DATA COMMUNICATION

It can be defined as the exchange of digital information between two digital devices.

For enabling data communications, a combination of hardware and software is essential. In any data
communication system, 3 characteristics are desired:
 Correct delivery: When a sender transmits data for an intended recipient, the data must reac
only the intended recipient and not someone else.
 Accurate delivery: The data sent must be received in the same form in which it was sent.
There must not be any sort of alteration to it in transit.
 Timely delivery: The data must travel from the sender to the receiver in a finite amount of
time.
Two key aspects of data communication systems, these are:
The transmission media and the data communication protocols.
Transmission media is the physical path over which data travels from the sender to the receiver.
A protocol is a set of rules and conventions. A protocol defines the following:
 Syntax (What is to be communicated): Defines structure or format of data. In which order
the data has to be sent.
 Semantics (How it is to be communicated): Defines the interpretation of the data that is
being sent.
 Timing (When it should be communicated): Agreement between sender and receiver about
the data transmission rates and duration.

REQUIREMENTS OF DATA COMMUNICATION

 Atleast 2 devices ready to communicate.

 A transmission medium
 A set of rules and procedure for proper communication (protocol)
 Standard data representation.
 Transmission of bits either serial or parallel
 Bit synchronisation using start/stop bits in case of Asynchronous Transmission.
 In synchronous transmission the agreed pattern of flag.
 Signal encoding viz. NRZ or RZ
 And other higher layer protocol

DATA REPRESENTATION

 A group of bits are used to represent a character/number/special symbol/control characters.

 5-bit code can represent 32 symbols (2 5 =32)
 7-bit code can represent 128 symbols (2 7 = 128)
 8-bit code can represent 256 symbols (2 8 =256)
CODE SET
A code set is the set of codes representing the symbols.
ASCII (American standard code for information interchange):
 ASCII code (7-bit) is often used with an 8th bit known as parity bit used for detecting errors
during Data Transmission.
  Parity bit is added to most significant bit (MSB)
 Total of 128 codes:
96 codes are graphic symbols, 94 codes are printable, and 2 codes (SPACE AND DEL) are non-
printable.
32 codes control symbols, all are non-printable.
EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code):
 It is an 8-bit code with 256 symbols.
 No parity bit for error checking.
 The graphics symbols are almost same as ASCII code
 Several differences in control characters as compared to ASCII.
BAUDOT TELETYPE CODE:
 It is a 5-bit code also known as ITA2(International Telegraph Alphabet No.2)
 32 codes are possible. With the help of Letter shift & Figure shift key same code is used to
represent two symbols.
 Maximum symbols in this code are 58
 Used in telegraphy/Telex.

DATA TRANSMISSION
Data Transmission means movement of the bits over a transmission medium connecting two
devices. Two types of Data transmission are:
 Parallel Transmission
 Serial Transmission

Parallel Transmission:
 In this all the bits of a byte are transmitted simultaneously on separate wires.
 Practicable if two devices are close to each other. Eg Computer to the printer.
Serial Transmission:
 Bits are transferred one after the other
 The least significant bit (LSB) has been transmitted first.
 It requires only one circuit interconnecting two devices.
 Suitable for transmission over long distance.
BIT RATE
 Number of bits that can be transmitted in 1 second.
 If tp is the duration of the bit then the Bit rate R=1/ t p
 Bit duration need not be same as the pulse duration.

