Transmission Modes
Compiled by Mr. T.E. ZHAKATA
Objectives
At the end of the lecture, participants
should be able to:
Define transmission
Describe Serial transmission and parallel
transmission.
Explain synchronous vs asynchronous
transmission
Distinguish between these transmission
modes
What is transmission?
Transmission is movement of data in form
bits from one digital device to the other.
The movement is through some form of
transmission medium (optic fiber, coaxial
cable etc)
Reasons for transmission
Transmission modes
What is parallel
transmission?
Several bits are sent simultaneous using n
communication channels.
To transmit n bits, n wires are used. Thus
each bit has its own line.
Multiple bits are transmitted with each clock
pulse
They are used for short distance
transmission
Parallel Transmission
Advantage
•Fast method of transmission.
Disadvantages of parallel
Suffer of inter-symbol interference, noise
due to proximity of the wires
Expensive – many wires
Capacitance, mutual inductance reduce
bandwidth
Clock screw
Serial transmission
Serial transmission is the method of sending
one bit at a time, sequentially over one
communication channel or computer.
Various bits are sent one after the other via
one channel.
One bit sent per clock pulse
One communication channel
Long distance transmission
Serial transmission
continued
For an 8-bit data 11001010 is to be sent from source to
destination. Then least significant bit (LSB) i,e. 0 will be
transmitted first followed by other bits. The most significant bit
(MSB) i.e. 1 will be transmitted in the end via single
communication line.
Advantages – Serial
Transmission
Advantages
Single channel – reduced cost
Single channel – no interference
Supports longer distances
Disadvantages
Use of converters at both ends may increase
cost
Slow compared to parallel
Types of serial
Transmission
There are two types
Asynchronous
Synchronous
Both use concept of bit synchronization –
the function required to determine when the
start & end of transmission occurs.
Asynchronous
transmission
Send a bit stream at a time (bits of a letter
or a numeric character) – one byte per time
Send the bit stream with no common clock
between sender & receiver.
Bit synchronization between two devices is
made possible because of start and stop
bits.
Start bit marks the beginning of data. Start
bit usually zero
End bit marks the end of data. Usually one
Asynchronous block
structure
Characteristics of
asynchronous
Addition of start & stop bits increase the
number of bits to be transmitted – hence
more bandwidth consumed.
Existence of gaps – idle time between bytes
Gaps are of varying intervals
Advantages of
asynchronous
This method of data transmission is cheaper
in cost as compared to synchronous
In this approach each individual character is
complete in itself, therefore if character is
corrupted during transmission, its successor
and predecessor character will not be
affected.
It is possible to transmit signals from
sources having different bit rates.
Easy to implement
Disadvantages
This method is less efficient and slower than
synchronous transmission due to the
overhead of extra bits and insertion of gaps.
Successful transmission inevitably depends
on the recognition of the start bits. These
bits can be missed or corrupted.
Synchronous transmission
•In order to receive the data error free, the receiver and sender operates
at the same clock frequency.
•Since the various bytes are placed on the link without any gap, it is the
responsibility of receiver to separate the bit stream into bytes so as to
reconstruct the original information.
Exercise
Find application of synchronous
transmission
Find application of asynchronous
transmission
Advantages of synchronous
This method is faster as compared to
asynchronous as there are no extra bits
(start bit & stop bit) and no gaps
Disadvantages of
synchronous
It is costly as compared to asynchronous
method. It requires local buffer storage at
the two ends of line ends.
The sender and receiver have to operate at
the same clock frequency. This requires
proper synchronization which makes the
system complicated.
End of Chapter Questions
What is the difference between serial mode
of transmission to parallel mode of
transmission?
Compare & contrast synchronous to
asynchronous mode of transmission?
For long haul transmission what mode of
transmission is best suitable and why?
Define the term bit synchronization
