CCOOMMUMN U

I CN
A TIICO NAST I O N S

THE BASICS OF
DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
This article defines data communication as a whole. The teristics, namely, delivery, accuracy, and
timeliness. The system must accurately
various topics under discussion are transmission types, deliver the data to the right destination
topologies, protocols, modulation methods, and practical and at the time it is required.
examples in which data communication methods are used
Transmission networks
Parallel transmission. Binary data is
ARATHI SELVARAJ signals, voice signals, and pictures. organised into groups of ‘n’ bits. The data
Sender. It is the device used to send is then sent ‘n’ bits at a time using ‘n’

D
ata communication can be defined
as the exchange of data in the
form of 0’s and 1’s between two
devices using a transmission medium. Data
communication takes place when the com-
municating devices are part of a commu-
nication system that is made up of a com-
bination of hardware and software. Data
communication via various electronic de-
vices helps us to transmit data at high
speeds over large areas. Information may
be passed on to various destinations, thus
reducing the need to type in the same
data over and over.
the data; for example, computer, worksta-
tion, and telephone.
Receiver. It is the device that receives
the data; for example, computer, worksta-
tion, etc.
Medium. The transmission medium is
the physical path that the data uses to
travel from the sender to the receiver; for
example, twisted pair wire, coaxial cable,
fibre-optic cable, satellite, or microwave.
Protocol. The set of rules that govern
the data to be communicated is known as
a protocol.
The efficiency of a data communica-
tion system is measured by three charac-
channels (refer Fig. 2).
Serial transmission. Data is sent one
bit at a time, hence only one communica-
tion channel rather than ‘n’ channels is
needed (refer Fig. 3). Thus the cost of
transmission is reduced by a factor of ‘n’.
Asynchronous transmission. Data is
received and translated by agreed upon
Fig. 2: Parallel transmission

The system
A data communication system (refer Fig.
1) comprises data, sender, receiver, me-
dium, and protocol.
Data. Data is the information that is
to be communicated; for example, data Fig. 1: Data communication system Fig. 3: Serial transmission

