1

Introduction to Data
Communications
Table of Contents

  1. Introduction 12  
 
2.
Acknowledgement
 s 12  
 
  3. Revision List 13  
 
4. Data
  Communications 15  
 
5. Why
Telecommunicatio
  ns? 15  
a. Voice
  Channels 15  
  b. Data Channels 16  
 
6. Introduction to
  Networking 17  
a. The Big
  Picture 17  
b.
Telecommunicati
ons Components
of The Big
  Picture 20  
  c. ISO OSI 20  
 
7. Breaking The
  Big Picture up! 22  
a. The Local
  Loop 22  
  b. LANs 23  
  c. MANs 24  
  d. WANs. 26  
 
 2

8. Trade
  Magazines 27  
 
9. The Role of
Telecommunicatio
  ns in Networking 29  
  a. LANs 29  
  b. MANs 29  
  c. WANs 30  
 
10. Brief History
  of Networking 31  
 
11. Data
Communication
  Network 34  
  a. Performance 34  
  b. Consistency 34  
  c. Reliability, 35  
  d. Recovery 36  
  e. Security 36  
  f. Applications 36  
g. Basic
  Components 38  
 
  12. Data Flow 40  
 
  13. Modems 43  
a. Basic
  Definition 43  
b. Digital
  Connection 43  
c. Analog
  Connection 45  
d.
External/Internal
  Modems 45  
  e. Modem Types 47  
f. Features of
  Modems 49  
g. Modem
Speeds /
  Standards 50  
h. Transfer Rate
versus PC Bus
  Speed 51  
 3

h. V.90 56 kbps
  Modems 51  
 
14. Physical
  Connection 52  
 
15. Transmission
  Media - Guided 53  
  a. Open Wire 53  
  b. Twisted Pair 55  
  c. Coaxial Cable 57  
  d. Optical Fibre 57  
i. Optical
Transmission
  Modes 59  
ii. Step Index
  Mode 61  
iii. Grade Index
  Mode 61  
  iv. Single Mode 61  
v. Comparison
of Optical
  Fibres 63  
vi. Advantages
  of Optical Fibre 64  
vii.
Disadvantages
  of Optical Fibre 65  
e. Media versus
  Bandwidth 65  
 
16. Transmission
  Media - Unguided 65  
a. RF
  Propagation 66  
i. Ground Wave
  Propagation 66  
ii. Ionospheric
  Propagation 67  
iii. Line of Sight
  Propagation 67  
b. Radio
  Frequencies 68  
  c. Microwave 69  
  d. Satellite 70  
  e. Iridium 72  
 4

Telecom System
 
17. RS-232D 74  
Serial Interface
  Standard
a. Mechanical
Characteristics of
  the RS-232D 74  
b. Electrical
Characteristics of
  the RS-232D 74  
c. Function of
  Each Signal 76  
d. Subsets of
Signals for
Certain
  Applications 78  
 
18. RS-232D Flow
  Control 80  
a. Hardware
  Handshaking 81  
b. Hardware Null
  Modems 88  
c. Software
Handshaking
  (Xon/Xoff) 89  
d. Software Null
  Modem 89  
e. Terminals &
  PCs 91  
 
  19. Timing 92  
a. Asynchronous
vs. Synchronous
  Transmission 93  
 
20. Asynchronous
  Communications 95  
  a. Start/Stop bits 95  
  b. 7/8 Bit Codes 99  
  c. Parity Bits 101 
 
  21. Line Encoding 104 
a. Unipolar
  Encoding 104 
 5

b. Polar
  Encoding 106 
c. Bipolar Line
  Encoding 108 
d. Manchester
  Line Encoding 108 
 
22. Standard
  Digital Codes 110 
a. EBCDIC -
Extended Binary
Coded Decimal
  Interchange Code110 
b. ASCII -
American
Standard Code
for Information
  Interchange 116 
 
23. Voice Channel
  Communications 121 
a. Voice Channel
  Specification 121 
b. Voice Channel
  Constraints 122 
c. Nyquist
  Theorem 123 
 
24. Telephone
  Networks 125 
a. POTS - Plain
Old Telephone
  Set 125 
  b. Local Loops 129 
  c. Central Office 131 
d. Hierarchical
  Phone Networks 131 
 
25. Telephone
Line
  Characteristics 135 
a. Attenuation
  Distortion 135 
b. Propagation
  Delay 137 
  c. Envelope 139 
 6

Delay Distortion
 
26. Line
  Impairments 140 
  a. Crosstalk 140 
b. Echo or Signal
  Return 140 
c. Frequency
  Shift 142 
d. Non-Linear
  Distortion 142 
e. Jitter:
Amplitude and
  Phase 143 
  f. Transients: 144 
Impulse Noise,
Gain Hits,
Dropouts &
Phase Hits
 
27. Modulation
  Techniques 147 
a. AM -
Amplitude
  Modulation 147 
b. FM -
Frequency
  Modulation 149 
c. PM - Phase
  Modulation 149 
 
28. Modem
  Modulation 151 
a. FSK -
Frequency Shift
  Keying 151 
b. QPSK -
Quadrature Phase
  Shift Keying 155 
c. QAM -
Quadrature
Amplitude
  Modulation 157 
 
29. AT Command
  Set 159 
 7

a. Basic AT
  commands 160 
 
  30. Multiplexing 161 
a. FDM -
Frequency
Division
  Multiplexing 164 
b. TDM - Time
Division
  Multiplexing 166 
c. STDM -
Statistical Time
Division
  Multiplexing 168 
 
31.
Telecommunicatio
  n Multiplexing 168 
a. FDM -
  Channel Groups 169 
b. TDM - T1
  Carrier System 169 
 
32. Introduction to
the ISO - OSI
  Model 172 
a. OSI Model
  Explained 172 
b. Layer 7 -
Application
  Layer 172 
c. Layer 6 -
Presentation
  Layer 176 
d. Layer 5 -
  Session Layer 177 
e. Layer 4 -
  Transport Layer 177 
f. Layer 3 -
  Network Layer 179 
g. Layer 2 - Data
  Link Layer 179 
h. Layer 1 -
  Physical Layer 180 
  i. Layer Specific 181 
 8

Communication
j. OSI Model
Functional
  Drawing 183 
 
33. Synchronous
  Transmission 185 
a. Clocking: Self
& Manchester
  Encoding 186 
 
34. Basic Frame
  Structure 188 
a. Preamble:
Starting
Delimiter/Alert
Burst/Start of
  Header 188 
b. Address
Field(s): Source
and/or
  Destination 188 
  c. Control Field 190 
d. Data/Message
  and optional Pad 190 
e. CRC/ Frame
  Check Sequence 190 
f. End Frame
  Delimiter 190 
 
  35. Physical Layer 192 
a. Asynchronous
& Synchronous
  Communication 192 
 
36. IEEE-802.3
  Protocol 194 
a. CSMA/CD
(Carrier Sense
Multiple Access/
  Collision Detect) 194 
b. IEEE 802.3
Ethernet Media
  Types 195 
c. IEEE 802.3
  10Base5 196 
 9

d. IEEE 802.3a
  10Base2 200 
e. IEEE 802.3i
  10BaseT 203 
f. MAC -
Medium Access
  Control 206 
g. Total Length
  of a MAC Frame 209 
  h. MAC Frame 211 
  i. Packet Sniffing 212 
j. Packet Sniffing
  Block Diagram 216 
 
37. IEEE 802.2
LLC - Logical
Link Control
  Layer 217 
a. Service Access
  Ports (SAPs) 219 
b. Types of LLC
  Operation 220 
c. Classes of
  LLC 224 
d. LLC PDU
Control Field
  Formats 224 
 
38. Network
  Interface Cards 229 
a. IRQs, DMAs
and Base
  Addresses 230 
  b. Legacy 234 
c. NIC
  Diagnostic Tools 236 
d. Network
Interface Card
  Drivers 238 
  i. NDIS Drivers 241 
  ii. ODI Drivers 243 
iii. Packet
  Drivers 245 
iv. Software
  Interrupts 245 
 
 10

  39. Repeaters 247 

a. Purpose of a 247 
  Repeater
b. Repeater's OSI 249 
  Operating Layer
c. Repeater's
Segment to
Segment
  Characteristics 249 
d. Repeater
Addressing:
MAC Layer and
Network
  Segment 251 
 
  40. Hubs 253 
a. Purpose of
  Hubs 253 
b. Hub's OSI
  Operating Layer 255 
c. Hub's Segment
to Segment
  Characteristics 255 
d. Hub's
  Addressing 257 
e. Half-Duplex &
Full-Duplex
  Ethernet Hubs 257 
f. Switching
  Hubs 258 
 
  41. Bridges 260 
a. Bridge OSI
  Operating Layer 260 
b. Purpose of a
  Bridge 260 
c. Bridge
Segment to
Segment
  Characteristics 263 
d. Bridge
  Methodologies 265 
e. Reasons to use
  a Bridge 270 
f. Bridge
  Addressing 270 
 11

g. Collapsed
  Backbones 270 
 
  42. Routers 272 
a. Purpose of
  Routers 272 
b. Router OSI
  Operating Layer 272 
c. Router
Segment to
Segment
  Characteristics 274 
d. Router
  Addressing 276 
e. Routing
  Protocols 276 
f. RIP - Routing
Information
  Protocol 276 
g. EGRP -
Exterior Gateway
  Routing Protocol 279 
h. OSPF - Open
Shortest Path
  First 279 
 
43. Brouters
  (Bridge/Routers) 281 
 
  44. Gateway 282 
a. Gateway's OSI
  Operating Layer 282 
b. Gateway
Segment to
Segment
  Characteristics 283 
c. Gateway
  Addressing 283 
 
  45. Token Ring 284 
a. IBM Token
  Ring 285 
b. IEEE 802.4
  Token Bus 286 
c. IEEE 802.5
  Token Ring 286 
 12

d. IEEE 802.5
  Bus Arbitration 286 
e. 4 / 16 Mbps
  Transfer Rate 292 
f. IEEE 802.5
  Topology 292 
  g. MSAUs 292 
i. Token Ring
  connectors 294 
  ii. MSAU Relay 296 
iii. Ring In/
  Ring Out 296 
  iv. Wrapping 298 
v. Physical Star/
  Logical Ring 299 
h. IEEE 802.5
and the OSI
  Model 299 
i. Token Ring
  Cabling 302 
i. Shielded
  Twisted Pair 302 
ii. Unshielded
Twisted Pair -
  Type 3 302 
iii. IBM
  Cabling System 303 
  j. Ring Insertion 304 
k. CAUs &
  LAMs 305 
l. Ring
  Calculations 306 
i. Maximum
  Ring Length 306 
ii. Ring Length
  Calculations 306 
iii. Mixing
Cables and Ring
  Length 307 
iii. Active
Concentrators
and Ring
  Length 309 
m. Token Ring
Monitors and
  Servers 311 
 13

i. Active
  Monitor (AM) 311 
ii. Standby
  Monitor (SM) 316 
iii. Ring
Parameter
  Server (RPS) 318 
iv.
Configuration
Report Server
  (CRS) 318 
v. Ring Error
  Monitor (REM) 320 
vi. Where are
  these Monitors? 324 
n. Token Ring
  Hierarchy 324 
o. IEEE 802.5
  Frames 326 
 
46. Linux and
  Token Ring 336 
 
47. Source
  Routing 342 
 
48. ISDN -
Integrated
Services Digital
  Network 344 
 
49. ADSL -
Asymmetrical
Digital Subscriber
  Line 347 
 
  50. Cable Modems350 
 
51. Quick
Introduction to
  Unix 352 
a. Basic Unix
  Commands 359 
b. Access and
  Permissions 362 
  c. Links, 365 
 14

Instances &
Processes
d. Background
  Processing 369 
  e. Shell Programs371 
f.
Communicating
  with Other Users 373 
g. Creating Users
  and Groups 375 
 
52. SAMBA,
Win95, NT and
  HP Jetdirect 377 
 
53. The Suite of
  TCP/IP Protocols 387 
 
54. Internet
  Protocol 389 
  a. IP Addresses 389 
b. IP Address
  Classifications 390 
i. Class A
  addresses 390 
ii. Class B
  addresses 390 
iii. Class C
  addresses 391 
iv. Class D
  addresses 391 
v. Class E
  addresses 391 
c. Reserved IP
  Addresses 392 
d. Network
  Masking 393 
e. Domain
  Names 398 
  f. IP Header 401 
 
55. Address
Resolution
  Protocol (ARP) 404 
 
  56. Reverse 406 
 15

Address
Resolution
Protocol (RARP)
 
57. Internet
Control Messaging
  Protocol (ICMP) 407 
 
58. Transmission
Control Protocol
  (TCP) 416 
 
59. User Datagram
  Protocol (UDP) 420 
 
60. Simple
Network
Management
  Protocol 422 
a. SNMPv2 to
  the Rescue 423 
b. MIB -
Management
  Information Base 423 
c. RMON -
Remote Network
  Monitoring 423 
 
61. Handy Unix
Network
Troubleshooting
  Commands 425 
 
  62. X.25 429 
a. X.25 OSI
  Layers 431 
b. X.25 High
  overhead 433 
c. X.25 Packet
  Formats 435 
 
  63. Frame Relay 439 
a. Decreased
Protocol
  Overhead 439 
  b. LAPD - Link 441 
 16

Access Protocol
D channel
c. LAN to Frame
Relay
  Connection 441 

Appendix
a. PC Block
  Diagram 442 
b. PC Quick ID
  Guide 445 
c. Ethernet Type
  Field 463 
d. Ethernet
Address
  Assignments 466 
e. IP Protocol
  Address Space 470 
f. IP Multicast
  Addresses 472 
g. IP Header
  Protocols 476 
h. IP Hardware
  Types 478 
i. TCP/IP Well
  Known Ports 479 
j. AT Command
  Set (Partial listing)493 
k. ISO 3166
  Country Codes 497 
l. Token Ring -
  Major Vector IDs 499 
m. The GNU
General Public
  License 502 
n. Copyleft Rules
  & Regulations 508 

 
Introduction to Data Communications
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 17

Introduction to Data
Communications
4. Data Communications
 

4. Data
Communications

Data Communications is
the transfer of data or
information between a
source and a receiver.
The source transmits the
data and the receiver
receives it. The actual
generation of the
information is not part of
Data Communications
nor is the resulting action
of the information at the
receiver. Data
Communication is
interested in the transfer
of data, the method of
transfer and the
preservation of the data
during the transfer
process.

In Local Area Networks,

we are interested in
"connectivity",
connecting computers
together to share
resources. Even though
the computers can have
different disk operating
systems, languages,
cabling and locations,
they still can
communicate to one
 18

another and share

resources.

The purpose of Data

Communications is to
provide the rules and
regulations that allow
computers with different
disk operating systems,
languages, cabling and
locations to share
resources. The rules and
regulations are called
protocols and standards
in Data
Communications.

5. Why
Telecommunications?

What does networking

have to do with
telephones?
Telephones and
networking work hand in
hand. The
telecommunications
industry has been
gradually integrating
with the computer
industry and the
computer industry has
been gradually
integrating with the
telecommunications
industry. The common
goal is to join distantly
located Local Area
Networks into
Metropolitan and Wide
Area Networks (MANs
and WANs).

5a. Voice Channels

 19

First thing that comes to

mind is telephone
systems and the phone at
home. Talking to
someone on the phone
uses Voice Channels.
This doesn't seem to
have much to do with
Networks!

We do use voice
channels for modem
communications to
connect to BBSs
(Bulletin Board
Services) or to connect
to the Internet. We also
use voice channels to
connect LANs using
remote access. Due to
the bandwidth limits on
the Voice Channel, the
data transfer rate is
relatively slow.

Voice Channel: Dial-up

connection through a
modem using standard
telephone lines. Typical
Voice Channel
communication rates are:
300, 1200, 2400, 9600,
14.4k, 19.2k, 28.8k,
33.6k and 56 kbps (bits
per second).

5b. Data Channels

Data channels are

dedicated lines for
communicating digitized
voice and data. At the
end of 1996, there was a
major milestone where
more data was
 20

communicated in North
America's
telecommunications
system than voice.
 
 
Introduction to Data Communications
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 21

Introduction to Data
Communications
4. Data Communications
 

4. Data
Communications

Data Communications is
the transfer of data or
information between a
source and a receiver.
The source transmits the
data and the receiver
receives it. The actual
generation of the
information is not part of
Data Communications
nor is the resulting action
of the information at the
receiver. Data
Communication is
interested in the transfer
of data, the method of
transfer and the
preservation of the data
during the transfer
process.

In Local Area Networks,

we are interested in
"connectivity",
connecting computers
together to share
resources. Even though
the computers can have
different disk operating
systems, languages,
cabling and locations,
they still can
communicate to one
 22

another and share

resources.

The purpose of Data

Communications is to
provide the rules and
regulations that allow
computers with different
disk operating systems,
languages, cabling and
locations to share
resources. The rules and
regulations are called
protocols and standards
in Data
Communications.

5. Why
Telecommunications?

What does networking

have to do with
telephones?
Telephones and
networking work hand in
hand. The
telecommunications
industry has been
gradually integrating
with the computer
industry and the
computer industry has
been gradually
integrating with the
telecommunications
industry. The common
goal is to join distantly
located Local Area
Networks into
Metropolitan and Wide
Area Networks (MANs
and WANs).

5a. Voice Channels

 23

First thing that comes to

mind is telephone
systems and the phone at
home. Talking to
someone on the phone
uses Voice Channels.
This doesn't seem to
have much to do with
Networks!

We do use voice
channels for modem
communications to
connect to BBSs
(Bulletin Board
Services) or to connect
to the Internet. We also
use voice channels to
connect LANs using
remote access. Due to
the bandwidth limits on
the Voice Channel, the
data transfer rate is
relatively slow.

Voice Channel: Dial-up

connection through a
modem using standard
telephone lines. Typical
Voice Channel
communication rates are:
300, 1200, 2400, 9600,
14.4k, 19.2k, 28.8k,
33.6k and 56 kbps (bits
per second).

5b. Data Channels

Data channels are

dedicated lines for
communicating digitized
voice and data. At the
end of 1996, there was a
major milestone where
more data was
 24

communicated in North
America's
telecommunications
system than voice.
 
 
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 25

Introduction to Data
Communications
5. Why
Telecommunications?
(cont'd)

5b. Data
Channels
(cont'd)
Data Channels are
special communications
channels provided by the
"common carriers" such
as Telus, Sprint, Bell
Canada, AT&T, etc.. for
transferring digital data.
Data Channels are also
called "Leased Lines".
They are "directly"
connected and you don't
have to dial a connection
number. The connections
are up and running 24
hours per day. They
appear as if there were a
wire running directly
between the source and
destination. Typical
transfer rates for data
communication are: 56
k, 128k, 1.544 M, 2.08
M, 45M and 155 Mbps.

Common carriers charge

for data connections by

1. the amount of
data transferred
(megabytes per
 26

month)
2. the transfer rate
(bits per second)

3. the amount of use

(time per month)

6. Introduction
to Networking
What is a Network? This
is a difficult question to
answer. A network can
consist of two computers
connected together on a
desk or it can consist of
many Local Area
Networks (LANs)
connected together to
form a Wide Area
Network (WAN) across
a continent.

The key is that 2 or more

computers are connected
together by a medium
and they are sharing
resources. The resources
can be files, printers,
harddrives or cpu
number crunching
power.

6a. The Big

Picture
Many individuals have
asked to see The Big
Picture of networking:
"where does everything
fit in?". Where does
Microsoft NT fit in with
routers and the OSI
 27

layers? What about

UNIX, Linux and
Novell? The following
page has a graphic
showing The Big
Picture. It attempts to
show all areas of
networking and how
they tie into each other.
The following key
describes the graphical
symbols used:

 Circles Network
Operating
Systems
 Squares
Communication
& cabling
protocols (OSI
Transport to
Physical Layer)

 Storm Clouds
Telecommunicati
ons media or
Information
providers that
connect to the
Internet

 Machine symbol
Network "linker"
can be a Bridge,
Router, Brouter
or Gateway

 The Internet
jagged haphazard
dotted line
 
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Introduction to Data Communications
 28

Previous Introduction to Networking (cont'd) Next

Introduction to Data Communications

Previous Table of Contents Next

Introduction to Data Communications

 29

32. Introduction to the ISO - OSI Model

32. Introduction to the ISO - OSI Model

The ISO (International Standards Organization) has created a
layered model called the OSI (Open Systems Interconnect) model to
describe defined layers in a network operating system. The purpose
of the layers is to provide clearly defined functions to improve
internetwork connectivity between "computer" manufacturing
companies. Each layer has a standard defined input and a standard
defined output.

Understanding the function of each layer is instrumental in

understanding data communication within networks whether Local,
Metropolitan or Wide.

32a. OSI Model Explained

This is a top-down explanation of the OSI Model, starting with the
user's PC and what happens to the user's file as it passes though the
different OSI Model layers. The top-down approach was selected
specifically (as opposed to starting at the Physical Layer and
working up to the Application Layer) for ease of understanding of
how the user's files are transformed through the layers into a bit
stream for transmission on the network.

There are 7 Layers of the OSI model:

 7. Application Layer (Top Layer)

 6. Presentation Layer

 5. Session Layer

 4. Transport Layer

 3. Network Layer

 2. Data Link Layer

 1. Physical Layer (Bottom Layer)

 30

32b. Layer 7 - Application Layer

Fig. 1 Basic PC Logical Flowchart

A basic PC logical flowchart is shown in Fig. 1. The Keyboard & Application are shown as inputs to the CPU that would
request access to the hard-drive. The Keyboard requests accesses to the hard-drive through user enquiries such as "DIR"
commands and the Application through "File Openings" and "Saves". The CPU, through the Disk Operating System,
sends/receives data from the local hard-drive ("C:" in this example).

 
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Introduction to Data Communications
32b. Layer 7 - Application Layer

A PC setup as a network workstation has a software "Network

Redirector" (actual name depends on the network - we will use a
generic term) placed between the CPU and DOS as in Fig 2. The
Network Redirector is a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident)
program which presents the network hard-drive as another local
hard-drive ("G:" in this example) to the CPU. Any CPU requests are
intercepted by the "Network Redirector". The Network Redirector
checks to see if a local drive is requested or a network drive. If a
local drive is requested, the request is passed on to DOS. If a
network drive is requested, the request is passed on to the network
operating system (NOS).

Electronic mail (E-Mail), client-server databases, games played over

the network, print and file servers, remote logons and network
management programs or any "network aware" application are
 31

aware of the network redirector and can communicate directly with

other "network applications" on the network. The "Network Aware
Applications" and the "Network Redirector" make up Layer 7 - the
Application layer of the OSI Model as shown in Fig 3.

Fig. 2 Simple Network Redirection

Fig. 3 PC Workstation with Network Aware Software

 32

 
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Chapter One
Data Communications Basics

T his chapter provides an overview of data communications, an area that is

receiving much attention for the past ten years. It aims at familiarizing the
reader with terminologies, limitations and capabilities of current data
communications systems. A successful computer system may be viewed as an
integration of data-processing system and data-communication system. The
function of data communication is to extend the processing power to cover
wider area and overcome spatial limitation. Upon completion of this chapter,
you should be able to:

Define telecommunications

Define data communications

Understand the data communication’s requirements

List the characteristics of cluster and distributed networks

List different network topologies

Understand the evolution of communications network

A distributed system is an integration of data processing, data

communication system, a 3-D model.

Data communications and networking concepts

Communications
 33

T he contents of this Lecture Notes is about Data

communications, it is quite natural to define a few frequently
used terminologies throughout this book. Communications
by definition refers to the transfer of information from one
place to another between two individuals using  agreed
symbols, signs or even human behaviour such as nodding.
Below are a few examples involving communication.

Talking to your friend over a phone between Kowloon Tong and Shatin. In
this example, at least a single telephone exchange with two telephone sets
are required. The voice signal will be converted and amplified prior to
reaching the called party. In addition, both sides can send/receive voice
signals (Formal definition is full-duplex.)
Writing a mail to overseas relative. In this example, there is no 100%
guarantee that the mail will be correctly received by your relative. The
delivery of letter is done by a third party and acknowledge on the receipt of
letter is usually not provided to ordinary mail. (Formal definition is
simplex.)
Lecturing a course. In this example, the exchange of information is face-to-
face and again is usually a simplex style, unless the student raises question.
Voice, Drawing and Image will be used to deliver a lecture to the student.

Types of information during communication may include one or

a combination of following:

Voice through radio or telephone. It was analogue signal and is being

replaced by digital signal. Use of digital signals for communication has a lot
of advantages:
The signal could be reproduced with less distortion. In terms of reception
quality, you will find that the voice part of NICAM system is better than the
video part seen on the screen during adverse weather. It is because the audio
part of TV signal is digitized while the audio part is still analogue and may
be affected by the mis-alignment of antenna’s reception.
Video picture seen on TV screen. The information to be carried is
continuous images.
Digital Data between modem and PC communication port 1 (COM1). In this
example, the data transfer is called asynchronous mode (Not synchronous in
 34

the way of sending data.)

Image received by FAX machine

The signal types to be used in communication are summarized

into:

Voice or audio, human speech

Data, banking record
Video Image, desktop scanned bit map
Drawing, output of AutoCAD or AutoSketch

Multi-media Data

Multi-media technology is being developed to cover the above signal types into
a single entity. A signle entity means within the network, there is no distinction
on the types of signal. All of them are classifed as digital signals with different
characteristics. For instance, delay on voice is more sensitive than text data
during transmssion. A few more examples regarding the products are given
below:

Movice = Video + Audio

Digital games = Music + video + software

Electronic books = text + data + graphics + music + photographs + video

Looking at the above classification, it is felt that video dominates the future
data communications. Because of the limited bandwidth (data that can be
transmitted per unit time), the video signal is needed to be digitised,
compressed and stored in mutimedia storage warehouse called server . It is
linked by transport networks to allow users to access.

Can you draw a distinction between drawing and image in terms of file size
and supporting software packages if required to produce the picture?

The file size of “Drawing” is less than an image as it uses vector approach. The
graphics also use simple geometric setting such as a circle can be represented
 35

by the centre and the radius, not the whole circle picture. This, of course, relies
on the package to reproduce it.

Communication System
Exchange of information relies on a communication system to
convert, amplify and send signal through a common medium.
A very simple communication system may include a sender
(originator or caller) and a receiver as shown in Figure . Of
course, terminals and communication cables are also required.
The description for each item is given in the following table.

Term Description Example

Message, Sender, Medium and Receiver are the essential components of

communication system.

If a system is extended by cascading more communications systems, it is called

networked systems. In the above diagram, the receiver can also send the
information back to the sender depending on the protocol commonly agreed
and the transmission medium. Could you list the consequences if the sender is
sending the Simplified Chinese Characters while the receiver interprets as
English Words? If the communication medium is air and the signal is
contaminated by random noise, how can the receiver identify the error
messages being received?

