Chapter 2:

Data Communications
What is Data Transmission?
 Data transmission is the transfer of data from
one digital device to another.
 This transfer occurs via point-to-point data
streams or channels.
 These channels may previously have been in
the form of copper wires but are now much
more likely to be part of a wireless network.
Data transmission mode
Data Transmission mode defines the direction of the flow of
information between two communication devices
It is also called Data Communication or Directional Mode. It specifies the direction of the
flow of information from one place to another in a computer network.
The data transmission modes can be characterized in the following
three types based on the direction of exchange of information:
Simplex
Half-Duplex
Full Duplex
The data transmission modes can be characterized in the
following two types based on the synchronization between
the transmitter and the receiver:
Synchronous
Asynchronous
The data transmission modes can be characterized in the
following two types based on the number of bits sent
simultaneously in the network:
Serial
3
Parallel
4
Data and signal
 To be transmitted, data must be transformed to
electromagnetic signal.
 Data is entities that convey meaning, or information.
 Signal is electric or electromagnetic representations of
data.
 Signaling is the physical propagation of the signal along a
suitable medium.
 Transmission is the communication of data by the
propagation and processing of signals.

5
Data and signal
Analog and digital data
 Data can be analog or digital, the term analog data refers
to information that is continuous while digital data refers to
information that has discrete states.
 For example, an analog clock that has hour, minute and
second hands gives information in the continuous form, the
movements of the hands are continuous. On the other hand,
a digital clock that reports the hours and the minutes will
change suddenly from 2:10 to 2:11

6
Types of Data transmission
 Analog and digital signals are the types of
signals carrying information.
 The major difference between both signals is
that the analog signals have continuous
electrical signals, while digital signals have
non-continuous electrical signals.
 The difference between analog and digital
signal can be observed with the examples
of different types of waves

7
Types of Data transmission

Analog signal
Analog signals were used in many systems to produce signals to
carry information. These signals are continuous in both values and
time.
The use of analog signals has declined with the arrival of digital
signals. In short, to understand analog signals – all signals that
are natural or come naturally are analog signals.

Digital signal
Unlike analog signals, digital signals are not continuous, but
signals are discrete in value and time. These signals are
8
represented by binary numbers and consist of different voltage
Difference between Analog and Digital
Signals
 To summarize, we have given the various
differences between analog signal and digital
signal in a tabular form below.

 Both these signals are used in

electronic communication system to transfer
information from one place to another.

9
Difference between Analog and Digital
Signals

10
Periodic and non periodic(aperiodic)
signal
 Both analog and digital signals can take the two forms
i.e. periodic and non-periodic.
 A periodic signal completes a pattern within a measurable
time frame, called a period, and repeats that pattern over
subsequent identical periods. The completion of one full
pattern is called a cycle.
 A non-periodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern
or cycle that repeats over time
 Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or
composite. A simple periodic analog signal, a sine
wave, cannot be decomposed into simpler signals.
 A composite periodic analog signal is composed of
multiple sine waves.
Periodic and non periodic(aperiodic)
signal
 The sine wave is the most fundamental form of a
periodic analog signal

A sine wave can be represented by three

parameters: the peak amplitude, the frequency
and the phase.
Peak Amplitude
The peak amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of
its highest intensity, proportional to the energy it
carries. For electric signals, peak amplitude is normally
measured in volts.
Cont’
Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds,
a signal needs to complete 1 cycle.
Frequency refers to the number of periods in 1 s.
frequency and period are the inverse of each
other.
f=1/t and t = 1/f
Period is formally expressed in seconds.
Frequency is formally expressed in Hertz (Hz),
which is cycle per second
Cont’
Example: The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in
kilohertz?
Soln
Cont’
Example: The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in kilohertz?
Soln:-First we change 100 ms to seconds, and then we calculate the frequency
from the period (1 kHz = 103 Hz).
1s = 10-3 ms
100 𝑚𝑠 = 100 ∗ 10-3𝑠 = 10-1 𝑠
𝑓 =1/t=1/10-1 = 10 𝐻𝑧 = 10 ∗ 10-3𝑘𝐻𝑧 = 10-2𝑘𝐻𝑧
Phase :-The term phase describes the position of the wave form
relative to time 0.
Phase is measured in degrees or radians
A phase shift of 360° correspondents to a shift of a
complete period; a phase shift of
180°correspondents to a shift of one-half of a period;
and a phase shift of 90° correspondents to a shift of
one-quarter of a period
Cont’
Wavelength
Wavelength is another characteristic of a signal traveling
through a transmission medium.
The wavelength is the distance a simple signal can travel
in one period.

