Introduction to Networking

CT043-3-1
Data Communication Model and
Architectures

Topics and Structure of the

lesson
Standards bodies: IEEE, ITU, ISO, IETF,
IANA
Open System Interconnection
Standard Internet Protocols
Implication of protocols and standards on
telecommunication systems

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture YOU should be
able to:
Explain and differentiate between analog and digital
transmissions
Identify 2 different techniques used for error
detection
List and describe the functionality of Data
Communication components
Understand the need for protocols

Key Terms you must be able to

use:
If you have mastered this topic, you should be
able to use the following terms correctly in your
assignments and exams:
Data Communication
Source
Medium
Sink
Protocol
Analog Signal
Digital Signal

Data Communication
Data communication are the exchange of data
between two devices via some form of
transmission medium such as a wire cable.
Data can be transmitted through a data
communication system to a printer, a disk
drive, a remotely located terminal or computer.
The data communication system is actually a
part of the telecommunication system that links
together the capabilities of the computer.

Main Teaching Points

Data Communication System Components

Protocols
A set of rules governing the data
communication process
What, how and when communication
happens
Can be described as the language of
data communications

How Does E-Mail Reach It's

Destination?
To demonstrate the components driving computer networks
in general, and specifically - the Internet, let us assume that
you are at home, writing an electronic mail message to your
uncle, who works on the other side of the world. You know
that once you send your mail, it will somehow make itself to
your uncle's computer.
How exactly does this happen?

Step 1: Sending (uploading) mail

To connect to the Internet, you must have an
account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), a
company that connects people to the Internet.
Connection from your computer to the ISP's
computers will probably be made through the
phone, using a device called a modem. The modem
enables your computer to transmit digital data over
the phone lines, which are analog.
The data passed between the two computers is decoded using
computer protocols. In this case, various modem specific
protocols (such as X.25) are used, as well as protocols from the
Internet protocol suite (such as PPP and SLIP).
Your mail program sends your mail through the use of yet another
protocol - the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

Step 2: At the ISP's

The ISP's modem converts data from the phone line back
to digital pulses, and it's server interprets the information.
The server figures out the nature of you data, by decoding
the SLIP/PPP data (in this case, the data is your e-mail).
The ISP has a local area network (LAN) (or specfically, an
Ethernet LAN). The LAN connects computer in the ISP's
office space. Once the data is interpreted, the server first
role is to figure out if the data you had just sent is destined
for a computer in the ISP's LAN. In your particular, this
isn't true, since your uncle's computer isn't even in the
same country.
Data not destined for a computer connected to the ISP's
LAN, is forwarded to the Wide Area Network (WAN) - the
Internet. For security reasons, the ISP had installed a
firewall, a device that keeps unwanted people from
tampering with data on it's LAN. The firewall job is to
receive all data going to/from the Internet, and filtering out
it's "bad" part. The firewall, in this case, also serves as a
router.
Notice that the firewall is connected at a great distance from the network
bus. Under normal circumstances, electrical signals won't be able to travel
such a long distance. But here we see that the ISP installed a repeater, a
device that enhances the signals, thus allowing them to travel a longer
distance.

Step 3: The WAN

Wide Area Network (WAN) is a general term that refers

to a network that exceeds local boundaries.
A WAN usually includes many LANs in it, which
together form a huge network (as represented by the
cloud).
The world's most famous WAN is the Internet.

Step 4: At your uncle's office

Your uncle's office has a local area network that's connected directly
to the internet through a router. A router is a device that serves as a
kind of electronic "yellow-pages" of computers. Every computer on
the internet has an "address", and routers are the devices that know
how to get data to each computer using this address.
The LAN is also has a special connection to the Integrated Services
Digital Network (ISDN - digital phone lines). The is done by using a
gateway - a device that "translates" between the "languages" of the
LAN and ISDN.
Notice that the LAN in this office is arranged in a "star" topology
(unlike the network we saw in the ISP). This is a
Token Ring Network

Elements of Data Communication

Network
The three basic elements are source, medium
and sink.
Source is the equipment sends data. It will encode
the information and transfer the encoded information
into a form that can be carried by the medium.
Medium can carry the data sent by the source to
the sink.
Sink is the equipment that receives the data carried
by the medium. It will decode the information and
transfer the information to its original or any other
useful form.

