Data Communication And Computer Networks CHAPTER-1

1.0 THE CONCEPT OF NETWORKING The idea of networking is probably as old as telecommunications itself. Consider the time when people were living in the Stone Age. At that, time drums were used to transmit messages between individuals. Suppose caveman A wanted to invite caveman B for a game of hurling rocks at each other. However, they were living too far for B to hear A banging his drum. Therefore, what are the options available to A? He could (1) Walk over to B's place (2) Get a bigger drum (3) Ask C, who lives halfway between them, to forward the message. The last option is called as networking. Now, we have come a long way from the primitive pursuits and devices of our forefathers. Nowadays, we have computers talking to each other over vast assemblages of wires, fiber optics, microwaves etc. In the following sections, we would be dealing with the means and ways by which the process of communication is accomplished through computers. We can define network as a collection of computers that are able to communicate with each other, often by relying on the services of a number of dedicated hosts that transmit data between the

participants. Hosts are very often computers, but one can also think of intelligent printers as hosts. Small agglomerations of hosts are also called sites. 1.1 Evolution Of Computer Networks Apart from the centralized computing paradigm dominated by monolith mainframes until late 1970s, the initial use of modern networks was for file and print services in academic environments. With these services users could access files remotely from a file server and send print requests to a remote printer controlled by a dedicated machine called print server. Gradually the utility of these network services started getting appreciated in commercial environments and small offices and later large offices started setting up networks for file and print services. Soon networks were also being used for application services so that applications could be loaded on the user machine from a dedicated machine called application server. With the falling prices of small computers and PCs, system designers started using these small machines to build large low-cost networks based on what is called client-server architecture. In this, the user machines are called clients and they are served by dedicated machines called servers. 1.2 ADVANTAGES OF NETWORKING There are many advantages offered by networking. Some of them are as follows:

 Resource Sharing The main advantage of the networking is that it enables resource sharing which is of a great advantage to the organizations in particular. The primary goal of networking is to make all programs, equipment, and especially data available to anyone on the network without regard to the physical location of the resource and the user. In other words, the mere fact that a user happens to be 1000 km away from his data should not prevent him from using the data. High Reliability High reliability is provided by networking by having alternate sources of supply. For example, all files could be replicated on two or three floppies or machines in the sense that if one copy has some problem the other can be used accordingly. For military, banking, air traffic control, and many other applications, the ability to continue operating in the face of hardware problems is of utmost importance. Therefore, either taking a backup of all the data on floppy disks or creating another hard disk can rescue the people in such areas from unnecessary trouble. Saving Money Today most of the networks consist mainly of smaller computers rather than the large mainframes, which used to be the concept in earlier days. This is so because small computers have a much better price/performance ratio than large ones. The mainframes are roughly a factor of ten faster than Personal Computers (PCs), but they cost a

thousand times more. This imbalance has caused many system designers to build systems consisting of personal computers giving rise to the concept of one computer per user, with data kept on one or more shared file server machines. The whole arrangement is based on the client-server model. Scalability Another advantage offers by networking is scalability. This can be defined as the ability of the network to increase system performance gradually as the workload grows just by adding more processors. This scalability becomes much easier in case of the smaller computers. This is so because in case of centralized mainframes, when the system becomes full, it is replaced by a larger one, usually at great expenses and even causing disruption to the users. With the new client-server-networking model, new clients can be added as needed as and whenever needed without causing mush disruption and inconvenience to the users. Communication Medium A computer network acts as a powerful communication medium among widely separated people. Today a network has the ability to connect two or more people placed remotely apart form each other. In the future, the advantage of networks to enhance human-to-human communication will probably prove more important than technical goals such as improved reliability. Today the popularity of the Internet shows how important is networking in the communication between the remotely placed people.

