Data Communication and Computer Networks

Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

The successful transmission of data depends principally on two factors: the quality of the signal being
transmitted and the characteristics of the transmission medium.

Data transmission occurs between transmitter and receiver over some transmission medium.
Transmission media may be classified as guided or unguided. In both cases, communication is in the
form of electromagnetic waves. With guided media, the waves are guided along a physical path;
examples of guided media are twisted pair, coaxial cable, and optical fiber. Unguided media, also called
wireless, provide a means for transmitting electromagnetic waves but do not guide them; examples are
propagation through air, vacuum, and seawater.

Transmission Terminology:

 simplex
 one direction
 Signals are transmitted in only one direction; one station is transmitter and the other is
receiver.
• e.g. television
 half duplex
 either direction, but only one way at a time
 both stations may transmit, but only one at a time
• e.g. police radio (Walky-talky)
 full duplex
 both directions at the same time
 both stations may transmit simultaneously, and the medium is carrying signals in both
directions at the same time
• e.g. telephone

Signal: A signal can be defined as a function of one or more variables in time or frequency, which
conveys information on the nature generally about the state or behavior of a physical phenomenon. The
signal is the response of a system. E.g. Speech signal as a function of time

The signal is a function of time, but it can also be expressed as a function of frequency; that is, the signal
consists of components of different frequencies. It turns out that the frequency domain view of a signal
is more important to an understanding of data transmission than a time domain view.

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 Time domain concepts

 Analog signal
• the signal intensity varies in a smooth fashion over time
• Continuous time signals
• Examples like (naturally occurring) music and voice

 Digital signal
• the signal intensity maintains a constant level for some period of time and then
abruptly changes to another constant level
• Discrete time signals that are in the form of either 1 or 0
• Common Format
• High immunity to interference
• Increased functional bandwidth
• Easier and efficient to multiplex several digital signals
• Storage relatively easier and inexpensive
• Increased system complexity

 Periodic signal
• pattern repeated over time (Above Digital signal is periodic)

 Aperiodic signal
• pattern not repeated over time (Above analog signal is Aperiodic)
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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

The sine wave is the fundamental periodic signal. The general sine wave can be written as:
s(t) = A sin(2πft + )
A general sine wave can be represented by three parameters:
 Peak amplitude (A) –
 the maximum value or strength of the signal over time; typically measured in volts
 is the height of the wave above or below a given reference point

 Frequency (f) –
 The rate [in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz)] at which the signal repeats. An equivalent
parameter is the period (T) of a signal, so T = 1/f

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 phase () –
 measure of relative position in time within a single period of a signal
 A change in phase can be any number of angles between 0 and 360 degrees

Frequency Domain Concepts:

In practice, an electromagnetic signal will be made up of many frequencies. It can be shown, using a
discipline known as Fourier analysis, that any signal is made up of components at various frequencies, in
which each component is a sinusoid. By adding together enough sinusoidal signals, each with the
appropriate amplitude, frequency, and phase, any electromagnetic signal can be constructed.

Addition of Frequency Components (T= 1/f) in next page

Fig a. y=sin 2 π ft having ‘f’ frequency
Fig b. y1=(1/3 ) sin 2 π (3 f )t having ‘3f’ frequency
Fig c. y2 = y + y1
= (4 /π )[ sin2 π ft +(1 /3 ) sin 2 π (3 f )t ]
Fig c. gives the sum of two frequencies ‘f’ and ‘3f’ and the combination of these sine waves gives
Distorted Square wave

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Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Frequency domain representation of Fig c. signal is shown below:

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Spectrum: The range of frequencies that a signal spans from minimum to maximum. In previous page, it
extends from f to 3f.

Bandwidth – The absolute value of the difference between the lowest and highest frequencies of a
signal or width of a spectrum. For fig. c, Bandwidth is 3f – f = 2f
If a signal includes a component of zero frequency, it is a direct current (dc) or constant component.

y(t) y(f)

5V 5V

0 In time domain (t) 0 In frequency domain (f)

Relationship between Data Rate and Bandwidth:

 any transmission system has a limited band of frequencies
 this limits the data rate that can be carried
 A square wave has an infinite number of frequency components and hence an infinite
bandwidth but most energy in first few components
 For any given medium, the greater the bandwidth transmitted, the greater the cost. The more
limited the bandwidth, the greater the distortion, and the greater the potential for error by the
receiver
 If a data rate of a digital signal is R bps, then the good representation of a signal can be achieved
with a bandwidth of 2R Hz.
 a direct relationship between data rate and bandwidth: the higher the data rate of a signal, the
greater is its required effective bandwidth

