202

Data
Communicatio
n
What is Data Communication?
Transmission of data from one place to another place
is called data communication.

Electronically transmission of data from one place to

another place by using a medium is called data
communication.
Characteristics of Data Communication
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.
Timeliness:
The system must deliver data in a timely manner. Data delivered late are
useless. In the case of video and audio, timely delivery means delivering
data as they are produced, in the same order that they are produced, and
without significant delay. This kind of delivery is called real-time
transmission.
Jitter:
Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival time. It is the uneven delay
in the delivery of audio or video packets. For example, let us assume that
video packets are sent every 3D ms. If some of the packets arrive with 3D-

1
ms delay and others with 4D-ms delay, an uneven quality in the video is the
result.

Basic Elements of Data Communication

The five basic components of data communication are:
1.Message - It is the information to be communicated.
Popular forms of information include text, pictures,
audio, video etc.
2.Sender - It is the devic e which sends the data
messages.
It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset
etc.
3.Receiver - It is the device which receives the data
messages. It can be a computer, workstation,
telephone handset etc.
4.Transmission Medium - It is the physical path by
which a
message travels from sender to receiver. Some
examples include twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable,
radio waves etc.
5.Protocol - It is a set of rules that governs the
data
communications. It represents an agreement between
the communicating devices. Without a protocol, two
Data Transmission
devices may be connected but not communicating.
Modes
1. Simplex - In simplex mode, the communication is
unidirectional. Only one of the devices on a link can
transmit, the other can only receive. e.g. keyboards,
monitors, etc.
Examples:
 Television transmission

2
 Radio transmission.
 From your c omputer to the printer.
 From the mouse to your computer.
2.Half-duplex - In this mode, 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. walkie-talkies, CB(citizens band) etc .
3.Full Duplex - In full duplex mode, both stations
can
transmit and receive simultaneously. One common
example of full duplex is the Telephone network. 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 communication in both
directions is required all the time.

Signals
There are two types of signals to transfer
data:

Analog
Signals
3
An analog signal are continuous and passes through or
includes an infinite number of continuous values along its
path. The curve representing the analog signal passes
through an infinite number of points.

Digital Signals
A digital signal can have only a limited number of defined
values. Although each value can be any number, it is as
simple as 1 and 0.

Transmission Media
The means through which data is transformed from one
place to another is called transmission or communication

4
media. There are two categories of transmission media
used in computer communications. Electromagnetic
radiation can be transmitted through an optical media,
such as optical fiber, or through twisted pair wires, coaxial
cable, or dielectric-slab waveguides. It may also pass
through any physical material that is transparent to the
specific wavelength, such as water, air, glass, or concrete.
Sound is, by definition, the vibration of matter, so it requires
a physical medium for transmission, as does other kinds of
mechanical waves and heat energy.

Types of Transmission
Media

Guided
Media
5
Guided media are the physical links through which signals
are confined to narrow path. These are also called guide
media. Bounded media are made up to a external
conductor (Usually Copper) bounded by jacket material.
Bounded media are great for LABS because they offer
high speed, good security and low cast. However, some
time they cannot be used due distance communication.
Three common types of bounded media are used of the
data transmission. These are:
 Coaxial Cable
 Twisted Pairs Cable
 Fiber Optics C able
Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable is very common & widely used commutation
media. For example TV wire is usually coaxial. Coaxial
cable gets its name because it contains two conductors
that are parallel to each other. The center conductor in
the cable is usually copper. The copper can be either a
solid wire or stranded martial. Outside this central
Conductor is a non- conductive material. It is usually white,
plastic material used to separate the inner Conductor form
the outer Conductor. The other Conductor is a fine mesh
made from Copper.

6
Applications of Coaxial
• Used in digital transmission
cables
• Used for analogue transmission
• Used for TV antennas and C able TV

Advantages of Coaxial cables

 Easy to install
 Not expensive
 Since it shielded, can span a higher distance at
higher speed than twisted pair
 Less data loss
Disadvantages of Coaxial cables
 Higher cost c ompared to twisted pair
 Cables easily get damaged

Fiber Optics
Fiber optic cable uses electrical signals to transmit data. It
uses light. In fiber optic cable light only moves in one
direction for two way communication to take place a
second connection must be made between the two
devices. It is actually two stands of cable. Each stand is
responsible for one direction of communication. A laser at
one device sends pulse of light through this cable to other
device. These pulses translated into “1’s” and “0’s” at the
other end. In the center of fiber cable is a glass stand or
core. The light from the laser moves through this glass to
the other device around the
7
internal core is a reflective material known as CLADDING.
No light escapes the glass core because of this reflective
cladding.
Applications of Fiber
 Military -They offer better performance
Optics and greater
security for their signals. They're strong, and lightweight,
and can also be used outdoors in harsh environments.
 Radar systems
 Telecommunications companies to transmit telephone
signals
 Internet communication
 Cable television signals
Advantages of Fiber Optics
 Carry signals with much less energy loss than
copper cables.
 Much lighter and thinner than copper cables.
 Difficult to tap information.
 Supports for long distances.
 Supports for very high speed network
c ommunications.