𝑊𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ = 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 ∗ 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑜𝑑 =𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑
𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦
For example, the wavelength of red light (frequency =4 * 1014) in air is:
λ =𝑠 /𝑓= 3 ∗ 108/ 4 ∗ 1014 = 0.75 ∗ 10-6 𝑚 = 0.75 𝜇𝑚
Tips
In a vacuum, light is propagated with a speed of 3 * 108 m/s. That speed is lower in air
and even lower in cable.
The wavelength is normally measured in micrometers (microns) instead
of meters.
Composite Signal
A single frequency sine wave is not useful in data communication, we need
to send composite signal, a composite signal is made of many simple sine
wave.
Any composite signal is the combination of simple sine wave with different
frequencies, amplitude and phase. the diagram is periodic composite signal

It is very difficult to manually decompose this signal into a series of simple

sine waves. However, there are tools, both hardware and software, that can
help us do the job.
A composite signal can be periodic or non-periodic.
A periodic composite signal can be decomposed into a series of simple
sine waves with discrete frequencies.
A non-periodic composite signal can be decomposed into a combination
of an
infinite number of simple sine waves with continuous frequencies
Digital Signal
In addition to being represented by an analog signal,
information can also be represented by a digital signal.
For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a
0 as zero voltage. A digital signal can have more than two
levels. In this case, we can send more than 1 bit for each
level

if a signal
has L levels,
each level
needs log2L
bits
Cont’
Example: A digital signal has eight levels. How
many bits are needed per level? We calculate the

𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 = 𝐥𝐨𝐠𝟐 𝟖 = 𝟑

number of bits from the formula Number

Therefore:
Each signal level is represented by 3 bits.
Bit Rate :- is the number of bits sent in 1s, expressed
in bits per second (bps)
Bit Length :- is the distance one bit occupies on
the transmission medium.
Bit length =propagation speed * bit duration
Transmission Impairment
Signals travel through transmission media, which are not
perfect. This imperfection causes signal impairment. Three
causes of impairment are attenuation, distortion and noise.

Impairment causes

Attenuati
Attenuation meansDistortio
a loss of energy.
NoiseWhen a signal travels
through aonmedium it loses
n it’s energy. To compensate for
this energy loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the signal.
Transmission Impairment

to show that signal has lost or gained strength,

engineers use the unit of the decibel
Decibel ,dB = 10log10 p2/p1
where p1-input signal
p2- output signal
The decibel is negative if a signal is attenuated and positive if a
signal is amplified.
Example suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium
and its power is reduced to one-half. This means that p2 is 1/2p1.
A loss of 3dB(-
in this case, the attenuation(loss of power ) can be calculated
3dB) is
10log10p2/p1 = 10log10 0.5p1/p1= 10log10 0.5 =10(-0.3)=-3dB
equivalent to
losing one half
Transmission Impairment
Example a signal travels through an amplifier, its power is increased 10 times.
This means that p2=10p1. in this case, the amplification(gain of power )
can be calculated as
10log10 p2/p1=10log10 10p1/p1=10(1) =10 dB.
Distortion:- means that the signal changes its shape or form. Distortion can
occur in composite signal made of different frequencies.
Transmission Impairment
Noise is the means of any unwanted signal gets
added to the transmitted signal by which the
resulting transmitted signal gets modified and
at the receiver side it is difficult to remove the
unwanted noise signal.
Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced noise,
crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the signal
Thermal – random noise of electrons in the wire creates an extra
signal
Induced noise comes from sources such as motors and
appliances
Impulse- spikes that result from power line, lightning etc …
Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other
Signal to noise Ration(SNR)
To measure the quality of a system the SNR is often used. It indicate
the strength of the signal with relative to the noise power in the
system.
The signal –to-noise ratio is defined as
SNR=(average signal power )/( average noise power
)
Because SRN is the ratio of the two powers, it is often described in
decibel units, SNRdB, defines as SNRdB =10log10SNR
E.g. the power of the signal is 10mW and the power of the noise is 1μW, what are the
values of SNR and SNRdB,
Soln. SNR= signal power/noise power
= 10mW/ 1μW= 10*10-3 W/10-6 W= 10000.
SNRdB =10log 10SRN
= 10log 1010000
=10log 10104
=10*4=40.
Cont’…
Noiseless Chanel: Nyquist Bit rate :-for noiseless channel, the
Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical Maximum bit rate
Bit rate =2*bandwidth *log2 l
Where L is the number of signal levels used to represent data
e.g. Consider a noiseless channel with bandwidth of 3000hz transmitting a
signal with two signal levels. The Maximum bit rate can be calculated as
Bit rate=2*bandwidth* log2 l
=2*3000* log22
=6000bps

Noise Channel: Shannon capacity

In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel, the channel is
always noisy. Shannon introduced a formula, called the
Shannon capacity, to determine the Theoretical highest data
rate for a noisy channel.
Capacity =bandwidth*log2(1+SNR)
Cont’…
Example: A channel with a 1MHz bandwidth. The SRN for this channel is 63.
the appropriate bit rate
C=B*log2(1+SRN)
=106 log 2(1+63)
=
106 Log2 26
=6 Mbps
Encoding and signalling
 The method of representing the bits is called
the signaling method.
 Encoding or line encoding is a method of
converting a stream of data bits into a
predefined "code”.