Analog and Digital Data Transmission:

Analog Data:

1. Audio Signals: (Human Speech)

 freq range 20Hz-20kHz (speech 100Hz-7kHz)
 easily converted into electromagnetic signals
 Varying volume converted to varying voltage. The telephone handset contains a simple
mechanism for making such a conversion.
 can limit frequency range for voice channel to 300-3400Hz
2. Video Signals: (produced by Video Camera)
 Frequency range 0 to 6 MHz
 DC component shows average brightness that is used for background image
 Low frequency components show outer borders
 High frequency components show fine details
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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Digital Data:
 as generated by terminals, computers, and other data processing equipment and then
converted into digital voltage pulses for transmission
 uses two constant (dc) voltage levels, one level for binary 1 and one level for binary 0
 bandwidth depends on data rate (The greater the bandwidth of the signal, the more
faithfully it gets a digital pulse stream at the receiver)
In a communications system, data are propagated from one point to another by means of
electromagnetic signals. Both analog and digital signals may be transmitted on suitable transmission
media.

In Analog transmission:
 the signals that are in either analog or digital form are propagated by means of continuously
varying electromagnetic wave i.e. analog signal over a variety of media, depending on
spectrum; examples are wire media, such as twisted pair and coaxial cable; fiber optic cable;
and unguided media, such as atmosphere or space propagation.
 doesn’t concerned with the content of the signal
 for a long distance transmission, amplifiers are used to boost the energy in signal but it also
boost the noise components that distorts the desired signal

Analog Voice signals are converted into analog electromagnetic signals by telephone.
Digital data are converted into analog using a modem (modulator/demodulator) by modulating the
digital data on some carrier frequency

In digital transmission:
 Sequence of voltage pulses i.e. Digital signal is transmitted over a wire medium;
 Both analog signals and digital data from source are converted into digital form.
 Analog data can converted to digital using a codec (coder-decoder), which takes an analog signal
that directly represents the voice data and approximates that signal by a bit stream.
 Digital data can be directly represented by digital signals.
 A digital signal can be transmitted only a limited distance before attenuation, noise, and other
impairments endanger the integrity of the data. To achieve greater distances, repeaters are
used. A repeater receives the digital signal, recovers the pattern of 1s and 0s, and retransmits a
new signal. Thus the attenuation is overcome.
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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Digital Transmission over Analog Transmission

 Digital technology
o Continuous drop in cost and size of digital circuits in VLSI , ULSI form as compared to
Analog equipments
 Data Integrity
o Digital signals are less susceptible to noise and repeaters are used instead of amplifiers,
so maintains data integrity
 Capacity Utilization
o Easier to multiplex several digital signals
 Security and Privacy
o Encryption technique can be used
 Integration
o All signals in different format (audio, video or text) are integrated into a common format
of 1 and 0.

Transmission Impairments:

In any communication system, the signal that is transmitted from the transmitter is different to the
signal that is received by the receiver through a medium. This is because of Transmission Impairments.
For Analog signals, these impairments can degrade the signal quality.
For Digital signals, bit errors may be introduced, such that a binary 1 is transformed into a binary 0 or
vice versa.
Most significant impairments are
 Attenuation and Attenuation distortion
 For any long distance transmission medium, the strength of a signal falls off with
increase in distance
 Three considerations for receiver to detect signal with less attenuation
• The signal must have sufficient strength so that the electronic circuitry in the
receiver to detect the signal

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

• The signal power must maintain a level sufficiently higher than noise to be
received without error.
• Third, attenuation varies increasingly with frequency.
 The first and second problems are dealt with by increasing signal strength and the use of
amplifiers or repeaters.
 The third problem is particularly noticeable for analog signals. To overcome this
problem, equalizing attenuation techniques are available across a band of frequencies
and to use amplifiers that amplify high frequencies more than lower frequencies.
 For digital signals, the content of the signal is concentrated near fundamental
frequency, so can be detected at the receiver

