Data Communication and Networking

By,
Prashanth Kumar K N
Assistant Professor
Department of CS&E, BIT
 Outline

1.1 Data Communications

1.2 Networks
1.3 Network Types
1.4 Internet History
1.5 Standards and Administration
 Chapter 1: Objective
❑ The first section introduces data communications and defines
their components and the types of data exchanged. It also
shows how different types of data are represented and how
data is flowed through the network.

❑ The second section introduces networks and defines their

criteria and structures. It introduces four different network
topologies.

❑ The third section discusses different types of networks: LANs,

WANs, and internetworks (internets). It also introduces the
Internet, the largest internet in the world and the concept of
switching to show how small networks can be combined to
create larger ones.
 Chapter 1: Objective (continued)
❑ The fourth section covers a brief history of the Internet. The
section is divided into three eras: early history, the birth of the
Internet, and the issues related to the Internet today.

❑ The fifth section covers standards and standards organizations.

The section covers Internet standards and Internet
administration used even today.
 DATA COMMUNICATIONS:
Introduction

•When we communicate, we are sharing

information. This sharing can be local or remote.
The term telecommunication, which includes
telephony, telegraph, and television, means
communication at a distance.

•Data communications are the exchange of data

between two devices via some form of
transmission media.
 Introduction
■ The word data refers to information presented in
whatever form is agreed upon by the parties creating and
using the data.
■ Data communications are the exchange of data between
two devices via some form of transmission medium such
as a wire cable.
■ For data communication to occur, communicating
devices must be part of communication system.
■ Communication system is made up of combination of
hardware(Physical equipment) and software(Programs)
Fundamental Characteristics of Data
Communication
■ Delivery
-- Deliver data to correct Destination.
■ Accuracy
-- Must deliver data accurately i.e no alteration of
data in transmission.
■ Timeliness
--Deliver data in timely manner.
■ Jitter
-- Refers to variation in packet arrival time.
 Components
A data communications system has five components
Five components of data communication
 Components are
1.Message:
Data or information to be communicated. Eg. Text, nos,
images, audio or video
2. Sender : Device which sends data message
3. Receiver: Device that receives messages
4. Transmission medium:
Physical path by which message is transmitted from
sender to receiver. Eg. Twisted pair cable, Coaxial cable.
Radio waves, Fiber-optic cable etc.,
5. Protocol :
Set of rules that governs data communication. It
represents agreement between communicating devices.
Without a protocol two devices may be
connected but not communicating.
Data representation

■ Information is in the form of

1.Text
2. Numbers
3. Images
4. Audio
5. Video
Text
■ Represented as a bit pattern, a sequence of bits
■ Different sets of bit patterns have been
designed to represent text symbols.
■ Each set is called a code and the process of
representing symbols is called coding.
■ Unicode –uses 32 bits to represent a character
or symbol in any language in the world.
■ ASCII(Basic latin) - 7 bit code, designed to
provide code for 128 symbols. Now
constitutes first 127 characters in Unicode.
Numbers
■ Numbers are also represented by bit patterns.
■ Numbers are directly converted to binary form to
simplify mathematical operations.
Images
■ Images are also represented by bit patterns.
■ Image is composed of a matrix of pixels (picture
elements), where each pixel is a small dot
■ The size of pixel depends on resolution.
■ For ex, an image is divided into 1000 pixels or
10,000 pixels.
■ In the second case, better representation of image
( better resolution), but more memory is needed to
store the image
Image
■ Each pixel is assigned a pattern. Size and
value depends on the image.
■ Black White image - 1 bit pattern
■ Ex: chess board
Gray scale- can use 2 bit pattern
Color image - RGB or YCM, intensity of
each color is measured and a bit pattern is
assigned
Audio and video
■ Audio is recording and broadcasting of sound
or music.
■ It is continuous, not discrete.
■ Video is recording and broadcasting of picture
or movie.
■ Video can be continuous (ex: TV Camera)
entity or combination of images (discrete),
each a discrete entity arranged to convey the
idea of motion.
 Data Flow
•Communication between two devices can be

i)Simplex

ii)Half-duplex

iii)Full-duplex.
Data flow
 NETWORKS

• A network is the interconnection of a set of devices

capable of communication.