28
Encoding and signalling
 This can be relatively simple at very low
speeds with bits being converted directly to
signals.
 At higher speeds there is a coding step, then a
signalling step where electrical pulses are put
on a copper cable or light pulses are put on a
fibre optic cable.
Coding Scheme

30
NRZ - non return to zero
 A very simple signalling system
 1 is high voltage, 0 is low voltage
 Voltage does not have to return to zero
during each bit period
NRZ problems
 A long string of 1s or 0s can let sender and
receiver get out of step with their timing
 Inefficient, subject to interference
 Straightforward NRZ is not used on any kind
of Ethernet, though it could be used if
combined with a coding step
Manchester encoding
 Voltage change in the middle of each bit period
 Falling voltage means 0, Rising voltage means 1
 Change between bit periods is ignored.
Manchester encoding
 The transition (up or down) matters, not the
voltage level
 The voltage change in the middle of each bit
period allows the hosts to check their timing
 10 Mbps Ethernet uses Manchester encoding
(on UTP or old coaxial cables)
 Not efficient enough for higher speeds
100 Mbps Ethernet on UTP
 100 Mbps Ethernet uses 4B/5B encoding first
 It then uses MLT-3 to put the bits on the cable
as voltage levels
 1 means change, 0 means no change
100 Mbps Ethernet on fibre
 100BaseFX Ethernet uses 4B/5B encoding first
 It then uses NRZI encoding to put flashes of
LED infra red light on a multimode fibre optic
cable
 1 means change, 0 means no change
Gigabit Ethernet on UTP
 Uses a complicated coding step followed by a
complicated scheme of putting signals on the
wires, using 4 wire pairs.
Digital Bandwidth
 The amount of data that could flow across a
network segment in a given length of time.
 Determined by the properties of the medium
and the technology used to transmit and
detect signals.
 Basic unit is bits per second (bps)
 1 Kbps = 1,000 bps, 1Mbps = 1,000,000 bps
1 Gbps = 1,000,000,000 bps
Throughput and Goodput
 Throughput is the actual rate of transfer of
bits at a given time
 Varies with amount and type of traffic, devices
on the route etc.
 Always lower than bandwidth
 Goodput measures usable data transferred,
leaving out overhead. (headers etc.)
Transmission Media
 is a pathway that carries the information from
sender to receiver. Transmission media is broadly
classified into two groups.

 Guided/wired/bound:-the signals can be

transmitted directly & restricted in a thin path
through physical links.
 Unguided/wireless/unbounded:-It doesn’t
require any physical medium to transmit
electromagnetic signals.
Coaxial cable
 Central conductor
 Insulation
 Copper braid acting as return path for current
and also as shield against interference (noise)
 Outer jacket
Connectors for coaxial cable
Coaxial cable
 Good for high frequency radio/video signals
 Used for antennas/aerials
 Used for TV cable and Internet connections,
often now combined with fibre optic.
 Formerly used in Ethernet LANs – died out and
replaced by UTP was cheaper and gave higher
speeds
Twisted pair cable
 Twisted pair cable further classified into two
shielded and unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable
 UTP cable
 8 wires twisted together into 4 pairs and with an outer
jacket.
 Wires have colour-coded plastic jackets
 Commonly used for Ethernet LANs
UTP cable
 EIA/TIA sets standards for cables
 Category 5 or higher can be used for 100Mbps
Ethernet. Cat 5e can be used for Gigabit
Ethernet if well installed.
 We have Cat 5e. A new installation now would
have Cat 6.
 The number of twists per metre is carefully
controlled.
RJ45 connectors

Plugs on
patch cables
(crimped)