 Distortion (delay)
 Certain change or scaling of amplitude and phase of different frequency components of
input signals is called distortion
 Linear Distortion- no new frequency components are produced at the output
 Non-Linear Distortion- new frequency components are produced at the output
 Delay distortion only occurs in guided media
 As the velocity of propagation of a signal through a guided medium varies with
frequency, for a band limited signal, the velocity tends to be highest near the center
frequency and fall off toward the two edges of the band. Thus various frequency
components of a signal will arrive at the receiver at different times, resulting in phase
shifts between the different frequencies. This effect is called delay distortion
 Delay distortion is particularly critical for digital data, because some of the signal
components of one bit position will spill over into other bit positions, causing
Intersymbol Interference (ISI). This is a major limitation to maximum bit rate over a
transmission channel. ISI is produced within the system not from the external source
 Equalizing technique can be used to eliminate delay distortion

 Noise:
 Unwanted signal that adds up with the message signal (desired signal) and degrade the
signal
 Major factor to degrade the performance of communication system
 Noise can be further divided as:
• Thermal Noise:
 Due to random motion of charge carriers in electronic devices
 Is uniformly distributed across the frequency spectrum, so referred to as
white noise
 Is a function of temperature
 In any device or conductor, The amount of thermal noise:
N = kTB (Watt)
k = Boltzmann’s Constant = 1.3803 x 10 J/ K T = Temperature (0K ) and B = Bandwidth (Hz)
-23 0

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Noise Power Density (Watt/Hz) : for 1 Hz Bandwidth is

N0 = Kt
Do: For B = 1Hz, T = 17 C i.e. (17+273) 0K
0

In Watt/Hz, N0 = kT
In dBW/Hz, N0 = 10 Log(kT)

• Intermodulation Noise:
 When signals at different frequencies share the common transmission
medium, noise signals are produced at a frequency i.e. either the sum or
difference of those frequencies or multiple of those frequencies and the
result is Intermodulation Noise.
 Produced because of non linearity in Transmitter and receiver
(component malfunction) and in transmission system by using excessive
signal strength

• Crosstalk:
 unwanted coupling between signal paths
 the phenomenon in which signal transmitted on one circuit or a channel
of transmission system creates an undesirable effect in other circuit or
channel
 E.g.
 Electrical coupling between nearby twisted pairs
 Receiving of unwanted signals by microwave antennas
 Cross conversation in telephone

• Impulse noise:
 Non-continuous
 Sudden scaling of amplitude i.e. noise spikes for short duration and of
relatively high amplitude.
 Mainly generated due to external electromagnetic disturbances, such as
lightning, and faults and flaws in the communications system
 the primary source of error in digital data communication

Channel Capacity:
The maximum rate at which data can be transmitted over a communication medium is called
Channel Capacity. It depends upon data rate, bandwidth, noise and error rate. For a reliable
communication system design, for limited bandwidth, data rate should be high and error rate should be
low.

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Nyquist Bandwidth:
For a noise free channel, data rate is proportional to the bandwidth of the signal.
Nyquist states that “if the rate of signal transmission is 2B, then a signal with frequencies no
greater than B is sufficient to carry the signal rate”.
Conversely “given a bandwidth of B, the highest signal rate that can be carried is 2B.”
i.e. C = 2B C in bps and B in Hz
E.g. for Voice Channel, B = 4000 Hz, so C = 8000 bps
With multilevel signaling,
the Nyquist formulation becomes: C = 2B log2 M,
where M is the number of discrete signal or voltage levels.
So, for a given bandwidth, the data rate can be increased by increasing the number of
different signal levels at cost of receiver complexity and limited by noise & other
impairments

Shannon Capacity Formula:

For a channel with additive Gaussian white noise, the relationship between channel capacity, channel
bandwidth and the received signal to noise ratio is given by
Capacity C=B Log2(1+SNR)
C = Channel Capacity in bps
B = Bandwidth in Hz
SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio (Ratio of signal
power to Noise power) = PS/PN In dB, 10 Log10(PS/PN)
SNR detects the output quality of signal
Implication of this theorem is
a) designer can estimate C for required SNR and B for reliable communication
b) for limited channel capacity, designer can trade off between B and SNR: for limited
Bandwidth, SNR can be increase by increasing signal power or if SNR is less, then by
increasing bandwidth, desired channel capacity can be met
For SNR tends to Infinity, Channel capacity becomes infinity. So, this type of channel is referred to as
ideal channel.
With Bandwidth increased, noise power also increased, so SNR decreases.

