Chapter Four

Making Connections

Data Communications and Computer

Networks: A Business User’s Approach
Seventh Edition
 Introduction

• Connecting peripheral devices to a computer has,

in the past, been a fairly challenging task
• Newer interfaces have made this task much
easier
• Let’s examine the interface between a computer
and a device
– This interface occurs primarily at the physical layer

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Interfacing a Computer to
Peripheral Devices

• The connection to a peripheral is often called the

interface
• The process of providing all the proper
interconnections between a computer and a
peripheral is called interfacing

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Characteristics of Interface Standards
• There are essentially two types of standards
– Official standards
• Created by standards-making organizations such as ITU
(International Telecommunications Union), IEEE (Institute for
Electrical and Electronics Engineers), (now defunct) EIA
(Electronic Industries Association), ISO (International
Organization for Standardization), and ANSI (American National
Standards Institute)
– De facto standards
• Created by other groups that are not official standards but
because of their widespread use, become “almost” standards

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Characteristics of Interface
Standards (continued)

• There are four possible components to an

interface standard:
– Electrical component: deals with voltages, line
capacitance, and other electrical characteristics
– Mechanical component: deals with items such as the
connector or plug description
– Functional component: describes the function of each
pin or circuit that is used in a particular interface
– Procedural component: describes how the particular
circuits are used to perform an operation

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Two Important Interface Standards

• In order to better understand the four

components of an interface, let’s examine two
interface standards
– EIA-232F – an older standard originally designed
to connect a modem to a computer
– USB (Universal Serial Bus) – a newer standard
that is much more powerful than EIA-232F

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 An Early Standard: EIA-232F

• Originally named RS-232 but has gone through many

revisions
• All four components are defined in the EIA-232F
standard:
– Electrical
– Mechanical (DB-25 connector and DB-9 connector)
– Functional
– Procedural

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 An Early Standard: EIA-232F

• EIA-232F also used the definitions DTE and

DCE
– An example of a DTE, or data terminating
equipment, is a computer
– An example of a DCE, or data circuit-terminating
equipment, is some form of modem

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 What is meant by duplexity?

• EIA-232F defines a full-duplex connection.

What does this mean?
• A full-duplex connection transmits data in both
directions and at the same time
• A half-duplex connection transmits data in both
directions but in only one direction at a time
• A simplex connection can transmit data in only
one direction
• Can you think of a modern example of each?

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Universal Serial Bus (USB)

• The USB interface is a modern standard for

interconnecting a wide range of peripheral
devices to computers
• Supports plug and play
• Can daisy-chain multiple devices
• USB 2.0 can support 480 Mbps (USB 1.0 is only
12 Mbps)
• USB 3.0 can support 4.8 Gbps

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Universal Serial Bus (USB) (continued)

• The USB interface defines all four components

• The electrical component defines two wires VBUS
and Ground to carry a 5-volt signal, while the D+ and
D- wires carry the data and signaling information
• The mechanical component precisely defines the
size of four different connectors and uses only four
wires (the metal shell counts as one more connector)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Universal Serial Bus (USB) (continued)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Universal Serial Bus (USB) (continued)
• The functional and procedural components are
fairly complex but are based on the polled bus
• The computer takes turns asking each
peripheral if it has anything to send
• More on polling near the end of this chapter

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 FireWire
• Low-cost digital interface
• Capable of supporting transfer speeds of up to
800 Mbps
• Hot pluggable
• Supports two types of data connections:
– Asynchronous connection
– Isochronous connection

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Thunderbolt
• Digital interface currently found on Apple products
• Capable of supporting transfer speeds of up to 10
Gbps
• Uses same connector as existing Mini DisplayPort
and similar protocol as PCI Express
• Can daisy-chain devices and may get even faster
with later versions

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 SCSI and iSCSI
• SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
– A technique for interfacing a computer to high-speed
devices such as hard disk drives, tape drives, CDs, and
DVDs
– Designed to support devices of a more permanent nature
• SCSI is a systems interface
– Need SCSI adapter
• iSCSI (Internet SCSI)
– A technique for interfacing disk storage to a computer via
the Internet

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 InfiniBand and Fibre Channel
• InfiniBand – a serial connection or bus that can carry
multiple channels of data at the same time
– Can support data transfer speeds of 2.5 billion bits (2.5
gigabits) per second and address thousands of devices,
using both copper wire and fiber-optic cables
– A network of high-speed links and switches
• Fibre Channel – also a serial, high-speed network that
connects a computer to multiple input/output devices
– Supports data transfer rates up to billions of bits per second,
but can support the interconnection of up to 126 devices only

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Asynchronous Connections

• A type of connection defined at the data link layer

• To transmit data from sender to receiver, an
asynchronous connection creates a one-character
package called a frame
• Added to the front of the frame is a start bit, while a
stop bit is added to the end of the frame
• An optional parity bit can be added which can be
used to detect errors