Telecommunications
In case, communication involves the sending of information over a significant
distance, it must use telecommunications as an aid. By definition,
Telecommunications refers to the transmission of information between distant
locations by some electromagnetic means. A typical example is the microwave
link currently being used by Hong Kong Electric between Lamma power
station and major zone substations on Hong Kong island. The distance in
between is over several kilometers and the links use extensive electronic based
microwave equipment. Star TV involves Telecommunication by broadcasting
the TV pictures through the satellite called AsiaSAT.
 36

Assume that you are using a dial link to access the CityU’s Citylink, can you
list which part involves the use of telecommunications?

A pair of modems used to convert the digital signal from the PC to analogue
signal involves Telecommunications by sending/receiving the data through
telephone network. The telephone network abbreviated as PSTN (Public
Switching Telephone Network) is currently monopolized by Hong Kong
Telecom. It is basically a voice network but can be used with the consent of
Hong Kong Telecom to support data through a pair of modems.

How far does it take for an analog signal travelling over a voice network?

The speed in the telephone network depends on the speed of electronic. It is

roughly half the speed of light that is 1.5x10 8 km per second. Based on this
Figure, can you Figure out it long it takes by a telephone signal from Hong
Kong to Tokyo?

Data Communications
Data communications is defined as the interchange and processing encoded
information between distant locations using Telecommunications. Encoded
information refers to digital information and is nothing just a series of ones and
zeros from one point to another.

Data communications is regarded as the collection and distribution of the

electronic representation of information which can be text, voice, graphics or
image, from and to remote computing facilities. As information can only be
carried to the remote site provided that the information carrier supports that
particular type of data transmission, information may undergo data conversion
processes if the nature of data signal is incompatible with the characteristics of
the signal carrier.

To illustrate the relationship between Data communications and

Telecommunications, we group these two terms together with the aid of
computers. You will find that data communication bases on the computer to
process the digital information and relies on telecommunication equipment to
 37

deliver the information to remote receiver as shown in Figure Data

communication is now even used by computer people as a single word
datacommunication similar to telecommunication.

Teleprocessing is the combination of telecommunications and data processing.

However, it is often used interchangeably with the term data communications.

Why Data Communications?

There are a few reasons behind, below are the most important
three reasons.

It is beneficial if computers can exchange their data through the common

links among them. This not only reduces document flow, but also saves
time. Some companies in Hong Kong use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
to do business (such as placing order, sending invoice, etc. through the
network).

By use of data communications, tasks of distributed nature can be processed

by distributed computer systems by exchanging data and/or intermediate
results among themselves. For example, well known retail shops like Circle
K can use Point Of Sale system to keep check the inventory level locally,
sales summaries and request can be transmitted to the computer in
headquarters for overall turnover.

It provides a way to link hardware, software, and data bases among

computer systems in different geographical locations and what is more
important is that this enhances a company to make better use of its
computing resources. For example regional office may send a job, which is
too big for its regional computer system to handle, to the headquarters’
computer system for processing and sending the result back.

The data communication is getting booming for the past 10

years due to the powerful capability of computer systems.
Below are the trends for minicomputer.
 38

Increased computation power. To measure the computation power, Million

Instructions Per Second abbreviated as MIPS is used for the same CPU bus
size. A 80486 PC is roughly 5 to 6 MIPS.
Cheaper mass storage. Nowadays, to use a single 1M bit memory chip in PC
is quite common. 25 years ago, a popular ICL mainframe model only had
64K bytes as the main memory. Talking about the disk technology, it shows
that the capacity will also increase exponentially with gigabyte capacity
available in the near future. Multiple head/multiple platter magnetic
technology and compact disk optical technology are both capable of
providing cost-effective mass storage with this capacity.
Increased data management capabilities. A lot of network management
tools to monitor the performance of network and data management tool like
Powerhouse are very common to keep check the performance of data and
network.
Reduction in cost. You probably find that the price of PC is roughly
depreciated by half for about two years. A PC 80486 with 200M harddisk
and Super VGA monitor is 8000+ in early 1994, which was 15000+ in early
1992 at Golden Arcade. Now a Pentium Pro costs less than HKD10000.  A
computer specialist therefore recommended the buyer not to buy the top
model on sale in the market, as the buyer will get a similar type two years
later at half the price.
Increased in performance/cost. It is one of the factors to measure the
computer’s performance in terms of MIPS/cost. Using this factor, IBM
mainframe is extremely expensive than a 80486 PC or Prime Computer.

Can you draw the distinction amongst data, information and knowledge?

Data refers to pre-processed material and information refers to the processed

data.

The use of telecommunication is to extend the computation capability offered

by computer. More than 90% of computers are used in business to process the
data and produce report, without telecommunication, the service only focus in
the office environment. Use of data communication, on the other hand, allows
different computers to group together to process the inter-related messages.

Up to here, can you clearly define the terms: communications,

telecommunications and data communications?
 39

Communications:

Telecommunications:

DataCommunications:

Computer Network
Network by definition refers to a group of interconnected devices
communicating with each other. The device could be telephone exchange. If
the device is a computer, it is called computer network. So, computer network
is defined as a collection of computer systems that are connected together for
the purpose of exchanging and sharing resources.

To call it a computer network involves three major components

as listed below:

Computers. These are definitely required to process and relay messages

between two remote parties. It is further classified into clustered and
distributed.
Clustered (There is only one machine or all the machines are grouped
together)
Distributed (This is the current trend for computer communications.)

To classify whether the system is partially or fully distributed,

there are three factors :Is the data distributed amongst the
nodes? Is the hardware distributed? Is the operating system
used distributed? If the system can satisfy all of them, it is
regarded as a fully distributed system.

Remote terminals attaching to the network. The terminal can also classified
into two types namely:
Interactive type such as VT100, IBM 3278.

VT means virtual terminal. It relies on software to conFigure

the PC to behave like different terminal types such as VT200 or
 40

VT100. When you log into the VAX/VMS, you could use show
terminal to find out the terminal type that you are using.

Batch like RJE (Remote Job Entry) by IBM series.

Communication links.

The link can be physical link such as telephone wire, satellite channel and
telephone wire or logical link formed by software.

A physical wire can be shared by a few users simultaneously, the piece of time
that is shared by user is regarded as software link and the physical wire itself is
physical link. By use of communication software, a few physical wires could be
grouped together to serve two machines is called logical trunk. An X.25
physical path can support up to 4096 logical channels.

Networking Concepts
Advantages of computer Networks
There are a lot of advantages by use of networked computers
such as:

Resource sharing including program, data base, hardware etc.

You can now remotely search library catalogue belonging to

The University of Hong Kong through UPGC network at City
University of Hong Kong.

Graceful degradation of system upon component failure. One of computer

node’s failure will affect part of the network only.

Cluster Network
 41

A cluster network is a simple communication system with a single host

processor or a few grouped processors at the same location. Terminals are
connected to the host through telephone wiring. Data and executable files are
also centrally located in the processors and are usually shared among users. The
library system at  City University of Hong Kong is a typical example. Figure is
a block diagram showing the relationship between a computing machine and
terminals.

Explain why computer loading is also shared among users a clustered network.

Distributed networks
The network is characterized by connecting multiple processors geographically
distributed within the network as shown in Figure . BITNET, Because It is a
Time NETtwork, is a typical example of distributed network and is established
to provide information transfer to international academic institutions. BITNET
presently links more than 2900 institutional computers over 450 higher
educational institutions and research centres in most countries including Hong
Kong, Australia, Japan, Europe, United States etc. HARNET, Hong Kong
Academic Research Network, is now upgraded with T1 link at the speed of
1.54 M bits per second with Ring configuration instead of Star configuration.

Can you distinguish the difference between Ring and Star network in terms of
network topology?

The advantages of using distributed network are:

Flexibility for future growth and expansion. To add a node to the system is
to make a physical connection with appropriate software to the boundary
node.
Versatile and reliable in terms of system down time

The network’s reliability can be measured in terms of system

down time. That is how many seconds/minutes within a
month/year the network is out of service.

Cost effective in terms of system growth and maintenance

 42

Figure 3 shows the interconnection of a few distributed machines through a

wide area network. The computers are interconnected through a common
network.

Network Topologies
Network topology refers to the way of grouping/linking the communication
nodes to serve particular need. Figure is an older version of HARNET (Hong
Kong Academic Research Network) showing the connections with node names
amongst the higher educational institutions in Hong Kong. The centre node was
HKU’s HKUJNT.

Can you classify this type of network topology? Ring or Star.

Communication Subnetwork
Arrangement of the computers and the interconnections
between them as shown in Figure with appropriate DCE, DTE
and network boundary. Each computer in a network is called a
node. The connection is known as an arc, path or link. Factors
that should be considered in defining the network topology
include:

Reliability in terms of system downtime

Performance in terms of time required to perform data retrieval/update
across various nodes. The minimum response time for an IBM SNA network
is 3 seconds. Longer than this value is deemed to be poor performance.
Flexibility in terms of system expansion, failure etc.

Network Topology
Network topology is broadly classified into point-to-point or multi-point
depending on the data transfer within the network.

Point-to-point

Message has to be transferred between two adjacent nodes

linking up by various transmission media. A Point-to-Point
 43

depending on the topology as given in Figure is further divided

into:

Star ( A central node is required to relay messages)

Every device in the network has a dedicated point-to-point link

to the central computer but not to others. Therefore, if one
device wants to communicate with another device other than
the central computer, it must pass its message to the central
computer for re-routing. The central computer acts as the
network controller.

Loop ( A message has to pass through several nodes in the system prior to be
received by the targeted node.) The data movement can be either direction.

Tree (A top node irrespective of topology is still required.)

Complete (Direct connection between two nodes are formed.) This topology
is ideal for military application in which reliability is the prime factor to be
considered.

Irregular or Mesh (Irregular shape). There is no specific path and solely

depends on the system growth. This network is widely used in business
applications.

List the reasons why Irregular network is preferable in business environments?

Broadcast

Message is sent to all nodes within the network by means of

common bus.

Bus topology like broadcasting radio or Ethernet network. It is essentially a

single multidrop line shared by many nodes as shown in Figure . A message
 44

to be transmitted is placed on the common path and is broadcast to all the

nodes. Obviously, all messages should be included with sender’s and
receiver’s addresses. Messages which are not addressed to nodes in the
network are ignored by them.

Failure of any nodes in the bus does not affect the other
nodes. In addition, new nodes can be added easily by
“tapping” into the bus. Accessing to the link is often based on
a contention policy.

Ring topology like IBM Token Ring. All computing devices are connected
in a ring. A device can communicate with any other devices in the ring. The
data flow in such topology is unidirectional. All messages must be
addressed. A special bit pattern called a token, acts like a poll in a multidrop
line, is passed from node to node for regulating data traffic.

Comparison Among Different Topologies

Below shows the advantage and disadvantage amongst various
network topologies.

Type Advantage Disadvantage

Failure of central node causes

Star Simple and easy to identify fault
disaster

Failure of one of the nodes cause

Loop Implementation is simple
the collapse of whole network.

Failure of upper level loses the

Tree Graceful evolution
capability of network.

Failure of one node in the network

Complete Implementation cost is expensive
will not affect the rest
 45

Irregular Immunity to bottleneck and failure Expensive to provide an alternative

(Mesh) problems routing

Only a single communications

Bus Simple to control traffic flow channel is required to service all the
nodes

One channel is required to service

Ring Simple to implement
all

Network Applications
There are numerous applications using networked computers
such as:-

A central host computer with networked stations.

Access to remote program by use of IBM LU 6.2 in local machine.
Electronic mail such as all-in-1 mail used in VAX
Access to the remote database (Library cataloging system)
Financial information (Hong Kong Stock Exchange provided by Reuters)
E-commerce, Web-shopping and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Basic Terminologies for Different Networks

Networks regardless of type and feature are classified into Vendor network or
Commercial Network. Vendor network is usually the proprietary network
manufactured by a particular manufacturer while the commercial network is
formed by using a single vendor network or grouping a few vendor networks to
serve a commercial need such as the JETCO is formed by connecting to a few
local banks with communication protocols using TCP/IP, IBM LU 6.2, X.25,
Bi-sync or even the Internet HTTP etc.

Commercial Networks

Abbreviation Description
 46

As created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

ARPANET
whose project started in 1969.

It refers to the National Science Foundation Internet(NSFNet). It

was part of APPARNET and was split into an Academic and
The Internet Research base network running mostly the TCP/IP protocol.
CityU is one of the Internet nodes and the Internet address is
144.214.2.3.

Telenet Is the commercial public service offshoot of ARPANET

Is the commercial time-sharing network of Control Data

CYBERNET
Corporation with Centers located around the world.

Is GE’s Information Service Network dealing with current

MARK III
exchange

Is a subsidiary of Tymshare Inc., was originally developed as part

TYMNET
of the time-sharing system.

Is the Society for World Wide Interbank Financial

SWIFT Telecommunications. The asia service centre is located in Hong
Kong.

DDX Is the Japanese packet switched network.

Is a packet switching network offered by Hong Kong Telephone

Datapak
company using a protocol based on X.25.

Is a Canadian packet switched network using a protocol based on

DATAPAC
X.25

Vendor Network

The network is manufactured and supported by the vendors.

Type Description
 47

Communication Organisations
Communication standards are formulated and designed by
certain International Organizations. A few well known
organizations are:

Type Description

Network Evolution
The evolution of communication networks starts from primitive analogy
telephone exchange to commonly used Local Area Network.

Telephone network
It was originally designed for the transmission of voice and is still the largest
communications network in the world as shown in Figure . You can use this
network to deliver voice, FAX or even low-resolution video image by use of
video telephone, A pair of modems is used to convert the digital signal in
analog form so that the signal will not be distorted after passing through the
telephone network. A dedicated physical channel is required for each telephone
conversation.

Terminal-based Distributed System

In order to extend the terminals, a pair of modems is used between the central
computer and the teletype writer. The line speed is limited by the quality of
public switched telephone network as shown in Figure . The current typical
value is 28800 bps (Bit per Second) and is moving to the speed of 56k bps.

Large Terminal-based Distributed System

The communication loading is shared by the front process which will collect all
the related messages after proper processing prior to sending to the host in
order to reduce the host’s interruption as shown in Figure . A typical cluster
 48

controller is IBM 3174 which can support up to 32 IBM interactive terminals

and is ideal for regional banking service in Hong Kong.

PSDN-based Distributed System

It is a digital network such as datapak developed by Hong Kong Telecom to
allow multi-proprietary machines to connect to this network to exchange
information. When you login to the CityU’s network, you already made a
connection to Hong Kong Telecom’s digital network, X.25. The quality of
message delivered is guaranteed by this network. Figure shows the PSDN
based distributed system.

LAN-based Distributed System

As Local Area Network(LAN) is getting popular in small size office, there are
a strong demand to connect various LANs and Wide Area Network such as
X.25 together to provide distributed service. The network’s backbone as shown
in Figure is commonly equipped with either coaxial or optical fiber. A network
with the same protocol can be communicated with others through a repeater.
The network also has certain gateways to talk to other non-LAN based system
such as Asynchronous gateway to VAX. Nowadays, TCP/IP protocol is
commonly used to link up multi-vendor networks to provide file transfer, E-
mail, Internet-based product etc.

Explain why high speed backbone is used. If the network backbone is not a
high speed medium, what is the consequence?

It can support multi-media such as voice and video. If it is not used, it becomes
the bottleneck of the network.

The Internet
The term Internet is used in two contexts. The first one, an internet refes to the
interconnection of two or more networks. The second one, the Internet, refers
to the specific collection of interconnected networks spanning more than 60
 49

countries throughout the world. The member networks are both WANs (Wide
Area Networks) and LANs (Local Area Networks), which were initally
academic institutions and research facilities. The internet now, apart form
academia, consists of business organisations, government agenceis and even
household Internet-like service subscriptions. Computers in the Internet fall
into two basic categories: host nodes (servers) and terminals (browser). Host
nodes are used to attach a network to the internet. Non-host nodes, on the other
hand, access the Internet through a host node but are not directly connected to
the Internet. Access to the Internet is provided at three basic levels, namely,
national, regional and local. National providers are commercial entities that sell
access to the Internet. The Internet uses a variety of communications lines. The
backbone nodes use T1 or T3 links to provide transmission from one area to
another. Figure shows a fraction of Internet backbone Network in US. In Hong
Kong, the internal central hub is located at Chinese University of Hong Kong
with a high speed link connected to US Seattle.

What is http?

It is one of the services offered by the Intenrt and is called Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol. This is the protocol used to transfer the Hyper Text in HTML format.

Self-examined Questions
List the definition of data communications.

 
List two reasons to explain why data communications is getting booming for
the past ten years.

List THREE characteristics of cluster networks.

 50

 
 
List THREE characteristics of distributed networks.

 
 
What are some of the reasons for having networks?

 
What is the difference between a loop and a ring network?

 
 
List two different network topologies.

 
List the THREE categories of data communication components.

 
Briefly list the components in a typical banking network in Hong Kong.
(Hint Each branch is equipped with a cluster controller to serve a few
banking terminals.)

When you are using the ICQ, what is the network topology? Point to Point or
Broadcast.
 51

Chapter Two
Basic Communications Theory

T his chapter is about the communications theory, transmission modes,

modulation and data compression techniques related to communications
system. It describes how data flow is represented in terms of bits per time unit,
and figures out maximum data transfer rate between two end points referenced
to channel bandwidth, signal to noise ratio and the conversion of digital signals
into analogue format over a voice-graded network. Upon completion of this
chapter, you should be able:

Understand the basic transmission theory, and figure out the maximum data
rate.

Identify the three transmission modes: Simplex, Half-duplex and Full-duplex

Classify the differences between serial and parallel transmission in terms of

cost, data rate and suitability

Describe various analogue and digital modulation techniques

Understand various data compression techniques

Introduction to Information Transmission Theory

Information representation
Information as discussed in chapter one can be transmitted in
a transmission medium as a representation of passing
information to the receiver. The transmission medium can be
one of the following:

Telephone wire used by telephone set

 52

Air used by radio transmitter

Optical fiber used as a backbone for various low speed local area networks
Coaxial cable for closed circuit television

The signal relies on the variation of physical property such as the voltage level
and current value. These varying physical properties can mathematically be
represented as a function of time. Using Fourier transformation, any reasonably
behaved periodic function can be represented as a summation of Sines and
Cosines.

where t stands for time, f = 1/T is the fundamental frequency shown in figure
for the waveform being analyzed, an and bn are the sine and cosine amplitudes
of the nth harmonic, g(t) is the original waveform, and C/2 is the average value
of original signal.

The information such as digital data between your PC and modem is a periodic
signal where the period depends on the modem speed. Can you figure out the
transmission period for 2400 bps?

The advantages offered by using Fourier series include:

any complex real-time signal bandwidth, which is difficult to understand,

can be identified and analyzed in frequency domain in terms of bandwidth,
signal amplitude, frequency and phase.
signal distortion against frequency spectrum could be shown in frequency
domain. This provides a clear picture against the signal characteristic.
signal amplification against frequency spectrum could also be analyzed.

Signal analysis
Any Sin or Cos waveforms as given in figure can be measured
by three physical quantities namely Amplitude, Phase, and
Frequency:

Quantity Description

Absolute measure of the height of the wave in voltage or

Amplitude
Peak-to-Peak value.
 53

Wavelength It is a measure of a distance for a periodic cycle.

Relative measure of the difference in time between waves.

Phase
The unit is in either degree or radian.

Absolute measure of the number of times a wave repeats

Frequency
per unit time.

Can you list the peak-to-peak value in above picture?

2 volts, as it is measured between the peak and valley.

The velocity V of a wave travelling is determined by frequency and wavelength

as given below:

V = f

 is the wave length and f is the frequency.

The speed is close to light speed in the air and is roughly half the speed for
electronics travelling in copper wire. The propagation delay for an electronic
from Tsim Sha Tsui to Shum Chung is therefore around 266 x 10 -9 second,
assume the distance is 40 km and the speed is half the light speed.

Can you figure out the propagation delay between Hong Kong and Peking?

You need to find out the distance between these two locations and use the
simple formula time = distance/velocity

Bandwidth
Any analogue signal is not formed by a single frequency if it is expanded in
terms of Fourier series. In fact, the waveform such as voice produced by human
being consists of waveforms of many different frequencies. The bandwidth as
shown in figure is defined by the difference between the points:
 54

Bandwidth = fh - fl

where fh is the highest frequency and fl is the lowest frequency.

Bandwidth is characterized by:

The more bandwidth, the higher the quality of signal to be delivered across
the medium.
Signal outside the bandwidth will be distorted by the transmission medium.
This explains why digital signals generated by computer output port cannot
be directly sent out across a telephone network, as the network will chop off
the signals over 3400 Hz, which is the upper frequency limit produced by
human being.

Based on the conversion to frequency spectrum, any periodic time varying

signal can be viewed as a series of frequency signals with limited bandwidth.
The bandwidth for a copper signal is around 10KHz, 350MHz for coaxial
cable, and 550MHz for single mode optical fiber. Also note that coaxial cable
can carry video signal while telephone wire can support voice and low speed
data.

Examples of harmonics
Signals are usually grouped into broadband or baseband depending on the
signal characteristics. Baseband transmission refers to sending the digital data
along the transmission channel by means of voltage fluctuation such as IEEE
802.3 and IEEE 802.4 and Broadband transmission refers to the sending of data
by modulating with high-frequency carrier wave such as AM or FM radio. Note
that to form a digital waveforms, more harmonic signals are required as shown
in Figure . The square waveform will be distorted after passing through a low
pass filter as shown in the same Figure.

Channel capacity
Channel capacity refers to the maximum data rate for a finite bandwidth
transmission medium in the presence of random noise. It is concerned about the
quality of a specific communications channel and was identified by Shannon.
The relation is governed by:
 55

Maximum data rate = W x log2(1 + S/N)

Where:

W is the bandwidth of transmission medium

S/N is the signal to noise power ratio
Maximum data rate is measured in bits/second

Practically, this limit is seldom reached. To increase the transmission rate, the
designer should either increase the signal power or use alternative medium with
higher bandwidth.

The bandwidth for a telephone network is usually restricted between 300Hz to

3400Hz by telephone exchange. As a result, signal that is out of this range
cannot be transmitted over the PSTN. That is to say, if you inject a signal of
10K Hz over the speaker, the remote cannot hear it. Interesting!

Note that for a theoretical noiseless channel, the maximum data rate that a
channel can carry is nW symbols/per second. A symbol can be n multiple
digital levels instead of 0 or 1.

Decibel
As the signal to power ratio is usually quite significant, a better representation
in communications is used to express the ratio of two values in logarithmic
format. The values can be power, voltage or current. It is not an absolute unit,
just a relative Figure and is expressed in:

dB = 10 log10 P1/P2

Where:

dB number of decibels
P1 the first value of the power
P2 the second value of the power

It is often used to measure the ratio of signal to noise in a communications

channel due to large quantity of signal power. For example, if the signal power
 56

is 1K Watt and the noise power is 1m Watt, there is no point to have a ratio
written in 1000,000.

What is the signal to ratio value in db if S/N is 10000?

10log(10000) = 40dB

A certain modem’s speed is 2400 bits per second and the equivalent symbols
per second is 600. What is the symbol level?

4 levels, 2 bits are required to represent the signal.

For a certain equipment, if the S/N is 1000, the bandwidth is 10 KHz and the
maximum speed is up to 9600 bits per second, how many percentage of
bandwidth is not used? (Hint: You should find out the theoretical data rate first
using the formula in section 1.5 .)

What is bandwidth? How is bandwidth measured in what unit?

3db difference and is measured in Hz, KHz, MHz or GHz.

Coding Data in Signals

As discussed above, the transmission rate is related to the bandwidth of
transmission medium and signal to noise ratio. To increase the transmission
rate, one can extend the signal to multiple level. This approach to increase the
information transmission rate is suitable for computer to process the faster
information as shown in Figure .

The information (data) rate for a two level coding signal with pulse width equal
to 20 ms is calculated by log22/20 ms = 50 bits per second as shown in Figure .

The information (data) rate for a four level coding signal is log 24/20ms = 100
bits per second, twice the former case. Note that the signalling rate (1/20ms) is
the same for both cases.
 57

Restriction on Coding level

It seems to be if you can extend the coding level, we can
achieve higher speed. However, this is not the case as the
coding level for an information is restricted by:

Physical properties of transmission medium (sky, telephone cable, coaxial

cable) such as resistance, attenuation, capacitor of the medium etc.
Intelligence of machine to identify the coding level. The larger coding level,
the more intelligent the machine is.
Noise level in terms of power presented in the medium to contaminate the
resultant signal.

Noise is always presented in the transmission medium. There is no method to

get rid of them. It is technically feasible to reduce the noise level. As a result,
the coding signal cannot be extended to an unlimited level.

Any more reasons to explain why it cannot support more levels?

In section 2, if the signalling rate is changed to 40ms, what will be the new data
rate?

For the same question, if the level is extended to 64, what will be the new data
rate?

Data Transmission Modes

Channel type
Irrespective of direction of data transfer, there are THREE
types of transmission channels being used to exchange
information as shown in Figure .

Type Description

Simplex One party in the communication can send data to the other,
but cannot receive data from the other end such as the radio
 58

pager. It is usually not restricted by the transmission

medium, but the nature of communication devices.

Both parties can send and receive information from the

other end, but not at the same time such as walkie talkie.
Half duplex
Each time the sender has to press the transmission button
before transmitting data.

Both parties can send and receive information at the same

time such as computer to computer communication or
Full duplex
telephone to telephone. A full duplex can be logically
regarded as two half duplex operating in reverse direction.

Serial / Parallel transmission

The digital information regardless of channel type channel can be classified, in
terms of transmssion format, into serial or parallel transmission. Serial
transmission means to transmit the data bit by bit, whereas parallel transmission
means to transmit data byte by byte, word by word or even more.

Serial

The bits are transmitted one after another on the same channel such as terminal
to computer communication. Figure is a series of data stream transmitting from
the right handed side modem to the left.

It is interesting to note that the first bit to be transmitted is B1 which is the least
significant bit , not the most significant one.

Parallel

The bits are transmitted all at once (byte by byte) such as computer to printer
communication as shown in Figure .
 59

Asynchronous / Synchronous Transmission

In serial transmission, the transmission format can be further classified into
Asynchronous and Synchronous.

Asynchronous transmission format

It is guarded by start and stop bits and the character to character space is
random as shown in Figure . The efficiency is limited to 70% taking the start
bit, stop bit and parity bit into account.

Asynchronous character format

The initial and final states are idle which corresponds to -12 volts in terms of
voltage level. An odd parity bit is appended to the data bits for the detection of
transmission error as shown in Figure .

Asynchronous Electrical format

The voltage level spans between -12 and + 12 volts as measured between either
the transmit (Pin 2 in RS-232-C) or receive (pin 3) with respect to signal return
(for RS232 C is pin 7) as shown in Figure .

