Telegraph System
1876: Alexander Graham Bell invented
Telephone
1910:Howard Krum developed Start/Stop
Synchronisation
1930: Development of ASCII Transmission
Code
1945: Allied Governments develop the
First Large Computer
1950: IBM releases its first computer IBM
710
1960: IBM releases the First Commercial
Computer IBM 360

Standard Organization
for Data Communication
International Standards Organization(ISO)
International Telecommunications Union-

Telecommunication Sector(ITU-T)
American National Standard

Institute(ANSI)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers(IEEE)
Electronics Industry Association(EIA)

Data Communication
Circuit
Simplified block diagram of data

communication network

Data Transmission
Data Transmission means movement of
the bits over a
transmission medium connecting two
devices
Two types of Data Transmission are:
Parallel Transmission
Serial Transmission

Parallel Transmission
In this all the bits of a byte are transmitted
simultaneously on separate wires.
Practically, if two devices are close to each other
e.g. Computer to Printer, Communication within
the Computer

High speed but complex circuit

Serial Transmission
Bits are transmitted one after the other
Usually the Least Significant Bit (LSB) is
transmitted first
Suitable for Transmission over Long distance
Less speed but simple circuit

Data Communication circuit

arrangements
Circuit Configuration:
Two point configuration

Multipoint configuration

Transmission Modes
Simplex
signals transmitted in one direction
eg. Television

Half duplex
both stations transmit, but only one at a time
eg. police radio

Full duplex
simultaneous transmissions
eg. telephone

Network topologies
It describes the layout or appearance of a

network
A multi point topology connects 3 or more
stations through a single transmission
medium
Eg:
star, bus, ring, mesh & hybrid

Bus topologySimple and low-cost

A single cable called a trunk
(backbone, segment)

Coax
ial
cable

BNC T-Connector

Star topologyEach computer has a cable connected to a

single point
More cabling, hence higher cost
All signals transmission through the hub; if
down, entire network down

Ring topology
Every computer serves as a repeater to boost
signals
Disadvantages
If one computer fails, whole network fails

Mesh topology
Each and every node of the network is

interconnected

Hybrid topology
Combination of two or more topologies

Data Communication
Codes
These are prescribed bit sequence used

for encoding characters and symbols

Often called as character sets, character
codes, symbol codes, character languages
Types of characters used in data
communication:
1)

Data link control:

For orderly flow of data from source to destination

2)

Graphic control:
Presentation of data at the receivers

3)

Alpha/numeric characters:
Various alphabets, numbers, etc.

CHARACTER CODES
Various character codes have been used

in data communication including:

Morse, Baudot
EBCDIC, ASCII
Unicode
Bar code

Regardless of the character code, both the

terminal/ host or sender/receiver must

recognize the same coding scheme

MORSE CODE

BAUDOT CODE
One of first codes developed for machine

to machine communication
Uses 1s and 0s instead of dots and
dashes
For transmitting telex messages (punch
tape)
Fixed character length (5-bits)
32 different codes
increased capacity by using two codes for

shifting
11111 (32) Shift to Lower (letters)
11011 (27) Shift to Upper (digits, punctuation)

4 special codes for SP, CR, LF & blank

Total = 26 + 26 + 4 = 56 different characters

BAUDOT CODE (cont.)

Problems:
required shift code to switch between character
sets
no lower case, few special characters
no error detection mechanism
characters not ordered by binary value
designed for transmitting data, not for data
processing
International Baudot
Added a 6th bit for parity
Used to detect errors within a single character

BAUDOT CODE

EBCDIC
Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
8-bit character code developed by IBM
used for data communication, processing and storage
extended earlier proprietary 6-bit BCD code
designed for backward compatibility or marketing?
still in use today on some mainframes and legacy

systems.
Allows for 256 different character representations

(28)
includes upper and lower case
lots of special characters (non-printable)
lots of blank (non-used codes)

assigned to international characters in various

versions
used with/without parity (block transmissions)

