Chapter four

Data communication
and
networking
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 What is data communication?

 It enables the movement of electronic or digital data

between two or more nodes, regardless of geographical
location, technological medium or data contents.
 Exchange of data between two devices via some forms of
transmission medium(such as wire cable) is Data
Communications.
 For data communications to occur effectively the content try
to send is successfully delivered to the intended receiver and
both also makes certain understanding.
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 The effectiveness of a data communication system
depends on four fundamental characteristics:
 Delivery. The system must deliver data to the
correct destination.
 Data must be received by the intended device or
user and only by that device or user.
 Accuracy. The system must deliver the data
accurately.
 Data that have been altered in transmission and left
uncorrected are unusable.

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Timeliness: the system must deliver data in a
timely manner. Data delivered late are useless..
Jitter. It is the uneven delay in the delivery of
audio or video packets.
 uneven quality in the video is the result

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 Data Representation
•  Text, numbers, images, audio, and video are the
basic data representation methods.
The five components of data communication are:

 Message: It is the information to be communicated.

 Sender: It is the device which tries to sends the data

or messages. It can be a computer, workstation,
telephone handset etc.
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 Receiver - It is the device which receives the data messages.
It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset etc.
 Transmission Medium (channel): It is the physical path by
which a message travels from sender to receiver.
 Protocol - It is a set of rules that governs the data
communications. It is an agreement between the
communicating devices. Without a protocol, two devices
may be connected but not communicating.

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 Data Flow
 Simplex: the communication is unidirectional. only one
of the devices on a link can transmit, the other can only
receive. e.g. keyboards, monitors, Radio and TV.
 Half-duplex: each station can both transmit and receive,
but not at the same time. When one device is sending,
the other can only receive, and vice-versa.
e.g. walky talky ,etc.
 Full Duplex : both stations can transmit and receive
simultaneously. One common example of full duplex is
the Telephone network.

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 When two people are communicating by a
telephone line, both can talk and listen at the
same time.
 The full-duplex mode is used when in both
directions are required all the time and also
called bidirectional.

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 Transmission Media
• Transmission Medium is the physical path between transmitter
and receiver in a data communication system.
• The characteristics and quality of data transmission are
determined both by the characteristics of the medium and
characteristics of the signal.
• Factors to be considered in selecting data transmission media:
• Bandwidth – the amount of data that can be transmitted
through the medium.

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• Transmission impairments: ability to withstand signal
loss (attenuation) and noise (unwanted signals). 
• Interference: ability to avoid cross talks (cross talks
are signal exchanges between signals at close
frequency ranges).
• Number of receivers: A guided media can be used to
construct a point to point link or a shared link with
multiple attachments.
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 NETWORKING
• A communications network is a collection of
transmitters, receivers, and communications channels
that send messages to one another. 
• The transmission media in the communication network
is broadly classified into two categories.
 Guided: the signal travels through a physical medium.
are more commonly known as the wired
communication or bounded transmission media. 
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• The electromagnetic signals travel between the
communicating devices through a physical
medium/conductor. 

• It also provides direction to the signal.

• E.g, Twisted pair cable, coaxial cable and fiber optic cable.

 Unguided: The signal is broadcasted through air or

sometimes water. It is called wireless communication or
unbounded transmission media.

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 Different Types of Connections
• A network is two or more devices connected
through links.
• A link is a communications pathway that
transfers data from one device to another. For
communication to occur, two devices must be
connected in some way to the same link at the
same time.
• Point-to-Point:  provides a dedicated link
between two devices.
• The entire capacity of the link is reserved for
transmission between those two devices.
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• Most point-to-point connections use an actual length of wire or
cable to connect the two ends.
• Multipoint: multipoint (also called multidrop) connection is
one in which more than two specific devices share a single
link.
• technical must be used to represent a digital signal or an analog
carrier.
• Modulation: Converting digital signals into analog signals.
• Demodulation: Converting analog signals back into digital
signals.
• Modem: A communications device that converts one form of a
signal to another that is suitable for transmission over
communication circuits.

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 Components of Computer Networks
Hardware

• The hardware components of a network consist of the

following five items
I. Server
II. Workstation
III. Cabling
IV. Network Interface Cards (NIC)
V. Other Networking Devices
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• The Server: High capacity computers that function
as the central repository of resources/services the
network provides.
• Workstations: A place where the services of the
server are used (This is where the user is working).
• Cabling
• Cables that interconnect the different devices on the
network.
• There are various types of cables, including coaxial
cable, twisted-pair cable and fiber-optic cables.
• Wireless networks do not require physical cables
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• Network interface card (NIC): located in every workstation
on the network as well as in the servers.
• providing a connector on the back to connect the device to the
network
• It acts as a “transmitter” and “receiver” and therefore can be
referred to as transceiver.
• Other Networking Devices: special purpose devices are
required to connect workstations and servers on the network.
These devices are called networking devices.