Synchronous Transmission format

The characters are packed together and there is no gap between two characters.
Sync is a special character used to synchronize the data reception as shown in
Figure . Usually for a bisynchronous format, there are four synchronous
characters preceding the data. In case there is no character to be delivered by
the transmitter, a special character such as 7E in hexadecimal is used to pad the
data.

Start, Stop and Parity bits are not required in synchronous transmission. As a
result, the transmission throughput is roughly twice the asynchronous
transmission for the same operating speed.
 60

Synchronous character format

Synchronous data is usually driven by a clock. The clock signals can be either
external provided by the modem or internal provided by the computer port (Pin
number 24 in RS232-D). The clocking signal provided by internal clock is
usually lower than external clock as extra CPU time is required to produce the
clock by the computer as shown in Figure .

If the clock is generated by modem, it is called external clock. The modem

speed can be dynamically changed by the user even a file is transferring. This is
one of the acceptance tests to verify whether the communication software is
robust or not.

Asynchronous / Synchronous Characteristics

The characteristics of asynchronous transmission
(communication between your PC and modem) are:

Random transmission of data units. That is there is no relation between any

two characters and a transmission gap may exist between two characters.
No synchronization between sender and receiver. It is triggered by the start
bit and is terminated by the stop. Once a start bit is received by the receiver,
it will sample the succeeding data bit to determine the binary value. The
sampling rate is the line speed and is programmed by the user.
The transmission speed is lower than synchronous transmission and is ideal
for low volume data.
The data format is framed type, as it is guarded by start and stop bits.

The characteristics of synchronous transmission are:

Data is transmitted in block. Usually, each data block is called a frame.

The data block is needed to be synchronized between the sender and the
receiver such as the insertion of sync characters for BI-SYNC or del (7E) if
no data is transmitting.
Synchronous transmission format is ideal for high speed and high volume
data.

Synchronous transmission can be further grouped into two:

 61

Character oriented such as RJE (The computer will process the received
character to determine the meaning of data. This format was developed a
long time ago by IBM and is still widely supported by various computer
manufacturers)
Bit oriented such as X.25 and IBM SDLC (The meaning for the data format
is fixed. The first character is a flag followed by the physical address of
device connected to the network. In terms transmission performance, this
approach is far better than the former one.)

Asynchronous Handshakes
There are two major handshaking methods being used by the
computers for asynchronous data format. The objective of
using handshaking is to protect slow device from being
overrun by fast device.

Software - By sending appropriate characters to resume or suspend the data

flow between two parties
ENQ/ACK
DC1/DC3 or (Xon/Xoff)
DC1/DC2/DC1 (in Block mode)
Hardware - By setting or resetting the control signals to resume/suspend the
sending of data from the computer
RTS/CTS
DTR/DSR (widely used by serial printer)

ENQ/ACK
This method was developed by HP to protect the terminal from the CPU as
shown in Figure .

The sequences are:

send a Data block to the terminal ( 1 record in size)

send an ENQ to the terminal to check whether the terminal is ready (are you
ready?)
 62

send an ACK back to CPU indicating that (I am ready)

send another data record ( repeat the procedure)

DC1/DC3 (Xon/Xoff)
It is quite common in industry to provide handshaking between
two communication devices.

DC3 (XOFF, CTRL-S from the keyboard) is used to stop transmission

DC1 (XON, CTRL-Q from the keyboard) is used to re-start the transmission

The sequences are shown in Figure .

DC1/DC2/DC1
It was invented by HP as well to protect the CPU from overloading data from
terminal as shown in Figure .

The sequences are:

Sequence Status of Sending Description

Control characters

1 DC1 I am here

2 DC2 Press “Enter” key to continue

3 DC1 Okay to send the data

4 Data Actual data block from terminal

DC1 in Hex is 11, DC2 is 12, DC3 is 13, DC4 is 14, ENQ is 05 and ACK is 06
 63

List the major difference between section 4.1 and 4.3. (Hints: Data to terminal
or data to computer.)

Modulation
Modulation is used to translate digital signals to analog signals which can be
transmitted over a transmissions medium without distorting the signals. The
original digitals sent by a computer is usually not appropriate for transmission
in a voice-grade channel. A pair of modems is used to generate a carrier in
which the digital data are modulated on to this carrier. Below diagrams are used
to demonstrate the resulting signal after modulated by a high frequency signal.
The envelope is the modulating signal as shown in Figure . The transmission
carrier used to modulate the original signal will be altered corresponding to
digital pattern.

Type of modulation
Modulation can be grouped into two categories:

Analogue modulation as shown in Figure , the enveople of the carrier signal

is the original signal to be transmitted.
Digital modulation — to convert the analogue signal into digital format
(CODEC) such that the data can be carried over a data network. A typical
example is to sample the voice and code it using Pulse Coded Modulation.

Analogue
There are THREE basic modulation techniques using the
physical property of sin wave as given below:

Amplitude Modulation (ASK) — using the amplitude of carrier wave to

represent binary data. For instance, 1 v is used to represent binary 1 whereas
-1 v is used to represent binary 0.
Frequency Modulation (FSK) — using the frequency of carrier wave to
represent binary data. For instance, 1K Hz is used to represent binary 1
whereas 2K Hz is used to represent binary 0.
Phase Modulation (PSK) — using the phase of carrier wave to represent
 64

binary data. For instance, 90 out of phase is used to repesent binary 1

whereas 180 out of phase is used to represnt binary 0.

Phase and Amplitude modulation can be combined to provide better quality or

to support higher transmission rate.

Explain why there is no wavelength modulation.

It is difficult to measure the wavelength. As a result, it is difficult to assign

binary data to the variation of wavelength.

Amplitude Modulation

Also known as Amplitude Shift Keying

Was originated with the telegram for low speed operation and is not used
very much nowadays.
Large carrier amplitude is a mark (-voltage level) or binary 1
Small carrier amplitude is a space (+voltage level) or binary 0
Frequency is constant for the carrier signal

The receiving modem can tell the difference between large and small
amplitudes and can regenerate the signal corresponding to 1 or 0 as shown in
Figure .

Frequency Modulation

The characteristics are:

It is also called Frequency Shift Keying as the change of frequency

represents different binary data.
One frequency represents mark
One frequency represents space
Amplitude is constant
Continuous carrier transmitted
Used for low and medium speed modems
 65

The receiving modem has a discriminator which allows it to recognize the

frequencies corresponding to the marks and spaces as shown in Figure .

If the channel bandwidth is only 3.2 KHZ, what is the requirement for the
frequencies used?

Phase Modulation

Note the change in phase with respect to an original signal waveform as shown
in Figure .

This method is also called Phase Shift Keying

Imposes phase shifts on carrier - that is the phase of the signal is used to
carry data instead of frequency or amplitude. Hence the amplitude is
constant and frequency is constant.
Commonly used in medium and high speed modems

More information can be transmitted using different phase

shift. For example, the V26 2400 bps modem can handle bits
in pairs using four combination of phase running at 1200 HZ.
Details are given below:

Dibit Relative phase

00 +45o

01 +135o

11 -45o

10 -135o
 66

To provide more information, different modulation techniques can be combined

together such as Quadrature Amplitude Modulation as shown in Figure which
is a combination of phase and amplitude modulation. Here, to send out a data
stream of binary 11, phase -45 is used, wherase, the phase 45 is used to
represent binary 00. You can compare this with amplitude modulation in which
an amplitude represents a binary data. If we combine the phase and amplitude
together, we can generate more binary data.

Example of Phase Modulation

Figure shows phasor diagram with two examples and eight phases (0, 45, 90,
135, 180, 225, 270, 335). It provides 16 different signals, each of which can
represent 4 bits. This combination provides a quadbit capability known as
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). If it is used on a 9600 baud line, it
can provide transmission of 38400 bps (4x9600).

Modulation Techniques Used on Typical Modems

The following CCITT (ITU-T) standards describe the type of
modulations and their maximum speed. It is found that by
combining the phase and amplitude can offer higher
transmssion rate. The standard refers to the communication
method between modems not between modem and PC. The
connection between modem and PC is RS232D using minimum
three pins only. The three pins are transmit (pin 2), receive
(pin 3) and signal return (pin 7 and is common to transmit and
receive). As you are aware that the standards given below are
quite old, as the spped is less than 56K bps. However, it gives
you an idea the development of standards and its relationship
with the line spped.

Type CCITT or ITU-T Nature Bits/s

Frequency Shift Keying V23 4WFDX 1200

V23 2WFDX 1200/75

less than or equal to

V21 2WFDX
300
 67

Phase Shift Keying V22 2WFDX 1200

V26 4WFDX 2400

V27 4WFDX 4800

Quadrature Amplitude V22 bis 2WFDX 2400

Modulation
9600

V29 4WFDX

FDX or HDX : refers to Full Duplex or Half Duplex in physical layer

4W or 2W : refers to the use of 2 wire or 4 wire connection between a pair of modems

Bits/Sec and Bauds

These two terms are usually misused significantly.

Type Description

Refers to the actual information transfer rate that can be

Bits/Sec achieved on a given channel. It is the result of different
coding level and signalling rate.

Refers to the fundamental signalling rate used on the

Baud Rate
circuit.

For example, the V22 modem as listed above, the carrier frequency is 600
Hertz. The fundamental signalling rate again is 600 baud and an information
transfer rate is 1200 bits/sec. Note that it carries 2 bits for each operating cycle.

Draw a diagram and explain why bits/sec and baud are quite different?
 68

Baud rate refers to the symbol per unit time of which a symbol might consist of
two levels (one bit), four levels (two bits) or even more. Bit/s refers to the
actual measurement of data transmission.

Digital Transmission
With the introduction of digital lines, direct transmission of
digital signals becomes possible without converting to an
appropriate analog signal. The advantages offered by digital
network include:

Lower error rate (error rate is 1/109 ) for optical fibre

Higher transmission speed (up to 625 Mb/s or even up to 1000 M b/s)
Efficient use of channel by using digital multiplexing techniques, which
means that it can support more users.

For analog signals such as voice in Figure , they have to be

converted into digital form before they can be passed through.
Similar to Modulation and Demodulation, Codec (Coding and
Decoding) is designed to digitize (sample) and regenerate the
analog signals. The common modulation methods can be
grouped into:

Pulse Amplitude Modulation

Pulse Duration Modulation
Pulse Code modulation

It is based on the principle found by Nyquist in which a bandlimited analog

signal of bandwidth W can be sampled and recovered at the other end without
any distortion provided that the sampling frequency is more than twice the
signal bandwidth (2W). Voice and video are typical examples of bandlimited
signals. Usually, the bandwidth for human voice is below 10 KHz and most of
people speaks between 300Hz and 3200 Hz. If a transmission medium , say 100
KHz is used, it can theoretically support up to 100 K/3K = 33 users provided
that each signal is appropriate to be modulated to different channels. Figure is
the diagram showing the resultant sampling signals for two channels.
 69

If the bandwidth for channel 1 and 2 is 3.2KHZ, what will be the minimum
sampling rate without producing contaminated signal?

If the sampling rate is less than the calculated value, what is the resultant
output?

Can you fill in the following table?

Input Signal Network type Modulation Required (Y/N)

 
Analog Analog (old telephone switch)
 
Digital Digital (Internet)
 
Analog Digital network such as X.25

Analog network such as radio  

Digital
network

Pulse Amplitude Modulation

Different height of pulse trains is used to represent the different signal voltage
level as shown in Figure . The original signal is modulated by a constant pulse
train to produce the modulated signal. Note that the envelope represents the
original signal.

Pulse Duration Modulation

Different duration (length of each pulse) of pulse trains is used to represent the
analog signal as shown in Figure . Again the original signal is modulated by a
constant pulse trains.
 70

Explain why the above-mentioned two cases are not appropriate for computer
processing.

Computer has to detect either the height or width and is not accurate.

Pulse Code Modulation

The Pulse Amplitude Modulation is still regarded as analog signal because of

varying nature of signal. This signal can be represented by a combination of
codes known as Pulse Code Modulation which is more appropriate for digital
transmission over long distance. This modulation method is commonly used
nowadays.

NICAM samples the voice signal using 213 levels and compress the 13 bits into
8 bit output.

To code the PAM signal, there are two steps namely

quantization and encoding involved.

Type Description

Note that a quantizing error is introduced during the quantization process

because of truncation of analog signal. To reduce the quantization signal,
smaller quantizing step is required. Because of nature of analog voice signals,
small amplitude signals dominate. It therefore introduces more quantization
error for weak signals if linear quantization method is used. To improve the
quality, non-linear quantization steps with more steps in low amplitude signals
are required as shown in Figure .

Self-examined Questions

Short Questions
 71

What is the maximum data rate for a voice-grade line with a bandwidth of
3200-HZ and a S/N ratio of 10000 to 1?

 
 
 
For the above question, what is the maximum data rate if the S/N ratio is 40
dB?

List an advantage and disadvantage for parallel and serial transmission.

 
 
 
Briefly explain why a pair of modems is required to transmit the digital
signals over a long telephone wire.

 
 
 
What is the purpose of the carrier wave?

When is bits/sec different from baud rate and when they are the same?

 
 
 
How many frequencies are required for a 2-wire full duplex operation using
frequency modulation?

 
 72

 
 
For the same question, how about the case for 4-wire full duplex?

True or False
ENQ/ACK is commonly known as XON/XOFF

A stop bit is a space

A space is a logical one

Synchronous transmission is known as start/stop transmission

ASCII has no provision for parity bit

Modulation is not required for digital signal over digital network.

Xon is equivalent to CTRL-S entered from the keyboard.

 73

Chapter Four
Transmission Media and Network Devices

T his chapter covers various transmission media available in Hong Kong for
transferring information, the characteristics and the ways to carry data during
its transmission are also included. Network configurations between two ends
including point-to-point and multi-point are also covered. The final section of
this chapter is about the supporting communications devices in a network to
facilitate the transportation of data. Upon completion of this chapter, you
should

Understand different transmission media including telephone wire, coaxial

cable, optical fiber and microwave link

List the different network configuration methods

List the different communication devices such as PABX, patch panel, switch,
front-end processor etc.

Transmission Media
Transmission media used to provide a connection between
sender and receiver to exchange information are generally
grouped into two major categories namely guided and
unguided.

Type Description

Signals are transmitted via a physical and tangible guide

between the communicating points. These include twisted
Guided
pair telephone cable, optical fiber, waveguide, and coaxial
cable.
 74

Physically, there is no direct physical connection between

Unguided two points such as microwave and satellite links. Your
mobile phone also uses unguided transmission medium.

Can you classify Light Frequency Infrared?

Unguided

Guided transmission media

Wire pairs or telephone wire

Wire pairs are the most common medium in short distance such as connecting
computer port to modem or telephone set to telephone exchange. The modular
telephone jack installed in your house makes use of telephone wires. The wires
are made of copper and coated with insulating material like PVC. The cable is
highly reliable if it is protected by telephone duct. The transmitted signal relies
on the movement of electronics. It is manufactured in twisted wire pairs in
order to reduce crosstalk. You usually experience this effect while talking to
your friends over the phone and hear a very low background voice. The
bandwidth of an ordinary telephone wire is limited to 10KHz and is further
limited to 3300 Hz if it is used in Public Switching Telephone Network(PSTN).
Higher bandwidth will be chopped by the Switch. That is to say, even the
telhone line can support up to 10 Mbps, the CODER (switch coder and
decoder) will convert the analogue signal into 8K (sampling rate) x 8 bits (256
levels) = 64 Kbps signal internally.

It is the cheapest transmission medium and costs around 2 dollars per meter
depending on the quality, shielding and number of wires. The typical number of
wires in the cable is two (Twist) or four(Quad). To support wider area, Using
the Shannon’s theory, the maximum transmission speed per link can be over
10Mbits per second, which of course depends on the medium bandwidth and
the distance between two end points.   Figure shows a few examples of wire
pairs.

Local Area Network (LAN) can support transmission rates over 16 Mbps or
even 100 Mbps over twisted telephone wires. This type of telephone cable is
 75

Category 5 cable, which supports this speed at a short distance. If you subscribe
Interactive TV (ITV), they will replace your telephone cable by quad Category
5 cable to support voice and video.

Can you figure out the unused bandwidth compared with a modem operating at
the speed of 56k bps?

Coaxial cable

It is basically a single wire surrounded by a tube-shaped conductor of solid

copper. The signal is transmitted by use of of microwave rather than
electronics. Because of high bandwidth (up to 350 MHZ with theoretical data
rate up to 4~500 Mbps), it can support very high speed for data travelling.
Coaxial cable is used for long distance communication such as Ethernet
(CSMA/CD) and TV system between the antenna and TV set. Coaxial cable
can be grouped into two types: broadband and baseband. In baseband
transmission, digital signal like Manchester Code will be used to carry data
along the channel, which relies on voltage fluctuations. In Broadband
transmission, the digital data is modulated into different frequency channels
separated by frequency guardbands. Because of wider bandwidth and more
frequency channels, broadband transmission can support a mixture of signals
such as voice and video. The cost of coaxial cable is more expensive than
telephone wire and costs around a few Hong Kong dollars per meter. Figure
shows the male and female coaxial cables. Baseband coaxial cable also allows
the DC voltage to pass, which is necessary for collision detection in Ethernet
network.

Four-wire telephone cable is regarded as quad with individually insulated and

housed in a jacket. In Local Area Network, coaxial cable is called Thick Wire
and Telephone Wire is Thin Wire. If the coaxial cable is damaged, the signal
will attenuate sharply. This prevents the third party to tap information.

Optical Fiber

It is a popular high bandwidth transmission medium and is used in backbone

communication as shown in Figure . Signal is transmitted by use of light
through the glass fiber. It provides an electrical isolation and totally reduces
electromagnetic interference or noise by surrounding equipment. Unlike
telephone wire, installing and connecting the fibers requires special equipment.
The transmission rate can exceed 2 G bps, nowdays around 6 ~8G bps and is
 76

the highest transmission medium in the world. Recently, Hong Kong Telecom
is laying fiber optic cables to provide data superhighway to support personal
video services. It is expected that the future communications network in Hong
Kong will consist of one optical fiber with coaxial cable as the backbone within
the building. The terminator erected around each three stories will provide a
transmission bandwidth to each household at 20 M bps. At that you can use it
to watch movie, shopping, a real e-commerce world.

Figure shows a typical circuit that converts the digital signal to light travelling
along the optical fiber. Here, the electronic signals are converted into light
signals passing along the optical fibre and received by the remote. The remote
then converts the light signals into electronic signals. Note that light emitting
diode and photo diode are used to convert the electronics signal and accept the
light signal.

Unguided transmission media

Microwave relays

It consists of transmission tower responsible for transmitting or repeating the

signal for each hop (the distance is around 30 Kilometers to 50 Kilometers).
The microwave in Figure uses the line of sight (the received tower can be
visual by the transmitted tower) transmission. The transmission rate can be up
to 250M bps. The transmission quality however is subject to weather changes.
The use of microwave is ideal for short-haul and high bandwidth applications
due to no cabling cost once the transmission tower is built. In Hong Kong, a lot
of large public utilities such as China Light and Power and Hong Kong Electric
use microwave in transmitting signal for power protection.

Satellite

The use of Satellite is to extend the coverage area. Signal is transmitted up and
down between ground stations. The satellite is therefore used as a repeater for
re-generating the signal. Figure shows how it works. Here, a transmit signal is
reflected by the satellite to cover a region on the earth. The characteristics are:

Microwave transmission (above 1000 MHz). It uses bandwidth between 4-6

GHZ, C-band, 12-14 GHz, Ku-band and also the 20-30 GHz
 77

Signal requires amplification due to attenuation after travelling from the

ground station to the satellite and vice versa.
Similar to microwave, the transmission quality is also subject to weather
changes.
There will be a time delays between the sender and receiver and is typical 70
ms for a single hup.

Comparison amongst all transmission

media

Type Advantages Disadvantages

Network Configurations
This is about the network configuration between two or more nodes within a
large network topology. These are commonly used between terminal-to-
computer configurations in order to fully utilize the physical channel.

Point-to-point configuration
This is the simplest way of connecting a terminal to a
computer or computer to computer. It makes use of switched,
leased line or hard-wired service.

Using Switched Circuit such as PSTN

It is a dial-up line using two-wire.
It is usually used for low volume traffic such as Bulletin Board.
Different communication path is formed by the telephone exchanges.
The transmission speed is limited speed ( usually up to 9600 bits/s for FAX
or 2400 bits/s for an ordinary link like dial-link being offered by CPHK).
It is quite flexible in terms of data transportability.
Using Leased line such as cluster controller (in a branch bank ) to front end
processor in the central office.
It is a private line and leased from Hong Kong Telecom.
Form voice grade channels with speed up to 1.54Mbits/s (T1 link)
It is regarded as semipermanent as there is no set up time required.
It is ideal for high usage and high volume application like linking two
 78

computers by use of T1 link.

It is less flexible once it is installed.
Hardwired (direct connection between terminal and computer)
It is about the short distance between two computing machines.
Independent of other links
Less intelligent equipment

Figure shows various connection methods.

Multidrop configuration
In this configuration as shown in Figure , a number of
terminals/computers are connected to the same line at
different locations. A master modem is connected to the main
computer while a few slave modems are connected to other
computers. The characteristics are:

Usually using leased line rather than switched line

Centralized for the master unit
De-centralized for the slave units
Poll/Selection to pass messages to the desired device
Requires intelligence in equipment to handle polling request

The last slave modem requires different stripping to absorb the reflection of
electronic signals.

Multiplexing
This uses a high speed link to share a few terminals in order to optimize the line
usage and reduce the operating cost of using multiple separate
telecommunication lines as shown in Figure Here, three terminals are shared
with a multiplexer through a common medium.

The characteristics are:

High speed channel shared by multiple devices

Reduces line costs (only one high speed line is required in Figure )
 79

Reduces modem costs by using a pair of modems only

Can you figure out how many modems are required if

multiplexer is not used?

Increases telecommunication line utilization

Transparent to the end users (no specific software required)

Cluster/terminal controller
This is also termed terminal multiplexer and is used to increase efficiency of
the high speed line and to offload the terminal handling mechanisms. Logical
connection is introduced rather than physical connection.

Terminal Connection Methods

Figure shows various connection methods through PSTN(switched line), leased
line or direct-wire to the computer at a short distance:-

Comparison amongst all the

configurations

Type Advantage Disadvantage

Point to point simple inefficient

fully utilizes the bandwidth of requires additional control

the transmission line by software to send/receive
Multidrop
supporting a few more messages from the master unit to
communication devices individual slave units

requires a pair of multiplexer to

a reasonable compromise assemble/reassemble the
Multiplexing
between cost and line efficiency messages from individual
terminals

Cluster controller maximize the use of high speed relatively expensive to install a
 80

line controller

Communications Devices
Modem
Modems are devices that convert a signal into an analog tone for transmission
on an analog network and demodulate that analog signal into a digital signal on
the receiving end as shown in Figure . Modems are broadly classified into
asynchronous and synchronous type.

Asynchronous Modem

The characteristics of Asynchronous modem are:

Operate at lower speeds when compared to synchrnous modem, 64 K bis/s

No transmit or receive clocks (Data rate is configured by the user and is
sampled by DTE)
Clocking on data, the receiver must configure to sample the incoming data
Variable data rates (from 50 to 56K bits/s)
Usually use FSK modulation  for low speed device and PSK for medium
speed device.
Usually used for interactive terminals

If the incoming data rate is 2400 bps and the receiver is configured at 4800 bps,
what will be the result?

Synchronous modem

The characteristics as shown in Figure are:

Operate at higher speeds (up to 64 kbits/s)

Require transmit and receive clocks to trigger the computer to process the
data
Data derived receive timing (driven by the internal or external clock, which
depends on the source of clock. If the clock source is from modem, it is
 81

called external clock or vice versa)

Fixed data rates as it is controlled by the clock
Usually use Phase Shift Keying (PSK) or QAM (combining the amplitude
and phase together) modulation

Other factors to be considered for selecting the right modem include the
following:

Whether it is switched, leased or multidrop for the modem

Full duplex or half duplex transmission mode
Two wire or four wire between a pair of modems
Maximum available transmission speed
Availability of error recovery and data compression

4 wire full duplex is usually leased by companies for high speed transmission.

CCITT (ITU-T) Recommended Modem

Types

CCITT Description
Type

Asynchronous; 14400 bit/s; Full duplex; 2-wire; dial-up; FAX send and
V.17
receive

V.21 Asynchronous; 300 bit/s; Full duplex; 2-wire; dial-up; low speed

Asynchronous; 1200 bit/s; Half-duplex; 2-wire; dial-up; full-duplex or

V.23
full-duplex; 4-wire; leased; low speed

V.26 Synchronous; 2400 bit/s; 4-wire; leased lines; medium speed

Synchronous; 4800 bit/s; FDX; leased lines; 8 phase @ 1800 HZ; high
V.27
speed

V.29 Synchronous; 9600 bit/s; auto-equalized; FDX; 4-wire lines; high speed
 82

V.32bits 12000 bit/s; FAX; 2-wire

V.34 28800 bit/s; FDX; 2-wire; high speed

V.34 33600 bit/s; FDX; 2-wire; high speed with data compression

V.42 error correction

data compression: therefore v.34 modem using v.42 would transmit

V.42bis
28800*4 = 115200 bps

MNP2-4 error correction

MNP5 Data compression

receiving at up to 56K bit/s and sending at up to 31.2K bit/s; FDX; 2-

V.90
wire; very high speed

Interface between data terminal equipment and data circuit-terminating

X.20
equipment for start-stop transmission services on public data networks

V.21-compatible interface between data terminal equipment and data

X.20bis circuit terminating equipment for start-stop transmission services on
public data networks

General purpose interface between data terminal equipment and data

circuit-terminating equipment for synchronous operation data networks.
X.21
X.25 level 1 uses X.21 as the physical layer to send/receive data bit-by-
bit.

Example of a 56Kbps modem

Zoltrix 56K is used as an example to demonstarte the operating speed, features,

FAX and voice support only. You don’t have to memorise the details as it is
product oriented. The Zoltrix 56K Fax/Data/Voice with Speaker Phone Modem
(internal) Model FMVSP56i3 and (external) Model FMVSP56e3 are a virtual
communications center. Download data from compatible sites at an incredible
56,000 bps* for fast Internet and LAN access and provide up to 33,600 bps
 83

uncompressed data transmission over conventional telephone lines, using the

V.34 protocol. The “Dual-Mode” modem can automatically select either V.90
or K56Flex. There is no need to update the modem to V.90 when the userr ISP
upgrades from K56Flex to V.90. With “Dual-Mode”, the modem automatically
connects at K56Flex or V.90, to achieve download speeds nearly twice as fast
as any conventional analog modem.