 Access To Remote Information Starting in the 1990s, computer networks began to start delivering services to private individual at homes thus enabling people to access remote information. Today access to remote information is coming in many forms. One area in which it is already happening is the access to financial institutions. Many people pay their bills, manage their bank accounts, and handle their accounts electronically. Today our own MTNL has also launched the facility of payment of the bills over the Internet thus saving the people from the pain of standing in the long queues. Today with the advent of ecommerce, which is business over the network, home shopping is also becoming popular. This provides the facility to inspect the on-line catalogs of thousands of companies. Another application called the World Wide Web provides easy access to the information systems like the arts, business, cooking, government, health, history, hobbies, recreation, science, sports, travel, and other such million of topics. Person-To-Person Communication Until now, we have now talked of applications that involve interactions between a person and a remote database. The second broad category of network use is person-to-person interactions and this has been made possible with our own Electronic mail or email, as it is popularly known. Today the E-mail is widely used by millions of people. In the near future E-mail is going to provide the facility of exchanging audio and video material over the net besides the textual

part. Real-time E-mail allows remote users to communicate with no delay, possibly seeing and hearing each other as well. This technology makes it possible to have virtual meetings called videoconferences among far-flung people. Virtual meetings could be used for remote school, getting medical opinions from distant specialists, and numerous other applications. Worldwide newsgroups, which involve discussions on every conceivable topic, are already finding a commonplace among a select group of people, and this will grow to include the whole of the world population at large. In these discussions, one person posts a message and all the other subscribers of that particular newsgroup, can read it. Interactive Entertainment The third category is entertainment, which is a huge and growing industry. The most sought after application here is video-ondemand. In the future, it may be possible to select any movie or television program ever made, in any country, and have it displayed on your screen instantly. New films may become interactive, where the user is occasionally prompted for the story direction with alternate scenarios for all cases. Live television may also become interactive, with the audience participating in quiz shows, choosing among contestants, and so on. Another emerging application here could be game playing. Already we have multiperson real-time simulation games, like hide-and-seek in a virtual dungeon, and flight simulators with the players on one

team trying to shoot down the players on the opposite team, and so on. In short, the ability to merge information, communication, and entertainment will surely give rise to a massive industry based on computer networking. 1.3 REVIEW OF PROBABILITY AND INFORMATION THEORY Today, Computer networks form the backbone of most enterprises big or small around the world. Computer networks allow people remote to the computer to access the information available to that computer. Computer networks are being used to provide resource sharing between systems separated from a few feet to thousands of kilometers. This technology is leading many corporations to take advantage of the reduced price and increased performance in the workplace. In the first unit of this block, we have discussed about the data communication, in this unit we will discuss networking and how it plays an important role in information exchange. Impact of networking be it LAN or WAN and data communication has been felt across the globe, in various sectors such as education, medicine, transport, etc. This trend of information sharing in most sophisticated manner has completely revolutionized the concept of communication. It brings with it-increased access to people in different fields. Communication using computer has brought a revolution in the world of Information Technology, particularly in the field of personal computer. We have always heard of networking or the term network. A network is a way or means of transmitting or receiving (exchange) information from one or more sources. As an example, car salesmen, after years in the

business, have developed a network of associates. When the car salesman needs to locate a car to make a sale, the car salesman calls out to his network to retrieve information on the location of the car. Employment agents also develop a network. Their customers become their networks. Employment agents will frequently keep in touch with their clientele for possible openings or to locate a candidate for an opening. Without the capability of networking, these two people would have a difficult time. It is the same in computing. Networks provide the means for locating and transporting information. Peer networking does not need pre-defined network addressing. Instead, each resource on the network is seen as a peer. Each network resource is a peer to the other network resources. When a new network resource joins the network it introduces it-self and notifies its peer of any other network resources that it knows about peer networks are open and share network information. The entire computer network can be classified into two board categories (However, elaborate categorization exists). They are: (a) LAN (Local Area Network) (b) WAN (Wide Area Network) As number of systems grows within an organization, a need is felt for sharing expensive resource and exchanging data and information between systems. This need of information exchange and resource sharing within an organization has resulted in development of Local Area Network or LAN. A LAN is a data communication network, which connects many computers or workstations (computers terminal,

printer etc.) and permits exchange of data and information among them, within a localized area, typically confined to a building, or a cluster of buildings. The distance between two communication points connected on the same LAN channels, is usually up to 02-05 kms. DATA : Data are entities that convey meaning. Information is

obtained by processing data using desired functions. SIGNALS : Signals are electric or electromagnetic encoding of data, and signaling is propagation of signal along suitable communication medium. TRANSMISSION : Transmission is communication of data achieved by the propagation and processing of signals. 1.4 COMPUTER NETWORKS : There are several ways through