ELECTRONICS FOR YOU JULY 2002


Fig. 4: Asynchronous transmission
Fig. 5: Synchronous transmission
patterns. Patterns are based on grouping
bits of data into bytes. The receiver
recognises a new group of data through
an additional bit called the start bit (usu-
ally ‘0’). The end of a group is found
using the stop bit (usually ‘1’). Hence
timing of the signal is unimportant. The
transmission may then be followed by a
gap of varying duration (refer Fig. 4).
Synchronous transmission. Bit
streams are combined to form ‘frames’
containing multiple bytes. There is no gap
between the transmission of two
consecutive bytes. The task of decoding
and separating bytes is left to the
receiver. Thus data is transmitted as an
unbroken series of 1’s and 0’s. There
are no gaps or start and stop bits, hence
it is the responsibility of the receiving
device to keep count of bits coming
in and also to synchronise itself to the
speed at which data is coming in (refer
Fig. 5).
Topologies
The way in which the data communica-
tion network is laid (physically or logi-
cally) out is known as topology. Star, ring,
and bus are the three widely used
topologies.
In star topology, each device is con-
nected to a central controller called the
hub through a dedicated point-to-point
link. As devices are not directly connected
to one another, the controller behaves as
Fig. 6: Star topology
an exchange. The data that needs to be
sent from one device to another is first
sent to the controller, which then sends
the data to the desired device (refer Fig.
6).
In ring topology, each device is con-
nected to the two devices on either side
of it by a point-to-point
dedicated line. A signal is
passed from one device to
the next in only one direction
until it reaches its
destination. If a device
encounters the data intended
for another device, the re-
peater generates bit patterns and passes
on the data (refer Fig. 7).
The multipoint bus topology uses a
long cable to link all the devices in the
network. Nodes or devices are connected
to the cable using drop lines or taps (refer
Fig. 8).
Protocols
Protocols may be defined based on the
layer in which they are used.
Layer 1. The physical layer is con-
cerned with signaling. It includes several
Fig. 7: Ring topology
Fig. 8: Bus topology
Fig. 9: Pulse amplitude modulation
COMMUNICATIONS
standards such as V.35, RS232, and X.21.
Layer 2. The data link layer is an
implementation of the ISO HDLC stan-
dard called link access procedure balanced
(LAPB) and provides an error-free link
between two connected devices.
Layer 3. The network layer provides
communication between devices connected
to a common network. In the case of X.25,
this layer is referred to as the X.25 packet
layer protocol (PLP) and is primarily con-
cerned with network routing functions and
multiplexing of simultaneous logical con-
nections over a single physical connec-
tion.
Types of modulation used
The data that needs to be transmitted must
be first converted into an analogue or digi-
tal signal, depending on the medium via
which it must be sent. The conversion
required may be any one of pulse ampli-
tude modulation, pulse code modulation,
delta modulation, amplitude shift keying,
frequency shift keying, phase shift key-
ing, or quadrature amplitude modulation.
Pulse amplitude modulation. The ana-
logue signal is sampled (measuing the am-
plitude of the signal at equal intervals)
and a series of pulses based on the results
of the sampling are taken. Pulses arising
from pulse amplitude modulation (refer
Fig. 9) are of varying amplitudes and hence
are analogue rather than digital.
Digitisation is done using pulse code
modulation.
Pulse code modulation. The ampli-
tude-modulated pulses are quantised by
assigning integral values (Fig. 10) in a
specific range to sample instances. Each
value is then coded into an 8-bit binary
equivalent (Fig. 11) with the eighth bit
representing sign. The binary digits are
then transformed into a digital signal us-
ing digital-to-digital encoding techniques.
Differential pulse code modulation, delta
modulation, and adaptive delta modula-
JULY 2002 ELECTRONICS FOR YOU
COMMUNICATIONS
Fig. 10: Quantised pulse amplitude modulation using
magnitude and sign
Fig. 11: Pulse code modulation
tion (a more advanced version of delta
modulation) are the improved categories
of pulse code modulation.
Delta modulation. The analogue sig-
nal is integrated and compared with the
original analogue signal at equal intervals
of time. The difference between the two
values is the output of the modulator. A
single bit is sufficient for encoding the
difference. The encoding bit is set to ‘1’ if the potential bitrate.
the difference increases and to ‘0’ if the
difference decreases. If there is no change
in the signal amplitude, it remains the
same as the previous bit (refer Fig. 12).
Amplitude shift keying (ASK). The
amplitude of the carrier signal is varied to susceptible to noise.
represent binary ‘1’ or ‘0’. Which voltage
represents a ‘1’ or a ‘0’ is entirely up to
the system designer. Both the frequency
and the phase remain constant, and only
the amplitude changes. An amplitude shift
keying based transmission is highly sus-
ceptible to noise. A binary ‘1’ may be
changed to a binary ‘0’ and vice versa
(refer Fig. 13).
Frequency shift keying (FSK). The fre-
quency of the carrier signal is varied to
represent a binary ‘0’ or ‘1’. The frequency a demultiplexer.
Fig. 12: Delta modulation
ELECTRONICS FOR YOU JULY 2002
of the signal remains constant channel, i.e. the channels take turns to
during each bit duration and use the link. This multiplexing becomes
its value depends on the bit inefficient when the traffic is intermittent,
‘0’ or ‘1’. Since the amplitude because the time slot is allocated even
and phase of the carrier signal when the channel has no data to transmit.
remain constant, the signal is Statistical time division multiplexing
unaffected by noise (refer Fig. overcomes the inefficiency of time divi-
13). sion multiplexing. It uses a variable time
Phase shift keying (PSK). slot and allows channels to view for any
The phase of the carrier is free slot space. A buffer memory tempo-
varied to represent binary ‘0’ rarily stores the data during periods of
or ‘1’; 0° phase is used to peak traffic. This allows no time wastage
represent binary ‘0’ and 180° of a high-speed line with inactive chan-
phase is used to represent nels.
binary ‘1’. The amplitude and the fre- Frequency division multiplexing. It in-
quency of the carrier remain constant volves simultaneous transmission of
while the phase changes. The phase of multiple separate signals through a shared
the signal for every bit-duration is con- medium by modulating, at the transmit-
stant and its value depends on the bit ter, the separate signals into separable
(refer Fig. 13). frequency bands and adding the results
Quadrature amplitude modulation. It linearly either before transmission or
is similar to phase shift keying, except within the medium. The combined sig-
that the amplitude is
also varied. Thus with
four phase shifts and
two amplitude shifts, a
total of eight binary
numbers can be
represented (refer Fig.
14). This factor limits
Generally, the number of
phase shifts is greater
than the number of
amplitude shifts, as
amplitude changes are
Multiplexing
Multiplexing is combin-
ing several signals over
a single medium for
transmission. The sig-
nals are combined at the
transmitting end by a
multiplexer and split up Fig. 13: Digital-to-analogue conversion
at the receiving end by
nals may be amplified, conducted, trans-
Code division multiplexing. In this lated in frequency, and routed toward the
type of multiplexing the transmitter destination as a single signal.
encodes the signal using a pseudorandom Wave division multiplexing or dense
sequence that the receiver also knows and wave division multiplexing is a type of
can use to decode the received signal. frequency division multiplexing that is
Each random sequence corresponds to a used for optical fibre transmission. The
different communication channel. technique relies on the fact that a laser
Time division multiplexing. In time can be designed to emit monochromatic
division multiplexing two or more chan- light. Each signal to be trasmitted is at-
nels of information are transmitted over tached to a laser that emits a different
the same link by allocating a different time colour light beam. All the light beams are
interval (slot) for the transmission of each sent at the same time and a receiving

