Chapter One

Data Communication Basics

Data Communication and

Computer Networks
Communication Basics
 Data communications are the exchange of data between two

devices via some form of transmission medium such as a wire

cable.
 It includes :

 Writing and talking

 Nonverbal communication (such as facial expressions, body

language or gestures)
 Visual communication (the use of images or pictures such as

painting, photography, video or film)

 Electronic Communication such as telephone calls, electronic mail,

cable television, satellite broadcasts.

 For data communications to occur, the communicating devices

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must be part of a communication system made up of a
Five components of data communication
1. Message: is the information (data) to be communicated. Popular forms
of information include text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
2. Sender: is the device that sends the data message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, video camera, and so on.
3. Receiver: is the device that receives the message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, television, and so on.
4. Transmission medium: is the physical path by which a message travels
from sender to receiver. Some examples of transmission media include
twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, fiberoptic cable, and radio waves.
5. Protocol: is a set of rules that govern data communications. It represents
an agreement between the communicating devices. Without a protocol,
two devices may be connected but not communicating, just as a person
speaking French cannot be understood by a person who speaks only
Japanese.
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 Serial vs. parallel communications
In serial communications

 A single bit will be transferred at a time using the

communication channel
 Bits will be reassembled at the destination

 Mostly used by computer peripherals like printers,

In parallel communications

 Multiple bits (eg. Eight bits) will be transferred at

a time
 Needs multiple (parallel) communication channels
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Contd.

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Definitions
 The word data refers to information presented in whatever

form is agreed upon by the parties creating and using the data.
 Signal: the electrical wave that is used to represent the data.

 It Can be analog or digital signal

 Data communications (Transmission) are the exchange

of data between two devices via some form of

transmission medium such as a wire cable or wireless media
using appropriate signal.
 Network is a system in which a number of independent

computers are linked together to share data and peripherals,

such as hard disks and printers (more in the next chapters)
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Data Representation Techniques
 The type of data to be transmitted can be in the form of text,

audio, and video in the form of electrical signal, radio, laser,

or other radiated energy source.

 Data can be analog or digital

 The term analog data refers to information that is continuous;

digital data refers to information that has discrete states.

 Example: analog clock (with second, minute and hour

hands) and digital clock

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Analog and digital signals

 An analog signal has infinitely many levels of

intensity over a period of time.

 As the wave moves from value A to value B, it

passes through and includes an infinite number of

values along its path.

 A digital signal, on the other hand, can have only a

limited number of defined values.

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 Although each value can be any number, it is often
Analog Signals
 Are Continuous wave that carries information by

altering the characteristics of waves.

 Analogue means that the original information is

retransmitted to the receiver/listener without any

manipulation.

 Here the signal can take on any value (within the

limits set by the recording equipment and the

transmitter).

 It measures rather than counts

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Contd.

 Radio, telephone and recording equipment historically

have been analog, but they are beginning to change –due
to large to computers to the other types of signals-
digitals
 The disadvantage of analogue signals is that any
'noise', interference, added to the signal at any point
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cannot be removed from the audio signal and this
Digital Signals
 are a discrete series of pulses - either high or low -

on or off - sometimes expressed as binary code 1s

and 0s.

 It counts but not measures

 Discrete pluses of data transmission rather than

continues wave

 More prevalent in computer based devices


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Flashing light and telegraph message are
Contd.
The advantage of digital signals is that

1. they are much less likely to be degraded by

interference (noise).
2. also it is possible to send a lot more information

digitally (e.g. more television channels) than using

analogue technology.
3. They can be transmitted effectively along fibre optic

cables. (on - light signal, off - no light signal) and

these are cheaper to manufacture than copper

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wiring and can cope with multiple signals without
Contd.

 The signals from a satellite are digital. They use a

system called 'packet switching' which is the same as

used in computer networks and for the internet. This

system is particularly effective for dealing with noise

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elimination.
Contd.
Which of the following signals are Analog and which

are Digital?
 Volume control on a radio
 Traffic lights
 Motor bike throttle
 Water tap
 Dimmer switch
 Light switch
 In Music on a CD
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 Music on a tape
Modes of data transmission
 There are 3 different transmission modes

characterized according to the direction of the

exchanges:

1. A simplex connection is a connection in which

the data flows in only one direction, from the

transmitter to the receiver.