• In this definition, a device can be a host such as a

large computer, desktop, laptop, workstation, cellular
phone, or security system.

• A device in this definition can also be a connecting

device such as a router, a switch, a modem that changes
the form of data, and so on.
 Network Criteria

•A network must be able to meet a certain number of

criteria.

•The most important of these are

Performance
Reliability
Security
Performance
■ It is measured in many ways
1. Transit time: Amount of time required for a
message to travel from one device to another.
2. Response time: Time elapsed between inquiry and
response.
■ Performance depends on numbers of users,
medium, capability of connected hardware and
efficiency of software
■ Is evaluated by networking metrics
1. Throughput
2. Delay
Reliability and Security
■ Network reliability is measured by
1. Frequency of failure.
2. Time it takes to recover from failure.

Security issue includes

1. Protecting data from damage.
2. Protecting data from unauthorized access.
3. Implementing policies and procedures for
recovery from breaches and data losses.
 Physical structure
■ A network is two or more devices connected through
links.
■ A link is a communication pathway that transfers data
from one device to another.
■ For communication to occur,

the two devices must be connected in some way to

same link at the same time.
Types of connection
 Physical topology

■ Refers to the way in which a network is laid out

physically.

■ Topology of a network is the geometric

representation of the relationship of all the links
and linking devices(nodes) to one another.
A fully-connected mesh topology
 Mesh topology
■ Every device has a dedicated point-to-point link to
every other device.
■ Dedicated means link carries traffic between only
two devices it connects.
■ To find the number of physical links in a fully
connected(Each node must be connected to every
other node) mesh network with n nodes,
Node 1 must be connected to n-1 nodes
Node 2 must be connected to n-1 nodes
Node n must be connected to n-1 nodes
 Mesh Topology
Therefore,
we need n(n-1) physical links.
■ If each physical link allows communication in both
the directions, then we can divide the number of links
by 2
Therefore we need n(n-1)/2 duplex- mode links.
❑ To accommodate many links, every device on the
network must have (n-1) I/O ports.
 Advantages
1.Use of dedicated link guarantees that each connection
carries its data load.
2.Robust . If one link becomes unusable, it does not
incapacitate the entire system.
3.Privacy or Security: because message is carried along
dedicated link. Physical boundaries prevent others
from gaining access to message.
4.Fault identification and isolation is easy. Traffic can
be routed to avoid links with suspected problem.
⮚ Easy for the network operator to discover the location
of fault & its causes and to find solutions.
 Disadvantage
Related to amount of cabling and number of I/O ports
required,
1. Installation and reconnection are difficult.
2. Bulk of wiring can be greater than available space.
3. Hardware required to connect each link (I/O ports and
cables) are expensive.
For these reasons, Mesh topology is implemented in
a limited fashion.
⮚ Practical example of Mesh topology is the connection
of Telephone regional offices in which each regional
office need to be connected to every other regional
office.
A star topology
 Star topology
■ Each device has dedicated point-to-point link
only to central controller called HUB
■ Devices are not directly connected to one
another.
■ Controller acts as an Exchange .
■ If one device wants to send data to another, it
sends the data to controller which then relays
data to other connected device.
 Advantages
1. Less expensive.
2. Each device needs only one link and one I/O port to
connect to any number of devices.
3. Easy to install and reconfigure.
4. Less cabling. Addition, deletion, moving of devices
involves only one link.
5. Robustness i.e if one link fails, only that link is
affected.
6. Easy fault identification and fault isolation .Hub
can monitor link problems and bypass defective
links.
 Disadvantages
1. If Hub goes down, entire system is dead.
2. As each node must be linked to hub, more
cabling is required than bus and ring
topology.
Used
1. In LANS.
2. High Speed LANs use star topology with
central hub.
A bus topology
 Bus Topology
■ Is multipoint.
■ One long cable acts as a backbone to link all
the devices in a network.
■ Nodes are connected to bus cable by drop lines
and taps.
■ Drop line is connection running between
device and main cable.
■ Tap is a connector to create a contact with
metallic core.
 Continued
■ As signal travels along the backbone, some of
the energy is transformed into heat and as it
travels farther and farther, signal becomes
weaker.
🡪Therefore, there is a limit on the number of
taps a bus can support and the distance
between those taps.
 Advantages
1. Installation is easy.
2. Bus uses less cabling as only the backbone cable
stretches.
Disadvantages
3. Fault isolation and reconnection is difficult.
4. Difficult to add new devices.
5. Signal reflection at taps can cause degradation in
quality, which is controlled by limiting number
and spacing of devices connected to the length of
the cable.
6. Break in cable stops all transmission.
🡪 Traditional LAN’s used bus topology.
A ring topology
 Ring topology
■ Each device has dedicated point-to-point connection
with only two devices on either side of it.
■ Signal passed along the ring in only one direction
from device to device until it reaches destination.
■ Each device in ring incorporates a repeater.
■ When the device receives a signal intended for
another device, it regenerates the bits and passes them
along
 Advantages
1. Easy to install and reconfigure.
2. Fault isolation is simplified.
🡪 In a ring, a signal is circulating at all the
times. If one device does not receive signal
within a specified time, it issues alarm and
alerts network operator to the problem & its
location.
 Disadvantage
1. Unidirectional traffic.
2. A break in a ring can disable the entire
network.
⮚ Can be solved by using a dual ring.
■ Was very popular when IBM introduced its
LAN token ring.
■ High speed LAN’s made this topology less
popular.
 1-3 NETWORKS TYPES