which an individual can communicate with others, few of them are signals and noise .If we are standing at a quite far distance from our friend and we want him to join us, then we have only two communication methods through that we can call him either by wave or calling his name loudly. So this is the very basic concept of networking that we all know about, and now we are going to discuss this concept in detail Each of the past three centuries has been dominated by a single technology .The 18th Century was the time of the great mechanical systems accompanying the Industrial Revolution . The 19th Century was the age of the steam engine. During the 20th Century , the key technology has been information gathering, processing and distribution .Among other developments,

we have seen the installation of world wide telephone networks, the invention of radio and television, the birth and unprecedented growth of the computer industry , and launching of communication satellites . Due to meteoric technological enhancement , these areas are conversing very fast , and the differences between collecting , transporting. Storing, and processing information are quickly disappearing. Organizations with hundreds of offices spread over a wide geographical area routinely expect to be able to examine the current status of even their most remote out post at the push of a button . As our ability to gather , process and distribute information grows, the for even more sophisticated information processing grows even faster .Although the computer industry is young as compare to other industries like automobiles and air transportation, computers have made spectacular progress in a short time. During the first to decades of their existence , computer system were highly centralized , usually within a single large room .Not infrequently, this room had glass walls ,through which visitors could gawk at the great electronic wonder inside . A medium-size company or university might have had one or two computers ,while large institutions had at most a few dozen . The idea that within 20 years equally powerful computers smaller than postage stamps would be mass produced by the billions was pure science fiction . The merging of computers and communications has had a profound influence on the way systems are organized. The concept of computer center as a room with the large computer to which the user brings their work for processing is now totally obsolete. The old model of a single computer serving all the organization computational needs has been replaced by one in

which a large of separate but interconnected computer do the job. These systems are called computer networks. Two computers are set to be interconnected if they are able to exchange information, the connection need not be a via copper wire, fibre optics, microwaves, communication satellites can also be used. Today, Computer networks form the backbone of most enterprises big or small around the world. Computer networks allow people remote to the computer to access the information available to that computer. Computer networks are being used to provide resource sharing between systems separated from a few feet to thousands of kilometers. This technology is leading many corporations to take advantage of the reduced price and increased performance in the workplace. In the first unit of this block, we have discussed about the data communication, in this unit we will discuss networking and how it plays an important role in information exchange. Impact of networking be it LAN or WAN and data communication has been felt across the globe, in various sectors such as education, medicine, transport, etc. This trend of information sharing in most sophisticated manner has completely revolutionized the concept of communication. It brings with it-increased access to people in different fields. 1.5 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS : There are numerous uses of computer networks, all of them are as follows: PRIVATE NETWORK Many organizations have a substantial number of computers in operations, often located far apart. For example, a company with

many factories may have compute at each location to keep track of inventories, monitor productivity, and do the local pay roll. The issue hears is resource sharing and the goal is to make all program, equipment, and especially data available to any one on the network without regard to the physical location of the resource and the user. Network provides high reliability by having alternative sources of supply. For example, all files could be replicated on two or three machines; if one of them is unavailable the copies could be used. Networks are helpful in saving money. Small computer have a much better price/performance ratio than large ones. Mainframes are roughly a factor 10 faster then personnel computer but they cost a thousand times more. In this model, the users are called clients and the whole arrangement is called client server model. COMMUNICATION Communication using computer has brought a revolution in the world of Information Technology, particularly in the field of personal computer. We have always heard of networking or the term network. A network is a way or means of transmitting or receiving (exchange) information from one or more sources. As an example, car salesmen, after years in the business, have developed a network of associates. When the car salesman needs to locate a car to make a sale, the car salesman calls out to his network to retrieve information on the location of the car. Employment agents also develop a network. Their customers become their networks. Employment agents will frequently keep in

touch with their clientele for possible openings or to locate a candidate for an opening. Without the capability of networking, these two people would have a difficult time. It is the same in computing. Networks provide the means for locating and transporting information. In computing networks, the origin of the information request utilizes the services of a network to locate and return the information. This is done with addresses. In the two previous examples of the car Addresses in These salesman and the employment agent, a telephone number can be considered the address of their associate or client. addresses identify the network resource. computer networking are used in the same manner. architectures for networking - hierarchical and peer. Peer networking does not need pre-defined network addressing. Instead, each resource on the network is seen as a peer. Each network resource is a peer to the other network resources. When a new network resource joins the network it introduces it and notifies its peer of any other network resources that it knows about - peer networks are open and share network information.