 This type of connection is useful if the data do

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Contd.
2. A half-duplex connection (sometimes called an alternating connection

or semi-duplex) is a connection in which the data flows in one direction or

the other, but not both at the same time.

 With this type of connection, each end of the connection

transmits in turn.
 This type of connection makes it possible to have bidirectional

communications using the full capacity of the line.

 In a half-duplex transmission, the entire capacity of a channel is taken over by

whichever of the two devices is transmitting at the time.

 Walkie-talkies and CB (citizens band) radios are both half-duplex systems.
 The half-duplex mode is used in cases where there is no need for

communication in both directions at the same time; the entire capacity of the
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channel can be utilized for each direction.
Contd.
3. Full-Duplex: In full-duplex mode (also called duplex), both

stations can transmit and receive simultaneously

 The full-duplex mode is like a two-way street with traffic flowing in both

directions at the same time.

 In full-duplex mode, signals going in one direction share the capacity of

the link: with signals going in the other direction.

 This sharing can occur in two ways: Either the link must contain two

physically separate transmission paths, one for sending and the other for

receiving; or the capacity of the channel is divided between signals

travelling in both directions.

 One common example of full-duplex communication is the telephone

network. When two people are communicating by a telephone line, both

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can talk and listen at the same time.
Contd.

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Signal Encoding techniques

 Digital data:- information that has discrete states

 Analog Data:- information that is continuous

 Digital Signal:- can have only a limited number of defined values.

 Although each value can be any number, it is often as simple as

1 and 0.

 Analog signal:- has infinitely many levels of intensity over a period

of time.

 As the wave moves from value A to value B, it passes through

and includes an infinite number of values along its path.

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Contd.

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Assignment #1

 Describe the following digital signal encoding

formats (which format is used by Ethernet?)

1. Non return-to-Zero-Level (NRZ-L)

2. Non return to Zero Inverted (NRZI)

3. Bipolar-AMI

4. Pseudoternary

5. Manchester

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6. Differential Manchester
22
 DIGITAL DATA, ANALOG SIGNALS

 The most familiar use of this transformation is for

transmitting digital data through the public telephone

network.

 The telephone network was designed to receive,

switch, and transmit analog signals in the voice-

voice frequency range of about 300 to 3400 Hz.

 digital devices are attached to the network via a

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 Digital Data to Analog Signal Encoding
Techniques
 Modulation involves operation on one or more of the

three characteristics of a carrier signal: amplitude,

frequency, and phase.
 Accordingly, there are three basic encoding or
modulation techniques for transforming digital data into
analog signals
1. Amplitude-shift keying (ASK)

2. Frequency-shift keying (FSK)

3. Phase-shift keying (PSK)

24 Read about these techniques

25
 Multiplexing
 In data communication, there might be a need to

share a single media for multiple

communication (media/bandwidth sharing) in

order to utilize the available bandwidth wisely to

achieve specific goals.

 Sharing of a single media (fiber, coaxial,

microwave,..) is known as multiplexing.

 Whenever the bandwidth of a medium linking two

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devices is greater than the bandwidth needs of
Contd.
 Multiplexing is the set of techniques that allows

the (simultaneous) transmission of multiple

signals across a single data link.

 As data and telecommunications use increases,

so does traffic.

 In the above figure, there are n inputs to a multiplexer.

27 The multiplexer is connected by a single data link to a
 Contd.
 The link is able to carry n separate channels of data.
 The multiplexer combines (multiplexes) data from the
n input lines and transmits over a higher capacity
data link.
 The demultiplexer accepts the multiplexed data
stream, separates (demultiplexes) the data according
to channel, and delivers them to the appropriate
output lines.
 Multiplexing
There are three types of Multiplexing

FREQUENCY- TIME – STISTICAL

DIVISON DIVISON MULTIPLEXIN
MULTIPLEXING MULTIPLEXING G
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 Frequency-division Multiplexing (FDM)

 FDM is a signal transmission technology in which

multiple signals can simultaneously be

transmitted over the same line or channel.

 Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) can be used in

both wired and wireless networking for transmitting

large amounts of data at high speeds.

 FDM is the simplest and oldest form of multiplexing in

wireless networking technology.


29 Frequency division multiplexing involves simultaneously
 Contd.
 These different frequencies, called channels, share

non-overlapping portions of the total frequency band

being used.

 Signals from different data sources are fed into a

multiplexer that modulates each signal and transmits

them at different frequencies.

 These signals are then transmitted over the wire or

30 through wireless communication and are separated at

 FD Multiplexing Vs. FD Demultiplexing Example

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 Time-division multiplexing (TDM)
 A multiplexing method for transmitting multiple data

streams in a single communication path.

 In TDM, the data from different input channels is

divided into fixed-length segments and then

combined in round-robin fashion into a single output

data stream, which can then be transmitted over a

single channel transmission system and

32 demultiplexed at the destination location.

Contd.
 TDM is a digital multiplexing technique for combining several

low-rate digital channels into one high-rate one.

 One weakness in TDM is that if an input channel does not

have anything important to carry for a time, empty

segments are inserted into the output stream anyway. For
example, if channel A is not transmitting data, one-third of
the output channel is not being used. You can overcome
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this weakness by using a more sophisticated multiplexing
 Contd.
 For example, if input streams A, B, and C are divided into
segments as shown here:
A: A1, A2, A3,...
B: B1, B2, B3,...
C: C1, C2, C3,...
the output stream will look like this:
MUX(ABC) A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2, A3, B3, C3,...

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Statistical Multiplexing
 It is a multiplexing technique that allows information from a

number of channels to be combined for transmission over a single

channel.
 Statistical multiplexing dynamically allocates bandwidth to each

channel on an as-needed basis. This is in contrast to time-division

multiplexing (TDM) techniques, in which quiet devices use up a
portion of the multiplexed data stream, filling it with empty
packets. Statistical multiplexing allocates bandwidth only to
channels that are currently transmitting. It packages the data from
the active channels into packets and dynamically feeds them into
the output channel, usually on a FIFO (first in, first out) basis, but
it’s also able to allocate extra bandwidth to specific input channels.
 Statistical multiplexing is sometimes referred to as statistical
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 Data Transmission : Error Detection
and Correction
 Errors in transmitted data can occur for a variety
of reasons.

1. Some errors are due to equipment failure.

2. Some errors are due dispersion in optical

fibers (i.e. light pulses spread out).

3. Some errors are due to attenuation (loss of

signal power over a line).

4. Most errors are due to thermal noise that occurs

naturally on the line.

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 Dealing with Equipment Failure

 The more pieces of equipment that your signal needs to

pass through, the more likely it is that you’ll have a failure.

Transmitter Modem Switch Switch Modem Receiver

 Fewer intermediate devices or more reliable devices will

reduce the probability of failure.

 Redundant devices can also reduce the probability of

failure by taking over from other devices when they fail.

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 Dispersion

 Dispersion mainly occurs in optical fibers.

 A light pulse is made of billions of photons.

 Each photon follows a slightly different path as it

bounces along the optical fiber.

 A crisp light pulse will eventually spread out and

38 overlap with other pulses.

 Attenuation

 Attenuation is the reduction in the power of a

signal as it is transmitted.

 Attenuation is a problem because the signal

eventually loses so much power that it becomes

difficult to distinguish it from the thermal noise

in the background
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 Dealing With Errors
 We need to build systems that are resilient to errors in data.

 There is no way to guarantee that all bits will be sent

uncorrupted.

 One way to cope with this is to detect errors and request

that corrupted data should be retransmitted.

 Detecting errors cannot be guaranteed either.

 We can at least make it extremely unlikely that errors will go

undetected.
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 Errors in Data
 Data is sent in the form of binary numbers.

 The binary numbers consist bites - which are either 0 or 1.