● Understand different types of networks we

encounter in the world today.
● The criteria of distinguishing one type of
network from another is difficult and
sometimes confusing.
● Criteria such as size, geographical coverage,
and ownership to make this distinction.
 Local Area Network
• A local area network (LAN) is usually privately
owned and connects some hosts in a single office,
building, or campus.
• Depending on the needs of an organization, a LAN
can be as simple as two PCs and a printer in someone’s
home office, or it can extend throughout a company
and include audio and video devices.
• Each host in a LAN has an identifier, an address, that
uniquely defines the host in the LAN.
• A packet sent by a host to another host carries both
the source host’s and the destination host addresses.
 Local Area Network
•In a network all hosts were connected through a
common cable i.e Packets sent was received by all
hosts.

•Most of LANs today uses a smart connecting switch

which sends the data to the correct destination.
An Isolated LAN in the past and today
 Wide Area Network
• A wide area network (WAN) is also a connection of
devices capable of communication.

• There are some differences between a LAN and a WAN.

• A LAN is normally limited in size; a WAN has a wider

geographical span, spanning a town, a state, a country, or
even the world.

• A LAN interconnects hosts; a WAN interconnects connecting

devices such as switches, routers, or modems.

• A LAN is normally privately owned by the organization that

uses it; a WAN is normally created and run by communication
companies and leased by an organization that uses it.
 Wide Area Network
■ Two distinct WANs are
i) Point to Point WAN
ii) Switched WAN.
⮚ Point-to-point WAN is a network that connects the
communicating devices through a transmission
medium.
⮚ Switched WAN is a N/w With more than two ends.
⮚ Is a combination of several point-to-point WANs
connected by Switches.
⮚ Is used as backbone n/w in the global
communication.
A Point-to-Point WAN
A Switched WAN
 Internetwork
■ Today all LANs and WANs are connected to
one another to form internetwork or internet.
Eg: Organization which has office in west coast
and east coast.
🡪 Today make communication between the
offices, the organization leases point-to-point
WAN from the telephone company and
connects the LANs.
An internetwork made of two LANs and one WAN
 A heterogeneous network made of WANs and
LANs
 Switching
• An internet is a switched network in which a switch
connects at least two links together.
• A switch needs to forward data from a network to
another network when required.
•The two most common types of switched networks are :

i) circuit-switched

ii) packet-switched networks.

