DATA

COMMUNICATIONS
AND COMPUTER
NETWORKS
Lecture 1
 What is Data Communications?
■ Data Communication is the exchange of data (in the form of
0’s and 1’s) between two devices (computers) via some form of
the transmission medium (wired/ wireless)
■ This exchange of information can be local or remote
 Local and Remote
Data Communication
■ Local
– Data communication is considered to be local if the
communicating devices are present in the same building or a
similarly restricted geographical area
■ Remote
– Data Communication is considered remote, if the devices are
farther apart
– Example: Telecommunication
 Data Communication
System
■ For Data Communication to occur, the communicating devices
must be a part of a communication system made up of some
specific kind of hardware and software This type of a system is
known as a data communication system
 Data Communication
Criteria
■ The effectiveness of data communication system depends upon
three fundamental characteristics:
■ Delivery: The system must deliver data to the correct
destination
■ Accuracy: The system must deliver the data accurately
■ Timeliness: the system must deliver data in a timely manner
 Components of Data
Communication system
■ Data communication system is made up of 5 components
 Components of Data
Communication system
■ Message
– Information or data to be communicated
– Can be text, numbers, video or any combination of these
– In short anything that can be represented using binary bits
■ Sender
– Device that sends the data message
– Can be a Computer , Workstation, Video camera etc
– The data from the sender might not be in the appropriate
format for the transmission medium and will need to be
processed
 Components of Data
Communication system
■ Receiver
– Device that receives the message
– Can be a computer, workstation, Television etc
– At times, the data received from the transmission medium
may not be in a proper form to be supplied to the receiver
and it must be processed
 Components of Data
Communication system
■ Medium
– Physical path that a message uses to travel from the Sender
to the Receiver
– Can be a Copper Cable (Telephone), Coaxial Cable (Cable
TV), Fiber Optic Cable or Radio Waves (Wireless
Medium)
 Components of Data
Communication system
■ Protocol
– Set of Rules Governing Communication
– Represents an Agreement between communication devices
– Without Protocol, two devices may be connected but they
will not be able to communicate
■ Example: Consider the communication between two
individuals. They can only communicate provided they both
speak the same language.
 Network
■ A network is a set of devices (Nodes) connected by
Communication Links (Wires, Cables, Any thing that
physically connects two nodes)
■ Node: Can be a Computer, Printer or any other device capable
of sending or receiving
■ The links connecting Nodes are called communication
channels
 Why computer Networking?
■ Sharing of peripherals
■ Sharing of software’s
■ Better response time can be achieved through networking
■ Organizational benefit
 Types of Network
■ Local Area Network: A local area network (LAN) is usually
privately owned and links the devices in a single office,
building, or campus.
■ Metropolitan Area Network: A metropolitan area network
(MAN) is a network with a size between a LAN and a WAN. It
normally covers the area inside a town or a city.
■ Wide area network: A wide area network (WAN) share
information over large geographic areas that may comprise a
country, a continent, or even the whole world. Internet is wide
area network.
 Distributed Processing
■ Instead of a single large machine being responsible for all
aspects of a process , each separate computer handles a subset
of the task
■ Examples
– Project Given as a part of the Course
– Office Work
 Advantages of
Distributed Processing
■ Security
– A system designer can limit the kind of interaction that a
given user can have with the entire system.
■ Distributed Databases
– No one system need to provide storage capacity for the
entire database
– For example WWW gives user access to pages stored
anywhere on Internet
 Advantages of
Distributed Processing
■ Faster Problem Solving
– Multiple computers working on a problem can solve a
problem faster than a computer working alone
■ Security through Redundancy
– Multiple computers running the same program provide
security through redundancy
– If one computer hardware breaks down then others cover
up.
 Advantages of
Distributed Processing
■ Collaborative Processing
– Both multiple computers and multiple users can interact for
a task
 Network Criteria
■ A network must be able to meet a certain number of criteria.
The most important of these are performance, reliability, and
security.
 Network Criteria
■ Performance
– Performance can be measured in many ways, including
transit time and response time.
– The performance of a network depends on a number of
factors:
■ Number of USERS
– Large Number of concurrent users slow network
■ Type of Transmission Medium
– Medium defines speed at which data can travel
 Network Criteria
■ Hardware
– Effect speed and the capacity of transmission
– Fast computer with large storage capacity
■ Software
– Software processes data at sender , receiver and
intermediate nodes
– Well designed software can speed up the process
 Network Criteria
■ Reliability
– Network reliability is measured by the frequency of failure,
the time it takes a link to recover from a failure
■ Security
– Network security issues include
■ Protecting data from unauthorized access
■ Protecting data from damage
 What is protocol?
■ A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communication. It
defines:
– What is communicated,
– How it is communicated,
– And when it is communicated.
 Components of Protocol

■ Syntax:
– The term syntax refers to the Structure or the format of the
Data, meaning the order in which data is presented
– For example
■ First eight bits to be Sender address
■ Next eight to be Receiver’s Address
■ The Rest to be Data
 Components of Protocol

■ Semantics:
– The word semantics refer to the meaning of each section of
bits
– How is a particular pattern to be interpreted?
– What action should be taken based on interpretation?
– For Example
■ Does an address identify the route to be taken or the final
destination of the message?
 Components of Protocol