For voice channel, B= 4KHz, SNR = 104 then Using above formula, C = 4000 Log 2(1+104)
= 4000 (Log(1+104) / Log 2)
= 53.15 Kbps
Let Spectrum of Channel is between 3 MHz to 4 MHz, SNR = 24 dB, C = ?
B = 4 – 3 = 1MHz and SNR(dB) = 10 Log SNR
So, 24 = 10 Log SNR ------ Log SNR =2.4 ------ SNR = 102.4
So, C = 1000000 x (Log (1+102.4)/ Log 2) = 7.97 Mbps
We can also find signalling levels M, using Nyquist theorem, C = 2B Log 2M
Log2M = C/2B = 7.97/2 ----- M = 2(7.97/2) = 15.83 =16 Levels

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Do: Channel Capacity = 10000 bps, B = 3000 Hz, SNR =?

And if C = 10000 bps, B = 10000 Hz , SNR = ? Ans: (9 and 1)
Find in dB as well (9.5 dB and 0 dB)

Expression (Eb/No) is used to determine digital data rates and error rates
= Signal Energy per bit / Noise Power Density (Power = Energy / time)
= Signal Power (Ps) x Tb / kT 1/Tb = data rate (R)
= Ps / kTR

Synchronous and Asynchronous Transmission:

 The transmission of a stream of bits from one device to another across a transmission link
involves a great deal of synchronization.
 The receiver must know the rate at which bits are being received so that it can sample the line
at appropriate intervals and to determine the value of each received bit.
 Two techniques are used—asynchronous and synchronous transmission

Asynchronous Transmission:

 Each character of data is treated independently.

 avoids the timing problem by not sending long, uninterrupted streams of bits
 data are transmitted one character (5 to 8 bits) at a time
 The bits of the character are transmitted beginning with the least significant bit
 Each character begins with a start bit with a value of binary 0 that alerts the receiver that a
character is arriving.
 data bits are usually followed by a parity bit (even, odd or unused)
 The final element is a stop element, which is a binary 1 usually 1 to 2 times the duration of an
ordinary bit.
 The receiver samples each bit in the character and then looks for the beginning of the next
character.
 When no character is being transmitted, the line between transmitter and receiver is in an idle
state (binary 1 level) same as stopping element and the transmitter will continue to transmit the
stop element until it is ready to send the next character.
 Time interval between characters can’t be predicted
 Asynchronous transmission is simple and cheap
 But requires an overhead of two to three bits per character.

Character with start and stop element is 1 frame and when receiver is faster or slower than
transmitter, sampling will be displaced and data incorrectly received or bit out of alignment, the
error is called framing error.
For larger blocks of data, the clock synchronization between transmitter and receiver will
eventually drift out, so framing error can be more severe for large blocks of data. Also more
unnecessary overheads are required. So, to achieve greater efficiency, a different form of
synchronization, known as synchronous transmission, is used.

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Figure is for NRZ – L signaling :

Synchronous Transmission:
 Block of data (containing many bits) is formatted as a frame that includes a starting and an
ending flag, and is transmitted in a steady stream without start and stop codes.
 To prevent timing drift between transmitter and receiver, their clocks must be synchronized.
o By providing a separate clock line between transmitter and receiver.
o By embedding the clocking information in the data signal.
 For digital signals, this can be accomplished with Manchester or differential
Manchester encoding.
 For analog signals, the carrier frequency itself can be used to synchronize the
receiver based on the phase of the carrier.
 To allow the receiver to determine the beginning and end of a block of data, each block begins
with a preamble bit pattern (8 bits) and generally ends with a postamble bit pattern (8 bits). The
data plus preamble, postamble, and control fields (containing data link control protocol
information) are called a frame.
 Far more efficient than asynchronous
 Requires less overhead than asynchronous

Preamble Bit Postamble Bit

Pattern Control Fields Data Fields Control Fields Pattern
(8 bit Flag) (8 bit Flag)

1 Frame
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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Data Encoding:

Both analog and digital information can be encoded as either analog or digital signals.
Depending upon specific requirements and communication facilities available, encoding is chosen.

 Digital data, digital signals:

