Transmission and Switching Modes

Topics
Transmission Switching
• Parallel and Serial • Packet
• Asynchronous • Circuit
• Synchronous • Message
• Isochronous
• Factors Affecting Signal Transmission
 Transmission Modes
transmission mode to refer to the manner in which data
is sent over the underlying medium
Transmission modes can be divided into two
fundamental categories:
Serial - one bit is sent at a time
Serial transmission is further categorized according to
timing of transmissions
Parallel — multiple bits are sent at the same time
 Parallel Transmission
• Parallel transmission is the transmission of a number of
data bits at the same time over separate independent lines
• Apply for short distance at faster speed but prone to signal
errors
• A method used within computer systems like
communication between CPU, VDU, printers,
• Furthermore, the signals on all wires are synchronized so
that a bit travels across each of the wires at precisely the
same time

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•
Serial Transmission
Transmits data bits one at a time using one line
• A slow but efficient method that is not prone to errors
• Mostly used in communication, the hardware needed to convert data
between an internal parallel form and a serial form can be
straightforward or complex
– depending on the type of serial communication mechanism
• In the simplest case, a single chip that is known as a Universal
Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter (UART) performs the
conversion
• A related chip, Universal Synchronous-Asynchronous Receiver and
Transmitter (USART) handles conversion for synchronous networks

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 Clock Synchronization
• The process of coordinating clocks of
different systems for them to match (clock
recovery)
• Applied usually if communicating systems
differ in frequency, phase angles and baud
rates (internal clocks/times)
• If clocks are not synchronized,
communicating systems do not realize the
same global time, therefore will not
communicate well
 Asynchronous Transmission
• A method where characters are transmitted one at a time
• Each byte is marked off with special control bits (i.e start -
and stop bits) to represent start and stop respectively and
also used to time internal clocks between senders and
receivers

• It allows the physical medium to be idle for an arbitrary

time between two transmissions
 Asynchronous Transmission
• The asynchronous style of communication is well-
suited to applications that generate data at random
– (e.g., a user typing on a keyboard or a user that
clicks on a link)
• A slow method; not good for large amount of data
transfer but the data can be transmitted at the
sender’s convenience
• The disadvantage of asynchrony arises from the lack
of coordination between sender and receiver
– While the medium is idle, a receiver cannot know
how long the medium will remain idle before more
data arrives
 Synchronous Transmission
• Synchronous is where a group of characters are sent as blocks
• A block/frame is identified with a start and an end byte
• A synchronous mechanism transmits bits of data continually:
with no idle time between bits and after transmitting the final
bit of one data byte, the sender transmits a bit of the next data
byte

• Complicated, more expensive and requires careful timing.

• It is appropriate for large computer systems for quick and large
data transmission.
 Isochronous Transmission
• Isochronous transmission transmits asynchronous data
over synchronous data link
• Individual characters are separated by fixed length intervals
to provide steady bit flow for multimedia applications
• Delivering such data at a steady rate is essential
– because variations in delay known as jitter can disrupt
reception (cause pops or clicks in audio/make video
freeze for a short time)
• For example, an isochronous mechanism designed to
transfer voice operates at a rate of 64,000 bits per second
– A sender must generate digitized audio continuously
– A receiver must be able to accept and play the stream
 Switching Techniques
In large networks there might be multiple paths
linking sender and receiver. Information may be
switched as it travels through various
communication channels.