A circuit-switched network
 Circuit-switched network (CSN)
■ A dedicated connection called circuit will be
available between the end systems.
■ A switch can only make it active or inactive.
Eg: A CSN that connects four telephones at each
end.(Telephone N/ws in the past used CSN,
but today part of it uses PSN)
⮚ 4 telephone sets are connected to a switch at
each site and switch connects telephone set on
one side to a telephone set on other side.
 Circuit-switched network
■ Link with thick line is a high capacity communication
line that handles 4 voice calls same time.
■ Capacity of the link is shared between pair of
telephones.
■ Consider two cases:
i) All telephone sets are busy then link is efficiently
utilized.
ii)Only one telephone is connected another on other
side; the 1/4th of link is used.
⮚ CSN is inefficient because only part of the link
capacity is used
A packet-switched network
 Packet-switched network
■ In Computer Networks, the communication between the
two end systems is done in the blocks of data called
Packets.
■ Function of Switches in PSN is for both storing and
forwarding because a packet is an independent entity
that can be stored and sent later.
■ Router in PSN has a queue that can store and forward
the packet.
■ Capacity of the link is twice (Assume) the capacity of
the data line connecting computers to routers.
■ Suppose if link capacity is fully utilized, the routers
store the packet and forward in the order they arrived.
 The Internet
• As we discussed before, an internet (note the
lowercase i) is two or more networks that can
communicate with each other.
• The most notable internet is called the Internet
(uppercase I), and is composed of thousands of
interconnected networks.
Figure below shows a conceptual (not
geographical) view of the Internet.
The Internet today
 Accessing the Internet
• The Internet today is an internetwork that allows any
user to become part of it. The user, however, needs to be
physically connected to an Internet Service Provider
(ISP).
• The physical connection is normally done through a
point-to-point WAN.

• In this section, we briefly describe how this can

happen.
 Using Telephone Network

■ Residences and small business have Telephone

service means they are connected to Telephone
Network
■ Since Telephone N/w is already connected
themselves to the Internet, residence and small
businesses can connect to the Internet by
changing the voice line b/w residence and
telephone center to a point to point WAN.
■ Two ways are i)Dial up service ii) DSL service
i)Dial up service

■ First solution is to add to telephone line to

modem that converts data to voice.
■ Software installed on the computer dials the
ISP and initiates making a telephone
connection.
Disadvantage:
1.Very Slow when the line is used for Internet
connection.
2. Cannot be used for telephone connection.
ii)Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service
■ Telephone companies have upgraded their
telephone lines to provide high speed Internet
services to residences and small businesses.
■ DSL service allows the line to be used
simultaneously for voice and data communication.
3. Cable networks services upgraded their cable n/w and
provides connection to the residences and small
businesses.
⮚ It provides higher speed connection.(Speed varies
depending on no.of users who use same cable)
4.Wireless networks
■ Very popular today.
■ Customers can connect to the Internet using a
combination of wired and wireless connections.
5. Direct connection to the Internet
■ Large organizations/corporations can itself become a
local ISP and be connects to the Internet.
■ Can be done by leasing high speed WAN from
carrier provider and connects itself to regional ISP.
Eg: A large university with several campuses can create
an internetwork and connect their internetwork to the
INTERNET.
 INTERNET HISTORY

•Now that we have discussed an overview of the

Internet and its protocol.

