Data

Communication
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 Data
✗Communication
Communication is the exchange of data between two devices via some
form of the transmission medium using a protocol.

✗ In simplest form, it is the transfer of data or information between a

source and a receiver

✗ A data communication system is made up of 5 components:

1.Sender
2.Receiver
3.Message
4.Medium
5.Protocol

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 Data
Communication
✗ Sender:- It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset
✗ Receiver:- It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset
✗ Message:- It is the data/information to be communicated
✗ Popular forms of information include text, pictures, audio, video
✗ Medium:- It is the physical path by which a message travels from sender to
receiver
Some examples include:
1. Wired medium (twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable)
2. Wireless medium (radio waves)
✗ Protocol:- It is the set of rules for communicating data.
✗ Without a protocol, two devices may be connected but not
communicating

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Wired or Guided Media
▸ Copper Pair
▸ Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable (UTP)
▸ Used in telephone wiring and local area networks (LANs)
▸ Shielded Twisted Pair Cable (STP): are useful in any environments
where there is a high chance of electronic interference, such as radio
stations (telecom cable assemblies) and airports (aerospace cable
assemblies). STP cables are also used in security systems to provide
protection from power frequency and radio frequency interference
Coaxial
▸ Used to carry high-frequency electrical signals with low losses. It is
used in broadband internet networking cables, cable
television signals, and connecting radio transmitters and receivers to
their antennas.
Fiber-Optic Cable
▸ Transmit large amounts of data at very high speed.
▸ This technology is therefore widely used in internet cables. As
compared to traditional copper wires, fiber optic cables are less bulky,
lighter, more flexible, and carry more data.
 Data Communication
Modes
✗ Different modes for data communication;

✗ Simplex mode: data can flow in one direction only

✗ A sender can only send data and cannot receive it
✗ Example: Data sent from computer to printer

✗ Half-duplex mode: data can flow in both directions but only one at a time
✗ Data is sent and received alternatively
✗ Example: Internet browsing

✗ Full duplex-mode: data can flow in both directions at the same time
✗ It is the fastest mode of data communication
✗ Example: Mobile communication system
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 Data Communication Signals
✗ Analog signal (continuous): Transmitted power varies over a continuous
range
✗ Example: sound, light, and radio waves

✗ Digital signal (discrete): Sequence of voltage pulses represented in

binary form
✗ Example: Computer generated data signal is digital

✗ Computers generate digital data signal, but the telephone lines that
carries it are analog.

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 Data Communication Signals

✗ When digital data signal is to be sent over an analog facility, it must be

converted to analog form

Conversion of digital signal to analog form is known as modulation

Conversion of analog signal to digital form is known as demodulation

Analog signal

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 Data Communication Signals
✗ MODEM is short for MOdulator/DEModulator

It is a special device used for conversion of digital data signal to analog form
(modulation) and analog signal to digital form (demodulation)

It is an essential piece of hardware required when two digital devices (e.g. two
computers) want to communicate over an analog transmission channel.

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Data Communication Signals
Baseband signal: Low frequency signal
Bandpass signal: High frequency signal

In wired communication system, Low freq signal (baseband signal) can pass as it
is. But in wireless system low frequency signal cannot pass. So, in wireless
communication, Low frequency signal (baseband) is converted to high frequency
signal (bandpass).
Reasons to convert:
In wireless communication, designing antenna is not feasible for low frequency
signal. Because for low frequency signals, anteena needed would be very large.

Modulator converts baseband to bandpass, so that it could pass from wireless

medium.
Baseband transmission is a data transmission technique in which one signal
needs the whole bandwidth of the channel to transfer the data.

