Chapter two

2. Data Communication

Data Communication deals with:

• – Meaningful exchange of information between the
communication entities
 e.g. dialogue discipline, interpretation of messages,
acknowledgement etc.
 2.1. What is data transmission?
• Computers encode and transmit data, voice, and video over
networks via various transmission media.
• Encoding is the process of transforming information into
digital and analog signals.
• So, data transmission is the way how data is encoded,
decoded, and transmitted.
• Data transmission occurs between transmitter and receiver
over some transmission medium.
 What is data transmission con..
• The transmitted data are either digital or analog.
• Analog signals are continuous signals that vary in strength.
• Sound is an example of an analog signal.
• Sound is actually a wave and is quite similar, or analogous, to
electromagnetic waves, hence the name analog.
 What is data transmission con..

sound
soundwaves.
waves. electromagnetic sound waves.
electromagnetic
waves
waves
 What is data transmission con..
• Digital signals are discrete rather than continuous. Either there is a
signal or there isn't a signal.
Eg. Telegraphs transmit data with discrete signals.

Telegraph can only communicate by an on/off method (Morse

code), whereas telephone can communicate a complex wave shape.
Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Transmissions

• Data transmission may be:

• · Connection-oriented
• It needs acknowledgement from the destination.
More reliable than CODT
A telephone conversation is an example
• · Connectionless
• There is no need of acknowledgement.
• Less reliable
Eg. radio broadcast:
 Synchronous and Asynchronous Transmission
• Computers need to know:-
• when to expect data and where a character begins and
ends.
• When receiving data, timing on both computer devices must
be coordinated if they are to work together efficiently.
• This coordination is called clocking, timing, or framing.
• There are two protocols for the timing or coordination of
data signals:
 Synchronous and Asynchronous Transmission
• Synchronous:- Both the transmitting and receiving nodes are agree
when the signal begins and ends
• This timing process is called bit synchronization, framing, or
clocking
• Eg. Computer program
• · Asynchronous:- Does not involve synchronizing the clocks of the
sending and receiving devices.
• Instead, start and stop bits are used for synchronization of data
signals.
• Eg. half-duplex
 Analog signals
• Analog signals:- continuous and look like a copy of the original sound
wave.
• Transmission of data is accomplished by varying one or more the
waves’ properties.

• Encode analog signals to digital signals is called Modulation.

 Analog signals con…
All waves have three characteristics,
– amplitude (strength), change of the voltages for interpretation
– frequency, and
– phase.

– Amplitude=1=> high
– Amplitude=0=>low
 Analog signals con…
• Frequency-Shift Keying uses the frequency of the waves for
interpretation.
• If high frequency were 1 then low frequency would be 0 .
 Digital Signals

• Digital signaling, either there is or there isn’t a signal.

• Use the “on” “off” signal to represent data.
 Transmission Impairments

 Communication involves speaking, hearing, listening, understanding, social

skills, reading, writing and using voice.

• Transmission Impairments means People who have difficulty communicating or

difficulty to transmit data on the network.
• Signal received may differ from signal transmitted
Analog - degradation of signal quality
Digital - bit errors
• Caused by
• Attenuation and attenuation distortion
• Delay distortion
• Noise
 Transmission Impairments con..
Attenuation
– Signal strength falls off with distance
– Solutions: use repeaters, amplifiers
– Depends on medium
• Received signal strength:
– must be enough to be detected
– must be sufficiently higher than noise to be received without error
– Attenuation is an increasing function of frequency
• Solutions:
– equalization
– amplifying high frequencies more than low frequencies
 Transmission Impairments con..