 simplest form of digital encoding of digital data
 Equipment for encoding digital data into digital signal is less expensive, less complex as
compared to others.
 Assigning voltage level to binary 1 and 0. Other complex encoding techniques can also be
used to improve performance by altering the spectrum of signal and providing
synchronization capability
 Before discussing this further, we need to define some terms:
 Unipolar - All signal elements have the same sign (Pulses of only one polarity either
+ve or -ve)
 Polar - One logic state represented by positive voltage the other by negative voltage
 Data rate - Rate of data (R) transmission in bits per second
 Duration or length of a bit - Time taken for transmitter to emit the bit (1/R)
 Modulation rate -Rate at which the signal level changes, measured in baud = signal
elements per second. Depends on type of digital encoding used.
 Mark and Space - Binary 1 and Binary 0 respectively
 There are numerous techniques available to convert digital data into digital signals.
1. Non return to Zero-Level (NRZ-L) 4. Pseudoternary
2. Non return to Zero Inverted (NRZI) 5. Manchester
3. Bipolar -AMI 6. Differential Manchester
 These encoding techniques can be evaluated or compared in following ways:
 Signal Spectrum - Lack of high frequencies reduces required bandwidth, lack of dc component
allows ac coupling via transformer, providing isolation, should concentrate power in the middle of
the bandwidth
 Clocking - need for synchronizing transmitter and receiver either with an external clock or with a
sync mechanism based on signal
 Error detection - useful if can be built in to signal encoding
 Signal interference and noise immunity - some codes are better than others
 Cost and complexity - Higher signal rate (& thus data rate) lead to higher costs, some codes
require signal rate greater than data rate
1. NRZ-L:
 0 – High Level and 1 - Low Level
 voltage constant during bit interval
 no transition i.e. no return to zero voltage
2. NRZI:
 Non return to zero inverted on ones
 0 - no transition at beginning of interval 1 – transition at the beginning of the interval
 constant voltage pulse for duration of bit
 more reliable detection of transition rather than level

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 NRZ Pros & Cons:

 Pros
 simple
 make good use of bandwidth (Low frequency response)
 Cons
 dc component
 lack of synchronization capability
 used for magnetic recording
 not often used for signal transmission
3. Bipolar – AMI:
 Use more than two levels
 0 - no line signal
 1 - positive or negative pulse, alternating for successive ones
 no loss of sync if a long string of ones
 long runs of zeros still a problem
 no net dc component
 lower bandwidth
 easy error detection
4. Pseudoternary:
 0 – positive or negative level, alternating for successive zeros
 1 – no line signal
5. Manchester:
 0 – transition from high to low in the middle of the interval
 1 – transition from low to high in the middle of the interval
 used by IEEE 802.3
6. Differential Manchester:
 Always a transition in the middle of the interval
 0 – transition at the beginning of the interval
 1 – no transition at the beginning of the interval
 used by IEEE 802.5
 Biphase Pros and Cons:
 Pros
 synchronization on mid bit transition (self clocking)
 has no dc component
 has error detection
 Cons
 at least one transition per bit time and possibly two
 maximum modulation rate is twice NRZ
 requires more bandwidth

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 Digital data, analog signals:

 main use is public telephone system
 has freq range of 300Hz to 3400Hz
 use modem (modulator-demodulator)
 A modem converts digital data to an analog signal so that it can be transmitted over an
analog.
 Techniques used are Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) and Phase
Shift Keying (PSK).
 Transmission media such as optical fiber, unguided media are used for the propagation of
Analog signals.

Modulation:
 Process of encoding a message from a message source in a manner suitable for
transmission. (encoding Low frequency message signal with high frequency carrier signal)
 Modulation involves operation on one or more of the three characteristics of a carrier
signal: amplitude, frequency, and phase.
 Modulation – In Digital – Shift Keying

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK):

 The two binary values (1 and 0) are represented by two different amplitudes of the carrier
frequency. usually have one amplitude zero
 Binary 1 – high frequency carrier wave of fixed Amplitude A c and fixed frequency fc for a bit
duration Tb
 Binary 0 – no amplitude for Tb sec
 So amplitude of the carrier signal is varied
 Mathematically:

u(t)=¿ { A c cos2πft for m(t)=1 ¿ ¿¿¿

 susceptible to sudden gain changes
 inefficient modulation technique
 used for digital data transfer
 up to 1200bps on voice grade lines
 very high speeds over optical fiber

 Some systems use multiple amplitudes

 ASK is generated by applying the incoming binary data represented in Unipolar form and the
sinusoidal carrier to a product modulator.