There are two popular

NETWORK HARDWARE It is now time to turn our attention from the application and social aspect of the networking to the technical issues involved in network design. There is generally accepted taxonomy into which all computer networks fit, the tow dimension stands out as important: transmission technology and scale.

The network hardware components used are (a) (b) (c) (d) (a) Transmission channel Network Interface Unit (NIU) Servers Workstations Transmission Channel

Generally following four types of channels are used for data communication in a LAN. (b) Network Interface Units (NIU) Network interface units connect each device in the LAN network to shared transmission device. It contains the rules or logic to access the LAN. NIU is also used to implement LAN protocols and for device attachments. Its function depends on the type of topology used in LAN. In microcomputers, NIU may be installed as an add-on card. (c) Servers

One of the major benefits of implementation of LAN is sharing expensive resources such as storage devices, printer etc. This is achieved through providing servers on the LAN. It is a dedicated computer, which controls one or more resources. This contains both hardware and software interface for LAN. Three major categories of servers used in LANs are: (i) (ii) (iii) File Server Printer Server Modem Server

NETWORK SOFTWARE Operating System is required to operate on the LAN system, manage the tremendous workload with a number of various types of server attached to it. It has basically two-aspect (i) Server software (ii) As in case of other multi-user operating workstation software.

systems, LAN operating system also facilitates the sharing of expensive resources such as printer, storage space etc. among all LAN users, provides security for data and permits connection to other networks. There are various types of LAN operating system for example Novel Netware, WINDOWS NT, etc. The first computer networks were designed with the hardware as the main concern and the software as an afterthought. This strategy no longer works. Network software is now highly structured. Most networks are organized as a series of layers or levels, each one built upon the one below it the number of layers, the name of each layer, the contents of each layer, and the function of each layer differ from network to network. How ever, in all networks, the purpose of each layer is to offer services to the higher layers, shielding those layers from the details of how the offered service are actually implemented. Layer N on one-machine carries on a conversation with layer on another machine. The rule and conventions used in this conversation are collective known as the layer N protocol.

A protocol is an agreement between the communicating parties on how communication is to proceed.

1.6

CONCEPTS OF DATA TRANSMISSION AND CODING

METHODS The concept of Data communication evolved from sharing the computation power of a computer along with various resources available in a computer environment such as printers, Hard-disk etc. With increasing demand for exchange of information across the globe, the need for data communication has increased in many folds. Due to physical constraints involved in connecting two remote points physically data communication has emerged as an instant solution. The first step towards understanding communications is to look at computer data at its base level. As all of us know computer and computer device manage store and exchange data using electronic pulses or digital signals, that come in two varieties, the binary digit '0' indicates the absence ("OFF") and '1' indicates ("ON") the presence of electric current. A series of ONs and OFFs in various combinations can be sent on the communication channels to represent any character. Every character (letter, numeral, symbol, or punctuation mark) is composed of a group of bits called codes. To avoid incompatibility between systems, the computer industry has created a number of standards that establish relationships between bit combinations and their corresponding characters.

The most widely used codes are the American Standards Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) and the IBM standard, Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC). Some of the characteristics of these codes are tabled below: ASCII Controlling authority Number of bits Number of characters ANSI 7 128 EBCDIC IBM 8 256

To ensure successful transmission of data between two points, the sender and receivers should use the same code, or they can use translators to aid in communication .Translation is data communication software, which translates the senders data into the codes receiver understands. The speed at which two computers exchange or transmit data is called communication rate on transmission speed. The unit of measurement of the speed is measured using bps (bits per second) or baud (both are not same, for more details refer to further readings). Normal PC based communication station transferred, using 300 to 9600 bps, whereas a main frame computer uses 19,200 baud or more. Private leased lines are permanently connected circuits between two or more points. These lines are available for private use by the leasing party. Whereas, switched lines or dial up lines are available to any subscriber. For example, telephone connection in our home or office is a dial up lines as we dial up a number to use a particular circuit.