EBCDIC CODE

ASCII CODE
American Standard Code for Information

Interchange
7-bit code developed by the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI)
most popular data communication character code

today
Allows for 128 different character representations

(27)
includes upper and lower case
lots of special characters (non-printable)
generally used with an added parity bit
better binary ordering of characters than EBCDIC

Extended ASCII uses 8 data bits and no parity

Used for processing and storage of data
Allows for international characters
8th bit stripped of for transmission of standard

character set

7-BIT ASCII CODE

SUMMARY OF
CHARACTER CODES
Morse
=
Baudot
=
parity)
Int. Baudot =
data + 1 parity)
ASCII
=
data + 1 parity)
EBCDIC
=
data + 1 parity)
UNICODE
=
(no parity)

.5 bit (no
6 bsit (5
8 bit (7

9 bit (8
16 bits

Normally terminals and hosts must use the same

code
However, code conversion hardware/software can
be used to allow different machines to
communicate

Error control
What is error?
Types of error:
Single bit error
Burst error

Methods : 1) error detection

2) error correction

Error detection:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

redundancy
parity
checksum
longitudinal and horizontal redundancy
check
Cyclic redundancy check(CRC)

Error Correction
1. Retransmission

resending of message when it is

received incorrectly

often called as ARQ- Automatic

Repeat reQuest for retransmission

positive and negative

acknowledgment
2. Forward error correction(FEC)
only technique which detects and
corrects errors at the receiver without the
need for retransmission
Eg : Hamming code

Hamming code
Number of redundancy bits needed
Let data bits = m
Redundancy bits = n
Total message sent = m+r
The value of n must satisfy the following
relation:

2n m+n+1

??????

Data Communication
Hardware

A multipoint data communication circuit block

diagram

Hos
t

Secondary or
remote

Line control unit(LCU)

@ primary:

Directs traffic to and from many

circuits(which have different characteristics)
@ secondary:

Directs traffic between one data link

and other few devices(all of similar char)
LCU with a software is called as front end

processor(FEP)
Usually LCU of primary is an FEP

 LCU operates only on digital data

Most of the functions of LCU are performed

by single IC called as UART/USRT

UART- Universal asynchronous

receiver/transmitter
USRT- Universal synchronous

receiver/transmitter
INTELs USART 8251
Motorolas UART asynchronous

communication interface adapter(ACIA)

UART- Universal
asynchronous
receiver/transmitter
Asynchronous- no clocking information is

transferred between DTE and DCE

Primary functions of UART:
To perform serial to parallel and vice-versa
To perform error detection(parity bits)
To insert and detect start/stop bits

Hardware consists of 2 sections:

Transmitter
receiver

UART TRANSMITTER

Control word
To indicate no of bits, nature of parity, and

the no of stop bits

Timing diagram of UART

TBMT-Transmit Buffer Empty
TD-Transmit Data
TDS-Transmit Data Strobe
TEOC-Transmit End of Char
TSO-Transmit serial out

Receiver of UART

Timing diagram of UART

Receiver
RSI-receive serial input
RDA-receive data available

RPE- receive parity error

SWE- status word enable
RDE-receive data enable
RDAR-receive data available

reset

USRT- Universal synchronous

receiver/transmitter
Synchronous- clocking information is

transferred between DTE and DCE

Primary functions of UART:
To perform serial to parallel and vice-versa
To perform error detection(parity bits)
To insert and detect SYN characters(difference

between USRT& UART)

Transceiver of USRT

Interfaces

Serial Interface
Serial communication is the most

simplistic form of communication between

two devices.
RS-232 is a standard by which two serial
devices communicate
The connection must be no longer than 50 feet.
Transmission voltages are 15V and +15V.
It is designed around transmission of characters

(of 7 bits of length).

Defines a 25 wire cable with a DB 25S/9S
connector.
Data rate of up-to 20kbps for a distance of 50ft
driver, terminator, noise margin

RS 232 Pin functions- data

pins

Control pins

Timing pins

Miscellaneous

Parallel interface
Transfers data between two devices eight

or more bits at a time.