The Zoltrix 56K Fax/Data/Voice with Speaker Phone Modem (internal) Models
FMVSP56i3 and FM-VSP56e3 also supports Flash ROM. This means that
whenever there is an update to the modem code, the user can download it from
the internet, and upload the new code into the modems Flash ROM.

The FMVSP56i3 and FM-VSP56e3 also provides 14,400 bps send/receive fax.
The fully-integrated phonebook ensures easy-to-use faxing. The user can even
“broadcast” your faxes to multiple recipients, schedule fax transmission, or
forward them to another number.

The simple and intuitive interface even allows quickdialing of up to 80 entries.

Incoming calls are automatically detected as fax, data or voice. And any
detected voice call is routed to the voice mail module which allows the caller to
leave any messages in individual mailboxes.

The incoming voice call can also be monitored to allow the user an option to
record the message or by a simple click of your mouse, to answer the call. And
with Caller ID, the user can tell who is calling before answering the call. This
kit includes the fax/modem, easy-to-read manuals, a microphone for hands-free
Full Duplex speakerphone operation along with fax, data, voice and
speakerphone software.

The Zoltrix 56K model FM-VSP56i3 and FM-VSP56e3 uses the Rockwell 56
K chipset, and incorporates all of the industry standard protocols (V.90,
K56Flex, V.34+, V.34, V.32bis, V.32, V.22bis, V.22, and V.21) with speeds
ranging from 56,000 bps* down to 300 bps.

On the Fax side it communicates with all ITU-T Group 3 FAX machines and is
compatible with ITU-T V.27ter and V.29, V.17, T.4 and T.30.

The software bundled with the Zoltrix 56K modem includes Cheyenne’s
Bitware lite or Thought Communications Faxtalk. Also with the FREE Internet
Software and extensive on-line service package you’ll be surfing the net,
sending e-mail messages and going on-line in no time at all.
 84

Fax Features include" Send and Receive Fax Messages to or from any Group 3
Fax Machine/Fax card", “Automatic Fax/Data Detection” etc. Modem Features
include “Send and receive files, exchange E-mail and access online services”,
“Supports ASCII, Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem and Kermit Data transfer
protocols” Voice Mail Features include “Automatically detects and routes
incoming voice, fax and data calls to the proper module of integrated fax, data
or voice”, “Creates up to 999 voice mailboxes, each with a personalized
mailbox greeting” Speaker Phone Features include “Turns your computer into a
full-function speakerphone (speakers required)”, “Places and answers telephone
calls directly from your computer”. Technical specification include “Caller ID
(Requires Caller ID service from the phone compay)”, “Data throughput up to
224,000 bps”, “Max DTE rate of 230,400 bps”, “Modem Operating Modes”,
and

V.90 56,000 bps* receive/33,600 bps* send

K56flex 56,000 bps* receive/33,600 bps* send
V.34+ 33,600/31,200 bps
V.34 28,800/26,400/24,000/21,600/19,200/16,800 bps
V.32bis 14,400/12,000/7,200 bps
V.32 9,600/4,800 bps
V.22bis 2,400 bps
V.22 & Bell 212A 1,200 bps
V.21 & Bell 103 300 bps
V.29 & V.27ter & V.17 Fax Transmission 14,400/9600 send and receive;
Group III Send and Receive fax compatible
V.42 & MNP 4,10 Hardware based Error Correction
V.42bis(4-1) & MNP 5(2-1) Hardware based Data Compression

For details, please refer to “http://www.zoltrix.com”.

If the distance between two computers is short, it is preferable to replace the

modems by a single Modem Eliminator which provides all the required
clocking and interface lead protocol. This will significantly reduce the
implementation cost especially when synchronous mode is used. When two
ports are operating at asynchronous mode such as DEC DDCMP, it is simply to
twist the Transmit and Receive pins.

What is the difference amongst X, V and I series?

 85

X refers to the communication components in digital network, V in analog

network, and I in Integrated Services Digital Network.

Multiplexers
The function of a multiplexer is to combine several low-speed
data either from terminals to computer ports to a high speed
communication channels over long distance. It is extremely
cost-effective when a pool of terminals are required to connect
to respective computer outputs to run different application
programs through a commonly shared channel as shown in
Figure . The advantages offered by using multiplexing include:

Channel shared by multiple devices

Reduces line costs
Reduces modem costs
Increased line utilization
Transparent - this configuration is invisible to the users.

There are currently two types of multiplexing techniques namely time division
multiplexing and frequency division multiplexing.

Frequency Division Multiplexing

It is to divide the whole frequency bandwidth into a number of sub-bandwidths

to be used by individual users. The characteristics are:

Partitions bandwidth into parallel channels

Guard bands (frequencies) to prevent subchannel interference
Subchannel bandwidth allocated is proportional to speed
Channel capacity is limited by the bandwidth

Time Division Multiplexing

Figure shows the comparison between time division multiplexing and

frequency division multiplexing. Here, for TDM, the channel is shared amongst
the signals and for FDM, a cable is divided into a number of sub-channels. The
characteristics are:

Digital techniques to support a few communication devices

 86

Partitions time into slots to different devices

Samples multiple lines
Guard time is provided to prevent interference
Forms composite digital output between a pair of multiplexer
Requires modems for analog channels if the distance is over the RS232C
limitation

Figure shows how a pair of TDMs work. The transmssion is divided into a
number frames each of which is used to support different devices.

Under what condition, a pair of modems is required.

For long distance communication.

Time Division Multiplexing is further classified into:

Synchronous- means the transmission is synchronous between data and

clock
Bit TDM- sending the data as a series of bits
Character TDM - sending the data as a series of bytes
Asynchronous - there is no clocking signal and the transmission of data is
random
Statistical TDM

Both Bit TDM and Character TDM use fixed frame format, which in certain
cases will not optimize the channel usage when the traffic for each device is
significantly different. The Statistical multiplexer is designed to eliminate this
wastage. In this device, the allocation of bandwidth is dynamic. Channels that
are idle are simply skipped as shown in Figure .

Micro/Mainframe Link
Three are three types of micro/mainframe links:

terminal emulation
 87

data downloading and uploading

distributed processing

Terminal emulation: a terminal emulation software is run in a micro so that

it presents to the mainframe as a particular terminal that the mainframe
supports.
Data from mainframes are downloaded to micros for particular processing,
then the results are uploaded from micros to mainframes.
Distributed processing is different from the above two methods as data are
processed by both the micros and mainframes; this is hard because of the
immense number of computers and software that the complete integration
process should consider.

Communications front end processor

It is designed to relieve the host’s loading and is dedicated to
support various communications protocols and multiple
physical lines without borrowing machines cycles from the host
as shown in Figure . It performs the scanning and the byte
assembly/disassembly process and passes the data to the host
by interrupting the host. The characteristics are:

As there may be a number of computers and terminals in a network, each of

them should be assigned with a unique address so that messages can be
directed to the right destinations; this also implies every message has been
tagged with the destination node’s address.
Two communication nodes may be connected by more than one way; thus, a
decision must be made to choose one of the communication paths.
In order to ensure the communication is fine, messages are usually packed
with control information for error detection (or sometimes for error recovery
as well) and the encoding and decoding of this control information take
processor time.
To reduce communication cost, messages are often compressed before it is
transmitted; for data security, messages are sometimes encrypted before
transmission and decrypted at the receiving end.
 88

as one can see, there are a number of extra workload when data is to be
communicated; to relieve the host processor of communications-related tasks,
front-end processors or data communications controllers are introduced.

Protocol converter
It is designed to form a bridge between two incompatible communications
protocols. One of the common application is in Synchronous to Asynchronous
conversion. A/S-3 manufactured by Black Box is used for connection of
asynchronous terminals, printers and personal computers onto an IBM BSC or
SNA/SDLC network. Figure shows the connection. Here, three asynchronous
terminals are connected to an IBM Mainframe 3090 through this converter.

Data Switch
This is designed to connect a few terminals to computers. Connections can be
made at each user’s terminal such as Devecon data switch. It is extremely cost-
effective when different brands of incompatible computers are used. Figure
shows how a switch is used to conncet between a printer and two PCs. This is a
manual switch set by the user.

Patch panel
It is principally similar to a data switch except it is operated
manually. The connection has to be made by using a short
wire jumper. By default, the DTE and DCE port is connected
together. The user can also connect any DTE to one of the DCE
ports at will. So long as a wire jumper is presented, the default
connection between two adjacent DTE/DCE connection is
broken.

Type Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4 Channel 5 Channel 6 Channel7

             
DTE
 89

             
DCE
           
Monitor  

Figure shows how a patch panel works. Here, a patch panel is connected to a
few terminals locally. The user can change the connection by re-connecting the
short-wire jumpers.

Private branch exchange

PBX is a telephone exchange. The latest PBX cannot just
support voice but also data. The terminal user can connect to a
specific computer by calling the associated telephone number.
As cabling cost could be expensive, efforts have been made to
effectively use the existing telephone network. Figure shows a
Data switch is used to conncet a mainframe and a few
terminals through a set of leased lines. The characteristics are:

a PBX is a computer that electronically connects computers and terminals

much as telephone operators manually connected telephone lines on the old
PBX switchboards
two principal types of PBX are used:
one type was designed mainly for voice transmission (in analog form) with the
capability of transmitting digital signals.
the other type is designed for digital signal transmission with the capability of
approximating analog signal by digital signals using built-in codec.
several advantages of the digital approach over the traditional approach: (1)
control data encryption can be easily accommodated with digital signals, (2)
TDM can be applied for handling digital signals easily, (3) control signals
are inherently digital and can easily be integrated into a digital transmission
path, and (4) digital PBX can take advantage of low-cost LSI and VLSI
components.

Self-examined Questions

Short questions
 90

Power stations are usually linked up with microwave, explain why several
100-pair submarine cables are still required.

 
 
 
List THREE advantages and disadvantages of Frequency Division
Multiplexing.

 
 
 
List TWO advantages and disadvantages of Statistical Time Division
Multiplexing

 
 
 

True or False
Telephone wire can carry more information than a coaxial cable

Coaxial cable supports video signals only

Optical fiber relies on electronics to carry information

Point-to-point configuration is only valid in terminal to host communication

Multidrop configuration can reduce the line cost for low volume traffic
 91

For band limited signal, a guard band is required for timing division
multiplexing

++/
 92

Chapter Five
System Architecture

T his chapter is about the ISO/OSI reference model, a seven layer model for
computer communication. Upon completion of this chapter, you should

List the layered Architecture

Understand the ISO/OSI model used in data communications

Understand the differences in data communications model amongst various

computer manufacturers

Network Architecture

Terminologies

Terms Description

Data Circuit Equipment such as modem in analogy

network or Network Terminating Unit in digital network. It
DCE is regarded as the boundary of a network. Please note that a
minicomputer can be a DCE if it is located at network
boundary.

Data Terminating equipment such as computer port or

DTE
computer terminal in a network

HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol, the rule the browser uses to

transfer hypertext documents from server. Remember the
process creation in Semester A. The server (Unix based)
 93

once receives a request from the browser through the

Internet will spawn a child process to respond this request.

Is a formation of a structure to describe what things exist,

how they operate and what form they take. It is a
Network Architecture combination of hardware, software, protocols, network
topologies etc. A typical example is the computer networks
being used at CityU’s Computer Centre

IP Internet Protocol, used in network layer

It defines how network components establish

Protocol communications session, exchange data and then terminate
the service gracefully.

Open Systems Interconnection standard, is now widely

OSI
used in defining the network architecture

System Network Architecture, used by IBM to link up

SNA
various hardware/software products

Transmission Control Protocol, used in the Internet

TCP between end to end communication, a conncetion oriented
protocol

User Datagram Protocol, used in the Internet between end

UDP
to end communication, a connectionless orientd protocol

Line Protocol
As described, a protocol is a set of rules governing two
communicating parties to exchange information correctly.
Regardless of computer type, if a protocol analyzer is hooked
up in the transmission line to monitor the network traffic. Both
parties must establish a communication session in order to
 94

exchange information. The following requirements will be

observed.

Initialization and finalization procedures

Data transmission procedures
Sender and receiver designation (Equivalent to assigning the primary or
secondary in IBM network)
Transmssion error detection and subsequent handling

An example about directory assistance protocol between the

caller and a telephone operator is used to elaborate the
meaning as shown below:

Operator Caller Function

Can you suggest other examples that use the concept as mentioned?

Layered Protocols
Modern communications networks are using the concept of layered approach to
provide more reliable and flexible services. This approach clearly defines the
software and hardware interfaces between two layers using structural design.
Modification to one of the layers will not impact the adjacent layers so long as
the same interfaces are still maintained. The concept of layered design or levels
of abstraction has been widely accepted as a good system structuring practice.

Each layer N as shown in Figure is defined by:

An interface defining the services it provides to layer N + 1 and above

An interface defining the services it requires from layer N - 1 and below

The protocol with peer layer

Additional advantages of using layering approach include:

 95

Reduce design period as the whole network is broken into several

manageable components that can be easily understood.
As each layer is well defined, modification to one of the layers to take
advantage of new hardware/software technologies will not affect the whole
network.
It is more flexible for the equipment vendors to provide hardware/software
services for a few lower layers.

Some manufacturers only produce a few hardware products

that are used in certain layers.

The internal structures, mechanism, encoding, and algorithms used within a

layer are not visible to other layers. This provides a way of hidding
information.
Alternative implementation for a layer can co-exist, providing opportunity
for testing and reliability.
The confidence in the correctness of a layered system is more easily
established by testing and analyzing each layer in turn.

Only the lowest layer performs physical communications between two

communicating devices. All other layers use virtual communications to pass
information and control messages to the adjacent layers.

List the difference between virtual and physical communications as shown in

Figure .

ISO/OSI Reference Model

ISO introduced a seven-layered Open Systems Interconnection
reference model so as to provide protocols for different
vendor’s/manufacturer’s products to properly communicate
with each other. The ISO layered concept uses the clearly
defined partitions to provide guidelines for the flow of data,
control message etc. through each layer at each node. The
characteristics of such a model are:
 96

Use a reasonably small number of layers (7 only)

Provide interfaces at points where the service description and number of
interactions can be made small
Provide separation to handle functions that are clearly different in process
and technology
Group related functions. (Data link is used to provide error-free message.)
Provide boundaries where interfaces can be standardized
Provide appropriate level of abstraction
Allow layers to be bypassed where appropriate

The ISO/OSI layers include:-

Application layer
Presentation layer
Session layer
Transport layer
Network layer
Data Link layer
Physical layer

Figure illustrates the OSI model through a subnet.

Explain why a subnet is included in this diagram.

Brief explanation for each layer

Layer Description

Physical layer Provides for the transparent bit transmission over the
communications medium such as CCITT (ITU-T) V.24.

It involves four specification including mechanical, electrical,

procedural and functional
 

Signal coding and encoding such as from digital signal to analogue

signal
 97

Data Link layer Provides an error-free environment to the network.

Keep check the frame sequence

Define unit of transmission such as framing

Proper procedure for access to communication medium

Handle error control and frame flow control

The higher layer messages will be embedded into frames

Network layer Specifies network routing and the communications between

networks and also the interface of the user DTE.

Performs network congestion control

Transport layer Provides an end-to-end transport service and is designed to keep the
user isolated from some of the physical and functional aspects of the
network.

Multiplex messages from higher layer to network connections

Segmentation, blocking and message sequence

Error detection and monitoring of service quality

Flow control of individual connections of transport layer to network

to match the requirement of costs

Transport services include virtual circuit, datagram and broadcasting

Session layer Provides for mechanism that would allow application processes to
establish a session.  A formal  description is not yet available.

The interaction management establishes a two-way interaction or a

two-way alternate
 98

Presentation layer Responsible for the transformation of data such as data encryption

Developing three standards such as virtual terminal protocol, virtual

file transfer and job transfer.

Application layer Concerned with the support of an end-user application process

Satisfy data/information transfers such as the data base access

The functions distribution presented above represent a guideline only. Not all
systems conform to such distribution. For example, IBM SNA has its own
definition for each layer.

Other Network Architectures

Different computer vendors have been developing their own network
architectures such as IBM and TCP/IP which are slightly different than ISO
standard. The current trend is to migrate towards the OSI reference model to
provide compatibility. Comparison among different vendors are given below:

Layer ISO IBM TCP/IP

SNA

Further Layer Principles

Each layer consists of a number of functional units called N-entities. The N-
entities provide a set of services to the entities of the layer above. The layer
above is called the service user and the layer below is called the service
provider as shown in Figure .

Passing data from one layer to others, what extra information is added and
where?
 99

Header is added by each layer to the Protocol Data Unit(PDU) to identify the
location of each layer. For example, a 3-byte frame header and frame trailer are
added to the frame by data link layer, and a transmssion flag as the frame
delimiter is added by the physical layer.

Self-examined Question
Match OSI seven layers in column A to the description/characteristics in
column B. Each column in A may match a few columns in B.

   

Column A

Column
 
B
 100

Chapter Six
Physical Layer

T his chapter is about the characteristics of Physical Layer, the lowest layer
in the ISO/OSI reference model. Most of the network problems such as noise
interference, incompatible cable connection and line disconnection come from
this layer. This layer interfaces with outside world through transmission
modem, LAN card, network terminating unit or direct connection with other
computers. Transmission error detection, digital signal conversion and
interfacing with various types of communications equipment are also done in
this layer. Upon completion of this chapter, you should

Understand various definition of standards related to this layer

Identify the characteristics and role of physical layer

Understand the PC communications using 8250 UART communication chip

Physical Layer

T his is the lowest layer in ISO/OSI reference model and is

concerned with the transmission of data from one point to
another over the communications media such as telephone
wires, satellite link, or coaxial cable. This layer is dealt with the
physical data transmission and is therefore related to:

Type of transmission medium (Copper wire, air, optical fiber etc.)

 101

The transmission media such as telephone cable are

sometimes regarded as Layer 0.

Modulation and demodulation scheme (FSK, PSK, digital data). This is

about the conversion of signals from digital to analogue or vice versa
through the network. That is why this layer is designed to handle signal
control between the communications port and the modem.

The signal controls (interpreted as procedural control) for full

duplex, half duplex and multi-drop modems with internal or
external clock are quite different. The data is passed from data
link layer in the form of internal message with a data pointer.
Physical layer then picks up the data pointer and prepare to
send out the data prior to checking all the modem’s signals.
This layer interfaces with leased line or switched line. Because
of this diversity, the person who designs this layer (writing
program to handle various signals) must acquire strong
electronics background in various interfacing equipment.

Message switching techniques

There are FOUR specifications to describe this layer:

Mechanical specification such as socket layout, pin size etc.

Electrical specification such as the electronic signals (in terms of voltage or
current level) for certain pins.
Functional specification such as timing or clocking signals
Procedural specification such as the sequence of events required to effect the
data transfer across a pair of modems. (For half duplex modem, In order to
transmit data, the software must firstly raise the Request to send and wait
for the Clear to send signal.

Do we need to do the same procedure for full duplex modem? (With

appropriate communication software)

No, as full duplex will not check the CTS prior to sending data.

It is used to define the signalling interfaces between:

 102

the DTE-to-DTE    (To have two computers directly connected with each

other without a pair of modems.)  
the DCE-to-DCE (The normal connection between two modems.)

DCE stands for Data Circuit Equipment and is the network boundary.
Therefore, it could be a modem for voice grade network, a network terminating
equipment for digital network or even a minicomputer.

Fill in the blank boxes in Figure using DTE, DCE or Data Link.

A typical network boundary Figure is an example of a

fraction of network with DTEs and DCEs, please fill in
the boxes using the terms DTE or DCE. This example
tests your understanding the differences between DTE
and DCE.
Can you explain why DTEs are circumvented by DCEs in Figure ?

Change of signal type

EIA-232-D and the ISO/CCITT

The EIA standard RS-232C (RS refers to Recommended

Standard) was developed in 1969 in United States and is still
widely used in industry. The latest version is called RS-232D.
Using the above description, this EIA standards are also
adopted by CCITT (Consultative Committee on International
Telephone and Telegraph, this was renamed as ITU-T recently)
and ISO (International Standards Organisation) to cover the
following specification:

Characteristics CCITT or ITU-T/ISO Standard

 103

CCITT V.28, Standards produced by CCITT to cover the

Electrical
electrical aspects similar to RS232

CCITT V.24, Standards produced by CCITT to cover both

Functional
functional and procedural aspects of RS232

ISO 2110, Standards produced by ISO similar to the functions of

Mechanical
RS232.

Procedural CCITT V.24

This is a 25-pin connector with data, control, timing and ground signal pins as
shown in Figure . Not all of them are used for data transmission as the basic
pins are three only, namely, Transmit (pin 2), Receive (pin 3) and Signal
Ground (pin 7) only.

This standard allows for cable lengths of up to 15 meters at up to 20,000 bps. In

practice, with better line quality such as low capacitance, longer lengths and
higher rate are permissible. For instance, Category five cable for short distance
can support up to 100 Mbps.

Not all the signals are required to perform the data transmission in actual
application such as Ring Indicator is needed in dial-up modem.

Explain the function of Data Carrier Detect used in Figure .

It is used to detect whether any carrier wave used to carry data is presented in
the transmission line, which indicates whether the transmission line is empty or
occupied by the remote end.

The detailed description for each pin as shown in Figure is as

follows:

Term Description
 104

This is a control signal from the modem to the DTE to indicate

that the modem is powered on. For switched line auto-answer
Data Set Ready
modem, this signal will not be activated until a DTR signal is
received from DTE.

This is a supervisory signal from the DTE to the modem to

indicate that a request has been made from DTE to permit data
transmission. This signal is not required in full duplex modem.
The physical layer will not send out the data kept in the buffer
until a Clear To Send (CTS) signal is received from the modem.
Request to send The time it takes to receive this signal is called turn-around time
and is related to the propagation delay between two modems. This
value is set by the user by use of AT (Advanced Technology)
commands for Hayes compatible modem or hardware stripping.
This turn-around time is required for half duplex modem to inhibit
the other side to initiate data transportation.

This signal comes from the modem to the data terminal equipment
to provide the correct timing to clock the data. This is primarily
used in synchronous modem to provide a trigger to the physical
layer to sample the data. Please note that, for asynchronous
transmission, line speed is required to configure the computer port
to sample the data once the start bit is received. On the other
Transmit/Receive hand, for synchronous transmission, there is no such requirement
Clock to provide the line speed for external clock. The line speed is
controlled by the modem which will generate a pair of clocking
signals (Transmit and Receive from pin 24 ETC (External
Transmit Clock) in RS232-D) to trigger the physical layer to
sample the data value. Because of this, a user will dynamically
change the line speed while a file transfer has started without
causing damage to the software.

This wire carries the digital data from the modem to the data
Receive data terminal equipment after demodulating the signal from the carrier.
The idle voltage level is -12 volts.

Receive Timing This signal from the modem to the data terminal equipment
accompanies the data so that the terminal equipment knows when
to sample the incoming data so as correctly interpret the data. This
 105

wire is used for synchronous modem.

This signal is used to advise the DTE that the modem has locked
Data Carrier Detect
onto the received carrier and that it is ready to demodulate data.

This wire carries the digital data from the DTE to the modem.
Transmit data
(From computer port to another computer.)

This pin is used to indicate the computer port, DTE, is powered

on. Once the physical layer is initialized by loading an appropriate
Data Terminal
software, it will enable this pin for leased full-duplex, half duplex
Ready
and multi-drop modem, but not the switched line auto-answer
modem.
This pin is used for switched line auto-answer modem and is
extremely useful in synchronous transmission mode. Once an
auto-answer modem receives a telephone call, the Ring Indicator
will generate a sequence of pulse trains similar to the ringing
signal to the computer port (DTE) to notify the physical layer that
Ring Indicator an incoming call is pending.

For Ring Indicator, physical layer will then raise the DTR and expects the DSR
signal from the modem prior to sending or receiving data as shown in Figure
with appropriate sequences.  

For a typical asynchronous connection, only Transmit data, Receive data and
Signal ground are required to connect a DTE to DCE. A set of secondary
signals pin 12, 13, 14 & 16 of RS232C connection are used for monitoring
purpose or emergency use in case the primary signals are stuck.

DTE-DTE (Computer to Computer port)

When terminals are connected directly to a computer port, it is

necessary to cross over some of the wires in order to
communicate properly. When two computer ports are
 106

connected running at synchronous protocol, either one should

provide the correct timing or a null modem with proper timing
signals is required. Note that the detection of control signals is
determined by computer software.

   
DTE A DTE B

TD 2 2 TD

RD 3 3 RD

RTS 4 4 RTS

CTS 5 5 CTS

DSR 6 6 DSR

SG 7 7 SG

DCD 8 8 DCD

TC 15 15 TC

RC 17 17 RC

DTR 20 20 DTR

ETC 24 24 ETC

Draw the corresponding lines for IBM PC to IBM PC connection. and label the
pin number and explain why only three pins are sufficient in this connection.

DTE-DCE

This is a normal configuration of the V24 interface between the computer port
and modem. It therefore uses the straight through cable. That is to say there is
no cable cross. Figure is a synchronous modem connection, which requires
 107

transmit and receive control to drive the signal data. Signal return path (Signal
Ground), other control signals such as RTS are not shown in this connection.

Historic Development on IBM PC

In August 1980, IBM announced their first personal computer
which used the 8-bit Intel 8088 microprocessor. It was
configured as 64K of random access memory on the
motherboard, which could be expanded to 256K by adding
memory chips on the same board. The decision at this stage to
use 64K instead of 640K is to reduce the cost and enhance the
competition. The operating system at that time was DOS
version 1.0 developed by Microsoft Corporation. Since then,
IBM had manufactured different kind of hardware as listed in
the following table

Year Hardware Processor Operating system

1981 Personal Computer 8088 DOS 1.0

1982 COMPAQ portable 8088 DOS 1.1

1983 PC XT 8088 DOS 2.0

1984 PC Junior 8088 DOS 2.1

1985 PC AT 80286 DOS 3.0

1986 PC Convertible 80C86 DOS 3.2

1987 PS/2 Models 60 80286 DOS 3.3

1988 PS/2 Model 80 80386 OS/2 1.0, DOS 4.0

1989 PS/2 Model 55 80386 OS/2 1.1

 108

80486 upgrade for model

1992 80486 DOS 5.0/Windows 3.1
70-A21

1993   80486 DOS 6.0/Windows NT

1995   Pentium DOS 7.0/Windows 95

Pentium Pro DOS 7.0/Windows

1998  
(400 MHz) 98/Windows NT 4.+

The IBM AT (Advanced technology) was introduced to the marketplace in

1984 with some technological advances compared to XT. The PC architecture
has been changed since its release in 1984. However, the way of
communicating using serial communication chip is basically no major different,
as it is still using asynchronous communciation even the line speed has been
changed from 1200 bps to 56 K bps. The I/O ports are optional with
serial/parallel adapter for RS-232C and printer. The first PS/2 model 30 was
introduced to market in 1987 using 8086 processor chip. The model 80, a floor-
standing model, is equipped with the 80386 processor chip operating at 16 or
20 MHz. Some of the hardware communication features are listed below:

Built-in RS-232C serial port

Built-in bi-directional parallel port
Built-in printing-device port

The intel 80286

This chip was introduced in 1982 and is a descendent of the 8086/8088
microprocessor. It is frequently called 286 rather than 80286. Some of the most
important features of the 80286 are:

Sixteen Mbytes of physical address space

One gigabyte of virtual address space
A real address operating mode in which the 286 emulates and is compatible
with the 8086/8088 CPU
A protected virtual address to implement the advanced features of the 286
Multitasking support by providing a separate logical address space for each
task (XENIX)
It contains eight arithmetic registers, four index registers, four segment
 109

registers and eight general purpose registers

Communication hardware
By definition, computer communication refers to the exchange of data between
computers and terminals. This covers the data transmission to any type of
peripheral equipment (keyboard, disk drive etc.) and through and any type of
internal or external, wired (telephone line) or wireless (satellite link) data path.
The discussion of this section concentrates on the serial port only.