1.7

ANALOG AND DIGITAL TRANSMISSION

: One of the

fundamental concepts in data transmission is to understand the difference between Analog and digital signals. An analog signal is one that is continuous with respect to time, and may take on any value within a given range of values. Human voice, video and music when converted to electrical signal using suitable devices produce analog signals. A digital signal may take on only a discrete set of values within a given range. Most computers and computer-related equipment are digital. Irrespective of original form of the message, the actual transmission of signal could be either in analog or digital form. Figure 1 shows the two possible transmission methods:
Originating Communic ation device Data communica tion device Data communica tion device Receiving communica tion system

Originating communica tion device

Data communica tion device

Data communica tion device

Receiving communica tion system

Communication channel Digital signal Analog signal Digital signal

a) Analog transmission

Originating Communic ation device

Line interface

Line interface

Receiving communica tion system

Digital signal b) Digital Transmission

In parallel data transmission, there are multiple parallel lines connecting the transmitting and receiving units. Each wire carries a bit of information. Normally, one character is transferred in one go. In serial data transmission, each bit is sent sequentially one after another and it requires only one pair of wire conductors for connecting the receiving and transmitting units. Serial transmission is slower than parallel transmission, which is used primarily for transferring data between devices at the same site; most common example is Personal Computer to Printer. Communication between computers is almost always serial. As most of the data communication is being done using public channels such as telephone lines, a user has to pay. for the use of channels. The tariff is generally calculated taking various data communication parameters into consideration such as volume of data transferred, communication rate or transmission rate and time utilized on the communication channel. There are several manufacturers of computer hardware and software across the, globe. For successful data communication these products should be compatibles with each other or they should conform to certain set of rules so that any one can use them. These sets of rules

are known as communication protocols or communication standards. In other words, protocols are technical customs or guide lines that govern the exchange of signal transmission and reception between equipments. Communication protocols are usually defined and approved by some international body such as ISO, CCITT or IEEE. At times protocols defined by certain manufacturer of computers or networking products become so widely accepted, that they become 'defector' standard even though these protocols may not have approval of any standardization body. Some of the functions that communication protocol regulates are: Control of information transfer Structure and formats of data Error recoveries Re-transmission control Interface management Only communication devices using same protocols can communicate with each other. To make sure that the bits (or characters) are transmitted through the channel or line, we need a link level protocol between two computers. Some of the main functions to be performed by such a link level protocol are:

Assuring the data to be transmitted is split into data blocks with beginning and ending markers. This is called framing and the transmission block is called a frame, Achieving data transparency. This allows a link to treat a bit pattern, including normally restricted control characters, just as pure data. Controlling the flow of data across the Link. It is essential not to transmit bits faster than they can be received at the other end.

Otherwise, the receiver overflows and the data is overrun, or all buffering capacity is used up, leading to loss of data. Controlling errors :This involves detection of errors using some kind of redundancy check. It also involves acknowledgement of correctly received messages and requests for retransmission of faulty messages. There are basically two classes of link protocols. They are, Binary Synchronous protocols (BISNYC) and High Level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocols. BISYNC is based on character control, whereas HDLC is a bit oriented protocol. In fact, HDLC is widely used in most link protocols of computers. You can refer to further readings for more details. 1.7 DATA COMMUNICATION MODES : So far, we have discussed a method of transferring information electronically and various aspects involved in it such as, data characters in a computer system are represented using codes such as ASCII or EBCDIC. The

exchange of information can take place only if a facility exists to send information from one end, character by character and also to receive it at the other end in the same manner or sequence. Hence we must understand how the characters are transmitted over the transmission medium. The mode of transmission is the way in which coded characters are assembled for the process of transmission and permits the receiving devices to identify where the coding for each character begins and ends within the torrent of bits. When two computers communicate, they must have a way to synchronize the flow of data so that the receiving computer can read at the same speed at which the sending computer transmits. The principal modes are asynchronous and synchronous. In synchronous transmission characters are transmitted as groups, with control characters in the beginning and at the end of the bit train. The transmission and receiving intervals between each bit are precisely timed permitting the grouping of bits into identifiable characters. In synchronous mode, intervals between characters are uniform with no space between consecutive bytes. In asynchronous transmission, each character is transmitted separately, that is, one character at a time. Each character begins with a start bit, which tells the receiving device where the character coding begins and ends with a stop bit, which tells the receiving device where the character coding ends. Then, the next character is sent, with start and stops bits. The start and stop bits and the interval of time between consecutive characters allow the receiving and sending computers to synchronize the transmission. The parity bit is used for error checking while transmission of data. Asynchronous communication is slower than synchronous