Disadvantages of Fiber Optics

 It's very expensive.
 Difficult to splic e two cables together.

Twisted wire pair

The normal wires used for daily activities can also
be used for data communication. A twisted pair consists
of
two copper wires about 1 mm thick. Pairs of insulated
copper wires twisted around one another for the
reduction of Electromagnetic Interference. 8
Types of twisted wire
1) Shielded Twisted Pair
pair
2) Unshielded Twisted Pair
Shielded twisted pair (STP)
It is similar to UTP but has a mesh shielding that’s protects it
from EMI which allows for higher transmission rate.

Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

UTP is more common. It can be either voice grade or data
grade depending on the condition. UTP cable normally has
an impedance of 100 ohm. UTP cost less than STP and
easily available due to its many use. There are five levels
of data cabling.

Advantages of Twisted pair

cable
9
  Can carry both analog and digital data.
 Easy to implement and terminate.
 It is the least expensive media of transmission for
short distances.
 If portion of a twisted pair cable is damaged it does
not affect the entire network.
Disadvantages of Twisted pair
cable
 Very poor security and is relatively easy to tap.
 Thin in size, they are likely to break easily.
Applications of Twisted Pair Cables
• Telephone lines to carry voice and data channels.
• ADSL lines.
• Some Local area networks.
• ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).

Class Activity
1.What is ISDN?
2.What is ADSL?
3.Difference between STP and UDP?
4.Advantage and disadvantage of STP and UDP?
5.What is and differentiate between
Asynchronous and synchronous transmission?
Unguided Media
Unguided media or wireless media doesn't use any
physical connectors between the two devices
communicating.
Usually the transmission is send through the atmosphere
but
sometime it ca n be just across the rule. Wireless
media is used when a physical obstruction or distance
blocks are used with normal cable media. The three
10
types of wireless media are:
 Radio Transmission
  Micro waves
 Infrared waves
1.Radio transmission
Radio transmission, which is very familiar to our normal
lives, can be used for data communication very easily.

2.Infrared
It has a very low frequency. These are largely used for
data
communication when wire- less keyboards, mouse
and printers are used.

3. Microwaves
Used to communicate data to a long distance and short
signals with contain higher frequency. Microwave links use
very high frequency radio waves to transmit data through
space.

11
4. Communication satellites
Data can be c ommunicated using satellites
which are installed high in the sky.

Data Transmission
Types 12
Data transmission can be done in two
ways. 1.Serial data transmission
2. Parallel data transmission

1.Serial data transmission

Data is transmitted here, one after the
other (one bit at a time,
in a serial way). Such data transmission is done in bits in a
computer network. One wire is enough here for data
transmission.

Parallel data transmission

Several bits are transmitted at a time. Several wires are
used for this. In most of the instances, use of at least
eight wires

13
for this is the normal way. Each bit has it’s own piece of
wire along which it travels. Often used to send data to a
printer

Devices used in
Mainly four devices are used in networking:-
networking
 Modem
 Hub
 Switch
 Router
 Bridge
 Gateway
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier
signal to encode digital information and also
demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the
transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal
that can be transmitted easily and decoded to
reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be
used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from
light emitting diodes to radio.
There are two types of modem:-
1. internal modem
2. external modem

14
HUB
A common connection point for devices in a network. Also
known as concentrator. A hub is the place where data
converges from one or more directions and is forwarded
out in one or more directions. Hubs are commonly used to
connect segments of a LAN. Hub basically acts as signal
splitter. When a data frame arrives at one port, it is
redistributed to all the other ports so that all devices of
the LAN can see all frames.
Types of
Hub Active
Passive
Intelligent

15
Switch
network switch joins multiple Devices together within one
LAN. Allow different nodes of a network to communicate
directly with each other. It receives a message (Ethernet
frame) from any device connected to its input ports and
then transmits the message only to that output port to
which the destination devic e is connected. One to one
connection. Ensures optimum utilization of Bandwidth or
N/W resources

Router
A router is a device or a software in a computer that
determines the next network point to which a packet
should be forwarded to its destination. Allows different
networks to communicate with each other. A router
creates and maintain a table of the available routes and
their conditions and uses this information along with
distance and cost algorithms to determine the best route
for a given packet. A packet will travel through a number
of network points with routers before arriving at its
destination.

16
GATEWA
A
Y gateway is a network point , similar to router that acts as
an entrance to another network; Gateway Connects
Networks on Different Protocols/dissimilar networks.
Gateway nodes are computers that control traffic within
a company’s network or at local internet service
provider (ISP).

BRIDGE
A bridge c onnects a LAN to another LAN that uses the
same
17
protocol (for example, Ethernet or token ring). Has ports
connected to two or more separate LANs. Packets
rec eived on one port may be retransmitted on another
port. Bridges learn which addresses are on which network
and develop a learning table so that subsequent
messages can be forwarded to the right network.
Operates at Data Link Layer.

18