Serial communications

It takes place by transmitting and receiving data in a stream of consecutive

electrical pulses that represents bits. The EIA (Electronic Industries
Association) has recommended several standards for serial communication
such as:

RS-232-D (Similar to V.24 developed by CCITT)

RS-422
RS-423
RS-449

RS in this designation refers to Recommended Standard. Amongst all the

standards, the simplest to implement and most used serial communications
standard is RS-232-D. Most personal computers are asynchronous and these is
no technical reason exists why a PC cannot be synchronous. Many products in
the form of adaptor are entering the marketplace that provide synchronous
capabilities such as SDLC, Bisync and even X.25. Many microcomputers
house the modem within the cabinet. These devices are called plug-in modems
or on-board modems and can free workspace at a crowded desk and provide a
portable modem for the traveler. In the RS-232-D protocol, the transmission
and reception parameters are selected from a range of standard values as given
below:

Type

Description

Baud rate
 110

50, 110, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 48000, 9600 and 19200

Data bits

5, 6, 7 or 8

Parity bit

Odd even, or no parity

Stop bits

1, 1.5 or 2

RS-232-D defines data terminal equipment and data circuit terminating

equipment (sometimes, it is called communications equipment). Based on this
standard, DTE designation refers to both terminals and computers (serial port in
IBM microcomputers) and DCE refers to modems, transducers and other
devices in Figure .

Connectors and wiring

The RS-232-D standard requires a hardware connector called DB-25 (D-shell

connector with 25 pins). Not all the IBM serial ports use the DB-25 connector.
For instance

PC junior uses a 16-position BERG connector

PC AT Serial/Parallel Adapter uses a 9-pin connector

The function assigned to the three connectors are tabulated below:

Connector Function Code name Direction

DB-25 DB-9 BERG

  Protective  
1 B2 G
Ground

Transmit
2 3 A4 TD Output
Data
 111

3 2 A8 Receive data RD Output

Request to
4 7 A3 RTS Output
send

5 8 A7 Clear to send CTS Input

Data set
6 6 A6 DSR Input
ready

Signal  
7 5 B1 SG
Ground

8 1 A5 Carrier detect CD Input

Data terminal
20 4 A2 DTR Output
ready

  Ring
22 9 RI Input
indicator

Figure shows various wiring connection diagram.

Wiring Diagram

Apart from the conventional wiring diagrams between computer & modem and
computer & computer, Figure in previous page shows the wiring connection
between two PCs. Null modem refers to the connecting scheme between two
DTEs.  

Serial communication controller

The fundamental element of the serial port is an IC called

8250, universal asynchronous receiver and transmitter
(UART). An internal block diagram showing the elements in the
serial communications controllers are given in Figure . The
operation of this chip is summarized below:

The transmitter portion of the controller converts an 8-bit data value placed
 112

by the processor in the adapter’s output port, into a serial bit stream

The bit stream is formatted according to the RS-232-D protocol.

During the transmission, the controller inserts the necessary start, stop and
parity bits.

While receiving a character, the controller can decode an incoming bit

stream and place the data byte in the adapter’s input port

During the reception operation, the chip uses the start, stop and parity bits to
synchronize the transmission, to identify the data bits and to check for
transmission error

All the serial communications controllers used in the IBM microcomputers are
capable of full duplex operation. That is to say while sending the data, an IBM
PC can also receive the data from the other side.

The 8250 UART uses 10 registers accessible by the

programmer to control the data transmission. Details of each
register are given below:

Register Port Address Function

Name
COM1 COM1

If the serial communication controller is mapped to the addresses from 3F8 to

3FE in hex, it is said to be configured as communication port #1 (COM1:). This
applies to COM2, COM3 or COM4 as well.

During the BIOS initialization routines, it stores the base address of the first
serial port at memory locations 400H in the BIOS data area. If two or more
ports are implemented, their base addresses are stored at memory locations
402H, 404H etc.
 113

Different baud rate can be obtained by programming the baud

rate divisor. Some figures for PC-AT operating at clock speed
1.8432 MHz are given below:

Baud Desired %
Rate Divisor Error
in HEX

The value is obtained by use of following formula:

Desired divisor = Clock speed/(16* Baud rate desired)

Where the clock speed is 1.8432MHz for IBM AT.

What is the clock speed of 80486/P5?

Percentage of error will not contribute transmission error during data transfer,
as this minor discrepancy can be tolerated by the receiver.

There are four types of interrupts namely:

Received data available interrupt

Transmitter holding register empty interrupt
Receiver line status interrupt. A line status register 3FD in hex is used to
keep check the quality of received character.
Modem status interrupt. A modem status register 3FE in hex is used to keep
check the status Ring indicator, Clear to send etc. Theses interrupts are
controlled by the interrupt enable register (IER) starting from bit 0 to bit 3.
In addition to the interrupt, there is a line status register located in 3FD in
hex to keep check the quality of received character.
 

Type

Description
 114

Data is available in the receiver data

Data ready register if the bit position 0 of line
status register is set to 1.

Data is not removed in time from

Overrun error receiver data register if the bit position
1 of line status register is set to 1.

A character is received in the receiver

data register with incorrect parity if the
Parity error
bit position 2 of line status register is
set to 1.

A character is received in the receiver

data register without valid stop bit if
Framing error
the bit position 3 of line status register
is set to 1.

The receiving line is in spacing state if

the bit position 4 of line status register
Break Interrupt indicator
is set to 1. Normally, the receiving line
is in idle state.

The line control register located in 3FB in hex is used to

program the transmission line, which includes character size,
parity detection method, and the size of stop bit.

Bit position Description

0 and 1 It is used to control the word length. 00 is for 5 bits

2 It is used to set the number of stop bits. If it is set to 1

3 This bit is used to set the parity bit. Parity is enabled

This bit is used to select the parity type. Even parity is selected if
4
this bit is set to 1 else odd parity.
 115

The following is the program segment to check the line status

MOV  DX, 300H; base line address for COM1:

MOV  DL,3FDH  ; load the line status register offset

IN  AL,DX   ; Read byte

TEST  AL,00011110B  ; text error bits 1, 2, 3 or 4

JNZ  ERROR  ; Yes jump to error handling routine

TEST AL,00000001B  ; Check whether data is ready

JNZ  RECEIVE  ; Yes and take action

A modem control register 3FC in hex is used to control the line

signal. This include the Data Terminal Ready and Request To
Send. The handshaking technique used by IBM includes
hardware and software handshaking:

Hardware handshaking, This protocol is designed for a connected printer. It

uses either DTR or CTS to control the flow of data. If the printer is busy, it
will drop DTR to inform the 8250 so stop sending further characters until
this signal is resumed.
Software handshaking. This protocol uses X ON/XOFF to control the flow of
data between two PCs. This method is almost an industry standard.

The transmission line speed of PC is controlled by the speed of processor and

the software program to detect the availability of character in the data register.

The frequency with which the program must monitor the line for new data can
be estimated by dividing the baud rate by the number of bits in each character
transmitted. For a typical 10-bit character (including one start bit, one stop bit,
one parity bit and seven data bit), it takes one-tenth time to monitor the line.
Say for example, 4800 baud rate will have to monitor the communication line
at a minimum frequency of 480 times per second to avoid the reception errors.
This leaves the CPU with less than 1/480 of a second to store, display and
manipulate the data. If interrupt subroutines were written to handle the receipt
of data, it needs to go through extra steps before loading the data into the
memory. A faster method is to use polling routine to repetitively keep check the
 116

line status register to process the data. Using this method, the transmission line
speed can be extended beyond 30,000 bits per second.

Using two 386 PCs write a simple C program to perform file transfer and find
out the maximum transmission speed that could be reached using either
Interrupt or Polling method.

AT Commands for Modem

Modem Commands
 The modem supports the standard and extended Hayes* AT command set. The
AT prefix (also known as the Attention Code), signals the modem that one or
more commands are to follow. These commands are industry standard language
used to communicate with the modem. The modem is always either in the
command mode, or the on-line mode. The modem starts up in command mode
when it is first switched on. Commands are only accepted  by the modem when
it is in command mode. Commands input when the modem is on-line, are
treated as data, not as commands. Commands may be entered from the terminal
mode of most communications software packages.

Settings made via AT commands are automatically reused by the modem until
another command is received to change them, or the modem is turned off

Setting Up the Command Line/H3

All commands except two, must begin with the characters AT. The two
exceptions are the escape sequence (+++), and the repeat command (A/). The
command line prefix (letters AT) and the command sequences which follow,
can be typed in upper case, or lower case, but case must not be mixed. More
than one command can be typed on one line, separated by spaces if you wish
for easier reading. The spaces are ignored by the modem’s command
interpreter. The command line buffer accepts up to 39 characters including “A”
and “T”. Spaces, carriage return, and any line feed characters do not go into the
buffer, and don’t count against the 39 character limitation. If more than 39
characters are entered, or a syntax error is found anywhere in the command
line, the modem returns an ERROR result code, and the command input is
ignored.
 117

Basic Commands/H3
With the following basic AT commands, the user can make
calls directly, select the dialing method (tone or pulse), control
the speaker volume, and perform a number of other basic
modem operations. Some are as follows:

Command Description

Making a Call
To place a call use the following dial modifiers

ATD 27888639 (Note this is my office number, don’t try this)

The modem dials the telephone number 27888639 and then

waits for a carrier from a distant, or remote modem. If no
carrier is detected within a given time (as defined by the initial
settings in S-Register 6), then the modem automatically
releases the line and sends a NO CARRIER result code.  If a
carrier is detected, the modem gives a CONNECT result code
and goes on-line, allowing communications with the remote
modem. The connection between the two modems ends when
any of the following occurs causing the modem to hang up,
return to command mode, and send the NO CARRIER
response.

The local modem loses the carrier signal from the remote modem.
The Hang Up command (H) is sent.
The DTR interface signal is dropped between the local DTE and modem
when the &D2 or &D3 command is in effect.

This command restores the factory default settings, dials, using tones, a 9 to
access an outside line, pauses briefly, then pulse dials the number 27888639.

AT &F1DT9,P27888639

Examples
 118

The escape sequence causes the modem to go to the off-line command state
from the on-line data state.  After this escape sequence, the modem can accept
user’s AT commands.  The escape sequence consists of three escape code that
is defined by S-Register 2 (default value: decimal 43(+))

Do not enter any character before and/or after the “+++” for a guard time
specified by S-Register 12 (default:  1 second). The duration between escape
codes must also be within the guard time. After the modem recognizes a valid
escape sequence, an “OK” result code is returned.  If an escape sequence is
valid, the escape code is transmitted to a remote modem.  The ATO command
is used to go back to on-line data state.

ATD 27888639 [enter]

CONNECT 28800

[data] [——]

( 1 sec pause )

+++ (Without 1 sec pause between escape codes)

( 1 sec pause )

OK (On-line command state)

ATH0 [CR] (Disconnect the line)

OK

This command resets the modem and recalls the stored configuration as defined
at power on time.

Zn (Modem Reset)

Z0  — Reset and recall stored user profile 0.

Z1  — Reset and recall stored user profile 1.

This command displays the current active configuration, stored user profiles,
and the first four stored telephone numbers. Applications may change these
profile.
 119

&V (View Configuration)

Figure shows the connection to CityU’s Link Plus to access the Internet
service. The AT commands include ATZ, AT10, ATTD2xxxxxx and waits for
the connection..

Serial Port Control

The modems.com 28.8(V.34) / 14.4 Kbps Data/FAX Modems
can determine the speed, parity, and stop bits from the serial
port connection.  The modem automatically detects the serial
data speed between 300 and 115,200 bps with the following
formats:

Data Length Parity Stop Bits Total Length

7 None 2 10

7 Odd 1 10

7 Even 1 10

7 Mark 1 10

7 Space 1 10

8 None 1 10

8 Odd 1 11

8 Even 1 11

The modem also has the capability of automatically adjusting the baud rate to
the internal serial port to physical carrier speed.  The user application must
adjust the baud rate of the internal serial port to it by detecting carrier speed
after CONNECT xxxx message.  This command setting is valid for reliable
(error corrected) link and normal mode connections.  The baud rate adjust
feature is always active for direct mode connection.
 120

Other Recommendations
X.20 and X.21 Recommendation
So far, we just mentioned the communication standard over
voice graded network. For digital networks such as X.25
packet switching network, X.20 and X.21 are another interface
standards which have received considerable attention in the
industry since being approved in 1976. Recommendation is
made to define the interface for asynchronous interface which
is similar to V.21. Recommendation X.21 defines the interface
for synchronous operation as shown in Figure . X.21 is a 15-
pin connector. However, only eight lines as shown below are
required. These recommendation will improve the performance
as the ready-for-sending signals which are used in V series are
not required. X.21 is the equivalent physical layer for X.25 and
is enhanced with byte timing to synchronize the receipt of
character. The functions of each pin are:

Signal Description

T Path for signal transmission

Control data flow and call request. It is always on for leased line.
C
This signal is equivalent to request to send in RS232D.

Path for signal reception. This path is equivalent to receive in

R
RS232D.

I Provides status indication from DCE to DTE

S Provides timing to the DTE signal timing bit

Provides byte timing. It will send out a signal once a byte is
B received.
 121

EIA RS-449/RS-422/RS-423
As RS-232 standard is limited by the distance and speed, other standards as
given below are later adopted to replace it. RS449 corresponding to CCITT
V.35 is a 37-pin connector and supports transmission rates up to 2Mbps with
cable length to 60 meters. It defines both mechanical (pin and plug
configuration) and procedural (signal descriptions) aspects similar to RS232.
The electrical specifications (balanced or unbalanced circuit) are defined by
RS422 and RS423 respectively.

RS-422 equivalent to CCITT V.11 defines balanced electrical circuits. The

binary signals are transmitted using a pair of signal wires. As a result, there
is no negative impact in adverse condition like being hit by a high voltage
and the data rate could be maintained with better reliability. RS422 allows
transmission rates up to 10Mbps and distances up to 1000 meters between
DTE and DCE interface.

RS-232 is also an unbalanced electrical circuit as the transmit and receive data
are referenced with respect to the same return path. The use of twisted pair can
cancel the cross talk produced by signal passing through the wire.

RS-423 equivalent to CCITT V.10 defines unbalanced electrical circuit. Like

RS-232, it sends or receives the binary signals over a single wire and uses a
single common wire for return path.

The electrical voltage levels are defined by:-

-0.22 to -6 volts is a mark or off (Binary 1)

+0.2 to +6 volts is a space or on (Binary 0)

Current Loop

Current loop is an older technology to extend the physical distance up to 300

meters. It uses the current signal, presence of current signal or absence (no
 122

current), to represent binary 0 or 1 (mark or space) instead of voltage level in

RS232D. The most common current values are 20 mA and 60 mA. This
transmission method could support half or full duplex, which requires 2 or 4
wire connection as shown in Figure . Here, the active device will deliver the
current while passive device accepts the current to interpret the data streams.
Device isolation could be achieved in this method through photo optical
couplers.

Current loop cannot extend the line speed, as it is limited by the processing
power of software program to read the data. Noise immunity is better than
RS232 connection, as it uses a pair of wire to send data. In case there is a noise,
it will be cancelled by this pair of wires.

Example of NT 4.+
To hire a 64K bps leased line from Hong Kong Telecom costs around 2000,
which, of course, depends on the distance and the line speed. The current
modem speed operating locally at 56 Kbps. The use of switched line costs less
than 100 as the cost is simply the rental line cost. However, it has the
disadvantage of line dropping. That is to say, if it is used for server connecting
to ISP, the line might be disconnected as a result of interference on regular
basis. This can be resolved by NT 4.+, as it has the capability of re-dialling to
the remote to recover the line disconnection. It is achieved by regular poll the
remote and in case there is no response, it will drop the line and re-dial. As a
result, it becomes a semi-permanent leased line operating at 56K bps at a cost
of 100, which is less than the hire of leased line as shown in Figure . NT can
support up to four switched lines offering the total speed of 224K bps. The
speed is still less than the IMS service offering a 1.5 M bps using the set-top
box for Interactive TV (ITV).

Why not request the modem to check whether the line is broken?

The modem even can detect whether the line is broken is unable to memorise
the telephone number and redials it. It should be up to higher level, not the
physical level, to decide whether to re-dial or because of disconnection.
 123

Self-examined Questions
True or False
The RS-232-D is defined for asynchronous modem only.

The maximum speed defined over the RS-449 is 10 Mbps.

The maximum speed defined over the RS-232-D is 20 Kbps.

The advantage of using current loop is its higher speed.

For full duplex IBM PC to IBM PC connection, at least four wires are
required.

Short Questions
What is the function of the 150 ms turnaround time for a half duplex modem
(ie. time difference between RTS and CTS going on)?

 
 
How to decide which communication device (DTE/DCE) transmits the data
first?

 
 
What is the function of Data Terminal Ready or Pin 20 in RS232C
connection?

 
 124

 
What is the function of Request to Send or Pin 4 in RS232C? Explain why
computer will not check this pin status for full duplex modem.

Explain why four specifications are needed to specify the requirements of the
physical layer.

 
 
Can we configure a null modem to have different transmit/receive clocks?

Yes. In this case, transmit speed is different from receive

speed.

Explain why electrical balanced circuit can support higher transmission rate.

It uses two wires instead of single to transmit or receive data in order to cancel
the crosstalk due to high frequency.
 125

Chapter Seven
Data Link Layer

T his chapter is about various protocols being used in data link layer which is
the second lowest layer in ISO/OSI reference model. The protocols are
generally classified into byte oriented and bit oriented protocols. The former
protocol is the oldest technology and has been widely proved to be a reliable
protocol for low speed low volume data transfer while the latter protocol is
more efficient in data processing. Error detection and correction is done in this
layer by re-transmitting the error frame. Upon completion of this chapter, you
should:

Understand the functions of data link layer

Identify the structure of Bisync frame or block

Understand high level Data Link Control Procedures

Data Link Layer

This is the second layer principally responsible for sending and
receiving the data in an error-free environment. In addition, it
also maintains the data flow gracefully and is able to correct
the sequence of transmission in case a distorted frame is
detected. The functions provided are summarized as follows:

Frame Flow control, To prevent the sender from sending too fast. For
example, RNR in SDLC will be sent by the receiver if the receiver hasn’t
finished processing the previously received frames. It is required due to
speed mismatch between two communicating parties as shown in Figure .
 126

One party may be temporarily incapable of handling the

current traffic load. For instance, due to temporary hardware
problem, buffer space depletion, sudden processor load
demanded by other functions.

Error Control and Detection, To maintain the frames being

transmitted/received are in sequence and to make sure the frames haven’t
been distorted due to transmission error.
Link awareness, To monitor the link conditions and ensure the other end is
still alive. For IBM machines operating as a secondary station, a 32 second
time-out event will be forwarded to upper levels in case there is no activity
in the link either due to the line or equipment failure. As a primary station, it
will repetitively poll the secondary stations for a certain configured time-out
period.

The data link peer parties may reside in a host-node configuration, or a node-
node configuration as shown in Figure . The host-node refers to the interface
between the Data Terminating Equipment and the network boundary(DCE in
this diagram). The frame size between host-node and node-to-node may be
varied, as a result, the frames may be fragmented (break into a few smaller
frames) and reassembled (combine a few smaller frames into a larger frame)
while traversing along a pre-determined transmission path.

Explain why data link layer is concerned about frames between two adjacent
nodes.

It is error-free data transmission between two machines.

The block diagram indicating the relationship between network layer and
physical layer is shown in Figure .

Additional frame header embedding the physical address of recipient, one

control byte, and frame delimiter are added to the Level two frame. The
transmission is carried out by the physical layer using
synchronous/asynchronous data transmission. A transmission flag is added to
the frame by physical layer as well.
 127

Hundreds of different link protocols are used by data communications in

industry. A few examples are given below:

High Level data Link Control (HDLC: ISO). It is also the superset of SDLC,
LAP and LAPB. That is to say, HDLC covers SDLC (used by IBM), LAP
and LAPB (used by X.25) Fax transmission uses the modified HDLC which
is more complex.
Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC: IBM) It is the proprietary product
of IBM System Network Architecture (SNA)
Advanced Data Communication Control Procedure (ADCCP: ANSI)
Link Access Protocol (LAP: CCITT)
Hewlett Packard Data Link Control (HPDLC: HP)

X.25 uses LAP or LAPB as the data link layer.

Layer 2 frame
Protocol Data Unit (PDU) for data link layer is often called a frame with frame
structure as given below:

Header Data Field.............. Trailer

The data field is used to carry layer 3 PDU, while the header (also called) PCI
in OSI model) contains control information. E.g. Sequence No.,frame type,
acknowledgment, etc.). Layer 2 passes the entire frame to layer 1 for
transmission.

The internal structure of the frame should be mechanical to the peer layer-2’s
only.

Layer 1 accepts a layer 2 frame as a block of data to be embedded in layer 1

frame for transmission. Moreover, its internal structure is of no concern.

Can you Figure out how many bytes are required for the header and trailer?
Also find out the improvement in utilization if they are not added.
 128

Three bytes including transmission flag, physical address of recipient and

control byte for header.

Error Detection and Control

The function of data link layer is to provide an error free transmission
environment. The cause of noise and remedial methods are firstly discussed.
The noisy signals which causes the data lost or corruption are classified into
three types:

Sources of error
This section discusses where the error comes from. Error is mainly caused by
random signal that is unpredictable. Here, random signal refers to the noise.

White Noise

It is present in all electronic devices and cannot be eliminated by any circuits. It

increases with temperature, but is independent of frequency. That means the
white noise covers the whole frequency spectrum and will be picked up by both
low or high frequency devices.

Interference

It is caused by picking up the unwanted electromagnetic signals nearby such as

crosstalk due to adjacent cables transmitting electronic signals or lightning
causing power surge.

Crosstalk can be reduced by twisting the telephone wires. This will cancel the
effect of interference.

Human error

Noise sometimes is caused by human being such as plugging or unplugging the

signal cables, or power on/off the related communications equipment.

Other Errors
 129

Other errors that are less relevant are:

intermodulation noise (spceial type of cross talk),

echoes (when signals are reflected)
attenuation (loss of signal power), attenuation distortion refers to high
frequencies losing power faser than low frequencies
delay distortion caused by signal travelling at different speeds thru the
media.jitter caused by frequent gain and phase cahnges of analog carrier
signals(eg.volume fluctuation in a phone line).
Harmonic distortions(out of phase) and line outages.

It will produce random electromagnetic wave which will be picked up by

computer. Proper earthing is therefore vital to the reliability of computer
systems.

Figure shows the effect of corrupting the data by the presence of noise. The
binary data being transmitted will be incorrectly altered by the noise. That is
why the protocols available in data link layer must be capable to detect the
correctness of received data. The factors to measure how effective the protocols
to detect the transmission error include the percentage of detecting an error
(single bit, double bit or triple bit errors), and undetected error. BER (bit error
rate = Incorrect Data/Total transmitted Data ) is a measurement of how well the
medium transmission quality. The typical values are 10 -4 for telephone line and
10-10 for optical fiber.  

The prevention methods are: Shielding, Moving cables, Changing multiplexing

techniques, Improving connection quality with better equipment, Amplifies and
repeaters, Equalization takes of attenuation and delay distortion, Condition by
using expensive error free circuits.

Error Detection
A few codes or bits in association with the data are appended to the frame so
that the receiver can detect the presence of error by using a simple algorithm.

Vertical Redundancy Check

A single bit either ‘1’ or ‘0’ is appended to the end of each character to produce
an odd or even number of ‘1’ bits. This method is commonly used in start/stop
transmission (Asynchronous) as shown in Figure .
 130

Type Description

The total number of binary ‘1’ bits for a particular

Even Parity
character is even. For example

The total number of binary ‘1’ bits for a particular

Odd Parity
character is odd. For example

An ASC character transmitting at asynchronous mode will have:

 1 start bit + 7 data bits + 1 parity bit + 1 or 2 stop bits = 10 bits, not just 8 bits

The advantages and disadvantages are:

Advantages Disadvantages

Can you explain why overhead is 10%?

Parity Bit/Total Bits

Longitudinal Redundancy Check

This method is better than a simple Vertical Redundancy Check. The data is
grouped into blocks of characters, say for example 12 bytes from the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange, each of the character has a parity bit added. A block
check character (BCC) is then appended to the end of each transmission block.
The size of BCC can be 8, 12 or 16 bits depending on the algorithm.

The parity bits at the end of each character are known as Vertical Redundancy
Check (VRC) while the BCC is called the Block Check Character (BCC).

The advantage and disadvantage is:

 131

Advantage Disadvantage

More overhead is required in

Improved error detection capability
coding/decoding and transmission of LRC

Both parity and two-coordinate parity checking are commonly

used in low speed communication.

Bits in 1 2 3 ... n LRC

characters

Cyclic Redundancy Check

This is a faster method and is commonly used in protocol operating at

synchronous mode such as SDLC. In this method, the data to be sent is divided
by a set of binary constant called the generator polynomial. The remainder after
division called Frame Check Sequence (FCS) will be appended to the original
data stream. The original data plus the frame check sequence will be
transmitted over the transmission media. At the receiving end, the received data
will be verified by using the same generator polynomial to determine whether
the message received is error-free. CRC can be implemented by means of
hardware such as Synchronous Communication Chip (SCC) chip which
provides the necessary circuit in physical layer to detect the transmission error.

The generator polynomial defined by CCITT for use on the switched telephone
is:

X16 + X12 + X5 + X0

The equivalent binary expression is 10001000000100001

Another commonly used code is the CRC-16:

 132

X16 + X12 + X2 + X0

Write down the binary expression.

These 16 bit codes can detect the following errors:

All single bit errors

All two bit errors
All errors with an odd number of error bits
All burst error of length 16 bits or less
99.97% of 17 bit errors

Error is measured in terms of Bit Error Rate. Typical value for switched line is
10-5.

