Overview of Data Communication and Networking

DATA COMMUNICATIONS: - Data communications are the exchange of data between two devices via some form of transmission medium such as wire cable. For data communications to occur, the communicating devices must be a part of a communication system/model. Communication Model: - The key elements of a communication model are---

Source: - This device generates the data to be transmitted; examples are telephones and personal computers. Transmitter: - Usually, the data generated by a source system are not transmitted directly in the form in which they were generated. Rather, a transmitter transforms and encodes the information in such a way as to produce electromagnetic signals that can be transmitted across some sort of transmission system. For example, a modem takes a digital bit stream from an attached device such as a personal computer and transforms that bit stream into an analog signal that can be handled by the telephone network. Transmission system: - This can be a single transmission line or a complex network connecting source and destination. Receiver: - The receiver accepts the signal from the transmission system and converts it into a form that can be handled by the destination device. For example, a modem will accept an analog signal coming from a network or transmission line and convert it into a digital bit stream. Destination: - Takes the incoming data from the receiver.

Communication between two devices can be simplex, half duplex or full duplex.

Fig: - A communication model

Simplex: - In simplex mode, the communication is unidirectional. Only one of the two devices on a link can transmit, the other can only receive. Keyboards and monitors are examples of simplex devices. The keyboard can only introduce input and the monitor

can only accept output. The simplex mode can use the entire capacity of the channel to send data in one direction. Half-duplex: - In 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. Walkie-talkies are half duplex systems. The half-duplex mode is used in cases where there is no need for communication in both directions at the same time. The entire capacity of the channel can be utilized for each direction. Full-duplex: - In full duplex mode, both stations can transmit and receive simultaneously. In full duplex mode, signals going in one direction share the capacity of the link with signals going in the other direction. This sharing can occur in two wayseither the link must contain two physically separate transmission paths, one for sending and the other for receiving; or the capacity of the channel is divided between signals travelling in both directions. One common example of full duplex communication is the telephone network. When two people are communicating over a telephone line, both can talk and listen at the same time. Network: -

Types of Connection For communication to occur, two devices must be connected to the same link in some way at the same time.

ble.

than two specific devices share a single link.

possiblemesh, star, bus and ring.

Mesh : - In a mesh topology, every device has a dedicated pointto-point link to every other device. The term dedicated means that the link carries traffic only between the two devices it connects.

Advantages 1. The use of dedicated links guarantees that each connection can carry its own data load, thus eliminating the traffic problems that occur when links are shared by multiple devices. 2. This topology is robust. If one link becomes unusable, it does not incapacitate the entire system. 3. It provides an advantage on privacy or security. When every message travels along a dedicated line, only the intended recipient sees it. 4. Point-to-point links make fault identification and fault isolation easy. Disadvantages 1. As because every device must be connected to every other device, installation and reconnection is difficult. 2. The sheer bulk of the wiring can be greater than the available space can accommodate. 3. The hardware required to connect each link (I/O ports and cable) can be prohibitively expensive.

Star In this topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point link only to a central controller, usually called a hub. The devices are not linked directly to one another. The controller acts as an exchangeif one device wants to send data to another, it sends data to the controller, which then relays the data to the other connected devices.

Advantages 1. Less expensive than a mess topology. 2. Easy to install and reconfigure. 3. Less cabling is needed here. 4. It is robust in nature. If one link fails, only that link is affected, and all the other links remain active. 5. Fault identification and fault isolation is easy here. Disadvantages 1. If the hub goes down, the whole system is dead. 2. Although a star requires far less cabling than a mesh, each node must be linked to a central hub. For this reason, often more cabling is required in a star than in the other topologies (such as ring or bus). Bus A bus topology is a multipoint connection. One long cable acts as a backbone to link all the devices in the network.

Advantages 1. Ease of installation. 2. Less cabling. Disadvantages 1. Difficult reconnection and fault isolation. 2. A fault or breakage in the bus cable stops all transmission. Bus topologies can be used for a LAN. Ring In a ring topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point connection with only the two devices on either side of it. A signal is passed along the ring in one direction, from device to device, until it reaches its destination. Each device in the ring incorporates a repeater. When a device receives a signal intended for another device, its repeater regenerates the bits and passes them along.

1.

Advantages Easy to install and reconfigure.

2.

Easy fault isolation. Disadvantages 1. A break in the ring can disable the entire network. Ring topologies can be used for a LAN. Other than these topologies, some topologies are created using these basic topologies. They are--Hybrid Hybrid networks are the complex networks, which can be built of two or more above mentioned topologies. For example, we can have a star topology with each branch connecting several stations in a bus topology.

Tree Tree topologies are comprised of the multiple star topologies on a bus. Tree topologies integrate multiple star topologies together onto a bus. Only the hub devices can connect directly with the tree bus and each Hub functions as a root of a tree of the network devices. This bus/star/hybrid combination supports future expandability of the computer networks, much better than a bus or star.

Local Area Network(LAN) : - A local-area network is a communications network that interconnects a variety of devices and provides a means for information exchange among those devices. There are several key distinctions between LANs and WANs: 1. The scope of the LAN is small, typically a single building or a cluster of buildings. This difference in geographic scope leads to different technical solutions, as we shall see. 2. It is usually the case that the LAN is owned by the same organization that owns the attached devices. For WANs, this is less often the case, or at least a significant fraction of the network assets are not owned. This has two implications. First, care must be taken in the choice of LAN, as there may be a substantial capital investment (compared to dial-up or leased charges for wide area networks) for both purchase and maintenance. Second, the network management responsibility for a local network falls solely on the user. 3. The internal data rates of LANs are typically much greater than those of wide area networks. Traditionally, LANs make use of a broadcast network approach rather than a switching approach. With a broadcast communication network, there are no intermediate switching nodes. At each station, there is a transmitter/receiver that communicates over a medium shared by other stations. A transmission from any one station is broadcast to and received by all other stations. A simple example of this is a CB radio system, in which all users tuned to the same channel may communicate.

We will be concerned with networks used to link computers, workstations, and other digital devices. In the latter case, data are usually transmitted in packets. Because the medium is shared, only one station at a time can transmit a packet.

Early LANs had data rates in the 4 to 16 Mbps range. Today, speeds are normally 100 or 1000 Mbps. Wide Area Network(WAN) : nent or even the whole world. A WAN can be as complex as the backbones that connect the internet (switched WAN) or as simple as a dial-up line that connects a home computer to the Internet(point-to-point WAN).

Metropolitan Area Network(MAN) : -

can also be used for high speed data connection to the Internet. Baseband and broadband topologies: - Transmission on LANs can use either the whole bandwidth capacity of the medium, or split it into channels. Baseband is when the whole capacity of the medium is used, while Broadband is when the medium capacity is split into channels. Baseband is generally used for digital transmissions, while Broadband is generally used for analog transmissions. _______________________