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Chapter 1

Introduction

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What is Computer ‘data’ ?
 Computer data is information processed or stored by a computer.
 This information is, may be in the form of text documents, images,
audio clips, software programs, or other types of data.
 Computer data may be processed by the computer's CPU and is
stored in files and folders on the computer's hard disk.

What is data communication?

 Not to be confused with telecommunication—
 Any process that permits the passage from a sender to one or more
receivers of information of any nature, delivered in any easy to use
form by any electromagnetic system.
 Data communication
 Defined as a subset of telecommunication involving the transmission
of data to and from computers and components of computer systems.
 More specifically data communication is transmitted via mediums
such as wires, coaxial cables, fiber optics, or radiated
electromagnetic waves such as broadcast radio, infrared light,
microwaves, and satellites.
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What is Computer Networks?
 Computer Networks
 is a telecommunications network which allows computers to exchange data
using a data link.
 the connections between nodes are established using either cable media or
wireless media.

In general
 Data communications deals with the transmission of signals in a reliable and
efficient manner.
 Networking deals with the technology and architecture of the communications
networks used to interconnect communicating devices

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Contemporary Data Communications

Three different forces have consistently driven the architecture and

evolution of data communications and networking facilities:
 Traffic growth at a high & steady rate
 Requirement / development of new services
 Advances in technology
Significant change in requirements organizations’ business led to:
 Emergence of high-speed LANs
 Corporate WAN needs
 Use of digital electronics

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A Communications Model

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A Communications Model….cont’d
 The fundamental purpose of a communications system is the
exchange of data between two parties.
 The key elements of this model are:
• Source - generates data to be transmitted
• Transmitter - converts data into transmittable signals
• Transmission System - carries data from source to
destination
• Receiver - converts received signal into data
• Destination - takes incoming data

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Key Communications Tasks

Transmission system utilization Addressing

Interfacing Routing
Signal generation Recovery
Synchronization Message formatting
Exchange management Security
Error detection and correction Network management
Flow control

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Key Communications Tasks…..cont’d
• Transmission system utilization - need to make efficient use of
transmission facilities
• a device must interface with the transmission system
• once an interface is established, signal generation is required
for communication
• Synchronization between transmitter and receiver, to determine
when a signal begins to arrive and when it ends
• Error detection and correction are required in circumstances
where errors cannot be tolerated
• Flow control assure that the source does not overwhelm the
destination by sending data faster than they can be processed and
absorbed
• Addressing and routing, so a source system can indicate the
identity of the intended destination, and can choose a specific
route through this network
• Recovery allows an interrupted transaction to resume activity at
the point of interruption or to condition prior to the beginning of
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Key Communications Tasks…..cont’d
• Message formatting has to do with an agreement between two
parties as to the form of the data to be exchanged or transmitted
• Frequently need to provide some measure of security in a data
communications system
• Network management capabilities are needed to configure the
system, monitor its status, react to failures and overloads, and
plan intelligently for future growth

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Data Communications Model

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Data Communications Model…..cont’d

Assume a PC(assumed composed of input device and transmitter)

user wants to send an email message m to another user.
The process is modeled as follows:
•user keys(i.e. use key-board to send) in message m comprising bits
g buffered in source PC memory
•input data is transferred to I/O device (transmitter) as sequence of
bits g(t) using voltage shifts
•transmitter converts these into a signal s(t) suitable for
transmission media being used
•whilst transmitting media signal may be impaired so received
signal r(t) may differ from s(t)
•receiver decodes signal recovering g’(t) as estimate of original
g(t) which is buffered in destination PC memory as bits g’ being the
received message m’

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Transmission Medium
 The basic building block of any communications facility is the
transmission line.
 One of the basic choices facing a business user is the transmission
medium.
 selection is a basic choice
 Choice for internal use is entirely up to business
 For long-distance communications, the choice is generally but
not always made by the long-distance carrier.
 rapid technology advances/changes affects the choice
 fiber optic – high capacity, getting cheaper
 Wireless - mobility
 transmission cost is still high despite the growth in the capacity
and the drop in cost of transmission facilities. Why?
 hence interest in efficiency improvements – multiplexing and
compression

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Networking

 growth of number & power of computers is driving need for

interconnection
 also seeing rapid integration of voice, data, image & video technologies
 two broad categories of communications networks:
 Local Area Network (LAN)
 Wide Area Network (WAN)

Wide Area Networks

 Span/cover a large geographical area
 consists of a number of interconnected switching nodes.
 alternative WAN technologies used include:
 Circuit switching
 Packet switching
 Frame relay
 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

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Local Area Networks
 smaller scope
 Building or small campus
 Usually owned by same organization as the attached devices
 Data rates of LANs are typically much greater than those of
WANs. Why?
 LANs come in a number of different configurations
 Switched LANs, the most common is switched Ethernet LAN

 Others are ATM and Fibre channel LANs

 Wireless LANs

Metropolitan Area Networks(MAN)

 middle ground between LAN and WAN
 private or public network
 high speed
 large area – city or metro

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Circuit Switching
 uses a dedicated communications path established between two
stations for duration of communication
 comprising a sequence of physical links
 with a dedicated logical channel
 eg. telephone network

Packet Switching

 data sent out in sequence

 small chunks (packets) of data at a time
 packets passed from node to node between source and
destination
 used for terminal to computer and computer to computer
communications

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Frame Relay
 Was developed to take advantage of high data rates and low
error rates
 Packet switching systems have large overheads to compensate
for errors
 Circuit switching systems have high data rates
i.e.: Frame Relay provides higher speeds
With most error control overhead removed
 Modern systems are more reliable
 Errors can be caught in end system

Asynchronous Transfer Mode(ATM)

 ATM – is evolution of frame relay
 Uses fixed packet (called cell) length, with little overhead for
error control
 anything from 10Mbps to Gbps
 constant data rate using packet switching technique with
multiple virtual circuits
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Types of Connections: Point-to-Point and Multipoint

Categories of topology

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 A fully connected mesh topology (five devices)

A star topology connecting four

stations

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A bus topology connecting three stations

A ring topology connecting six stations

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A hybrid topology: a star backbone with three bus networks

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