What is the FCS if the frame transmitted in decimal is 728 and the generator
polynomial is 13? Assume two digits are used for error checking.

Byte and Bit protocols

The data link layer protocols based on the frame structure (whether frames are
constructed out of bits or characters) can be classified into:

Byte oriented such as IBM BSC

Bit oriented such as HDLC (High level Data Link Procedure) or SDLC

The control information in a frame does not need to be continuous. Typically,

the delimiter field and the error checking field are separated from other control
fields.

Can you list the dummy character used by SNA/SDLC, when there is no data
being transmitted?

It will send out a string of flags

The frame format for Byte oriented frame is:

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SYN SYN DLE STX Data DLE ETX BCC BCC

And the Bit oriented frame:

Flag Address Control Data........ FCS FCS Flag

What is the advantage of bit oriented frame compared to byte oriented frame in
terms of data position identification?

The protocol can detect the exact location of control and data filed without
processing the individual characters.

Byte-oriented Protocols
This type of protocols was developed a long time ago. A well known example
is the IBM BISYNC protocol used in Remote Job Entry (RJE). The computer
has to stripe down the character by character within the frame in order to
determine the meaning and action of received data.

The Byte oriented protocols such as BISYNC have the following

characteristics:

Half duplex in Data Link Level ( can have FDX or HDX in physical level.)
Data link Level (not in physical level)
An industry standard
Used in Synchronous modem (Some users may use Sync/Async protocol
converter to fit into his own system such as Reuters.)
Uses either ASCII or EBCDIC as the code sets
Ideal for Low speed and High volume transaction
Uses VRC, CRC or LRC to determine transmission error

BISYNC is widely used in:

Remote Batch
Interactive terminals
 134

CPU to CPU communications such as Prime to IBM. (Getting unpopular)

A typical BSC format delineated by a pair of PADs is:

SYN SYN SYN SYN HEADE TEX

PAD SOH STX ETB BCC BCC PAD
C C C C R  T

Type Description

PAD Used to indicate the block start

SYNC Used to synchronize the receiver

STX Used to indicate the Start of Text

ETX Used to indicate the end of text

SOH Used to indicate the start of header

BCC Block Check Character for error checking

ETB Used to indicate the end of message block

ACK Positive acknowledgment

NAK Negative acknowledgment

WACK Wait for acknowledgment

ENQ Enquiry message

TTD Temporary Text delay

 135

Byte stuffing

Since BISYNC uses a lot of binary characters (STX, SYNC) for

control purpose, a pair of special characters DLE is used to
quote the binary data so that the receiver will transparently
treat the bracket data. Use of DLE to quote data is called byte
stuffing as given below:

STX TEXT EXT TEXT ETB TEXT ETX BCC BCC

DLE STX TEXT ETX TEXT DLE ITB

BSC Line States

There are FOUR line states that BSC will be used to transfer
data. Initially, BSC will be in disconnected state until it
receives an event, it will then change to other state and take
appropriate action.

Type Description

Disconnected No virtual connection has been established

A virtual connection has been established. The line can

Connected
then move to Text or Control state.

Can exchange control information such as ENQ or ACK0

Control
etc.

Text Data frame is exchanged.

Data Flow

The principal means of flow control is to lay down rules to control if a sender
can transmit a frame. For simplicity, both send and receive party can be
considered to consist of a sender and a receiver as shown in Figure
 136

BSC uses simple stop-and-wait protocol. The sender, after sending a frame,
will stop and wait for an acknowledgment frame (from the receiver of the peer
party) before sending another frame. The data link layer frames of such a
protocol may consist of an information and acknowledge frame as shown in
Figure .

The general frame flow diagram is given in Figure

Normal BSC Data Flow (BSC Contention)

Figure shows the normal data flow with acknowledgment frame. The
transmitter initially transmits an ENQ and waits for an ACK0 prior to sending
the test frame.

The receiver uses ACK0 and ACK1 alternatively to inform the transmitter that
the messages are received correctly. Can you explain the reason behind?

Line Bid Time outs (BSC Contention)

After polling the remote for eight times, the sender may assume that the remote
machine is dead (usually power off) and will stop polling. These retried time-
outs can be configured by the user. Figure uses the two seconds as the time-out
value.

Error Control - NAK (BSC Contention)

As shown in Figure , a NAK (negative acknowledgment) will be sent back to

the transmitter, if the received data has detected a transmission error by
checking the received frame against the Block Check Character (BCC).

Error Control - Lost Acknowledgment (BSC Contention)

 137

If the transmitter cannot receive the acknowledgment from the receiver, it will
send an ENQ instead of data frame and waits for the positive acknowledgment
from the receiver as shown in Figure . Note that there is a 3-second delay for
replying an ENQ.

Error Control - Lost Message (BSC Contention)

Similar to Figure , the transmitter will send an ENQ instead. However, the
receiver will send an ACK0 instead of ACK1 after receiving the second ENQ.

Can you draw a distinction between Figure and ?

WAIT FOR ACK - WACK (BSC Contention)

If the receiver is busy, it will respond an WACK to temporarily stop the sender
until the busy condition is removed. Once the condition is over, it will send an
ACK0 to inform the sender to re-send data frame.

Temporary Text Delay - TTD (BSC Contention)

In this case, the sender is busy, it delays for 2 seconds and sends an TTD to
inform the receiver to suspend the transmission as shown in Figure . The use of
TTD is to maintain the communication link between the sender and receiver.

Duplicated frames

 Duplicated frames occur for various reasons such as lost of acknowledgment.

Figure shows the duplication of data frame due to lost frame and Figure shows
the condition when the receiver is too late to acknowledge the frame.

Duplicated frames can be handled by the use of sequence numbe, can you
explain why it can fix this number?

The user can check the correct sequence and remove duplicated frames by just
looking at the sequence number.
 138

Bit-oriented Protocols
These protocols interpret the message as a stream of unstructured bits and uses
the relative bit position to determine the control information. This mechanism
is more efficient compared to byte-oriented protocols and is extremely suitable
for simultaneous communications protocols such as HDLC and SDLC. The
entire message is delineated by a Flag whereas the BSC has to use numerous
control fields such as SYNC, STX etc.

A typical bit oriented frame (HDLC) is given below:

Type Description

This is the delimiter used to identify the start and end of

Flag
variable-length frame. An example is 7EH in HDLC.

This is the destination address associated with the

Address communications device in the network. This address is also
called physical address.

 Contains the type of information about the message itself.

Control Control byte can be used to classify Supervisory,
Unnumbered and Information frames.

Data portion of message. Data field is only available for

Data information frame and is regarded as packet without frame
header and trailer.

Frame check sequence using CRC-CCITT or CRC-16 to

FCS
ensure transmission error free.

Control field format

There are three different formats for this fields, with a few bits assigned to
identify which format is being sent. Figure shows various control formats.

The three formats are:

 139

Type Description

 including a send sequence, a receive sequence and an

Information format (I)
information field.

including a receive sequence and two bits to indicate

Supervisory format
different supervisory format such as RR, RNR and REJ etc.

Having no sequence count and is used for setting operating

Non sequence format mode. For example, the UA (unnumbered frame
acknowledgment)

Bit stuffing
Bit-oriented protocols use a unique sequence of bits such as 7E H for the start
and end of frame. To avoid an occurrence of this flag bit pattern (01111110)
anywhere, the sending station will automatically insert an extra zero into the
five contiguous ‘1’ bit stream. The receiving station will monitor the bit stream
and delete the extra zero.

0111 1110 address Control Data 0111 FCS FCS 0111 1110
1110

Try to insert a zero bit for Five consecutive 1, as shown

below:

0111 1110 address control data FCS FCS 0111 1110

011111010

Primary & Secondary Stations

There are two types of stations defined in these protocols:

 140

Primary Stations
It is responsible for controlling data link by issuing commands such as
Receive Ready.
Secondary
It receives commands from the primary and return responses.

In IBM SNA/SDLC, if the receiver does not receive any message for longer
than 32 seconds, it will assume that the primary is not functioning and
subsequently disable the line.

Figure shows the three operation modes. Here, Normal response mode support
one primary and a few secondary stations, whereas asynchronous response
mode and asynchronous balanced mode support only one primary and one
secondary.

HDLC
The High-level data link control protocol (HDLC) is a full-duplex bit-oriented
protocol. This protocol has a few configurations as given in Figure .

Type Description

Used in multipoint environment with Master/Slave

relationship. The master is responsible for polling the
Normal Response mode slaves by periodically sending a special poll frame. In IBM
SNA/SDLC, the polled frame is SNRM (Set Normal
Response Mode).

Asynchronous Balance Used in point to point link where the stations behave as
Mode peers. This mode is used by X.25 to establish connection.

HDLC CONTROL FRAME FORMATS

 141

Below shows the comparison amongst all data link layers.

Name LAP LAP-B   HDLC SDLC

Information I I I I

Receive Not Ready RNR RNR RNR RNR

Receive Ready RR RR RR RR

Reject REJ REJ REJ REJ

     
Selective Reject SREJ

Set Normal Response    

SNRM SNRM
Mode

Set Asynchronous    
SARM SARM
Response Mode

Set Asynchronous    
SABM SABM
Balanced Mode
   
Sey Initialization Mode SIN SIN

Disconnect DISC DISC DISC DISC

Unnumbered    
UI UI
Information
   
Unnumbered Poll UP UP
     
Reset RESET
   
Exchange Identification XID XID

Unnumbered UA UA UA UA
 142

Acknowledgment
 
Disconnect Mode DM DM DM

Request Initialization    
RIM RIM
Mode
 
Frame Reject FRMR FRMR FRMR
   
Request Disconnect RD RD
     
Command Reject CMDR
     
Test Test
     
Beacon BCN
CFGR

     
Configure

Based on above table, HDLC is a full specification comprising LAP, LAPB and
SDLC.

Flow Control

There are two methods namely rate control and sliding window to regulate the
flow of frames. Sliding window uses the size of sending window to restrict the
number of frames being sent out.

Link Initialization & Disconnection

Sliding Window (The normal value is 7 for 3-bit control field). It consists of
Sending Window
Receiving Window
Error Handling (about the receipt of corrupted message(s))
Go Back N, ask the sender to repeat the whole sequence starting from the
 143

first rejected message. (Some frames had been receivd by the receiver. As a
result, it is less efficient.)
Selective repeat, just to ask the sender to send the message(S) that was/were
rejected by use of SREJ message. (It is more efficient. However, it needs
buffer to store the previously received frames.)

Explain why selective reject is more efficient in full duplex data link and is the
same in half duplex data link. The physical layer for both cases are full duplex
in nature. That is to say, no need to check the voltage status of CTS.

UA is sent by the receiver to acknowledge the numbered frame during link

initialization and termination.

Write down the full name of UA.

Link Initialization

Figure shows the methods of establishing a call under three response modes.
UA frame is used to respond to all three cases.

Link Disconnection

Figure shows the methods of terminating a call under three response modes.

Explain why computer B will respond a DISC to machine A instead of UA for

Asynchronous Response Mode.

Sliding Window Example

Figure shows two examples of using sliding send windows to control the
number of frames to be delivered. In case 1, the transmitter can send out a
series of frame numbered from 0 to 6 and in case, it sends out from 0 to 4.

Explain why it cannot send out the frames from 0 to 7.

No acknowledge will be used by the receiver to identify the number of frames

received.

Data Flow
 144

Figure shows the data flow by use of Information or Supervisory (Receive

Ready) frames to acknowledge the sender. The use of information frames can
speed up the response.

Error Handling

In case there is a transmission error, the receiver simply responds a Reject

frame against the corrupted frame or a Receive Ready starting from the
corrupted frame to the sender to re-send the whole frames.

In case various errors as listed below are not caused by transmission, the
receiver will send a FRMR to the transmitter to reset the communication link.
Software error could be one of the following:

Bad Address field

Fewer than 32 bits between flags
Information field is not a multiple of 8 bits

Receiver does nothing upon receipt of an invalid frame. It simply reports this
event to higher layer and waits for a link re-initialization.

Explain why transmission error is not regarded as a serious error.

Go Back N, Error Handling

An REJ signal is sent to A for an invalid frame of sequence 5. Note that A has
to re-send the data frame starting from sequence 5.

Selective Repeat, Error Handling

An SREJ frame is sent from B to A for an invalid frame of sequence 4 as

shown in Figure
$[F#,dc5-22]. Here, the transmitter can immediately send out the error frame
without waiting for the last frame. This saves a lot of time to perform
retransmission. Note that A only re-sends the corrupted frame of sequence 4.
The performance is far better than the case in Figure .
 145

Self-examined Questions

HDLC
List the FOUR types of supervisory frames.

 
 
List the THREE modes defined by HDLC.

 
 
What is the function of the P-bit?

 
 
When is a FRMR sent instead of a REJ?

 
 
What is a problem of having a large window size?

 
 
What is the function of a sending window?

 
 

BSC
 146

How are frames delineated in BSC? (What character, PAD, STX, ETX...)

 
 
How to fix the problem of duplicated frames?

 
 
What is the function of the EOT character?

 
 

True or False
UA is sent in response to SNRM.

RNR is used to respond to RR.

Information frame must be responded by Information frame .

REJ is sent against all the invalid frames for physical layer operating at half
duplex mode.
 147

Chapter Eight
Network Control and Monitoring

T his chapter covers the third layer of ISO/OSI reference model. Network
layer is primarily responsible for routing the packets amongst the network
nodes and avoiding network congestion. Upon completion of this module, you
should understand:

Different switching techniques

The functions of network layer

Different routing techniques

Different congestion controls

T he purpose of Network Layer is to provide data transfer from the source to

the destination across various communications media/sub-networks. It has to
deal with issues relating to routing, addressing, congestion and flow control.

Switching Techniques
There are FOUR types of switching techniques available:

Circuit Switching (Telephone network)

Message Switching (Telex network)
Packet Switching (X.25 network)
Cell switching (ATM network)

Figure is the diagram showing different line speed for various equipment to
communicate through a packet switching network. In this diagram, a terminal
 148

operating at different line speed can access the mainframe through the data
network.

Circuit Switching
A dedicated path between the source node and the destination
node is set up for the duration of communication session to
transfer data. A typical example is the use of FAX machine in
telephone network as shown in figure . The characteristics are:

Dedicated hardware connection between sender and receiver

Real-time network response (limited delays due to equipment and signal
propagation)
Good For Burst traffic (such as telephone conversation)
Relatively large set-up time
Charging is usually based on distance/connect time

Can you figure out how long it takes to set up a FAX connection?

Longer than setting up a telephone call.

Message Switching
The user message is forwarded across the network one hop at
a time. The entire message is transmitted and stored as a
whole at each node awaiting for the routing decision to be
made. This switching is sometimes called store-and-forward. A
similar example is to program the electronic mail to send to
different location at different time as shown in figure . The
Characteristics are:

Greater line efficiency as each inter-nodal like can be shared by many

messages from different users.
Non-blocking, unless circuit switching a connection must be established
prior to delivering data.
 149

Caters for different line speed.

Delay is relatively high.

What is the full name of IMP?

Why message switching is less efficient than packet switching?

Packet switching
The user messages are split up into packets of a fixed maximum size to be sent
across the network as shown in figure . The whole user messages are
reassembled at the destination node. Packet switching is efficient than message
switching as pipelining effect can be achieved. This can significantly reduce the
transmission time between the sender and receiver. The characteristics  are:

Share communications channels within the network

Flexible routing (can use the same physical channel to deliver messages to
two different nodes within the network.)
Limited block size (usually 512 bytes or 1 kbytes)
Can be used for interactive access (Response time dependent on network
usage)
Charging is related to data volume

DATAPAK owned by Hong Kong Telecom is a packet switching network

using SL-10 manufactured by Northern Telecom.

Cell Switching
Figure is the diagram showing the use of ATM switches to support multi-media
traffic. These include voice, video, data etc. ATM network uses a cell of 53
bytes divided into 5-byte header and 48-byte payload field. The header contains
the information regarding the destination node and error checking and handling
while the payload field contains the data.  The cell size of header is shown in
Figure . Here, it has VPI and VCI both of which refers to the virtual channel
identifier and virtual path identifier. Note that ATM network is ideal for optical
fibre operating speed up to 8G bps, it is more efficient to divide into a number
of physical paths and each path supports different channels.
 150

ATM Layer

The ATM layer provides for the transparent transfer of fixed size ATM layer
Service Data Units (53 bytes) between the physical layer and the adaptation
layer. Currently, different headers are added to the data cell between the user
and the network and between nodes. The header field for the network and
network interface (NNI) and user network interface (UNI) comprises the fields
of Generic Flow Control, Virtual Path Identifier, Virtual Channel Identifier,
Header Error Control and Cell Loss Priority (CLP). Figure shows the position
of ATM cell layer.

The cell header error control (HEC) is designed using polynomial convolution
to check against multiple transmission errors and will correct a single bit error
in the header field. The header error protection scheme in this layer was
accepted by the IEEE 802.6 subcommittee and T1S1 in 1989. There is,
however, no error checking on cell contents at this layer and no error protection
or flow control from an ATM terminal onto the network. As the header’s
virtual path identifier and virtual channel identifier are modified by the network
at each hop, the header must be recomputed and checked by each ATM node to
ensure no transmission error.

Virtual Circuits and Datagrams

The switching techniques mentioned previously are related to the properties of
sub-communication network. From the network layer points of view, it has to
make sure the packets received are in correct order. There are a lot of models
existed to help address this problem, among them, two conceptual models
namely virtual circuit and datagram dominate.

Virtual Circuits
In this model in figure , the network layer provides the transport layer with a
perfect channel and all packets delivered in order. A virtual path or circuit is
set up so that packets can pass through over this connection. This connection
can be a permanent virtual circuit or switched virtual circuit analog to leased or
switched line. The characteristics are:

Easier for the user host to use as the data is already in correct sequence.
Circuit setup and disconnection is required each time.
 151

Sophisticated user may want to do their own error and flow control schemes.

Datagram
In this type of service as shown in figure , each message in the network is not
related to any other messages. There is no connection between the sender and
receiver. Also the transport layer of the receiver must handle error and flow
control on its own. As there is no dedicated path between the sender and
receiver, the subnetwork accepts packets (often called datagrams) which
contain sufficient addressing information so that the packets can be individually
routed within he network. Basically, the user supplies the packets and the
subnet transports them to the destination.

The packets are routed individually and there are usually no delivery assurance
between the sender and receiver.

The characteristics of datagram service are given below:

Datagrams are individually routed within the subnet

No delivery assurance relating to the packets as the packets can be lost, out-
of-sequence, contaminated, duplicated etc.
Transaction (Sending a short message), connectionless oriented (No need to
establish call prior to sending data.)

X.25 uses virtual circuit approach while TCP/IP Internet Protocol uses
datagram.

Comparison between Virtual circuit and Datagram

Below is a summary about the Pros and Cons for the Virtual circuit and
Datagram

Virtual Circuit Datagram

 152

Host to host address is always needed in

Host to host address is needed in link
sending the datagram (Embedded in the
setup only
datagram itself)

Error checking is required by host to

Errors is handled by subnetwork. Host will
resemble the packet and find out the
receive the packets in correct sequence.
missing packets.

messages may be out of order in the

Messages passed in order to the network.
communication sub-network

Connection setup is initially required prior

Connection setup is not required
to sending data

Is a flexible foundation to support a range

Network component failure in path may
of higher level protocols which can
affect the result
provide for additional network services

Less overhead in addressing embedded in

Overhead in addressing
the packet

Example is X.25 Level 3 Example is Internet Protocol of (TCP/IP)

Can you list a few more discrepancies in terms of packet processing, error
handling, end-to-end flow control or efficiency?

Example of IP Protocol
TCP/IP is the protocol used in the Internet. It consists of five layers and the
network layer consists of four protocols. The commonly used protocol is
Internet protocol (IP) which uses Datagram to transmit data. Apart from this, it
has three more protocols for signalling and control purpose as follows:

Internet Control Message protocol (ICMP)

Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

 153

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

Internet Control Message Protocol(ICMP)

It is designed to pass control messages between gateways,

routers and destination machines. This machine can be sent
out in any of the following situations:

Use command such as PING to check if another host (machine) is available

When a packet cannot reach its destination
When a router can direct a host to send traffic on a shorter route
When a host request a time stamp to check the machine time
In case the router does not have the buffering capacity to forward a packet

Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

It is used by gateways to exchange routing information between any two nodes.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

It is used to collect and distribute the information for mapping tables and is
used to find out the corresponding physical address of destination node for an
IP address.

Internet protocol

It is the basic transport mechanism for routing IP packets through gateways,

router etc. It uses connectionless approach and is responsible for sending the
blocks of data from source machine to destination machine. It does not provide
a reliable transmission as it does not require acknowledgement from the
receiving machine. It provides checksum on the IP header not the data.

The decision to have the network layer provide an unreliable connectionless

service evolved gradually from an earlier reliable connection-oriented service.
By putting all the reliability mechanisms into the transport layer, it was
 154

possible to have reliable end-to-end (transport-to-transport) connections even

when some of the underlying networks were not very dependable.

The IP protocol works as follows:

The transport layer takes messages and breaks them up into datagrams of up
to 64K bytes each.

Each datagram is transmitted through the Internet, possibly being fragmented

into smaller units depending on the network frame size as it goes.

When all the pieces finally get to the destination machine, they are
reassembled by the gateway or transport layer to reform the original message
based on the fields of IP identification and offset in the IP header as shown
in Figure . The IP header has a 20-byte fixed part and a variable length as
shown below:

32 bits

Type of Total length

Version IHL
service

Identification Fragment
DF MF offset

Time to live protocol Header Checksum

Source address

Destination address

Options
 155

Chapter Nine
Transport Layer

T his chapter is about the characteristics of transportation layer including OSI

TP4 (Transport Protocol Layer Four) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
to establish and disconnect end-to-end connection. Various protocol formats
and network types are also included in this chapter. Upon completion of this
chapter , you should understand

The function of transport layer to establish and disconnect connection, and

deliver message

The standard format of transport layer

The functions of Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol

Various protocols supported

Characteristics of Transport Layer

The function of transport layer is to provide a reliable end-to-end
communications service. It also provides data transfer service for the user
layers above and shield the upper layers from the details of underlying network.
This may include message error control and flow control functions. Optionally,
it may provide for other transport services such as multiplexing (of multiple
transport connection to a single network connectivity), inverse multiplexing
( mapping a single transport connection to a multiple number of network
connection, for performance purposes). Figure shows the relationship between
the subnetwork and end hosts.

The transport layer is the first layer that always resides in the end DTE’s. Also
note that the transport layer uses the services of the network layer and shields
 156

the upper layers from the details of the network connections and types of
network used.

OSI transport protocol

To deal with different types of data transfer and different network services,
International Standards Organisation (ISO) has defined 5 classes of transport
services with naming convention from class 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 1984. The choice
of class is determined by the service desired:

the quality of service and functionality

 the underlying network service available.

The ISO/OSI TP (Transport Protocol) standard defines three types of network

services to be used with various TP classes as given below:

Type

Description

Type A

This type of network refers to the connection with both acceptable error rate
and acceptable rate of signalled failures. Packet delivery assurance and
sequencing are guaranteed. In this type of network, the transport layer needs
not worry about the quality and mis-sequencing of packets from the underlying
network. A network with virtual circuit services is a typical example.

Type B

This type of network refers to the connections with acceptable error rate but
unacceptable rate of signaled errors. The transport layer for this type of
network must provide capability to recover from signalled errors.

Type C

This type of network refers to the connections with unacceptable error rate. The
transport layer must be capable to recover from signalled failures and also
handle the mis-sequenced packets from the underlying network. Internet
protocol of TCP/IP, datagram based networks and certain Local area networks
are typical example of this type of network services.
 157

Due to different nature of network services, transport layer

must be configured to specify the quality of service (QOS) with
appropriate classes of protocol. In Transport Layer 4, there are
five classes of protocol procedure from class 0 to 5 to
incorporate the quality of service of underlying network. The
table below shows the description of classes of protocol
together with associated underlying network types:

Class Network Basic functions required of class

connection
type

0 A Simple class with set up/ close connection. If there is an error

with the underlying network, the transport layer simply releases
the connection and inform the status to upper layer.

1 B Basic failure recovery. This class allows the transport layer to

retain and re-synchronize the numbered data. It is also capable
to perform re-connection in the event of network failure.

2 A Multiplexing. This class is an enhancement to class 0 to support

the multiplexing of several transport connections into a single
network service. It also supports message flow control to avoid
congestion, but does not support the recovery from signalled
failures. That is why this type of class must work with type A
network.

3 B Failure recovery and multiplexing. This class is an enhancement

of class 2 to support the recovery from network failure. In this
class, the data will be buffered in the sender to allow for data re-
transmission.

4 C Error detection and recovery. This class is an extension of class

2 and 3 to support the flow control functions. That is why this
class is designed to work with type C network.

Explain why class 0 cannot work with type B or C network.

 158

Type C or B network is an unreliable network and may occasionally cause

signalled failure to the transport layer to frequently stop the connection.

Transport Services
The transport services are broadly classified into connection management and
data transfer as shown in figure . The data transfer is further classified into
normal data transfer and urgent data transfer (Expedited). The expedited data is
equivalent to sending control characters to abort a remote program. Error
detection and handling are also supported by means of message checksum and
message sequencing.

Connection establishment

To establish a connection, the part A as shown in figure will send out a

standard message , T_CONNECT_REQUEST to Part B through the underlying
network. These types of message are specified by ISO to include the address of
calling and called side (Party A and Part B in figure and quality of service as
described above. The called side (Party B) will process the received message
and may respond to the calling side with an acceptance or reject message
depending on the current state of called side and the correctness of message
received. Once calling side receives the CONFIRM message it will process this
request by sending a reply to upper layer. The transport service primitives to
establish a connection is based on ISO 1984a, table 3, section 2.

Primitive Parameters

Called address, calling address, Expedited data option,

T_CONNECT.request
Quality of services, TS user data

Called address, calling address, Expedited data option,

T_CONNECT.indication
Quality of services, TS user data

Quality of service, Responding Address, Expedited Data

T_CONNECT.response
option, TS User data

Quality of service, Responding address, Expedited Data

T_CONNECT.confirm
option, TS User Data
 159

Additional explanation is as follows:

Term Description

Expedited data Indication as to whether the option is requested (.Request) or will

Option be made available (.Confirm)

User’s requirements for throughput (Octets/Sec), transit delay,

Quality of service
reliability, and priority of the connection

Up to 32 Octets of user data that can be appended in the

TS User Data
connection message.

Data transfer

Figure shows the data transfer between two parties using

T_DATA_REQUEST.  There is no acknowledgement by the
receiving transport user. The transport layer protocol is
responsible for current delivery. TSDU’s (Transport Service
Data Units) are always delivered in sequence to the receiving
transport user. Also, the transport layer may segment a TSDU
into multiple transport protocol data units (TPDU).