■ Timing
– The term timing refers to two characteristics:
■ When data should be sent?
■ How fast it should be sent?
– For example
■ If sender produces data at 100 Mbps
■ But Receiver can only process data at 1 Mbps
■ This will overload receiver and data will be lost
 What is Standards?
■ A standard provides a model for development that makes it
possible for a product to work regardless of the individual
manufacturer.
■ Standards are therefore essential in:
– Creating and Maintaining an Open and competitive Market
for Equipment Manufacturers
– Guaranteeing National and International Interoperability of
Data and Telecommunications Technology and Equipment
 Categories of Standards
■ De facto
– Standards that have not been approved by an organized
body but have been adopted as standards through
widespread use are de facto standards .
■ De jure
– Those standards that have been legislated by an officially
recognized body are de jure standards
 Standards Organizations
■ Standards are developed through the cooperation of standards
creation committees, forums, and government regulatory
agencies .
– International Organization for Standardization (ISO) .
– International Telecommunication Union
-Telecommunication Standards Sector (ITU -T).
– American National Standards Institute Institute(ANSI)
(ANSI).
– Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
– Electronic Industries Association (EIA) .
 Types of Connection
■ There are two possible types of connections:
 Types of Connection
■ Point-to-Point
– A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated link
between two devices.
– The entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission
between those two devices
 Types of Connection
■ Multipoint
– A multipoint (also called multidrop) connection is one in
which more than two specific devices share a single link
– In a multipoint environment, the capacity of the channel is
shared, either spatially or temporally
– Spatially
■ Several devices can use the link simultaneously
– Temporally
■ Users must take turns
 Topology
■ The topology of a network is the geometric representation of
the relationship of all the links and linking devices (usually
called nodes) to one another.
■ There are four basic topologies possible: mesh, star, bus, and
ring.
Mesh Topology
 Mesh Topology
■ In a mesh topology, every device has dedicated point -to
-point link to every other device
■ The term dedicated means that the link carries traffic only
between the two devices it connects
 Advantages of Mesh Topology
■ Use of Dedicated links guarantees that each connection can
carry its own load. This eliminates Traffic Problems as in case
of Shared Link
■ In mesh topology, if one link fails, it does not effect other links
■ Security & Privacy due to dedicated links
■ Point–to–Point links make Fault Identification easy
 Disadvantages of Mesh Topology
■ Amount of Cabling
– Makes Installation & Reconfiguration difficult
■ Number of I/O Ports Required
– Hardware required to connect each link can be
prohibitively expensive
■ Overall cost of this network is too high as compared other
network topologies
Star Topology
 Star Topology
■ Each device has a dedicated point-to-point link to a central
controller ( Hub)
■ Devices are not directly connected to each other
■ Controller (Hub) acts as an exchange
■ If one device wants to send data to the other, it sends the data
to the controller, which then relays it to the other connected
device
 Advantages of Star Topology
■ Less Cabling than Mesh topology
■ Less Expensive than Mesh as each device needs only one link
and one I/O Port
■ Easy to Install and Reconfigure
■ Robust, if a link fails, only that link fails
■ Easy Fault Detection
 Disadvantages of Star Topology
■ Too much dependency on central device has its own
drawbacks. If it fails whole network goes down
■ Although a star requires far less cable than a mesh, each node
must be linked to a hub, so Cabling is still much more than
some other Topologies
 Bus Topology
■ A bus topology is multipoint connections.
■ One long cable acts as a backbone to link all the devices in a
network
■ Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps
 Advantages of Bus Topology
■ Easy to install
■ Backbone cable can be laid along the most efficient path, then
connected to the nodes by drop lines of various lengths. In this
way, a bus uses less cabling than mesh or star topologies
■ Bus topology very cheap.
 Disadvantages of Bus Topology
■ Dependency on central cable
■ Difficult Reconfiguration
– Difficult to add new devices
– adding new devices may require modification of backbone
■ Difficult to detect and troubleshoot fault
Ring Topology
 Ring Topology
■ Each device has point-to-point dedicated link with only two
devices on either side
■ A signal is passed in the ring in one direction from device to
device until it reaches its destination
■ Each device has a repeater incorporated
■ When a device receives a signal destined for another device, it
regenerates the bits and pass them along
 Advantages of Ring Topology
■ Easy to Install and Reconfigure
– Only two connections to be moved to add or delete a
device
■ Simple fault isolation
– Generally a signal is circulating at all times in a ring.
– If one device does not receive a signal within a specified
period, it can issue an alarm to tell network operator about
the problem and its location
 Disadvantages of Ring Topology
■ Each packet of data must pass through all the computers
between source and destination. This makes it slower than Star
topology.
■ If one workstation goes down, the entire network gets
affected .
 Hybrid Topology
■ In this type of topology we integrate two or more different
topologies to form a resultant topology
■ It has good points of all the constituent basic topologies rather
than having characteristics of one specific topology
■ This combination of topologies is done according to the
requirements of the organization.
 Hybrid Topology
■ Example:
– One department of a business may have decided to use a
Bus while other has a Ring
– The two can be connected via a Central Controller in Star
Topology
 Transmission Mode
■ Transmission Mode is used to define the direction of the signal
flow between the linked devices
 Simplex Mode
■ Communication is Unidirectional
■ Only one of the two stations can transmit
■ Other can only receive
■ Examples:
– KEYBOARDS (Only Input), Monitors (Only Output)
 Half – Duplex 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
 Half – Duplex Mode
■ Lets understand the concept by using an example
– One Lane Road with two directional traffic
– When cars are traveling in one direction, cars going the
other way must wait
■ Full Channel capacity is allocated to whatever entity that is
transmitting at a specific time
– Walkie Talkies
 Full Duplex (Duplex)
■ Both stations can transmit and receive simultaneously
– Two way street with traffic flowing in both directions at the
same time
■ Signals traveling in either direction share the capacity of the
link
 Full Duplex (Duplex)
■ The sharing can take place in two ways:
– Either the link must contain two physically separate transmission
paths:
■ One for sending and
■ One for receiving
– Capacity of the channel is divided between signals traveling in
opposite directions
■ Example
– Telephone Network
– When two people are communicating via a telephone line, both can
talk and listen at the same time