Broadband transmission is a transmission technology in which many signals

with different frequencies send data across a single channel at the same
time.
Hub
▸ A hub has many ports and a computer which intends to be connected to the network is
plugged into one of these ports.
▸ When a data frame arrives at a port, the hub broadcasts it to every other port, without
considering whether it is destined for a particular destination or not.
▸ So, hubs can create network congestion
▸ A hub is used to send out a message from one port to other ports.
▸ For example, if there are three computers of A, B, C. The message sent by a hub for
computer A will also come to the other computers. But only computer A will respond and
the response will also go out to every other port on the hub. Therefore, all the computers
can receive the message and computers themselves need to decide whether to accept
the message
Hub
Switch
▸ A switch is able to handle the data and knows the specific addresses to send the
message.
▸ It can decide which computer is the message intended for and send the message directly
to the right computer.
▸ The efficiency of switch has been greatly improved, thus providing a faster network
speed
Router
▸ Routers are the multiport devices and more sophisticated.
▸ It contains a routing table that enables it to make decision about the route i.e. to
determine which of several possible paths between the source and destination is the
best for a particular transmission.
▸ It works on the network layer 3 and used in LANs, MANs and WANs. It stores IP address
and maintains address on its own
▸ A router reads the header of incoming packet and forward it to the port for which it is
intended there by determines the route
▸ Router is a relatively much more expensive device than hub and switch
OSI Model
▸ OSI stands for Open Systems Interconnection.
▸ It was developed by ISO – ‘International Organization for Standardization’, in the year
1984.
▸ It is a 7-layer architecture with each layer having specific functionality to perform.
▸ All these 7 layers work collaboratively to transmit the data from one person to another
across the globe
OSI Model
The OSI model consists of seven abstraction layers arranged in a top-down order:
▸Physical Layer
▸Data Link Layer
▸Network Layer
▸Transport Layer
▸Session Layer
▸Presentation Layer
▸Application Layer
OSI Model
Layers
Physical Layer
▸ The lowest layer of the OSI reference model is the physical layer.
▸ It is responsible for the actual physical connection between the devices.
▸ The physical layer contains information in the form of bits.
▸ It is responsible for transmitting individual bits from one node to the next. When receiving
data, this layer will get the signal received and convert it into 0s and 1s and send them to
the Data Link layer, which will put the frame back together
Physical Layer
Data Link Layer
▸ This layer is responsible for the error-free transfer of data frames.
▸ It defines the format of the data on the network.
▸ It provides a reliable and efficient communication between two or more devices.
▸ It is mainly responsible for the unique identification of each device that resides on a local
network
▸ Framing: The data link layer translates the physical's raw bit stream into packets known
as Frames. The Data link layer adds the header and trailer to the frame. The header
which is added to the frame contains the hardware destination and source address
 Data-Link Layer
▸ Physical Addressing: The Data link layer adds a header to the frame that contains a
destination address. The frame is transmitted to the destination address mentioned in the
header.
▸ Flow Control: Flow control is the main functionality of the Data-link layer. It is the
technique through which the constant data rate is maintained on both the sides so that
no data get corrupted. It ensures that the transmitting station such as a server with
higher processing speed does not exceed the receiving station, with lower processing
speed.
▸ Error Control: Error control is achieved by adding a calculated value CRC (Cyclic
Redundancy Check) that is placed to the Data link layer's trailer which is added to the
message frame before it is sent to the physical layer. If any error seems to occurr, then
the receiver sends the acknowledgment for the retransmission of the corrupted frames.
Access Control: When two or more devices are connected to the same
communication channel, then the data link layer protocols are used to
determine which device has control over the link at a given time
 Network Layer
▸ It is a layer 3 that manages device addressing, tracks the location of devices on the
network.
▸ It determines the best path to move data from source to the destination based on the
network conditions, the priority of service, and other factors.
▸ The Data link layer is responsible for routing and forwarding the packets.
▸ Routers are the layer 3 devices, they are specified in this layer and used to provide the
routing services within an internetwork.
▸ The protocols used to route the network traffic are known as Network layer protocols.
Examples of protocols are IP and Ipv6.
Functions of Network
Layer
▸ Internetworking: An internetworking is the main responsibility of the network layer. It
provides a logical connection between different devices.
▸ Addressing: A Network layer adds the source and destination address to the header of
the frame. Addressing is used to identify the device on the internet.
▸ Routing: Routing is the major component of the network layer, and it determines the
best optimal path out of the multiple paths from source to the destination.
▸ Packetizing: A Network Layer receives the packets from the upper layer and converts
them into packets. This process is known as Packetizing. It is achieved by internet
protocol (IP).
 Transport Layer
▸ The Transport layer is a Layer 4 ensures that messages are transmitted in the order in
which they are sent and there is no duplication of data.
▸ The main responsibility of the transport layer is to transfer the data completely.
▸ It receives the data from the upper layer and converts them into smaller units known as
segments.
▸ This layer can be termed as an end-to-end layer as it provides a point-to-point
connection between source and destination to deliver the data reliably
 Protocols
Transmission Control Protocol
▸ It is a standard protocol that allows the systems to communicate over the internet.
▸ It establishes and maintains a connection between hosts.
▸ When data is sent over the TCP connection, then the TCP protocol divides the data into
smaller units known as segments. Each segment travels over the internet using multiple
routes, and they arrive in different orders at the destination. The transmission control
protocol reorders the packets in the correct order at the receiving end
 Protocols
User Datagram Protocol
▸ User Datagram Protocol is a transport layer protocol.
▸ It is an unreliable transport protocol as in this case receiver does not send any
acknowledgment when the packet is received, the sender does not wait for any
acknowledgment. Therefore, this makes a protocol unreliable
 Session Layer
▸ It is a layer 3 in the OSI model.
▸ The Session layer is used to establish, maintain and synchronizes the interaction
between communicating devices
Functions of Session Layer
▸ Dialog control: Session layer acts as a dialog controller that creates a dialog between
two processes or we can say that it allows the communication between two processes
which can be either half-duplex or full-duplex.
▸ Synchronization: Session layer adds some checkpoints when transmitting the data in a
sequence. If some error occurs in the middle of the transmission of data, then the
transmission will take place again from the checkpoint. This process is known as
Synchronization and recovery
 Presentation Layer
▸ A Presentation layer is mainly concerned with the syntax and semantics of the
information exchanged between the two systems.
▸ It acts as a data translator for a network.
▸ This layer is a part of the operating system that converts the data from one presentation
format to another format.
▸ The Presentation layer is also known as the syntax layer
Presentation Layer
 Functions of this
Layer
▸ Translation: The processes in two systems exchange the information in the form of
character strings, numbers and so on. Different computers use different encoding
methods, the presentation layer handles the interoperability between the different
encoding methods. It converts the data from sender-dependent format into a common
format and changes the common format into receiver-dependent format at the receiving
end.
▸ Encryption: Encryption is needed to maintain privacy. Encryption is a process of
converting the sender-transmitted information into another form and sends the resulting
message over the network.
▸ Compression: Data compression is a process of compressing the data, i.e., it reduces
the number of bits to be transmitted. Data compression is very important in multimedia
such as text, audio, video
 Application Layer
▸ An application layer serves as a window for users and application processes to access
network service.
▸ It handles issues such as network transparency, resource allocation, etc.
▸ An application layer is not an application, but it performs the application layer functions.
▸ This layer provides the network services to the end-users
 Functions of
Application layer
▸ File transfer, access, and management (FTAM): An application layer allows a user to
access the files in a remote computer, to retrieve the files from a computer and to
manage the files in a remote computer.
▸ Mail services: An application layer provides the facility for email forwarding and storage