communication, it is typically used at communication rates lower than 2400 bits per second. Asynchronous communication does not require complex and costly and hardware is the as required most by synchronous used with communication microcomputers. Idle state of line Transmission 8bit of data 2stop bits mode widely

start bit

parity bit odd or even

a) Asynchronous serial transmission

0 1 1 0 1

0 1 0

SYN character

data character

b) Synchronous data character format

1.8 SIMPLEX,HALF DUPLEX, FULL DUPLEX COMMUNICATION : The direction in which information can flow over a transmission path is determined by the properties of both the transmitting and the receiving devices. There are three basic options: In Simplex mode, the communication channel is used in one direction. The receiver receives the signals from the transmitting device. A typical use is to gather data from a monitoring device at a regular interval. The simplex mode is-rarely used for data communication.

In Half-duplex mode, the communication channel is used in both directions, but only in one direction at a time. This requires the receiving and transmitting devices to switch between send and receive modes after each transmission. The analogous example of this mode is the old wireless system (walkie-talkie), which is used in either transmit mode or receive mode.

In Full-duplex mode, the communication channel is used in both directions at the same time. Typical example of this mode of transmission is the telephone in which both parties talk to each other at the same time.

(a) simplex A to B only

A B

(b)Half-duplex A to B or B to A one at a time

A B

(c) Full-duplex A to B & B to A simultaneously

Modes Of Transmission We have already discussed about communication codes; units of measurement; data transmission methods such as analog and digital, parallel and serial; data transmission modes such as synchronous and asynchronous simplex, half duplex and full duplex; the transmission error control and protocols. All this was intended to lay the foundation for all that is going to follow. For any basic data communication process, the hardware required are: Sender and Receiver Hardware. Communication devices . Communication channels.

Sender

and

Receiver

Hardware

are

used

for

handling

Communication messages, data transfer etc. Data Communication is done using various communication devices and software interconnected for in information a data exchange. The devices used are to communicate communication network called

workstations. These workstations may include computer, terminal, printer, and any other communication devices. Each workstation is connected to something called a data communication network node. 1.9 MODULATION TECHNIQUES :

There are several types of communication devices or interface used in data communication. These interfaces are connection between

receiver and sender hardware involved in data communication and the communication network. Some of these interface or communication devices are discussed below.

(a) MODEMS or modulator - demodulators are devices which convert digital signals into analog for transmission over analog transmission facilities such as telephone lines. At the receiving end, a modem performs the reverse function and converts analog signal into digital form.

Time Analog signal

Com mNet work

Computer

Modem

Modem

Computer

Data Communication Using Modem Line drivers are simple devices used to transmit digital signals over short distances. These devices do not modulate or demodulate signals, but use filters to reduce the high frequency component and the modified signal is transmitted directly over the media. These devices are used for distances of upto 1 Km and can achieve data transfer rates of upto 19200 bps. It is mainly used for connecting VDU terminals with a computer at a distance of more than 100 feet or so. b) Codec performs the opposite function of modem. A communication port/adopter is a connector on the computer which is used as an entry to departure point for data involved in Data

Communication . A common type of communication port is RS 232C.This adapter is used for the transfer of data between the computer and the telephone line. Transmission process it adds start and stop bits and control the communication rate or it strips the start and stop bits where it receives data. The most basic hardware required for communication is the media through which data is transferred. There are several types of media, and the choice of the right media depends on many factors such as cost of transmission media, efficiency of data transmission and the transfer rate. We will describe some of these transmission media. This is the simplest of all the transmission media. It consists of a simple pair of metallic wires made of copper or sometimes aluminum of between 0.4 and 1 mm diameter, and each wire is insulated from the other. There are variations to this simplest form with several pairs of wire enclosed in a single protected cable called a multi core cable or molded in the form of a flat ribbon. This type of media is used for communication within a short distance, up to about 50 meters, and can achieve a transfer rate of up to 19200 bits per second. A twisted pair consists of a pair of insulated conductors that are twisted together. The advantage of a twisted pair cable over the two wire open lines is, it provides better immunity from spurious noise signals. As the two wires are close to each other, both pick equal interferences caused by extraneous signal sources and this reduces the differential signal added by the noise. Twisted pair cable is used for communications up to a distance of 1 Km. and can achieve transfer rates of 1-2 Megabytes per second. But, as the speed increased the maximum transmission distance is reduced, and may require repeaters. Twisted pair cable is