•This brief history makes it clear how the

Internet has evolved from a private network to
a global one in less than forty years.
 Early History
•There were some communication networks, such as
telegraph and telephone networks, before 1960.
•These networks were suitable for constant-rate
communication at that time, which means that after a
connection was made between two users, the encoded
message (telegraphy) or voice (telephony) could be
exchanged.
•A computer network, on the other hand, should be able
to handle bursty data, which means data received at
variable rates at different times. The world needed to
wait for the packet-switched network to be invented.
 Birth of packet switched network
■ Theory of PSN for bursty traffic was presented by
Leonard Kleinrock in 1961 at MIT.
■ Extraordinary communication system only came into
being in 1969.
■ In Mid 1960’s, mainframe computers in research
organizations were standalone devices.
■ Computers from different manufactures were unable to
communicate with one another.
■ Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in
DOD(Dept. of Defense) was interested in finding a way
to connect computers
Continued
■ Reason was Researchers can share their
findings, thereby reducing costs and
eliminating duplicate effort.
■ In 1967, at Association for Computing
Machinery(ACM) meeting, ARPA presented
their ideas for ARPANET, which is a small
network of connected computers.
■ Idea is, each host would be attached to a
specialized computer called Interface Message
Processor(IMP).
Continued
■ IMP’s in turn would be connected to one another and
would be able to communicate with other IMPS.
■ In 1969, ARPANET was a reality with four nodes.
1. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
2. University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
3. Stanford Research Institute
4. University of Utah were connected via IMP’s.
❑ Software called Network Control Protocol(NCP)
provide communication between nodes.
 Birth of the Internet
•In 1972, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, both of whom were
part of the core ARPANET group, collaborated on what
they called the Internetting Project.
•They wanted to link dissimilar networks so that a host
on one network could communicate with a host on
another.
•There were many problems to overcome: diverse packet
sizes, diverse interfaces, and diverse transmission rates,
as well as differing reliability requirements.
•Cerf and Kahn devised the idea of a device called a
gateway to serve as the intermediary hardware to
transfer data from one network to another.
Continued…
■ In 1973, their paper outlined to achieve end-to-end
delivery of packets on TCP. Authorities made a
decision to split TCP in to two Protocols
1. Transmission control protocol(TCP)
2. Internetworking Protocol(IP)
■ The internetworking protocol became known as
TCP/IP.
■ IP handles datagram routing.
Continued…
■ TCP would be responsible for higher level
functions such as reassembly, error detection.
■ In 1981, under Defence dept. contract ,UC Berkeley
modified the UNIX OS to include TCP/IP.
■ Inclusion of N/w software along with UNIX OS did
much for popularity of the internetworking.
■ In 1983, original ARPANET protocols were abolished
by Internet authorities and thus TCP/IP became
official protocol.
Continued
■ In 1983, ARPANET split in to 2 networks
1.Military Network(MILNET) for military users.
2. ARPANET for nonmilitary users.
CSNET(Computer Science N/W)
■ In 1981, this n/w was created by National science
foundation.
■ CSNET less expensive n/w, no redundant links and
transmission rate was slower.
■ Most of U.S universities with CS dept.was part of
CSNET.
Continued
■ In 1986, NSF sponsored NSFNET, a backbone n/w
that connected 5 supercomputer centers located
throughout the United States.
■ Community n/w’s were allowed to access this
backbone n/w through T1 lines with a 1.544 Mbps
data rate, providing connectivity throughout the
united states.
■ In 1990, ARPANET is retired and replaced by
NSFNET.
■ In 1995, NSFNET reverted back to its original
concept of a research N/w.
 ANSNET
■ In 1991, US government decided that NSFNET was
not capable of supporting the rapidly increasing
Internet traffic.
■ Three companies IBM, Merit and Verizon forming a
nonprofit organization called Advanced Network &
Services (ANS) to build a new high speed backbone
N/w called Advanced Network Services Network
(ANSNET).
 Internet Today
•Today, we witness a rapid growth both in the
infrastructure and new applications.
•The Internet today is a set of networks that provide
services to the whole world.
•What has made the Internet so popular is the invention
of new applications such as world wide web invented at
CERN by Tim Berners-Lee, which added commercial
applications to Internet.
•Multimedia applications Voice over IP(Telephony),
Video over IP(Skype), view sharing(You tube),
Television over IP(PPLive) has increased numbers of
user on the network.
 STANDARDS AND ADMINISTRATION

•Discuss standards and administration entities.