Primitive Parameters

T_DATA.request Transport service user data

T_DATA.indication Transport Service User data

T_EXPEDITED_DATA.request Transport service user data

T_EXPEDITED_DATA.indication Transport service user data

Called address, calling address, Quality of

T_UNIT_DATA.request
service, security parameters, TS user data

T_UNIT_DATA.indication Called address, calling address, quality of service,

 160

security parameters, TS user data

T_UNIT_DATA.confirm Result, Reason

Expedited data (Max 16 octets of user data) bypasses normal data end-to-end
flow control. The transport layer ensures that expedited data will not be
delivered to the receiving transport user later than any normal data sent after it.

ISO connectionless data service does not include confirmation. It is up to the

service user to handle retransmission where necessary. Below is a state
transition diagram for possible allowed sequence of TS primitives at a transport
connection.

Connection termination

There are two procedures of terminating a connection by Exchange of TPDU’s

successful connection, class-2 transport protocol and Exchange of TPDUs,
successful connection, class-4 transport protocol. For the former case, the
called party simply responds the DISCONNECTION_CONFIRM message to
terminate the call as shown in figure .

Protocol Operation

As in other layers, primitives across the layer boundaries would invoke

exchange of pdu between the peer (transport) layer and vice versa. In the
following class 4 transport protocol (over type C network connection) and class
2 transport protocol (over type A network connection) are described.

Below is a table for transport protocol data units with

appropriate code to identify the message format.

TPDU Type Code Amount of data carried

CR, connection request 1110 = 32 octets

CC,,connection confirm 1101 = 32 octets

 161

DR,,disconnect request 1000 = 64 octets

DC,,disconnect confirm 1100 none

GR,,graceful close request* 0011 none

ERR,,TPDU error 0111 none

DT,,data 1111 up to negotiated length

ED,,expedited data** 0001  16 octets

AK,,acknowledgement 0110 none

EA,,expedited data
0010 none
acknowledgement**

up to maximum value of
UD,,unit data 0100 network service data data
unit (NSDU)

Example of TCP protocol

The TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is a de facto
commercial standard designed to solve above-mentioned communications
problems. It combines the connectionless layer 3 protocol (IP) and the
transport layer 4 protocol resembling class 4 of X.224 (ISO 8073). TCP/IP has
been widely used on the ARPANET and is now a commonly used commercial
product.

Figure depicts the four conceptual layers that build on a hardware. The
application layer is the highest layer to allow users to invoke application
programs that access services available across a TCP/IP internet. The duty of
transport layer (TCP) is to provide end-to-end communication from one
application program to another using port number. It is connection oriented
protocol and regulates the flow of information and provide reliable message
 162

transportation in sequence. The duty of internet (IP) is to handle

communication from one machine to another. It accepts a request to send a
packet from the transport layer with an identification of the machine. TCP/IP
has been widely tested as a robust product with error recovery and can tolerate
error rates including duplication, damage and lost messages. A typical example
of The TCP/IP protocols and functions grouped by their layers from network up
to application is:

Application Telnet FTP TFTP SMTP DNS LPR RouteD NFS/RPC REXEC POP2 T

Sockets

Transport TCP UDP

Network ARP RIP IP and ICMP

Data
link/Phusical
Token-ring, Ethernet V2, IEE 802.3, IBM PC network, Asynchronous

TCP/IP is a connection oriented end-to-end protocol that is ideal for a wide

spectrum communications. One of the TCP/IP’s key benefits is that it provides
a set of standard applications including File Transfer Protocol(FTP), Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Terminal emulation services (Telnet), and
User Datagram Protocol (UDP). TCP/IP implementations are available for MS-
DOS/Windows, Windows 95/98, Windows NT and OS/2 based personal
computers, Unix based workstations, a range of minicomputers and mainframes
running INM’s MVS. Below summaries the function groups that are supported
by TCP/IP protocols.

Physical Layer/Data Link layer

TCP/IP can support a few configurations including:

Token Ring
Ethernet V2
IEE 802.3
IBM PC Network
Serial Line such as City Link Plus through COM1 or COM.

Transport protocols
 163

It consists of two protocols namely:

Transmission Control protocol (TCP) (Connection-oriented)

User datagram protocol (UDP) (Connectionless-oriented)

User datagram protocol (UDP)

It provides an unreliable mode of communication between source and

destination with a minimum of protocol overhead

TCP

It provides a reliable communication method for delivering packets between

machines through a network.

Original versions of TCP layer 3 were expected to offer connection oriented

transmission. but as the APARNET grew and included packet radio subnets,
satellite channels etc., the end-to-end reliability decreased and this forced a
change to tolerate unreliable subnets. Based on ISO 8073/X.224).

A TCP transport entity accepts arbitrarily long messages from user processes,
breaks them up into pieces not exceeding 64K byes, and sends each piece as a
separate datagram. the network layer gives no guarantee that datagrams will be
delivered properly, so it is up to TCP to time out and re-transmit them as
needed. Datagrams that do arrive may well do so in the wrong order; it is also
up to reassemble them into messages in the proper sequence.

Every byte of data transmitted by TCP has its own private

sequence number which is 32 bits wide to make sure that old
duplicates have long since vanished by the time the sequence
numbers have wrapped around. The header format is:

Bit Position

                                                           
1 32

Source port Destination Port

 164

Sequence Number

Piggyback acknowledgement number

TCP Window
 
header URG ACK EOM RST SYN FIN
length

Checksum Urgent pointer

Options

User data.............
 165

Chapter Ten
X.25 and Network Management

T his chapter is about the Wide Area Network using X.25 packet switching.
The functions and characteristics together with the networking components and
network management are also included. Upon completion of this chapter, you
should understand

The X.25 network

The network management in various networks

Modem diagnosis

Network design

X.25

W ith the increase in computer communications, there is a

strong need for a data communication subnetwork that would
offer better services and prevent the problem of incompatible
interfaces. In 1976, CCITT first published a series of standards
namely X.25 for international standard network access
protocols. X25 only:

Defines three layers only not the whole seven layers including:
Physical layer
Data link layer
Network layer
Does not define internal subnet protocols.
 166

Figure depicts the X.25 (DTE to DCE) interface and link connection through
Data Switching Exchange.

X.25 Level 1
This definition is consistent with OSI layer 1 and is classified
into two categories (Analog and digital) depending on the
network type to be connected.

X.21 bis
Interface to analog network
Equivalent to RS-232C - V.24. Referring to Figure .
X.21
Interface to digital network (may also support X.21 bis/ RS232C to those
which does not support). Deatils of connection, pleas refer to Figure .
Limited Support in Hong Kong

X.25 Level 2
This is consistent with OSI layer 2. The function of this level is
to ensure reliable  communication between DTE and DCE as
shown in Figure . The protocols used include:

LAP (SARM) (Set Asynchronous Response Mode)

LAP-B (SABM) (Set Asynchronous Balance Mode)

Figure shows the comparsion between the OSI and X.25 protocol structure.
Note that above layer 3 in X.25 is not defined.

 X.25 uses virtual circuit approach and is only responsible for delivering the
packets from source to destination in a reliable manner. There, X.25 does not
conform exactly to OSI reference model, only the lowest three layers. The main
difference is in the interpretation of the services provided by the network.

X.25 Level 3
 167

This is similar to OSI layer 3 and is called the X.25 Packet

Level Protocol (PLP). It provides:

Virtual circuits. (With permanent virtual circuits and switched virtual

circuits analog to leased and switched lines in PSTN.)
Datagram (Sending individual connectionless oriented packets through
different communication paths)
PAD support

Virtual Circuit Operation

The X.25 operation involves three steps by delivering and
accepting appropriate packets between end-to-end node in
order to exchange information :-

Establish virtual circuit

Call request by sending a Call Request packet
Call accepted by responding a Call Accepted packet
Data exchange once the connection has been established.
To terminate the connection is
To send a Clear Request packet
Wait for the confirmed by receiving a Clear Confirmation packet
Time-out is used to establish limits on how long it takes to get connections.

Figure shows the procedures of exchanging data packets.

Packet assembler-disassembler
The X.25 as specified can only communicate with terminals or
computers that are intelligent using synchronous transmission
mode (LAP or LAPB). However, a lot of terminals such as
teleprinter are dummy terminals. CCITT therefore specified a
particular protocol converter that can support terminals of :

Asynchronous type (Using start/stop transmission mode)

Character mode rather than block mode (Sending or receiving character by
character)
Dial up or leased line between the terminal and the network boundary (DCE)
 168

CCITT made a number of recommendations that specify the

(Packet assembler-disassembler) PAD and the X.25 network:

X.3 - this defines the PAD parameters. For examples, parameter 3 = 0 is

used to instruct the PAD to forward only a full packet and parameter 3 = 2 is
used to instruct the PAD to forward a packet upon the terminal sending a
carriage return character.
X.28 - this defines the interface between the terminal and the PAD. Upon
receipt of an initial connection for the user DTE, the PAD establishes a
connection and provides services according to X.28.
X.29 - this defines the host (DTE)-PAD interface. This standard provides
direction for the PAD and a remote station to exchange control information
in an X.25 call.

PAD provides protocol conversion from asynchronous to synchronous

transmission mode and vice versa for a user device to a public or private data
network. The interface between the PAD and network is X.25. (from level 1 to
level 3)

Figure shows the terminal connection to the network through a PAD.

List the difference between X.28 and V.24.

Basically the same except that X.28 is for digital network such as X.25 and
V.24 is for analog network such as PSTN.

X.25 packet header

Figure shows the relationship between a frame and a packet with appropriate
labelling for virtual channels and paths. A packet header as shown in Figure is
used by public data network at network level to perform end-to-end routing.
 169

The description for each field is attached for reference only. The details should
be covered in a later course entitled “Wide Area Networking” in Year 3.

Type Description

It indicates the general format of this packet. The first bit of

General Format Identification (GFI) refers to the sequence
General Format number modules (Modulo 8 or 128). The second bit of GFI
Identification indicates whether the packet is a data packet (bit 0 ) or
supervisory/reset packets (Ready to Receive (RR), Not
Ready to Receive Packet (RNR)

This together with logical channel number (LCN) provides

a two level hierarchy only. This identifier (LCGN + LCN)
is used in almost every packet type to identify the
connection. The assignment of channel number depends on
the type of service. For example, number is assigned per-
Logical Channel Group
call basis during call establishment for switched virtual
Number (LCGN)
circuits and is fixed for permanent virtual circuits. With 12-
bit different channels, the total number can be up to 4096
different logical addresses to be used in the network. Using
the concept of channel number, a data link level frame can
support 4096 logical channels or CPU processe.

This one byte information refers to one of six categories

packet type including Call setup and Clearing, Datagram,
Data and Interrupt, Flow control and Reset, Restart, and
Packet Type finally Diagnostic. Certain packet types may be further
sub-divided into incoming call or call connected. For
example, the value for Interrupt packet format in binary is
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1.

Calling DTE address It indicates the lengths of the calling DTE address. The
length format is Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) digits.

Called DTE address Same as calling DTE address length, it refers to the address
Length length of called DTE address.

DTE (called/calling) The format is specified by X.121. The first four digits are
 170

the Data Network Identification Code (DNIC) followed by

up to ten National addresses (eight digits Network
Terminal Number plus two digits sub-address
corresponding to different processes within the DTE).
addresses
Regarding the DNIC, the first three digits identify the
country assigned by International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) and the fourth digit identifies the network
within the country.   

X.25 protocol
It makes use of the concept of logical channel. A logical channel is a
conceptual path between a DTE and the network. Multiple logical channels are
multiplexed on an X.25 interface between the DTE and the network. Each
logical channel, when active, supports an active virtual circuit as given in
Figure .

Logical channel numbers for Virtual circuits are assigned at call set up time.

The services offered by X.25 include:

Switched virtual circuits (SVC) (Analog to public switched telephone

service)
Permanent virtual circuits (PVC) (The connection is automatically
established once the device connecting to X.25 network is booted up.)
Datagrams(Equivalent to connectionless service. Not explicit virtual path is
set up prior to sending packets.)

X.25 Application Example

Figure is an example that makes use of X.25 to provide communication access
by external users through a X.25 gateway. This gateway is connected to the
LAN, which means that all the computing facilities connecting to the LAN can
be accessed as well.
 171

When you use the dial-in service to remotely log into CityU’s network, you
already make use of X.25.

Network Management
Once a network has been established, it is a good idea if one
can control it; monitor its performance; diagnose faults;
reconfigure in the event of failure; etc. All of these involve
network management. An efficient and reliable network
depends on:

Type Description

There are not many on the market and requires on-the-job

training. Usually, the problem for the systems designer
(network engineer) is to estimate the likely incidence of
faults for each component in the data communications
People
systems (Mixed up with SNA/SDLC and non-SDLC
network.) The problems facing the users is to recognize the
type of fault he is experiencing and then to alert the
appropriate support to restore the service.

This includes: testing equipment for diagnosing faults;

Equipment reconfiguring equipment such as patching and switching
facilities.

Among other things, the software can provide performance

Software
statistics to help sort out the bottleneck.

Measures of System Effectiveness

Three factors, namely, availability, reliability and cost-effectiveness are used to
measure how well the system is performing. Cost-effectiveness is about the
way of selecting product and will not be covered here. A system is effective if
it can provide good performance, which means a predictable transaction
response time. For example, the response time for an automatic teller machine
 172

is less than 3 seconds after you have pressed any key strokes and wait for the
response.

Availability

It means that all necessary components are operable and accessible. For a
connection to CityU through the CityU Link Plus, it includes your PC,
Windows 95, Browser, modem, telephone exchange, remote server etc.
Accessibility means the user can make use of the component when needed. In
the same configuration, assume that 300 channels are used. However, it is all
occupied when you want to use it. Three more scientific factors to measure the
performance are: Mean Time Between failures (MTBF), and Mean time to
Repair (MTTR). For instance, a modem with MTBF of 1000 hours that
operates an average of three days a day, 20 days a month, would be expected to
fail once every 1000/(3 x 20 ) = 16 months. These figures are provided by the
manufacturers to indicate the reliability of that product. MTTR is the average
amount of time required to restore the failure into normal service such as
replacing faculty modem using 30 minutes. Availability is defined as:

A(t) = a / (a + b) + b /( a + b) e-(a + b) t

where a = 1/MTTR, b = 1/MTBF and e is 2.7183

Given a modem having an MTBF of 2000 hours and an MTTR of 1 hour, the
availability for an 8-hour period is

a/1 = 1 and b = 1/2000 = 0.005

A(8) = 1/(1 + 0.0005) + 0.0005e-(2 + 0.0005)8/(1 + 0.0005)

If multiple components are used in a communication link, the resultant link is

simply the multiplication of all. For example, the availability of modem is
0.997, availability of line is 0.9 and the PC is 0.99, the overall availability is
0.997 x 0.9 x 0.99 =0.888. This means that in every 1000 tries, there will be
112 unavailability.

Reliability

It is concerned with the probability that the system will continue to function
over a given operating period. It a transaction requires 1 second for a response
to be received, then the reliability of the system is the probability that the
system will not fail during that second. Reliability includes the error
 173

characteristics of component such as modem, PC, Windows 95/98 and the

transmission telephone line or cable. The the probability is determined by

R(t) = e-bt where b is 1/MTBF

If the MTBF for a modem is 1000 hours, and a transaction requires 1 minute,
the reliability is R(1) = e-1/1000 =

Same as multiple components, the resultant reliability is the multiplication of

all of them.

System components
For a typical IBM environment, faults are usually classified into four areas as
shown below:

Display Terminal and operator

IBM mainframe hardware
Host Software
Telecommunication lines and equipment

The problems originated from the hardware malfunction and

inappropriate procedures can be summarized as:

Terminal operator procedure

Terminal electro-mechanical malfunction
Terminal logistics such as power disconnection, paper and fuses etc.
Modem between Front end processor and Cluster Controller
Telecommunication circuit
Front-end processor ( 3725 )
Cluster controller ( 3174 or 3274 )
Computer center internal cabling
Host communication software such as VTAM (Virtual Telecommunication
Access Method) or VCAM (Virtual Communication Access Method), IBM
proprietary products
Host operating system such as TSO (Time Sharing Operating ) or Unix in
HP
Host processor hardware
Application software
Customer Interface software (CICS)
 174

As shown in Figure for an IBM SNA network, which part is the role of a
network engineer?

Circuit problem
Use of the telephone system for data transmission can cause problems for the
user in a number of ways. The four main categories of problem include:

Line Errors

The transmitted signal becomes corrupted resulting in the

addition or loss of bits. The line impairments are generally
grouped into:

Type Cause

Steady state By random errors presented constantly

 Attenuation loss or distortion

Background noise
 
Frequency shift - Sudden change of frequency change

Phase distortion

 Non-linear distortion

Transient A lot of errors over a short period

Impulse noise - 6 db last less than 1 minisecond, all effects

disappear within 4 miniseconds

Gain hits- Sudden changes of amplification

Dropouts - Sudden loss of amplitude

 175

Phase hits - Sudden change in received signal

phase/frequency

Transmission breaks

Three types of break can be identified each with different

causes and requiring different protection as given below:

Short break - Temporary disturbance of connection such as engineering

maintenance on the line.
Long breaks ( last for a few hours ) - Serious disruption of service caused by
accident to cable or plant
Disconnection - removal or disconnection of cables

Contention

This is about the unavailability of service to the computer due

to line engagement. There are two common causes of this
problem:

All ports at the computer center are engaged

The communications circuits are overloaded

Software consideration

Some level of fault detection is carried out by the software

components as given below:

Line driver software in the host mainframe

Telecommunications access software in the host mainframe
Teleprocessing monitor resident in the mainframe whether supplied by the
manufacturer.
Intelligence available in network subsystem components such as front-end
processor, concentrators and intelligent terminals.
Special purpose diagnostic software, principally for use by field engineers.
 176

The capability of software in terms of both the types of fault

and the level at which they are detected, will depend on a
number of factors such as:

Degree of intelligence in the network components to perform self-

diagnostics
The intelligence available to the monitoring equipment

Statistics collection
The principal reasons for collecting event statistics on a
cumulative basis include:

To assess the overall performance of communication components and lines

To review the effectiveness of fault diagnosis procedures
To obtain prior warning of degrading performance before total failures

The detailed statistics logging and analysis should be decided by the network
engineer based on the systems he is working on and actual operational
experience.

Performance Statistics
Statistical information can be collected in the following IBM
devices:-

Host (3090)
Front End Processor (3725)
Intelligent Terminal Control Unit (3174)
External Equipment (3278/3279)

It is worthwhile to find out how many can be assembled in the

system at regular intervals so that the network control people
can see how the network is behaving. A lot of performance
statistics are very useful such as:

Type Description

Character in/out This indicates the loading on the system and the traffic
 177

fluctuation during the day. It is helpful in keeping track of

traffic growth.

Is particular useful on networks using statistical

Polls sent
multiplexers

This indicates the number of messages that are re-

Retries transmitted. This statistic can be a useful diagnostic tool
and can foreshadow a potential network component failure.

Indicates how many polls or messages sent to terminals did

Time-outs not get a response. This statistic can indicate a faulty
network component or can foreshadow a potential fault.

Response Times This is both a planning tool and a diagnostic aid.

This gives an indication of the loading on a line. This is

Line utilization
also a useful planning tool as well.

Can you fill in the following table to best project the

performance of a system?

Statistic Network Per Per Per

total line Terminal application
 
Characters 4 4 4
In/out
       
Messages
in/out
       
Polls sent
       
Number of
retires
       
Time-outs
 178

       
Response
time

Message in/out: Figure shows the volume of input/output messages for a

certain time interval during office hours. The graph is normalized with respect
to the maximum traffic experienced during that day over the specified interval.

Trouble Shooting
Goals of Datacomm Testing
The goals of datacommunication testing are to:

Increase system availability by

Minimizing the network down time
Expediting repairs by identifying precisely the faulty network components
Eliminating finger pointing by randomly repairing functioning network
components
Debug network applications
Develop good relationships with data communications vendors
Isolate the failing component within the network

Testing domain
Analog testing
Transmission impairment and continuity
Measuring sets include voltmeter
Digital
Bit Error Rate Tester. It is used to measure the ratio between the error bits
against the totally received bits including the error bit.
Protocol
Serial Data Analyzer (It captures the status of every V24 interface lead for
every bit time on the interface. Data can be stored on tape or diskette for
later analysis.)
LAN Protocol Analyzer (To measure the network loading, performance and
traffic pattern.)
 179

Breakout box
Figure shows the use of break-put box to diagnose the
network connection between a modem and terminal. A break-
put box is

Visual verification of RS-232-C. This can be visualized by the flashing of

LEDs(Light Emitting Diodes) corresponding to the data movement in the
wire.
Ability to alter signals by re-wiring the connection using either straps or DIP
switches.

Protocol Analyzer
Figure shows the use of protocol analyzer to monitor the
contents of data movement between a computer and a
modem. The characteristics of protocol analyzer include:

Simulate and Monitor Modes

Simulate mode is to configure the protocol analyzer to act as a DTE or DCE
in the network usually used to perform software verification.
Monitor mode is to configure the protocol analyzer to act as a monitor to
keep check the data movement between a DTE and DCE.
Softkey menu operation instead of using hard-code keys in the small console
to configure the protocol analyzer
Use BASIC language to program the analyzer to emulate DTE/DCE and
capture special data stream.
Softleds (means it can be programmed by the user. For instance, this lead is
input RX, but be programmed as output TX) instead of physical leds

Modem diagnostics
As shown in Figure , by looping the analog side, the messages sent by DTE
will be returned and processed by DTE to ensure that the analog and digital
side of modem, and data link between two modems are working properly.

End-to-end Test
 180

The text messages will be sent by one of the computers and be captured by
another to verify the communication is in proper condition as shown in Figure .
However, this procedure can only detect a single direction of data flow.

Remote Digital Loopback test

It uses a machine to perform loop-back text by looping the remote digital side
(by twisting transmit and receive pins.) This can detect the send/return path as
shown in Figure .

Designing a Data Transmission Network

The factors to be taken into account during the design of a data communication
network should be the same irrespective of size. Small networks tend to grow
in the future, careful design can ease the burden of growing pains. Fault
isolation is accomplished by inserting testing points throughout the links at
each network component.

The designer has to produce a network to connect terminals to the processing

centers. These connections:

Must be within the capabilities of the protocols supported by terminal and

host computer
Must be fast enough to carry all the traffic at the required times
Must be sufficiently reliable to meet the needs of users of the service.

Usually, there are four stages in identifying network

requirements:

Defining the location of terminals including current and future needs.

Determining the protocol to be used. It is used to determine whether a series
of point to point links have to be used, whether terminals may be clustered
or whether they may be connected in a multipoint arrangement.
Defining the pattern of traffic which is likely to be transmitted. This will
determine the speed at which the links have to operate. In the case of
clustered and multi-dropped terminal systems, the traffic pattern will also
determine how many terminals can operate on each link.
Determining the reliability required for the network
 181

Careful thinking is required to define the longest down time

which may be tolerated, and how frequently interruptions are
acceptable. A lot of factors must be taken such as:

The mean time between failures (MTBF) of most data communications

components
Fallback arrangements including redundant components throughout the link,
dial-up standby circuits

The types of terminal and the software under which they are to
work, will determine some of the network options such as:

Synchronous or asynchronous?
Contention or polled protocol? This will determine whether a point to point
or multipoint structure is required.
Does the software monitor and/or transmission control unit support dial-up
links?
Network or standalone?

Redundancy
Fallback arrangements for networks of private circuits usually
take the form of standby facilities. There are three broad
approaches to redundancy in the communications network as
given below:

Duplication of those items of equipment which are likely to take longer to

repair than the maximum permissible down time and keeping that equipment
idle until it is required.
Connection of the duplicated components into the link in such a way that
they are normally being used. Then when they are required for fallback duty,
they are known to be working.
When more than one service is provided to a remote site the services should
be ranked in order of priority.

Standby modem
As shown in Figure , a single standby modem is installed to replace the
defective modem once a hardware problem is found.
 182

Standby telecommunication lines

A duplicated telecommunication line is leased from Hong Kong Telecom using
different route to replace the defective line once it is identified.

Standby Front end processor

A Front-end Processor is standby to replace the defective machine in case it is
not working properly.

Self-examined Questions

Short Questions
What is bit error rate?

 
 
Which loopback test verifies the whole information channel?

 
 
What are some of the reasons for having networks?

 
 
 
What is the idea of local digital loopback?

 
 183

 
What is the function of PAD?

What do the following standards define?

X.21__________________________________________________
V.24__________________________________________________
X.28__________________________________________________
What are some advantages of X.25 packet switching networks?

How to verify respective communication channels are working properly?

 
 
List the components required to design a reliable network.

 
 
List three redundancy methods and point out the cheapest method.

True or False
X.25 defines the first five layers of the ISO model.

X.28 defines the interface between the terminal and the PAD.

The data link layer of X.25 is HDLC only.

X.25 defines the internal subnet protocols to include datagrams.

 184

Chapter Eleven
Signalling

T his chapter is about signalling for various communication systems

including ISDN, LAN, leased line etc. There is no intention to cover the details
of each of them as they will be covered in later courses. Upon completion of
this chapter, you should understand

Format of T1, T2 and T3

Signalling method for LAN

The maximum signalling rate for ISDN, B-ISDN

T1 and its Highers

It is a carrier service, available from Hong Hong Telecom., and operates at the
speed of 1.544 Mbps digital path. The T-1 carrier is divided into 24 separate
channels each of them carries 64K bps digitised voice or 56K bps data
(interesting they are not equal). T1 can be regarded as a high-speed method (10
or 20 years ago) of communicating digitally between two devices. The format
for a typical T1 is shown in Figure . Data is transmitted in frames, each of (24 x
8) + 1 = 193 bits per frame. Within one second, it has to transmit 8000 frames
over one second resulting in 8000 x 193 = 1544000 bits per second. The data
rate for T1 is 1.54M bps. It is also concluded that 8000 frames per second
include 8000x1 = 8K bps for synchronisation (last bit in the frame) and 24x64K
= 1536K bps for data. If a user just wants to use 9600 bps, a 64K bps channel
can be shared by this user leaving 54.4k bps for other users. This allows the
subscriber to optimise the line speed and the cost of service provided.

T2, T3 and T4
T2 provides a data rate of 6.312M bps and is derived from multiplexing 96
channels of 64K bps. T3 provides a data rate of 44.736M bps and is derived
 185

from multiplexing 672 channels of 64K bps. T4 provides a data rate of

274.176M bps and is derived from multiplexing 4032 channels of 64K bps. As
multimedia becomes popular, higher data rate becomes more common. T1, T2,
T3 and T4 refer to the AT&T and other carriers supply corporation and are also
commonly termed DS1, DS2, DS3 and DS4.