There are three typical switching techniques

available for digital traffic.
• Packet Switching
• Circuit Switching
• Message Switching
 Packet Switching
• Large messages are divided into fixed size packets for
transmission over Wide Area Networks (WANs) to their
destination via several different routes.
• Sending computers break messages into packets then sent
them over different routes at different speeds with packets
from other sources
• Each packet is tagged with appropriate source and
destination addresses.
 Packet Switching
• At their destination, the receiving computers
reassembles the packets in the proper order to
make the message whole.
• Since packets have a strictly defined maximum
length, they can be stored in main memory instead
of disk, therefore access delay and cost are
minimized.
• Can handle large volumes of data over long
distances.
• Suitable for data but not real-time voice and video
transmission.
• Used in Ethernet and internet networks.
Advantages and of Packet switching
• Packet switching is cost effective, because switching
devices do not need massive amount of secondary
storage.
• Packet switching offers improved delay characteristics,
– because there are no long messages in the queue
(maximum packet size is fixed).
• Packet can be rerouted if there is any problem, such
as, busy or disabled links.
• The advantage of packet switching is that many
network users can share the same channel at the same
time. Packet switching can maximize link efficiency by
making optimal use of link bandwidth.
Disadvantages of Packet switching
• Protocols for packet switching are typically more
complex.
• It can add some initial costs in implementation.
• If packet is lost, sender needs to retransmit the
data.
• Another disadvantage is that packet-switched
systems still can’t deliver the same quality as
dedicated circuits in applications requiring very
little delay - like voice conversations or moving
images.
 Circuit switching
• Circuit switching in a network operates almost the same
way as the telephone system works.
• It transmits messages as a whole over dedicated channels
• A complete end-to-end path must exist before
communication can take place.
• The computer initiating the data transfer must ask for a
connection to the destination.
• Once the connection has been initiated and completed to
the destination device, the destination device must
acknowledge that it is ready and willing to carry on a
transfer.
• Good for real-time data and application (streaming and
voice)
Advantages:
Circuit switching
• The communication channel (once established) is
dedicated.
Disadvantages:
• Possible long wait to establish a connection, (10
seconds, more on long- distance or international calls.)
during which no data can be transmitted.
• More expensive than any other switching techniques,
because a dedicated path is required for each
connection.
• Inefficient use of the communication channel, because
the channel is not used when the connected systems are
not using it.
 Message Switching
• Message switching establishes dedicated paths between two sections
of the total path, not the whole path.
• When a station sends a message, the destination address is
appended to the message.
• The message is then transmitted through the network, in its entirety,
from node to node.
• Each node receives the entire message, stores it in its entirety on
disk, and then transmits the message to the next node.
• This type of network is called a store-and-forward network.
Advantages: Message Switching
• Channel efficiency can be greater compared to circuit-
switched systems, because more devices are sharing the
channel.
• Traffic congestion can be reduced, because messages
may be temporarily stored in route.
• Message priorities can be established due to store-and-
forward technique.
• Message broadcasting can be achieved with the use of
broadcast address appended in the message.
Disadvantages
• Message switching is not compatible with interactive
applications.
• Store-and-forward devices are expensive, because they
must have large disks to hold potentially long messages.
 Factors Affecting Data Transmission
1. Serial vs parralel
2. Synchronous, asynchronous, and isochronous
3. packet, circuit or message switching
4. Transmission rate (throughput Vs Bandwidth):
Throughput is the speed/capacity/baud rate of data
transmission in bps
• Bandwidth is the range of frequencies over a channel
• Baseband bandwidth transmits digital signals therefore
travel for short distance and require exclusive use of a
medium
• Broadband bandwidth transmits analog signals therefore
signals travel for longer distance and many signal
frequencies use the same medium
 Factors Affecting Data Transmission
5. direction of signal travel
• Simplex transmits a signal in one direction only
e.g from broadcasting station to an antennae
• Half duplex transmits a signal in both directions
but one at a time e.g in radio calls
• Full diplex transmits a signal in both directions
simultaneously for interaction as in computers
• Multiplex is the transmission of many signals in
both directions simultaneously using one channel
through either frequency, time, wavelength and
code division multiplexing techniques
 Factors Affecting Data Transmission
6. Number of sender and receivers
• Unicast transmits from one transmitter to one
other receiver therefore good for few number of
nodes
• Broadcast involves one transmitter and all receivers
in a network irrespective of whether they receive
the signal or not. It is good for mobile devices but
wastes bandwidth
• Multicast involves one transmitter to a number of
receivers in a network. It does not waste
bandwidth and it is good for many number of
devices as a signal is only send once