Notes on Communication (1):

Some fundamentals

Jean-Lou Dupont
jl @ jldupont . com
http://www.jldupont.com/
Story board - context setting
– Communication between a source and sink(s) requires
one of more interconnected (network) medium to forward
the information that constitutes the communication-
instance.
– The process by which information is transported from a
source to the destination sink(s) requires resources and
addressing.
– The resources can either be dedicated to the a
communication-instance or shared amongst communication-
instances.
– Sharing resources (effectively) require coordination and
thus protocols.
In this presentation, we will not be focusing on the transport of information which is
encoded in a physical structure (e.g. transport by plane of information contained in a book).
Key Points

• Communication requires Medium
 air/vacuum, metal strings, optical strings

• Medium is composed of Dimensions

o Time, Frequency, Power
o Dimension access is either dedicated or shared

• Information transport is structured

o stream of symbols, stream of packets (group of symbols)

• Sharing implies Coordination implies protocol

Definition

Channel: (sometimes called communications channel) refers to the medium used

to convey information from a sender (or source, transmitter) to a receiver (or sink).

Communication-instance: a specific communication between a source and a sink.

Forwarding Process: a component of a system responsible for the transport of
information.

Partition: Generally, a partition is a splitting of something into parts. In communications we further

assume that partitions can only interact with each other (i.e. exchange information) by established
interfaces.

Source: aka transmitter

Sink: aka receiver
Resources

Resource usage can either be dedicated or shared

• Dedicated: the client of the resource controls the said

resource for a period of time (either bounded or un-
bounded)

• Shared: multiple clients compete to access & use the said

resource using a coordination protocol (or apparent lack
thereof :-)

Dedicated access is just a special case of Shared access: nothing is really

dedicated for an unbounded time period, more likely "leased" for a bounded time
period (by a master process).
Medium - Dimensions

A medium consists of 3 domains:

• Frequency Domain
• Time Domain
• Power Domain

ALL dimensions ALWAYS present

• Often, the power dimension is assumed and abstracted from diagrams
Frequency: change in Time Domain
• change includes matter level change
o e.g. finger over braille text
Dimensions - Examples
Example 1:

Medium is divided in the

frequency domain - total
isolation between
dimensions

Example 2: ( CDMA )

Medium is divided using

"codes" in the
Freq+Power plane - no
total isolation
Medium - Partitioning

E.g. air/vacuum :
• can be spatially partitioned (see figure)
• can be temporally partitioned ( time domain multiplexed )
• a combination of the above
Medium

• For communication to take place, one or

several medium must be used between source(s)
and sink(s).

• A medium can either be dedicated or shared

Dedicated
• 1 source, m sinks (where m>=1)
• Special case of shared

Shared
• n sources, m sinks
• Requires a coordination protocol (e.g. CSMA/CD)
Medium - Access

Multiple Access (i.e. shared access) requires a coordination

protocol active between the sources

• Manage Information Merging => Loss

Information

3 fundamental properties:

• Information can be copied

• Information can be modified
• Information can be measured

Note:
• Erase ~ no copy
Information Property: Copy

Medium: air/vacuum
• By nature broadcast
• Use of electro-magnetic wave => copy is natural
• Partitioning is possible ( spatial, temporal )

Medium: metal / fiber strings

• Can be used in "broadcast" configuration too
• Easier to dedicate
Information Property: Modify

2 fundamental types:

• Intentional => the usual purpose behind a communication

• Un-intentional => environmental cause etc. => yields to loss
Information Property: Measure

Measurement:

• Information Entropy
• Algorithmic Entropy ( Kolmogorov )
o Complexity of the algorithm that describes the Information
Information Copy: role of Power

• Distance => power

• @ each sink => power
Forwarding

Forwarding can take place in 2 fundamental types of channel:

• Destination Un-Aware
• Destination Aware
Channel - Destination Un-aware

Representation of a broadcast channel

• A) one source accessing the channel @ time t
• B) two sources accessing the channel @ time t => loss
Channel - Destination Aware

Representation of a destination aware channel:

• A) Information copied to 1 egress
• B) Information copied to multiple egresses
Forwarding - Identifier Types

2 fundamental types:
• Address
• Label

Ultimately, the forwarding process requires an unambiguous

way of delivering the information

Note: we are not concerned here with the trivial case "identifier-less broadcast"
Address Types

• Unicast ==> 1 destination

• Multicast ==> n destination(s) where n>=0
• Broadcast ==> 'all'
• Anycast ==> 1 destination from a set
Label Type

A "label" is meant to be interpreted:

• can refer to a sequence of hops to a destination
• can refer to a communication-instance (aka connection)
o Indirection towards a destination
Connection Types

2 types:
• Non-merging (aka Transport Connection)
• Merging

Merging: when multiple sources merge their traffic

• Result: can't identify individual sources
Merging

Merging is undesirable:
• Noise merges into channels ==> loss of information

• Requires additional information (e.g. overhead) to mitigate

against merging ==> less efficient

• Root Cause analysis difficult ==> higher OPEX

Merging - Management Aspect

In order to manage communication (e.g. in a network), it is

highly desirable to have the capability to find the root cause of
faults.
• Noise is always present
o If higher than usual, need to locate and mitigate
o Noise can (sometimes) have a signature ==> identifiable

• Packet Switching is prone to merging

o multipoint-to-point constructs
o configuration errors
 routing errors