 There are four possible ways that noise can affect a bit:

 If a bit is 0, the noise can affect it so it stays 0 – no error

 If a bit is 0, the noise can change it to 1- error

 If a bit is 1, the noise can affect it so it stays 1 - no error

 if a bit is 1, the noise can change it to 0- error

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 Pure Noise

 If the noise is overwhelming then (with some

surprise perhaps) we will still receive half the

bits correctly.

 The problem is that there is no way of telling

which bits are correct and which bits are not.

 The data is no better than if we generated the

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 Detecting Errors
 Usually, noise levels are fairly low and most of the bits are received

correctly by the receiver.

 The question is, how can the receiver know when an error has

occurred?

 Because errors occur randomly, there is no way of knowing with

complete certainty if the data is correct.

 The best we can do is detect most errors.

 We could try sending the data twice and comparing the two transmissions

to see where the errors are.

 This is inefficient, particularly if all we want to know if there is an error in a

particular block of data.

 Even when we detect an error, the next question is: what to do about
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it?
Parity Checking (Vertical Redundancy Check (VRC))

 One of the most common ways of checking to see if an error

occurs is to count the bits in a character to see if there is an

even or odd number.

 Before transmission, an extra bit (parity bit) is appended to

the character to force the number of bits to be even (or odd).

 If the received character does not have an even (or odd) number

of bits then an error must have occurred.

 Both the sender and receiver must know which form of parity to

use.
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Contd.
A character such as 0110001 would be transmitted as:

Odd Parity: 01100010 (There are an odd number of 1s)

Even Parity: 01100011 (There are an even number of 1s)

Parity checking will detect a single error in a character

but not double errors.

8 bits including parity

7 bits of data
(count of 1 bits) Even odd

0000000 (0) 00000000 (0) 10000000 (1)

1010001 (3) 11010001 (4) 01010001 (3)
1101001 (4) 01101001 (4) 11101001 (5)
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1111111 (7) 11111111 (8) 01111111 (7)
Hamming Distance
 The Hamming distance between two bit patterns is the
number of dissimilar bits.
 It measures the minimum number of substitutions
required to change one string into the other, or the
number of errors that transformed one string into the
other.
 For example, the Hamming distance between
01000001 (‘A’) and 01000011 (‘C’) is 1 because there
is only one dissimilar bit.

46 One error in the wrong place can turn an ‘A’ into a ‘C’.
 Hamming Distance

 The Hamming distance between 01000001 (‘A’)

and 01000010 (‘B’) is 2 because there are two

dissimilar bits.

 It would take two errors in the wrong place to

turn an ‘A’ into a ‘B’.

 Adding a parity bit ensures that there is at least

47 a Hamming distance of 2 between any two code

 Checksum

 Another simple way of checking if there has

been an error in a block of data is to find a

checksum.
 Imagine we send the data 121, 17, 29 and 47.

Adding these numbers up, we get 214.

 We actually send 121,17,29,47 and 214.

 The receiver can total up the first numbers

and compare it to the last one.

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
 Contd.
Typically pairs of bytes are joined to make 16 bit numbers. It

is these 16 bit numbers that are totaled to make the

checksum.

If the checksum becomes larger than 65535 (the largest

possible 16 bit number) then the carried bits are discarded.

Checksums are common but not particularly good at

catching errors. Later errors can easily hide earlier ones.

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 Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC)
A far more effective way of detecting errors in a

block of data is to use a Cyclic Redundancy Code.

In CRC, a number is mathematically calculated for

a packet by its source computer, and then

recalculated by the destination computer.
If the original and recalculated versions at the

destination computer differ, the packet is corrupt

and needs to be resent or ignored.

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 Contd.
 The mathematical procedure for performing a CRC is

specified by the International Telecommunication Union

(ITU) and involves applying a 16-bit polynomial to the
data being transmitted by the packet for packets of 4 KB
of data or less, or a 32-bit polynomial for packets larger
than 4 KB.
 The results of this calculation are appended to the packet

as a trailer. The receiving station applies the same

polynomial to the data and compares the results to the
trailer appended to the packet. Implementations of
Ethernet use 32-bit polynomials to calculate their CRC.
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