MODES OF TRANSMISSION
Two methods for timing control for receiving bits
Asynchronous Transmission:
 Sending end commences the transmission of bits at any instant of time.
 No time relation between consecutive bits.
 During idle condition signal `1’ is transmitted.
 “Start bit” before byte and “Stop bit’ at the end of the byte for start/stop at the end of the
byte for start/stop synchronisation.
 Start bit is always 1 bit duration. Start bit is always equal to 0.
  Stop bit may be 1 or 1.5 or 2 bits duration. Stop bit is always equal to ‘1’.
 Idle period time is arbitrary.
Synchronous Transmission:
 It is carried out under the control of the timing source.
 No start/stop bits.
 Continuous block of data are encapsulated with Header and trailer along with Flags.
 Flag identifies the Start and End of block.
 Receiver first detects the flag (usually a fixed pattern) and then detecs the other bits/ytes in
the data field.
 Complete Block along with the flags is called a FRAME.
SIGNAL ENCODING
 For transmission of bits into electrical signals for two binary states simple +ve and –ve
voltages are not sufficient.
 Sufficient signal transition should be present to recover the clock properly at the receiving
end.
 Bandwidth of the signal should match with the transmission medium.
 Several ways to represent bits as electrical signals. Two broad classes are:
 -Non-return to zero (NRZ)
 -Return to Zero (RZ)

Non Return To zero (NRZ) code:

NRZ-L : Non-Return to Zero level (coded according to binary values of the data bits.)
NRZ-M : Non-Return to Zero on mark (voltage transition takes place on mark(1)
NRZ-S : Non-Return to Zero on space (voltage transition takes place on space(0)

Return To Zero (RZ) code:

 If there is continuous string of ‘0s’ or ‘1s’ in NRZ code it is very difficult to recover the clock
signal. Hence Return to Zero (RZ) was implemented.
 Clock can be extracted from the Return to Zero code by the receiver using lot of transitions.
 RZ signals are the combination of “NRZ-L Signal +clock signal”
 Various RZ codes are:
-Manchester code: Binary 1 is logical AND of ‘1’ & clock & binary 0 is logical AND of ‘0’ &
clock. Also known as bi-phase-L code.
-Bi-phase-M code: Transition always at the beginning of bit interval and binary ‘1’ has
another transition in the middle of the bit interval.
-Bi-phase-S code: Transition at the beginning of bit interval as in Bi-phase-M and binary ‘0’
has another transition in the middle of the bit interval.
 -Differential Manchester code: Transition always at the middle of bit interval and binary ‘0’
has another transition in the beginning of the bit interval.

TRANSMISSION MEDIA
These are the physical infrastructure components that carry data from one computer to another. All
transmission media can be divided into two main categories:Guided and Unguided media.
GUIDED MEDIA
Three types of guided media:
 Twisted pair cable (carry signals in the form of electrical current)
 Co-axial cables (carry signals in the form of electrical current)
 Optical Fiber (carry signal in the form of light)
TWISTED PAIR CABLE
Two types:
1. Unshielded Twisted pair :
The most commonly used medium. It can carry both voice as well as data. It consists of two
conductors( usually copper). The wires are twisted to reduce the noise, it is not eliminated
completely. The copper conductors are covered by PVC or other insulator. UTP is flexible, cheap and
easy to install. UTPs of higher categories are used in computer networks given the higher speed and
reliability.
2. Shielded Twisted pair:
In this apart from the insulator, the twisited pair itself is covered by metal shield and finally by the
plastic cover. The metal shield prevents penetration of electromagnetic noise. It also helps eliminate
cross talk, an effect where one wire picks up some of signals travelling on the other wire. STP is more
expensive than UTP.
CO-AXIAL CABLES
It has an inner central conductor surrounded by an insulation sheath, which in turned is enclosed in
the outer conductor (shield). This acts not only as a second conductor for completing the circuit but
also acts as a shield against noise. This outer conductor is covered by a plastic cover.
Compared to STP and UTP, coaxial cable is more expensive, less flexible and more difficult to install.
But it is more reliable and can carry far higher data rates.
They are commonly used by cable companies to carry cable transmission.

OPTICAL FIBERS
NETWORKING
Networking is the convenient way of making information accessible to anyone, anytime & anywhere.

Interoperability is the capability of two or more computers of different vendors to transmit and
receive data and to carry out processes as expected by the user.