widely used in telephone networks and is increasingly being used for data. The hub based ethernets normally use UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) cable. A coaxial cable consists of a solid conductor running coaxially inside a solid or braided outer annular conductor. The space between the two conductors is filled with a dielectric insulating material. Larger the cable diameter, lower is the transmission loss, and higher transfer speeds can be achieved. A coaxial cable can be used over a distance of about 1 Km. and can achieve a transfer rate of up to 100 megabytes per second. A coaxial cable is of two types - a 75-ohm cable, which is used by the cable TV operators and the 50-ohm cable which is used in high-speed broadband networks and are low loss cables. A fiber optic cable carries signals in the form of fluctuating light in a glass or plastic fiber. An optical fiber cable consists of a glass or plastic core surrounded by a cladding made of a similar material but with a lower refractive index. The core transmits the light while the change in refractive index between the core and the cladding causes total internal reflection, thus minimizing the loss of light from fibre. As light waves gave a much wider bandwidth than the electrical signal and are immune from electromagnetic interferences, this leads to high data transfer rates of about 1000 megabytes per second and can be used for long and medium distance transmission links. Radio, microwave and satellite channels use electromagnetic propagation in open space. The advantage of these channels lies in

their capability to cover large geographical areas and being inexpensive than the wired installation. The demarcation between radio, microwave and satellite channels lie in the frequencies in which they operate. Frequencies below 1000 MHZ are radio frequencies and higher are the microwave frequencies. Radio frequency transmission may be below 30 MHZ or above 30 MHZ and thus the techniques of transmission are different. Owing to the characteristics of the ionosphere, frequencies below 30 MHz are reflected back towards the surface of the earth. Above 30 MHz propagation is on line-of-sight paths. Antennas are placed in between the line-of-sight paths to increase the distance. Radio frequencies are prone to attenuation and, thus, they require repeaters along the path to enhance the signal. Radio frequencies can achieve data transfer rates of 100 Kbps to 400 Kbps. Microwave links would invariably use line-of-sight transmission with repeaters placed every 100-200 Kms. Microwave links can achieve data transfer rates of about 1000 Mbps. Satellite links use microwave frequencies is the order of 4 -12 Ghz with the satellite as a repeater. They can achieve data transfer rates of about 1000 Mbps. 1.10 MULTIPLEXING AND CONCENTRATION : Multiplexing several conversations onto connections, virtual circuits, and physical links plays a role in several layers of the network architecture. In the transport layer the need for multiplexing can arise in a number of ways. For example, in networks that is used in the virtual networks within the subnets, each open connection consumes some tables space in the routers for the entire duration of the connection. If

buffers are dedicated to the virtual circuit in each router as well a user who left a terminal logged in to a remote machine during a coffee break is nevertheless consuming expensive resources. Although this implementation of the packet switching defeats one of the main reasons for having packet switching in first place to bill the user based on the amount of the data sent, not the connected time many carriers have chosen this approach because it so closely resembles the circuit switching model to which they have grown accustomed over the decades. The consequences of a price structure that heavily penalize installation for having many virtual circuits open for along period of time to make multiplexing of the different transport connection on to the same network connection attractive. This form of multiplexing is called Upward Multiplexing. Multiplexing can also be useful in the transport layer for another reason, related to carrier technical decisions rather than carrier pricing decisions. Suppose, for example, that a certain important user need a high bandwidth connection from time to time. If the subnet enforces a sliding window flow control with an n bit sequence number the user must stop sending as soon as 2n 1 packets are outstanding and must wait for the packets to propagate to the remote host and be acknowledged. If the physical connection is via a satellites, the user is effectively limited to 2n-1 packets every 540 msec. With, for example, n=8 and 128 byte packets, the usable bandwidth is about 484 kbps, even though the physical channel bandwidth is more than 100 times higher.

One possible solution is to have the transport layer open multiple network connection and distribute the traffic among them on round robin basis as indicated below Layer transport address 4 3 2 1 Router lines To router Network address

This modus operand is called Downward Multiplexing.

FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing)

Frequency division multiplexing is the oldest and probably the most widely used channel allocation scheme. A typical 36 Mbps transponder might be divided statically into 500 or so 64,000-bpsPCM channels, each one operating at its own unique frequency to avoid interfering with the others. First, guard bands are needed between the channels to keep the stations separated. This requirement exists because it is not possible to build transmitters that output all their energy in the main band and

nothing in the side bands. The amount of bandwidth wasted in the guard bands can be a substantial fraction of the total. Second, the stations must be carefully power controlled. If a station puts out too much power in the main band, it will also automatically put out too much power in the side bands, spilling over into adjacent channels and causing interference. Finally, FDM is entirely an analog technique and does not lend itself well to implementation in software. The common signaling channel was divided into units of 50 m sec. A unit contained 50 slot of 1 m sec(128 bits). Each slot was owned by one of 50 ground stations. When a ground station had data to send, it picked a currently unused channel at random and wrote the number of that channel in its next 128-bit slot. If the selected channel was still unused when the request was seen on the downlink, the channel was considered allocated and all other stations refrained from trying to acquire it . TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) Like FDM, TDM is well understood and widely used in practice. It requires time synchronization for the slots, but this can be provided by a reference station, as described for slotted ALOHA above. Similarly to FDM, for a small and unvarying number of stations, the slot assignment can be set up in advance and never changed, but for a varying number of stations, or a fixed number of stations, with time varying loads, time slots must be assigned dynamically. The beams can be switched from one geographical area to another, but since moving the beams takes several slot times, channel

originating or terminating in the same geographic area are normally assigned to contiguous time slots to increase dwell time and minimize time lost to beam motion. Thus time slot management requires a thorough knowledge of station geography to minimize the number of wasted time slots. For this and other reasons, time slot management is done by one of the ground stations, the MCS (Master Control Station) Initially, each station is assigned at least time slot. To acquire additional channels a station sends a short request message to the MCS. Similarly, it can release an existing channel with a message to the MCS. These messages make use of the small number of overhead bits and provide a special control channel to the MCS with a capacity of about 13 messages/sec per station. The channel are dedicated; there is no contention for them. Although TDM is widely used, both with and without reservation schemes, it too has some shortcomings. For one, it requires all stations to synchronize in time, which is not entirely trivial in practice because satellite tend to drift in orbit which changes the propagation time to each ground station. It also requires each ground station to be capable of extremely high burst speeds.

1.11 SYNCHRONIZATION

The session layer allows users on

different machines to establish sessions between them . A session allows ordinary data transport ,as does the transport layer , but it also provides enhanced services useful in some applications. A session

might be used to allow a user into a remote time sharing system or to transfer a file between to machines. One of the services of the session layer is to manage the dialogue control . Session can allow traffic to go in both directions at the same time , or in only one direction at a time .If traffic can only go one way at a time (analogues to a single railroad track), session layer can help keep track of whose turn it is . A related session services is Token Management. For some protocols it is essential that both sides do not attempt the same operation at the same time . To manage these activities , the session layer provides tokens that can be exchanged . Only the side holding the token may perform the critical operation. There is an another very important service that session layer provides is SYNCHRONIZATION. Consider the problems that might occur when trying to do a 2 hour file transfer between two machines with a one hour mean time between crashes . After each transfer was aborted , the whole transfer would have to start over again and would fail probably again the next time as well. To eliminate this problem , The session layer provides a way to insert checkpoints into the data stream, so that after a crash , only the data transferred after the last checkpoint have to be repeated. In this chapter we discussed the concept of data communication and defined the process involved in data-communication. Various Hardware and Software concepts were also discussed along with the digital and analog signals. It also introduced you to various types of

communication devices and also explained what is transmission protocols.

EXERCISE Q) 1- Define the term NETWORKING in your own words ? Q) 2- Describe what is Computer Network ? Q) 3- What are the uses of Computer Networks ? Q) 4- Why modem is used ? Q) 5- Explain Analog transmission and Digital transmission ? Q) 6- What is the use of multiplexing ? Q) 7- What are the various data transmission modes ? Q) 8- Explain the techniques of modulation ? Q) 9- What are the concepts of data transmission and coding Methods ?

Match the following : 1) Modem 1) Baud

2) Multiplexer

2) Formalized set of rules

3) Protocols

3) Translate data into same type of code

4) Translators

4) Volume of data transferred

5) Communication Rate

5) Data link

6) Communication Tariff

6) Multiple communication in one channel at a same time.

Answers : 1) (e), 2) (f),3) (b), 4) (c),5) (a), 6) (d).