 Internet Standards
•An Internet standard is a thoroughly tested specification that
is useful to and adhered to by those who work with the
Internet.
•It is a formalized regulation that must be followed. There is a
strict procedure by which a specification attains Internet
standard status.
•A specification begins as an Internet draft. An Internet draft is
a working document (a work in progress) with no official
status and a six-month lifetime.
• Upon recommendation from IA, a draft may be published as
RFC. Each RFC is edited, assigned a no. and made available to
all Internet authorities.
•RFCs goes through Maturity levels and are categorized
according to their requirement level.
 Internet Standards
■ RFC, during its lifetime undergoes into one of
six maturity levels.
1. Proposed standard: Is a specification that is stable and
well understood & interested to Internet
community. In this level, specification is usually tested
and implemented by several different groups.
2. Draft standard: Proposed std. is elevated to this level
after at least two successful independent and
interoperable implementations.
3. Internet standard: After demonstration of successful
implementation, a draft std. reaches Internet std.
 Internet Standards
4. Historic standard: Historic RFCs are significant from
a historical perspective. They either have been
superseded by later specifications or have never
passed the necessary maturity levels to become an
Internet Std.
5. Experimental: An RFC classified as experimental
describes the work related to an experimental situation
that does not affect the operation of the Internet.
6. Informational: An RFC classified as informational
contains general, historical or tutorial information
related to the Internet.
Maturity levels of an RFC
 Requirement levels
■ RFCs are classified into 5 requirement levels.
1. Required:An RFC labeled required if it must be implemented
by all Internet systems to achieve minimum conformance.
Eg: IP & ICMP.
2. Recommended:An RFC labeled recommended is not required
for minimum conformance.It is recommended because of its
usefulness.
Eg: FTP, TELNET.
3. Elective: Is not required and not recommended.
4. Limited Use: RFC labeled limited use should be used only in
limited situations. Eg: Experimental RFC’s
5. Not Recommended: RFC labeled with this level is
inappropriate for general use.
 Internet Administration

•The Internet, with its roots primarily in the

research domain, has evolved and gained a broader
user base with significant commercial activity.

•Various groups that coordinate Internet issues have

guided this growth and development.
Internet administration
 ISOC(Internet Society)
■ Is an International, non profit organization
■ Formed in 1992
■ Developed to support Internet standard
Process
■ Supports research and other scholarly activity
relating to the Internet
■ It accomplishes this by supporting &
maintaining other Internet administrative
bodies such as IAB, IETF, IRTF, IANA.
 IAB(Internet Architecture Board)
■ Is the technical advisor to the ISOC.
■ Purpose is to supervise the continuing development
of TCP/IP protocol Suite.
■ Serve in a practical way to research members of the
Internet community.
■ Accomplishes this through its 2 components
i) IETF ii) IRTF
■ Responsible for editorial management of RFCs
■ Acts as external connection between Internet & other
standard organizations and forums.
 IETF(Internet Engg.Task force)
■ Is a forum of working groups managed by Internet
Engineering Steering Group.(IESG).
■ Responsible for identifying operational problems and
proposing solutions to these problems.
■ Develops and reviews specifications intended as
Internet standards.
■ The working groups are collected as into areas, and
each area concentrates on a specific topic.
■ Nine areas identified. Areas include applications,
Protocols, routing, Network Management next
generation(Ipng) and Security.
 IRTF(Internet Research Task force)

■ Is a forum of working groups managed by Internet

Research Steering Group.(IRSG).

■ Focuses on long term research topics.

■ Topics related to Internet Protocols, applications,

architecture and technology.