• Delay Distortion
• It occurs when propagation velocity of a signal through a
guided medium varies with frequency highest velocity near
the center frequency
• Various frequency components arrive at different times
resulting in phase shifts between the frequencies
• particularly critical for digital data since parts of one bit spill
over into others causing inter-symbol interference
• solution: equalization
 Transmission Impairments con..
• Noise
• unwanted signals inserted between transmitter and receiver
is the major limiting factor in communications system performance
– Crosstalk:
• a signal from one line is picked up by another
• can occur by electrical coupling between nearby twisted pairs or when microwave
antennas pick up unwanted signals
– Impulse Noise:
• caused by external electromagnetic interferences
• noncontiguous, consisting of irregular pulses or spikes
• short duration and high amplitude
• minor annoyance for analog signals but a major source of error in digital data
 Transmission Media
Guided transmission media – wire:
twisted pair
coaxial cable
optical fiber
Unguided transmission media - wireless
• Characteristics and quality determined by medium and signal
• For guided, the medium is more important
• For unguided, the bandwidth produced by the antenna is more important
• Key concerns are data rate and distance
• Design factors:
Bandwidth
Higher bandwidth gives higher data rate
Transmission impairments (damage)
 Twisted Pair - TP
• Most common medium
• Telephone network
=>Between house and local exchange (subscriber loop)
• Within buildings
=>To private branch exchange (PBX)
• More important for local area networks (LAN): 10 mbps or 100 mbps
• Cheap and easy to work with
• But lower data rate and shorter range
 Twisted Pair Transmission Characteristics
• Analog transmission
=> Amplifiers every 5km to 6km
• Digital transmission
=>Need repeater every 2km or 3km
• Limited distance and limited bandwidth
• Limited data rate
A few mbps for long-distance point-to point
Up to 1 gbps for very short distances
• Susceptible (prone) to interference and noise
 Unshielded and Shielded Twisted Pair
• Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)
=>Ordinary (usual) it is a telephone wire
=> Cheapest and easiest to install
=> Suffers from external electromagnetic interference
• EIA-568-A defines three UTP standards: cat 3, cat 4, & cat 5
• UTP cat 3: up to 16mhz, voice grade found in most offices
Twist length of 7.5 cm to 10 cm
• UTP cat 4: up to 20 mhz, not common
• UTP cat 5: up to 100mhz, pre-installed in new office buildings
Twist length 0.6 cm to 0.85 cm
• Shielded twisted pair (STP)
Metal braid or sheathing that reduces interference
More expensive and harder to handle (thick, heavy)
 Coaxial Cable Characteristics
• Most versatile (adoptable) medium for:-
• Television distribution
• – Cable TV
• Long distance telephone transmission
– – Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously
– – Being replaced by fiber optic
• Short distance computer systems links
• Local area networks
• Analog: up to 500mhz
– —Amplifiers every few km
– —Closer if higher frequency
• Digital
– —Repeater every 1km
– —Closer for higher data rates
Coaxial Cable
 Coax Advantages and Disadvantages
• Advantages
• Higher bandwidth
– 400 to 600mhz
– Up to 10,800 voice conversations
• Can be tapped easily (pros and cons)
• Much less susceptible to interference than twisted pair
• Disadvantages
• High attenuation rate makes it expensive over long distance
• Bulky
 Optical Fiber
• Relatively new transmission medium used by telephone companies in
place of long-distance trunk lines
• Also used by private companies in implementing local data
communications networks
• Require a light source with injection laser diode (ILD) or light-
emitting diodes (LED)
 Fiber Optic Layers
• consists of three concentric sections

plastic jacket glass or plastic

cladding fiber core
 Fiber Optic Types/ layers
• Multimode step-index fiber
– The reflective walls of the fiber move the light pulses to the receiver
• Multimode graded-index fiber
– Acts to refract the light toward the center of the fiber by variations in the
density
• Single mode fiber
– The light is guided down the center of an extremely narrow core
Fiber Optic Signals
fiber optic multimode
step-index

fiber optic multimode

graded-index

fiber optic single mode

Fiber Optic Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages
• Greater capacity (bandwidth of up to 2 gbps)
• Smaller size and lighter weight
• Lower attenuation
• Immunity (resistance) to environmental interference
• Highly secure due to tap difficulty and lack of signal radiation
Disadvantages
• Expensive over short distance
• Requires highly skilled installers
• Adding additional nodes is difficult
 Optical Fiber Characteristics
• Act as wave guide for 1014 to 1015 hz waves
– Portions of infrared and visible spectrum
• Light source: light emitting diode (LED)
– Cheaper, wider operating temp range, last longer
• Light source: injection laser diode (ILD)
– More efficient, greater data rate
• Receiver: photodiode converts light into electrical signal
• Greater capacity: data rates of hundreds of gbps
• Smaller size & weight
• Lower attenuation & good electromagnetic isolation
• Greater repeater spacing: 10s of km at least
• Used for: long-haul trunks, metropolitan trunks, rural exchange trunks, subscriber loops
and lans
 Wireless (Unguided Media) Transmission
• transmission and reception are achieved by means of an antenna
• directional
– transmitting antenna puts out focused beam
– transmitter and receiver must be aligned
• omnidirectional
– signal spreads out in all directions
– can be received by many antennas
Examples
• terrestrial microwave
• satellite microwave
• broadcast radio
• Infrared more
 Cont..
– use radio waves of different frequencies and do not need a wire or cable
conductor to transmit signals
Design Factors
• Bandwidth: All other factors remaining constant, the greater the
band-width of a signal, the higher the data rate that can be achieved.
• Transmission impairments. Limit the distance a signal can travel.
• Interference: Competing signals in overlapping frequency bands can
distort or wipe out a signal.
• Number of receivers: Each attachment introduces some attenuation
and distortion, limiting distance and/or data rate.