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Asynchronous Connections (continued)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Asynchronous Connections (continued)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Asynchronous Connections (continued)

• The term asynchronous is misleading here

because you must always maintain
synchronization between the incoming data
stream and the receiver
• Asynchronous connections maintain
synchronization by using small frames with a
leading start bit

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Synchronous Connections

• A second type of connection defined at the data link

layer
• A synchronous connection creates a large frame that
consists of header and trailer flags, control
information, optional address information, error
detection code, and data
• A synchronous connection is more elaborate but
transfers data in a more efficient manner

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Synchronous Connections (continued)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Isochronous Connections

• A third type of connection defined at the data

link layer used to support real-time applications
• Data must be delivered at just the right speed
(real-time) – not too fast and not too slow
• Typically an isochronous connection must
allocate resources on both ends to maintain
real-time
• USB and Firewire can both support isochronous

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Terminal-to-Mainframe
Computer Connections

• Point-to-point connection – a direct, unshared

connection between a terminal and a mainframe
computer
• Multipoint connection – a shared connection
between multiple terminals and a mainframe
computer
• The mainframe is the primary and the terminals
are the secondaries

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Terminal-to-Mainframe
Computer Connections (continued)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Terminal-to-Mainframe
Computer Connections (continued)
• To allow a terminal to transmit data to a mainframe,
the mainframe must poll the terminal
• Two basic forms of polling: roll-call polling and hub
polling
– In roll-call polling, the mainframe polls each terminal in a
round-robin fashion
– In hub polling, the mainframe polls the first terminal, and
this terminal passes the poll onto the next terminal

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Terminal-to-Mainframe
Computer Connections (continued)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Making Computer Connections In Action

• A laptop computer has many different types of

connectors, or connections
• While every laptop can be different, if anyone
has a laptop in class, maybe someone will
volunteer to use theirs for show-and-tell

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Making Computer Connections
In Action (continued)
• Power cord connection (why does the power cord have a
big “brick” on it?)
• USB connectors (one or more)
• RJ-11 (telephone jack)
• RJ-45 (LAN jack)
• PC Card / SmartCard
• DisplayPort (to connect your laptop to a video device)
• Media card slot (SD, SDHC, xD, etc)
• DB-15 (to connect to an external monitor or video projector)

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Making Computer Connections
In Action (continued)
• A company wants to transfer files that are
typically 700K chars in size
• If an asynchronous connection is used, each
character will have a start bit, a stop bit, and
maybe a parity bit
• 700,000 chars * 11 bits/char (8 bits data + start
+ stop + parity) = 7,700,000 bits

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Making Computer Connections
In Action (continued)
• If a synchronous connection is used, assume
maximum payload size – 1500 bytes
• To transfer a 700K char file requires 467 1500-
character (byte) frames
• Each frame will also contain 1-byte header, 1-
byte address, 1-byte control, and 2-byte
checksum, thus 5 bytes overhead

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Making Computer Connections
In Action (continued)
• 1500 bytes payload + 5 byte overhead = 1505
byte frames
• 467 frames * 1505 bytes/frame = 716,380 bytes,
or 5,731,040 bits
• Significantly less data using synchronous
connection

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Summary
• Connection between a computer and a peripheral is often
called the interface
• Process of providing all the proper interconnections between
a computer and a peripheral is called interfacing
• The interface between computer and peripheral is composed
of one to four components: electrical, mechanical, functional,
and procedural
• A DTE is a data terminating device
– Computer
• A DCE is a data circuit-terminating device
– Modem

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Summary (continued)
• Two interface standards worthy of additional study: Universal
Serial Bus, and EIA-232F
– EIA-232F was one of the first highly popular standards
– Universal Serial Bus is currently the most popular interface
standard
• Half-duplex systems can transmit data in both directions, but
in only one direction at a time
• Full-duplex systems can transmit data in both directions at the
same time
• Other peripheral interfacing standards that provide power,
flexibility, and ease-of-installation include FireWire, SCSI,
iSCSI, InfiniBand, and Fibre Channel

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Summary (continued)
• While much of an interface standard resides at the physical
layer, a data link connection is also required when data is
transmitted between two points on a network
– Three common data link connections include asynchronous
connections, synchronous connections, and isochronous
connections
• Asynchronous connections use single-character frames and
start and stop bits to establish the beginning and ending points
of the frame
• Synchronous connections use multiple-character frames,
sometimes consisting of thousands of characters
• Isochronous connections provide real-time connections
between computers and peripherals and require a fairly involved
dialog to support the connection

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.
 Summary (continued)

• A point-to-point connection is one between a

computer terminal and a mainframe computer
that is dedicated to one terminal
• A multipoint connection is a shared connection
between more than one computer terminal and a
mainframe computer

Curt M. White. Data Communications & Computer Networks: A Business User’s Approach.
8th Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 2014.