Digital Information
Digital information is stored in bytes.
Bytes can be used to represent anything in
the computer sense.
256 different byte combinations can be used
to represent a variety of data.
Should a computer be equipped with a
program to translate these bytes into
something meaningful, any number of
variance is possible.

Signals
In computer information systems, data is
represented and processed in the forms of
bits.
To transmit this binary signal to another
location, computers utilizes a system of
signals to relay their information.
These signals are usually a form of energy
traveling along a physical medium.

Signal Formats
Data and signals can be represented in
either digital or analog formats.
Digital is something thats discrete in
nature and has very identifiable points in
its transformations.
Analog represents those which are
continuous. A stream of points with points
in between.

Analog Signal
A continuous wave form that changes by
time.
Has an infinite amount of point between
point A and point B.
Its transformation between states is
smooth in comparison to digital signals.

Digital Signal
Has a limited number of values.
Often used to represent only 1 or 0.
There are no transitory points in digital
signals, only a finite number is agreed
upon.

Interface Control
A set of rules must be adhered to by both
communicating parties to ensure that
information being exchanged across a link
is received and interpreted correctly.
An interface standard is needed for both
party to have same format, type and order
of the message exchanged.

Flow Control
If the amount of data to be transmitted is
small, it is possible for the sending device
to transmit all the data immediately
because the receiving device will have
sufficient space to hold the data.
If the space is not sufficient, we have to
adopt a method to control the flow of data.
It is to make sure the receiver will not lose
any of the transmitted data.

Error Control
If data has to be transmitted for a long distance,
it is likely the transmitted signal is corrupted.
That is the signal level corresponding to a
binary 0 is interpreted by the receiver as the
level for a binary 1.
Error control is a way to make sure that the
receiver can identify the error data and can
inform the transmitter to send the corrupted
data again.

Error Detection Techniques

Redundancy is a method of introducing
extra bits to verify the integrity of the stream.
These bits are appended to the stream, and
once integrity has been verified, they are
discarded.
Error detection methods include:
Cyclic Redundancy Check
Checksum

Error Detection Techniques

Any system which uses the addition of
redundancy bits to the stream would use
the same model.

Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRC is the most effective of the
redundancy checks, which also
makes it the most complex.
CRC does not work on addition,
but on binary division.
The logic of the system is that a
data stream is divided through
a predetermined divisor, and
the CRC bits are appended to
the data stream.
On the receiving device, the
same division occurs.

Checksum
At the sending device, the checksum generator subdivides the data unit into
equal segments of n bits (usually 16 bits).
The segments are added using ones complement arithmetic.
The total is then complemented and appended to the end of the original data
unit as redundancy bits, called the checksum.
Suppose the following block of 16 bits is to be sent using a checksum of 8 bits:

10101001 00111001
The number are added using ones complement:
10101001
00111001
11100010 sum
00011101 checksum
The pattern being sent is 10101001 00111001

00011101

Checksum
At the sending device, the segments and the checksum are added
using ones complement to get the sum.
The sum is then complemented. If the result is zero, the data are
accepted; otherwise they are rejected.
Now suppose the receiver receives the pattern sent in previous
example. When the receiver adds the three sections, it will get all 1s,
which after complementing, is all 0s and shows that there is no error.
10101001
00111001
00011101
11111111 sum
00000000 means that there is no error

Summary

Data Communication
Elements of Data Communication Network
Protocols
Flow Control
Error Control
Interface Control
Signals - Analog vs Digital
Digital Information

Question and Answer Session

Q&A