Sockets to
terminate
installed
cabling
(punch down)
Shielded twisted pair (STP)
 Wires are shielded against noise
 Much more expensive than UTP
 Might be used for 10 Gbps Ethernet
Straight through cable
 Both ends the same
 Connect PC to switch or hub
 Connect router to switch or hub
 Installed cabling is straight
through
 Pair 1= blue with white/blue
 Pair 2 =orange with white/ orange
 Pair 3 = green with white/green
 Pair 4 = brown with white/brown
Crossover cable
 Wire 1 swaps with 3
 Wire 2 swaps with 6
 Connect similar devices to
each other
 Connect PC direct to router
Rollover cable
 Cisco proprietary
 Wire order completely
reversed
 Console connection from PC
serial port to router – to
configure router
 Special cable or RJ45 to D9
adaptor.
Noise
 Electrical signals on copper cable are subject
to interference (noise)
 Electromagnetic (EMI) from device such as
fluorescent lights, electric motors
 Radio Frequency (RFI) from radio
transmissions
 Crosstalk from other wires in the same cable
or nearly cables
Avoiding noise problems
 Metal shielding round cables
 Twisting of wire pairs gives cancelling effect
 Avoiding routing copper cable through areas
liable to produce noise
 Careful termination – putting connectors on
cables correctly
Fibre optic cable
 Transmits flashes of light
 No RFI/EMI noise problem
 Several fibres in cable
 Paired for full
duplex
Single mode fibre optic
 Glass core 8 – 10 micrometres diameter
 Laser light source produces single ray of light
 Distances up to 100km
 Photodiodes to convert light back to electrical
signals
Multimode fibre optic
 Glass core 50 – 60 micrometres diameter
 LED light source produces many rays of light
at different angles, travel at different speeds
 Distances up to 2km, limited by dispersion
 Photodiode receptors
 Cheaper than
single mode
 Fibre optic connectors

Straight tip (ST) connector Subscriber connector (SC)

single mode multimode

Single mode lucent connector Multimode lucent connector

Duplex multimode lucent connector (LC)

Which cable for the LAN?

UTP copper Fibre optic

Max 100 m length 100km or 2km
Noise problems No noise problems
Within building only Within/between buildings
Cheaper More expensive
Easier to install Harder to install
Testing cables

Fluke NetTool for Optical Time Domain

twisted pair cables Reflectometer (OTDR) for fibre
optic cables
Wireless Network
 What is a wireless network?
 A technology that enables two or more
entities to communicate without network
cabling

59
Wireless?
 A wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local
area network that uses radio waves as its
carrier.
 The last link with the users is wireless, to give
a network connection to all users in a building
or campus.
 The backbone network usually uses cables

60
 Common Topologies
The wireless LAN connects to a wired LAN

 There is a need of an access point that bridges wireless LAN traffic

into the wired LAN.
 The access point (AP) can also act as a repeater for wireless nodes,
effectively doubling the maximum possible distance between nodes.

61
Physical and Data Link Layers
Physical Layer:
 The wireless NIC takes frames of data from
the link layer, scrambles the data in a
predetermined way, then uses the modified
data stream to modulate a radio carrier
signal.
Data Link Layer:
 Uses Carriers-Sense-Multiple-Access with
Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA).

62
Integration With Existing Networks
 Wireless Access Points (APs) - a small device
that bridges wireless traffic to your network.
 Most access points bridge wireless LANs into
Ethernet networks, but Token-Ring options are
available as well.

63
Hardware
 PC Card, either with integral antenna or with
external antenna/RF module.
 ISA Card with external antenna connected by
cable.
 Handheld terminals
 Access points

64
Hardware

CISCO Aironet 350 series

Wireless Handheld Terminal

BreezeCOM AP
Semi Parabolic Antenna

65
Different Wireless Networks
 IrDA (Infrared Data Association)
 Uses beams in the infrared light spectrum
 Bluetooth
 Uses 2.45 gigahertz radio waves, but emits
weak signals
 Limits distance to 10 feet, but travels through walls
 WiFi

66
Wireless Access Point
 LINKSYS
 Model No. BEFW11S4 ver. 2
 Supports
 IEEE 802.3 (10BaseT)
 IEEE 802.3u (100BaseTX)
 IEEE 802.11b (Wireless)
 Built-in router capability
 Obtains a Clarkson IP and uses DHCP
 Built-in 4 port switch
 Fully-configurable through simple web interface

68
Wireless Cards
 11Mbs
 802.11b compatible
 4 3Com Cards
 Model No. 3CRWE62092A
 4 ORiNOCO (Lucent) Cards
 Model No. 012352/G

69
How are WLANs Different?
 They use specialized physical and data link
protocols
 They integrate into existing networks through
access points which provide a bridging function
 They let you stay connected as you roam from
one coverage area to another
 They have unique security considerations
 They have specific interoperability
requirements
 They require different hardware
 They offer performance that differs from wired
LANs.

70
Wireless problems
 Interference from other wireless
communications, cordless phones, fluorescent
lights, microwave ovens…
 Building materials can block signals.
 Security is a major issue.