Also referred to as serial by word
transmission
advantage: faster transmission
Disadvantage: higher cost for transmission
Eg: Centronics parallel interface, IEEE 488
bus

Interface btw computer &

printer
An interface that accepted data in same format

used internally by most computers (8 bit parallel

using TTL logic)
Comes with a 36 pin Amphenol connector (Champ
connector)
Pins are classified as data, control and status
Data lines: Pins 2 to 9 are eight bit parallel data
bus.
Control lines: 4 control signals are used
STB: active low, edge triggered, o/p from
computer & tells printer to accept data from data
lines
AF: autofeed, active low,tells printer whether to
perform line feed after it receives a carriage
return character from computer
PRIME: also called initialize, active low, o/p from
computer, clears the printers memory, usually
used to abort printing action suddenly
SLCTIN: select line, not mostly used, usually it is
grounded

Status line: unidirectional, and

transmission from printer to computer

ACK: acknowledge, active low, response to STB

line
Busy: active high, and goes high anytime printer
is busy
When printer is busy?
1. when printer is accepting data from computer
2. when printer is printing
3. when printer is switched off or offline
4. when printers ERROR line is low
PO: paper out, active high
SLCT: select, active high, indicates whether
printer is selected or not.

Data Modems
Need for modem
To interface computers, computer networks, and
other digital terminal equipment with analog
communication lines and radio channel

What is modem
modulator and demodulator
Modem @ transmitter:
Digital signals modulate an analog carrier
Modem @ receiver:
Analog signals are demodulated and converted
to digital signals

Also called as DCE, data set, dataphone.

Types of modems
Broad classification can be made as:
Synchronous modems:
Clocking information is recovered at the receiver
Use PSK or QAM modulation technique
Used for mostly medium and high speed

applications(up to 57.6kbps)

Asynchronous modems:
No clocking information is sent
Mostly use ASK/ FSK
Restricted to use for low speed applications(<
2.4 kbps)

Asynchronous
modems

Example of asynchronous modems are

Bell Systems 202 T/S modems, uses FSK

202 T- full duplex, four wire operation
202 S- half duplex, two wire operation

202T modems use 1700Hz carrier

Another modem standard is Bell Systems 103

modems, has full duplex over a two wire line at

a rate of 300bps
Has 2 data channels,(low band/ high band)
with each mark & space frequency
Low band channel- originate channel
High band channel-answer channel

Circuit which originates the call has to transmit

on low band and the receiver has to respond

on the high band channel

Synchronous modems
Used for medium and high speed modems
For medium speed:
QPSK for 2.4Kbps(eg: Bell Systems 201C)
8-PSK for 4.8 Kbps(eg: Bell Systems208A)
Both are full duplex, 4 wire systems
For high speed:
16-QAM for a 9.6Kbps(eg: Bell Systems 209A)
Full duplex, four wire transmission
Sometimes asynchronous data format is

used in a synchronous modem, this is

referred to as isochronous transmission

Additional requirements for

synchronous modems
Since the medium and high speed modems
are synchronous, these modems contain
the following additional hardware:
clock recovery
scramblers and descrambler circuit
equalizers

Modem control
Initial modems- dumb modems
Basic function include only modulation and
demodulation
Intelligent modems- smart modems
Consists of mostly microprocessor which
performs routine function
Smart modems are controlled by a set of

system commands.
Most widely used are AT command set or
Hayes command set
Has two modes of operation:
AT command mode
AT on-line mode

AT command mode
When a modem is not communicating with

any other modem, then it is command

mode
All commands begin with ASCII character
AT(attention)
AT online mode:
Once communication begins, modem is

said to be in online mode

In this, modem accepts information and
allows them to modulate its carrier before
transmission
To switch from online to command mode,
DTE transmits consecutive three plus
sign(+++). This sequence is called as
escape code.