Fig. 14: Quadrature amplitude modulation;
two amplitudes, four phases
device splits the colours into the original
signals again.
Practical examples
Digital subscriber line. The digital sub-
scriber line makes use of the existing tele-
communication networks (such as tele-
phone lines) to send data at high speeds.
The advantage of an asymmetric digital
subscriber line is that it provides higher
bitrate for upstream direction (from sub-
scriber site to telephone office). The asym-
metric digital subscriber line operates by
dividing the bandwidth of a twisted pair
cable into three bands. The bands are used
for telephonic communication, upstream
data, and downstream data, respectively.
PC-to-PC communication. PC-to-PC
communication can take place via the
Internet. For this, a modem is used, which
is basically a modulator and a
demodualtor in one device. A modulator
modifies an analogue signal to encode
information in a basic signal for transmis-
sion. A demodulator detects the digital
information from the modulated signal at
the receiving end.
Modems can be classified into vari-
ous categories based on their range (short-
haul, voice-grade, and wide band), line
type (dial-up, leased, and private), opera-
tion mode (half-duplex, full duplex, and
simplex), synchronisation (asynchronous
and synchronous), modulation (amplitude,
frequency, and pulse modulation), and
data rate.
Satellite communication system. Sat-
ellite communication is an economical
solution for meeting bandwidth require-
ments of a heavy traffic. For instance, the
direct-to-user system used in the Satellite
Business System, USA, covers a range of
government and business users who re-
COMMUNICATIONS
quire high-speed data links. Low-earth or-
biting (LEO) satellites can be used for
this purpose. These satellites operate in
the store-and-forward mode by collecting
data from one part of the world and then
transmitting it to another. One such
application is the satellite telephone that
can send voice, fax, and data.
Microwave communication. Although
microwave is highly advantageous for
communication over difficult terrain, the
bandwidth allocation is very limited and
the links are highly susceptible to noise.
Hence these systems cannot support high-
speed data links.
Mobile communication. As transmit-
ter powers are very limited, the commu-
nication is restricted to a small region
called a ‘cell’. When a call is placed, it is
directed to the independent transmitter of
that cell. The mobile switching centre al-
locates any available channel within the
current cell to the call. As the call reaches
the boundary of the current cell, it is
propagated to the next cell and is assigned
a new channel within that cell. The call
thus gets forwarded from cell to cell until
it reaches the required destination.
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JULY 2002 ELECTRONICS FOR YOU