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• Some Commonly used workstations are:
– Hubs: devices that connect devices (workstations,
servers, printers, etc) to each other. It is suitable for small
networks ( <16 devices on the network)
– Switches: have the same function as hubs. But they are
faster and more expensive than Hubs. They are used in
large networks.
– Routers: These devices are used to interconnect different
networks. If a company has different networks at different
sites, routers are used to interconnect these networks.
– Firewall: devices used to protect a network from
unauthorized access from a different site.

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 Software
 The Network Operating System

• is the software that resides on the server. The network

operating system, or NOS, controls virtually all the activity
on the network.
 The workstation operating system
• The operating system software for each workstation is
loaded at the workstation.
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 The server software
• Most popular ones are web server, mail server, print
server, file server, database server, etc.
 The client software
• Used to access the service given by the server software on
the server
• Capable of interfacing with server software

• e.g. web browsers, e-mail clients etc

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 Types of network
• LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN):
• Characteristics include:
• Limited geographical area
• Ranges from simple two computers connected to complex
hundreds of computers.
• High bandwidth greater than 1mbps.
• Inexpensive cable media(coaxial or twisted pairs)
• Good for resource sharing.
• e.g, a university campus, factory, office, school or a building.
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• METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK (MAN)
• It covers larger geographical areas such as cities or school
districts.
• WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)
• This is when computers in a network are situated in a
wider geographical area. A WAN is made up of a number
of interconnected LANs. For instance, a WAN network
can be in different countries or continents.

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 Network topology
A network topology is the arrangement of a network,
including its nodes and connecting lines. 
Star Topology
• devices are connected to a central computer, called a
hub.
• Nodes communicate across the network by passing
data through the hub.
• Main Advantage: In a star network, one
malfunctioning node doesn't affect the rest of the
network.
Main Disadvantage: If the central computer fails, the
entire network becomes unusable.
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Bus Topology
• In networking a bus is the central cable -- the
main wire -- that connects all devices on a
local-area network (LAN). 
• Main Advantage:  It's easy to connect a
computer or device and typically it requires
less cable than a star topology.
Main Disadvantage: The entire network shuts
down if there is a break in the main wire and it
can be difficult to identify the problem if the
network shuts down.
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Ring Topology
•  A local-area network (LAN) whose topology is a
ring. That is, all of the nodes are connected in a
closed loop. Messages travel around the ring, with
each node reading those messages addressed to
it. 
Mesh topology: occurs when every node has a
circuit connecting it to every other node in a
network. Full mesh is very expensive to implement
but yields the greatest amount of redundancy, so
in the event that one of those nodes fails, network
traffic can be directed to any of the other nodes.
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 The Internet and Computer Threats

• The Internet is a term used to describe a

worldwide network of computer networks
connecting millions of computers around the
world.
• The Internet is one of the largest, most widely
used networks (in fact, a network of networks)
that has evolved and grown overtime).
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• Internet applications include
• World Wide Web (WWW),
• Electronic mail( Gmail, hotmail)
• Discussion Groups
• Internet Chat( face book, viber..)
• Search Engines( Google, yahoo)
• Electronic commerce(amazon.com)

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 Computer virus
• A computer virus is a small software program that
spreads from one computer to another computer
and that interferes with computer operation.
• A computer virus may corrupt or delete data on a
computer, use an e-mail program to spread the
virus to other computers.

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• Characteristics of Computer Viruses:
• Cannot exist in a viable form, apart from
another (usually legitimate) program.
• Propagates when the host program is
executed.
• Has an incubation period, during which no
damage is done.
• After incubation period, begins to manifest its
behavior.

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• Different Malware Types
• Worms: is a computer program that has the ability to
copy itself from machine to machine.
• Worms normally move around and infect other
machines through computer networks.
• Worms eat up storage space and slow down the
computer But worms don't alter or delete files.

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• Trojan horses: is simply a computer program that
claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but
instead damage when you run it (it may erase your
hard disk).
• When loaded onto your machine, a Trojan horse can
capture information from your system -- such as user
names and passwords or could allow a malicious
hacker to remotely control your computer. .

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• How They Spread?
• Sharing disks
• E-mail attachment
• Network
• Symptoms of a computer virus
• The computer runs slower than usual.
• The computer stops responding, or it locks up
frequently.
• The computer crashes, and then it restarts every
few minutes.
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 Prevention :

• Run a secure operating system

• Install virus protection software

• Avoid programs from unknown sources

• Never double-click on an attachment that

contains an executable that arrives as an e-mail
attachment
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