INTRODUCTION TO DATA

COMMUNICATION
What is data communications?
Fundamentals of Communication channel
(COMCHA)
Fundamentals of communication signal
Fundamentals of signal/data transmission
 What is data Communications?

DATA COMMUNICATIONS is the process of

transmitting and receiving data.
WHAT IS DATA?
words, numbers, sound, graphics, and video that
describe people, events, things, ideas etc

WHAT IS INFORMATION ?
words, numbers, sound, graphics, and video used
as the basis for human action or decisions.
 Cont…

Data Processing:- the process of extracting

information from data
Cont…
DATA COMMUNICATIONS is the process
of transmitting and receiving data.
– LOCAL COMMUNICATIONS a short distance
communication
– TELECOMMUNICATIONS a long distance
communication

Note: the prefix “tele” is derived from

Greek word that means “far”
 Fundamentals of Communication
channel (COMCHA)
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
(COMCHA)/TRANSMISSION MEDIUM?

It is a physical path or frequency for a signal transmission between

transmitter and receiver.
Two Broad Classification:-
1. Guided/bounded media:- the signals are guided along a solid
medium.
Example: copper or fiber optic media

2. Unguided/unbounded media:- provides a means of transmitting

signals but do not guide them (wireless transmission).
Example: the atmosphere (air, water)
outer space ( vacuum)
Types of Communication channel
(COMCHA)
• Any communications channel has a
direction associated with it. Based on this
direction of communication, we can
categorize COMCHA into three.
• Simplex channel
• Half-duplex channel
• Full-duplex channel
 Simplex Channel
• The message source is the transmitter, and the
destination is the receiver.
• The Channel That Exists Between The Radio
Program Broadcasting Station And Home
Radio System Is Simplex Channel
 Half-duplex channel
• A half-duplex channel is a single physical channel
in which the direction may be reversed.
• Direction May Be Reversed. Messages May Flow
In Two Directions, But Never At The Same Time,
• Police Radio
 Full-duplex channel
• A full-duplex channel allows simultaneous
message exchange in both directions.
• allows simultaneous message exchange in both
directions
• Modern telephone system
 The cast term here signifies some data(stream of
packets)(network addressing and routing method)
is being transmitted to the recipient(s) from the
client(s) side over the communication channel that
helps them to communicate.
 Casting in computer networks means transmitting
data (stream of packets) over a network.
 Unicast :

 Broadcast:

 Multicast:
 Unicast Transmission (One-to-One)
 Unicast is basically a single, direct request sent
from one host to another, and only the two hosts
interact over the established route.
 In Unicast transmission, the data is transferred
from a single sender (or a single source host) to a
single receiver (or a single destination host).
 Multicast Transmission (One-to-Many)

 When the data is transmitted from a single source

host to a specific group of hosts having the interest
to receive the data, it is known as multicast
transmission.
 Multicast is group communication where data
transmission is addressed to a group of destination
computers simultaneously.
 Broadcast Transmission (One-to-All)

 A broadcast is a multipoint connection in a

computer network. In this case, a data packet is
transmitted from one point to all participants in a
message network. This is done using the broadcast
address.
 In Broadcast transmission, the data is transmitted
from one senders to all the receivers within the
same network or in other networks.
 There are two types of broadcast
transmission −
• Directed Broadcast, and
• Limited Broadcast
 Directed Broadcast

 Directed Broadcast transmits data from one source

host to all the other hosts that exist in some other
network. It is used in two scenarios −
 When the hosts are responsible for parsing data from
broadcast packets.

 When all the hosts require the same data.

 Limited Broadcast

• In Limited Broadcast, the data is transmitted from

a single source host to all the other hosts residing
in the same network.
 What is Anycast?

 Anycast is a network addressing and routing

method in which incoming requests can be routed
to a variety of different locations or “nodes.” In
the context of a CDN, Anycast typically routes
incoming traffic to the nearest data center with the
capacity to process the request efficiently.
 Fundamentals of communication signal

• The information carrying signals are divided into two

broad classes;
• Analog
• Digital
 Analog signal
• Analog signal is a continuous time signal
and they are characterized by their wave
length, amplitude and frequency.
• Amplitude: the maximum value
• Wavelength: the distance between two
consecutive peak values
 Frequency
• Frequency = # of cycles/second

• shorter wave length produce higher

frequencies b/c the waves are closer
together
UNIT USED TO MEASURE FREQUENCY
• Hertz =>means Cycles Per Second
• The unit used to measure the frequency is
Hertz which means cycles/second. The unit
can be expanded by adding prefixes as follows.
• Kilo (K) = 103 = 1 Thousand
• Mega (M) = 106 =1 Million
• Giga (G) = 109 = 1 Billion
• Tera (T) = 1012 = 1 Trillion
• Peta (P) = 1015 = 1 Quadrillion
• Exa (E) = 1018 =1 Quintillion
 Digital signal
A signal which is discrete with respect to time is
called digital signal. Such signal can be modeled
using binary number system as shown in the figure
below.
 Digital signal
• The bandwidth of digital signals is usually
measured in bits per second (BPS).
• The unit can be expanded by adding prefixes as follows.
• 1 Kilo = 1000 approximately
• 1 Kilo= 1024= 210 Exactly
• 1kiloBPS = 1 KBPS =1000 BPS
• 1 MegaBPS = 1 MBPS=1000,000 BPS
• 1GigaBPS = 1 GBPS=1000,000,000 BPS
• 1 TeraBPS = 1TBPS=1000,000,000,000 BPS etc
 What is BANDWIDTH?
• The maximum amount of data transmitted over
an internet connection in a given amount of time.
– FOUR-LANE/NARROW ROAD can carry
more traffic than a TWO-LANE ROAD.
• Similarly some COMCHA can carry more data
than others.
• The BANDWIDTH of Digital
devices/digital COMCHA is usually
expressed in Bits Per Second (BPS) or Bytes
per second.

• The BANDWIDTH of Analog

devices /analog COMCHA is expressed in
cycles per second, or HERTZ (Hz)
 Fundamentals of signal/data
transmission
 Data signals can be sent over a network
cable in one of two ways:
Baseband
Broadband
BASE BAND TRANSMISSION
• Signal travels over short distances
• This technique allocates the entire
bandwidth to a single channel.
• It is best suited for LAN.
• Only supports digital signaling but can
do so at very high speeds.
BROADBAND TRANSMISSION

• Divides the available bandwidth into

multiple channels
– i.e. more than one device can transmit at a
time
• Can transfer large quantities of data at a
time
• Supports analog as well as digital
signaling
• Designed for signaling over long distance
communications
• Suitable for WANs