The higher educational institutions in Hong Kong are linked up by a Ring

topology using T1 sponsored by Hong Kong Telecom as the basic transmission
rate for linkage.  The charge is expensive in China but not in Hong Kong. A T1
link in China in Kwangtung province is talking about 20000 to 40000 per
month.

Application

By using T1-carrier, 24 voice conversations can be simultaneously transmitted

over a single two-core telephone cable. For analogy voice transmission, 24
two-core telephone cable is required. However, since it is a digital signal,
signal drop is more serious than analog signal, repeaters are needed for certain
cable length. A typical application for 20 years ago is to link up two telephone
exchanges (nowadays, it is replaced by optical fibre and is talking about 625M
bps or even 8G bps) or two digital multiplexer as shown in Figure . For
telephone exchanges, it uses 1/24 pair of cables to support 24 times of voice
channel, which is advantageous for area that is short of cable. In Figure , a pair
of multiplexers is linked up a number of computing devices each of which will
use its own channel for communication.

If 28.8K bps is used for T2 digital link, how many channels can this link
support?

6.312M/28.8K = 219 channels (users)  

If a compressed voice 8K bps is used for T1 digital link between two telephone
exchanges, one in Hong Kong and the other in Sydney, how many users can
this link support?

1.54M/8K = 192 users  

 186

Signalling Rate for LAN

Local Area Network uses Manchester Code to carry data. Unlike RS232D
which uses the voltage level to determine the corresponding binary data, it uses
its phase change to determine the data. The Manchester Code is shown in
Figure . Here, binary 0 means the voltage drops from high level to low level,
whereas binary 1 means change from low level to high level. The clocking is
also embedded in the signal. That is why no external clock is needed, unlike the
synchronous modem or unlike the asynchronous modem where data rate should
be configured.

An ordinary telephone line can support data rate up to 16M bps for IBM Token
ring. Thin rate (thin coaxial cable) usually support 10M bps for Ethernet. If
coaxial cable or optical fibre is used, it can support up to 152M or even higher.

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

ISDN was originally based on digitized voice at a channel rate of 64 Kbps to
support 256 voice levels. ISDN standards were started by the CCITT in 1972.
In 1984, the I series recommendation was adopted and it was stated that
(CCITT XVIII-228-E 1984):

“...an ISDN is a network...that provides end-to-end digital connectivity to

support a wide range of services, including voice and non-voice service...by a
limited set of standard multipurpose user-network interfaces...”

Two standards are defined for the physical interface to ISDN, namely the Basic
Rate Interface (BRI) defined in CCITT/ITU ISDN I.430 (1993), and the
Primary Rate Interface (PRI) in CCITT/ITU I.431 (1993). Both standards
define the electrical coding and frame formats. ISDN has been further
elaborated since the 1984 recommendations to support a 16 Kbps channel
known as D channel for signalling purposes and two 64 Kbps channels known
as B channels for basic access. It was also proposed to support higher rates,
known as H channels, for primary access which had different configurations
for North America (1544 Kbps) and Europe (2048 Kbps). ISDN is a circuit-
switched type network but can access packet-switched services by D channels.
Two major benefits offered to users are:
 187

the common user-network interface for access to a variety of services with

faster signalling rates such as the support of high-speed switched data lines
and digital voice transmission; and
the provision of new services such as the support for concurrent transfer of
voice and data.

In summary, the signalling rate for ISDN from the user viewpoint is two 64K
bps amounting to to 144K bps. However, the basic transmission rate requires
192K bps of digital transmission capacity. The original intend is to provide
voice and data to the desktop terminal/PC at home at this rate without
considering the rapid development of high bandwidth network to support multi-
media services. We can hire this service from Hong Kong Telecom to support
data transfer.

Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN)

The formal standards bodies developed the standards for ISDN, which is now
called the narrowband ISDN, in early 1970 as the predecessor to B-ISDN. The
highest rate for a 64 Kpbs based ISDN offered to the user is 1544 Kbps
(equivalent to 23B + D64 = 24x64 Kbps) or 2048 Kbps (equivalent to 30B +
D64 = 31x64 Kbps). However, there is great demand for the transmission of
video signals at bit rates up to 150 Mbps for High Definition Television
(HDTV). Many formal standards bodies have been recommending new
procedures in order to accelerate the pace of standardisation to that required by
industry. This evolves from the practical need for a B-ISDN. ITU-T
Recommendation (I.113 1991) stated that B-ISDN is:

“...a service or system requiring transmission...supporting rates greater than the

primary rate...”

Three major features related to B-ISDN are (Händel 1994):

enhance the existing signalling rates;

define the new broadband user-network interfaces; and
be compatible with the existing 64 Kbps ISDN.

However, there are still many issues regarding the types (H and B) and the
number of channels incorporated into B-ISDN. ITU-T Recommendation I.120
(1993) further enhanced B-ISDN to support different kinds of applications and
customer categories:
 188

“...the provision of a wide range of services to a broadband of service to a

broad variety of users ...and multipurpose user network interfaces...”

The demand for B-ISDN services is based on optical fibres as in Simmens’

report (1989):

“...solutions are initially needed whereby optical fibres can be economically

brought as close as possible to the subscriber, also for already existing services
(television, telephony, data transfer)...”

In view of the above description, it is concluded that B-ISDN is an ambitious

and practical wide area network designed to become the universal future
network at the current signalling rate of 625M bps, which is far beyond T4,
274M bps.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

ATM was proposed in 1986 as the transmission and switching architecture to
support broadband services. It was proposed on the assumption that STM’s
transmission and switching paradigms, an extension to the narrowband ISDN
interface standard, are insufficient to cover multirate, multimode and multicast
services. According to ITU-T I.121 (1993),

“Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is the transfer mode for implementing

B-ISDN.”

The first term Asynchronous refers to the sending of data on the network as it
arrives. The second term transfer refers to both transmission and switching
aspects. Transfer mode is therefore a specific way of transmitting and switching
information. The basic transmission unit, according to the definition in I.113
(1991), is: a cell is a fixed length 53-byte packet, which contains a 5-byte
header and a 48-byte information field. The header is used for identification by
the ATM nodes and the information field is used by the user to carry
information. Data is packed into the cells and sent out onto the network to
support multiplexed transmission in an irregular pattern. ATM is therefore
sometimes called label multiplexing in which the label is used by the receiver
to verify which connection the cell is to be associated with. The allocation of
cells contrasts with STM which allocates the data in a regular time slot. Cosmas
(1994) pointed out that the main benefit of cell switching is statistical
multiplexing, which is the simultaneous use of the same communications
circuits by many sources on a demand basis.
 189

The main limitation of current networks is that they are designed only to
support one type of traffic or service. For example, a telephone network makes
use of circuit mode to support voice service whilst a data network makes use of
packets to transport messages. However, ATM is designed to support a mixture
of different kinds of services and combines these two extremes to optimise the
bandwidth usage. This method is more efficient compared to the traditional
communication mode. In addition, ATM handles the traffic based on demand,
which means no traffic, no bandwidth drain. This is in contrast to STM
(Synchronous Transfer Mode) which partitions the fixed bandwidth into fixed
slot times and wastes the slots when there is no data.

Currently, 44.736 Mbps (DS3), 100 Mbps (Multimode fibre) and two 155.52
Mbps (Based on Synchronous Optical Network and ITU-T Recommendation
I.432 (1992) interfaces are specified in ATM Forum (1993).

ATM is the underlying transmission system for B-ISDN and provides the
subscriber with communications services over a wide range of bit rates. These
include services at a bit rate of the order of 50 bps to 100 Mbps. The current
ATM standard allows a user to access telephone networks at speeds over 622
Mbps and will eventually go up to gigabit speeds.

Comparison of Different Physical Layers

Some of the functions of physical layer are:

Generation and Recovery of transmission frame

Frame scrambling and descrambling

Comparison of different functionalities in these two sublayers are given below

for the four specifications which include 44.736 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 155.52
Mbps (SONET) and 155.52 Mbps (ITU-T).

Physical Media Dependent Sublayer

 
Layer Function 44.736 100 Mbps 155.52 155.52
Mbps Mbps Mbps
(SONET) (ITU-T)
 
Physical Bit timing o o o o
Media
 190

Dependent
Sublayer
 
Line coding Based on ANSI o o o o
X3T9.5 (FDDI)
committee to use
the 5-bit symbol
 
Physical o o o o
Medium

 available

ITU-T I Series
An ITU-T committee formerly known as the CCITT was renamed as the
Telecommunications standardisation sector. This is a United Nations sponsored
treaty organisation and has published approved recommendations in the form of
a set of books. The B-ISDN/ATM standards were classified into I and Q series.
Figure shows the application scope of I series recommendations.

General aspects related to B-ISDN are specified by:

I.121, Broadband Aspects of ISDN.

The user network interface is specified by:

I.413, B-ISDN User-Network Interface;

I.432, B-ISDN User-network Interface - Physical Layer Specification.

The network is monitored by the specification of I.610, B-ISDN

Operation and Maintenance Principles and Functions. The
traffic control is specified by I.371, Traffic Control and
Congestion Control in B-ISDN. Networking aspects are
specified by:

B-ISDN General Network Aspects;

Internetworking is specified by:

I.555, Frame Relaying Bearer Service Internetworking; and

 191

I.580, General Arrangements for Internetworking between B-ISDN and 64

kbps based ISDN.

ITU-T also plans to enhance the existing recommendations or to supplement

new recommendations such as I.35BA on B-ISDN availability performance,
I.581 on Internetworking Requirements for B-ISDN and G.96x on Access
Digital Section for B-ISDN. ITU-T Q series recommendations for B-ISDN are
a supplementary set of recommendations mainly for services, signalling, etc.

Bellcore
As early ATM implementations served as a backbone networks,
it is able to support the existing Switched MultiMegabit Data
Service (SMDS) proposed by Bellcore for the Regional Bell
Operating Companies. SMDS is a high-speed connectionless
data service at current bit rates up to 155 Mbps intended to be
a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), which can evolve into a
country-wide service (Le Boudec 1992). It uses the ITU-T
recommendation E.164 global addressing to connect to
customer premises network via the Subscriber-Network
Interface (SNI) and Network Node Interface (NNI) as shown in
Figure A.. SNI is first based on the IEEE 802.6 Distributed
Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) MAC protocol and uses a protocol
called Subscriber Interface Protocol (SIP) containing roughly
three levels up to AAL connectionless data service of ITU-T. It
is now run on top of an ATM network. The functions of three
levels are summarised below:

The level 1 of SIP is for data transmission and uses DS-1 signaling
providing digital transmission rates of 1.544 Mbps or DS-3 at the
transmission rates of 54 Mbps. As the need for speed increases to support
full motion video, higher speed services like DS-3 are becoming more
common.
The level 2 of SIP is equivalent to the ATM cell layer and part of the
Transmission Convergence Sublayer (TC).
The level 3 of SIP is equivalent to AAL of CCITT and switches the frames
which cross the interface to their destination.

ATM Forum
 192

The ATM Forum was first founded in 1991 in United States by

four companies in alphabetical order are Adaptive, Ciso, NTI,
and US Sprint to manufacture ATM products that are
compliant with international standard. ATM Forum has grown
remarkably and has attracted over 550 member organisations
from other countries since 1991. It strongly influences the ATM
development and has produced the following two specifications
in complementary to ITU-T ATM documentation.

B-ISDN intercarrier interface (B-ICI) specification (Version 1.0, August

1993).

Self-examined Questions
Short Questions
What is data rate for T1, T2 and T3?

T1

T2

T3
What is the data rate for ATM switch using optical fibre?

The data rate is

What is the effective data rate for ISDN?

 193

The effective rate is

What is the ideal data rate for continuious moving picture?

 
 

Chapter Twelve
PC Software Characteristic

T his chapter is about the characteristics of common PC software. Nowadays,

most PCs have a basic configuration including serial card for asynchronous
communication. Some PCs have integrated especially Laptop PCs modems
operating at the speed of 56K bps. With data processing and communications
power, PCs can off-load the central computers by downloading raw data from
central and then process locally, or uploading data to central after processing.

Understand the basic PC software such as PC term, Proc comm.

C ommunication S/W packages are usually programmes that

allow your PC to send and receive data through the telephone
line via modem, They serve three primary functions:

to access a larger computer, such as a minicomputer or mainframe computer

or through a LAN card to access a intranet/LAN server, as if the PCs were a
terminal on that computer or a browser. An extension of terminal emulation
is the ability to get data from the mainframe and put it in the PC
environment. The telnet is always used.
Using FTP to perform file transfer.
to access Internet or Intranet server acting like a browser.
 194

The characteristics of using telent are:

A typical application of PC and communication S/W is electronics mail

services.
Most communication S/W packages make the PC to emulate terminal(s)
such as VT100 (Virtual Terminal and type 100), VT52, IBM3101 etc.
Each terminal has unique characteristics, and the communication program
must make the PC emulate the specific terminal precisely.
The information sent from the PC to the host computer must be in the form
expected by the host such as both are using ASCII or EBCDIC.
Certain communication S/W packages need special H/W card such as SDLC
card (Synchronous Data Link used by IBM) other than the serial card for
operation, especially those for synchronous mode of operation (e.g. X.25,
bisync, SDLC etc.)
There are S/W package that makes a PC to emulate a FAX terminal such as
WIN FAX or GAMMA FAX package as well.
There are also special purpose communication S/Ws that make PCs become
bulletin board hosts, central master controllers, Internet server (NT 4.+),
point-of-sale terminals, etc. They are usually developed by equipment
manufacturers, S/W houses, or users for specific applications, and are
usually not available from the commercial S/W market.

Characteristics of Command/Menu Driven

Menu driven characteristics
The user friendliness in a communication S/W can assume
various forms. The programme designer has to weight the
simplicity of user interface versus programme flexibility and
consider the type of user community. In a commercial
programme, the designer also wants to maximise the number
of potential users, who range from beginners to sophisticated
users. The characteristics are:

The easiest way to interact with the user is by presenting a few simple
choices or an introductory menu on the screen. This has been adopted by
most communication S/W.
As the number of choices displayed on the screen is limited to between 15 &
20, the programme can display additional menus after the initial selection.
A menu-driven programme assumes only a minimal knowledge on the part
of the user, as choices are always displayed on the screen, but it has
 195

limitation.
On-line “help” facilities are usually available.
A large number of choices leads to hierarchical menus which may make a
menu-driven program very cumbersome.

Command Driven
Instead of choosing from a limited number of options displayed on the screen
in a menu, most communication S/Ws can also be driven by issuing short
commands as well. The user then gains considerable flexibility at the expenses
of having to remember the various commands, through on-line “HELP”
facilities. For instance, the popular Crosstalk and Mirror programmes combine
menu-driven and command driven approaches by responding to large
dictionary of user commands and by displaying the most important ones in a
menu on the screen.

Programmability

Many general purpose communication S/W packages support

programming as well, by offering programming languages. As
the programming languages are communications oriented,
they are better than general purpose languages as BASIC
especially for the development of simple communication
application. The characteristics are:

The associated configuration and programmes are usually called command

and script files.
The command file is executed before a connection with a remote computer is
established. It can be considered a static file.
A command file contains all parameters required to establish a data
connection, such as the telephone number, number of data bits and stop bits,
parity information etc.
The dynamic script file executes in response to queries from the remote
computer after the connection is established.
The script file may contain the user’s name and password for the particular
service and standard responses to various questions asked by the information
service.
The script is written in special language, called a script language, which
varies from one data communication S/W to another.
By using the script file, a casual user does not need to have any familiarity
with the data communications parameters and has only to know which
 196

function button to press on the keyboard to start a data connection.

Examples of Common Communication S/W

A few common PC communications software packages are listed for
comparison including Crosstalk, Procomm, Mirror and Smartcom. Some are
pretty old packages.

Crosstalk

It is a general purpose asynchronous communication software ware using serial

card. It has strong terminals emulation capability including DEC, DASHER
and Tel Video terminals. The characteristics are:

It supports the commonly used file transfer protocols including Kermit,

Xmodem, Ymodem and Compuserve-B
It introduces a new file transfer protocol called DART.
The programming language available is called CASL (Crosstalk Application
Script Language), which is very powerful language.
It contains a built-in text editor and supports answering incoming calls from
other computers.
It is capable of managing concurrent communication session and supports
Tymnet X.PC via asynchronous serial port.
It supports IBM 3278/3279 terminals models 2, 3, 4 and 5 emulation with
IRMA communications board.
It supports IBM 5251, 5291, 5292 an 5256 terminals/printers emulation with
SmartAler communication board.

Procomm
It is a general asynchronous communication software using serial card. It has
strong terminals emulation capability and supports a lot of file transfer
protocols. The programming language available is called ASPECT. It includes
a fast text editor called PCEDIT. The Script language supports HOST mode
that lets remote user log on to an unattended computer and use it like a Bulletin
Board System. It also supports background operation in Multitasking
environments.

Mirror
 197

It is a general purpose asynchronous communication software using serial card.

It is designed and written to be a clone of the Crosstalk XVI programme. It has
a strong terminal emulation capability and supports many of the more popular
file transfer protocols. The communications oriented programming language
supported is called SCRIPT. It has a built-in text editor with Wordstar-like
command structure. It provides an answer mode processing which prepares the
microcomputer to play the role of unattended host computer system. It also
supports background processing.

Smartcom
It supports asynchronous communication software using serial card. It is
specifically designed to work with Hayes smartmodem products or V-series
system products. It supports common terminals emulation and limited file
transfer protocols. It provides remote access capability, which requires both the
originating and answering system. It allows the originator of a call to take
control of the answer’s programme from a remote location. It has a pre-
configured communication sets available to access the popular information
services such as CompuServe, DJN/R etc.

Example of Hyperterminal
Windows 95/98 provide a list of software for terminal emulation. Simply click
the menu of accessories, you will find the diagram as shown in Figure . Here, it
has four icons with different terminal characteristics. If you click AT&T mail
(a big telecommunication corporation in US), and select the mail properties,
you need to configure your PC which port you need to connect to the modem,
the phone number of the remote site and its area code. The area code for Hong
Kong is 852. The diagram is shown in Figure

You can emulate the type of terminal characteristics as shown in Figure . Here,
you an specify the type of emulation such as ANSI, TTY, VT100 etc. Each of
them has similar characteristics with slight variation.

You can perform the file transfer by clicking the send icon as shown in Figure .
Here, you have to specify one of the PC transfer protocols, namely, Xmodem,
Ymodem, Ymodem-G, Zmodem and Kermit. They are the commonly used
protocols in PC environment with different message size and handshaking. Of
 198

course, both sides must configure the same protocol. Otherwise, it cannot
communicate.

Figure shows the how to configure a modem including the port number,
maximum speed and the volume of speaker. .

Figure shows the data bit (7 bits), parity bit and also the stop bit in your data
format. here, the stop bit can be 1, 1.5 and 2 bits. 2-bit stop bit means it has to
wait the duration of 2 bits before it receives a new one. .
 199

Chapter Thirteen
Future Data Communications

T his chapter is about the prospective of data communications. It has been

observed that for the past few years, data communications

Understand the prospective of communications network

Future Wireless Communication Concerns

As the telecommunication infrastructure gets larger and larger, new problems
and issues need to be resolved. More and more countries, companies, and
people are using wireless telecommunication systems. The increased demand
for communication products that serve unique communication functions is
pushing technology to the limit.

New technologies and industries are being created as a result of people striving
to find solutions to communication needs. The solutions address such problems
as traffic jams on the spectrum, reduced orbital space for satellites, and
pollution of the air waves.

List two problems we foresee facing the wireless communication industry?

One of the problem is the limitation of frequency channels. Curently, it uses

celluar method to divide the regions into a number of cells and re-use the
frequency after a certain limitation. The smaller the cells the more the channels
and the higher the badnwidth. Imagine that you now have a mobile phone
(currently can support up to 9600 bps), which can support 20 M bps, what you
do think you can do with this high bandwidth. You can combine multi-media
together pefrom e-business etc. One main problem is the availability of
frequencies on the spectrum. The spectrum has become crowded. Another is
the number of satellites in orbitonly so many will fit in our atmosphere. Also,
satellites are very expensive and have a relatively short life span of five to ten
years. New technologies will be needed to solve both these problems in order to
maximize the use of the spectrum and bandwidth.
 200

Pollution of the air waves is becoming a major problem. Electrical appliances

in your home, remote control systems, radio, TV, and microwaves all fill the air
around you. Wireless devices have been blamed for major accidents. An
example is cellular phones interfering with aircraft guidance and control
systems.

Can you think of another place where a cellular phone is not allowed? Briefly
explain why.

The interference affets the equipment such as hospital, aeroplane.

Health concerns for the users of these products have also been an issue.
Although it is not scientifically proven, there have been some cases where
individuals feel that they developed a brain tumor from constant use of a
cellular phone.

Digital communications is growing to meet the needs of increasing bandwidth.

Satellites are now able to carry tens of thousands of signals simultaneously
rather than only 300, as was the case in 1960. One of the fastest growing
industries is that of shielding objects, machinery, and people from unnecessary
electromagnetic wave exposure. This is one reason many microwave repeaters
are being replaced with fibre optic cable. It is shielded communication.

Digital radio will provide consumers with clear, almost-noise-free radio sound.
It takes up less spectrum space and will use a range of spectrum that is not
cluttered like AM and FM radio spectrums. The frequency range used by
digital radio is known as the L-band.

Search to find information about this new technology and share it with your
fellow students in the conferencing sessions or using ICQ.

Another new technology is Personal Communication Services (PCS), which is

a wireless communication service that takes the concept of cellular into the
future. PCS produces crystal-clear quality sound, data (faxes, modem), and
video. It is totally digital, offers great communication security, is clearer than a
cellular phone, and has features such as call waiting, voice mail, call display,
and text display.
 201

PCS and digital radio are just two of the new emerging technologies. There are
many others. DTHS (Direct-to-Home Satellite), and satellite modems are
examples of what is coming that will have a major impact on society.

Collect information about future technologies. Use the Internet search engines
and locate the wireless gallery. Use your lesson Resources file for other
sources.

Example

A new, three-dimensional system for taking ultrasound images of a baby in the

womb allows doctors and parents a clear view of the fetus moving. Doctors at
the University of Tokyo’s medical school said they have improved their
equipment by adding an extra three-dimensional probe to an existing scanner
and tried it out on 66 normal fetuses. It produced an image every eight seconds,
which could be viewed as a sort of slow-motion video. Investigate how
ultrasound is used to create images of babies in the womb.

Past, current and future communication

Present computing can be characterized primarily by four well-established
approaches: Time sharing, transaction, main frame and Client-server. Client-
server systems exist recently and are growing rapidly in quantity. Banking is an
example of an application area where communications needs have included the
transfer of large-files, transactions-like transfers, and time-sharing.

Mainframe Computing system

In mainframe systems, peripherals are directly connected to the processors
through Front End processor. The characteristics are:

Networks are used for moving large files between the mass storage
peripherals on these systems.
Computers are loosely coupled to each other by use of communications
lines.
The file size is usually from kilobytes upward and the response time is in the
order of seconds for small files and minutes for large files as shown in
Figure .
The only choice available for long haul transfer is the existing
telecommunication system which is connected oriented, a connection is
 202

mandatory in order to transfer data.

Traffic is not particularly bursty relative to the time that a connection exists
The classes of protocols used are LAPB, High-level Data link control
((HDLC), Synchronous Data link control (SDLC), Transmission Control
Protocol(TCP) and Transport Protocol4 (TP4).

Figure is the diagram showing the relationship between the size of end-user and
the needed response time.

Terminal time-sharing Computer Systems

For theses systems, dumb character-oriented terminals are
typically in locations remote to a central computer running a
multitasking system The characteristics are:

Traffic from the terminal to the computer is often a few bytes at a time
representing a few characters at a speed typed by the user.
Average bit rate is not likely to exceed 200 bits per second averaged over a
minute.
Asynchronous line speed of 1200 or 2400 bits per second are adequate for
this type of communication. In Hong Kong, the commonly achievable line
speed is 56K bits per second.
Traffic from the computer to the terminal is more demanding with up to a
full screen such as 25x80 bytes or 20,000 bits burst to the screen at a few
seconds.
As the terminals are dumb, a communication connection is mandatory.

Transaction Based Computer Systems

Using the graph in Figure , it is located between the time-
sharing and mainframe clouds. Semi-intelligent terminals or
stations (PC/Workstations) are connected via a communication
network to a multitasking mainframe computer. The
characteristics are:

Traffic from the station to the computer may range from a few bytes to an
entire screen of information.
Usually, the station handles most human interaction and periodically sends
updated and validated information to the main frame.
Station to computer work units range from a few tens of bytes to 25x132
bytes or 33,000 bits burst in a few seconds.
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In many of these systems the network is a multi-drop cable with a number of

stations and a single attached computer such as IBM 3270 systems.
Or a point-to-point connection such as PC to VAX. In such system, the
station is connected at a distance via common carrier facilities, modems and
connection-oriented dedicated or dial-up network.
A polled half duplex protocol such as BSC or SDLC or Asynchronous are
used.

Client-server Model
A typical example of client server model is the Internet (User to
Business)/Intranet (user to Business with limited location) or Extranet
(Business to Business). Currently, the line speed is limited to 56K bps for
ordinary telephone line but can be extend to 1.5M bps for IMS service or Cable
modem for (Cable TV) for 10M bps, it is expected that wireless data
communication will soon (by 2002) provides a data rate up to 2M bps or even
up to 20M bps. This means that any mobile phone can hook up to a Latop
computer to visualise graphics, video, voice etc. through the Internet. The
currently line speed provided by mobile phone is 9600 bps and will reach to
14.4 k bps this year. that it

Systems Software
While single task operating systems such as MSDOS will be obsolete except
for old development because of the huge embedded base of application
software (a certain large bank in Hong Kong still uses self-developed MSDOS-
based e-mail system), multitasking operating systems such as UNIX, OS/2, NT
will be getting popularity. This will also be accelerated by factors of
demanding more user-friendly end users interface such as windowing systems.
Figure shows the MIPS and the size of Real Memory against the size of CPU
chips.

The characteristics are:

For the multitasking operating systems, virtual memory strategies using

paging and caching are commonplace. Swapping operations will continue
but be used less often.
File management and procedure calls will continue to be common operations
Multi-media including video and voice will continually receive much
attention
What you see is what you get word processing and desktop publishing is
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widely used due to the growth in windowing

Remote Procedure Call to access the remote computer through a network has
grown rapidly in popularity. This has happened such as the use of browser to
retrieve data through the remote server.

Self-examined Question
Once data has been converted to digital code, it can be easily altered by the
user. For example, photographs can be scanned, digitalized then transmitted
and altered. Knowing this, can we assume photographs are proof of anything?
Can they still be valid sources of court documentation? In terms of news
reporting, what ethics are involved here?

Think of the jobs and professions that benefit from pagers and mobile phones.
What are the disadvantages?