Binary wave in Product Binary ASK wave

unipolar form Modulator
m(t) Shrestha

Ac cos 2ft
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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK):

 most common is binary FSK (BFSK)
 two binary values represented by two sinusoidal waves of same amplitudes but different
frequencies f1 and f2
 Mathematically:

u(t)=¿ { A c cos2πf 1 t for m(t)=1 ¿ ¿¿¿

 less susceptible to error than ASK
 used for
 up to 1200bps on voice grade lines
 high frequency radio

 FSK can be generated by:

A C cos2 πf 1 t Multiplexer Binary FSK wave

A C cos2πf 2 t
Control line Binary
data Input
 Multiple FSK
 each signaling element represents more than one bit
 more than two frequencies used
 more bandwidth efficient
 more prone to error
Phase Shift Keying:
 Binary PSK (BPSK)
 Binary data are represented by two sinusoidal signals of fixed amplitude and frequency
but with different phase.
 Generally phase are 0 and π
 Mathematically:

u(t)=¿ { A C cos2πf c t for m(t)=1 ¿ ¿¿¿

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Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 Differential PSK
 phase shifted relative to previous transmission rather than some reference signal

Quadrature PSK (QPSK):

 get more efficient use if each signal

element represents more than one
bit
 To increase the bandwidth
efficiency
 Four different phase angles used
 45 degrees (π/4)
 135 degrees (3π/4)
 225 degrees (-3π/4)
 315 degrees (-π/4)
 In QPSK system, data bits are
divided into group of two bits,
called dibits. There are four
possible dibits 00,01,10,11. Each of
the four QPSK signals is used to
represent one of them. The signal
constellation uses gray coding.
 Mathematically:

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u(t )= A cos(2πf c t +θi ) 0≤t≤T

(2i−1)π
i−1, 2, 3, 4 , where θi=
4
QPSK Signal Constellation:  2 t 

01 S1 11
S2
E
Z1
1

0 1 t 

 Analog data, digital signals: S 2

S 2
 Analog data, such as voice and 00 video, are often digitized
10 using PCM (Pulse Code
Modulation) (Sampling, Quantization, and Coding) to be able to use digital transmission
facilities.
 In digital transmission, modern digital transmission and switching equipment are used.

 Analog data, analog signals:

 Analog data are modulated and converted into Analog Signals using modulation techniques
Amplitude Modulation(AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM) on an
analog transmission system

Multiplexing Techniques:

Multiplexing is technique whereby a number of independent signals can be combined into a composite
signal suitable for transmission over a common channel.
 Under the simplest conditions, a medium can carry only one signal at any moment in time
 For multiple signals to share a medium, the medium must somehow be divided, giving each signal a
portion of the total bandwidth
 The current techniques include frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, and code
division multiplexing

Frequency Division Multiplexing

 Assignment of non-overlapping frequency ranges to each “user” or signal on a medium. Thus, all
signals are transmitted at the same time, each using different frequencies
 A multiplexor accepts inputs and assigns frequencies to each device
 The multiplexor is attached to a high-speed communications line
 A corresponding multiplexor, or demultiplexor, is on the end of the high-speed line and separates
the multiplexed signals

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business

BIM II Semester
Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 Analog signaling is used to transmit the data

 Broadcast radio and television, cable television, and cellular telephone systems use frequency
division multiplexing
 This technique is the oldest multiplexing technique
 Since it involves analog signaling, it is more susceptible to noise

Time Division Multiplexing:

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business

BIM II Semester
Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 Sharing of the signal is accomplished by dividing available transmission time on a medium

among users
 Digital signaling is used exclusively
 Time division multiplexing comes in two basic forms:
1. Synchronous time division multiplexing
2. Statistical time division multiplexing
Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing:
 The original time division multiplexing
 The multiplexor accepts input from attached devices in a round-robin fashion and transmits the
data in a never ending pattern
 T-1 and ISDN telephone lines are common examples of synchronous time division multiplexing

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business

BIM II Semester
Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 If one device generates data at a faster rate than other devices, then the multiplexor must
either sample the incoming data stream from that device more often than it samples the other
devices, or buffer the faster incoming stream
 If a device has nothing to transmit, the multiplexor must still insert something into the
multiplexed stream

 So that the receiver may stay synchronized with the incoming data stream, the transmitting
multiplexor can insert alternating 1s and 0s into the data stream

 The T-1 multiplexor stream is a continuous series of frames

Statistical Time Division Multiplexing:

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business
BIM II Semester
Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

 A statistical multiplexor transmits the data from active workstations only

 If a workstation is not active, no space is wasted in the multiplexed stream
 A statistical multiplexor accepts the incoming data streams and creates a frame containing the
data to be transmitted

 To identify each piece of data, an address is included

 If the data is of variable size, a length is also included

 More precisely, the transmitted frame contains a collection of data groups

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business

BIM II Semester
Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Wavelength Division Multiplexing:

 Wavelength division multiplexing multiplexes multiple data streams onto a single fiber optic line
 Different wavelength lasers (called lambdas) transmit the multiple signals
 Each signal carried on the fiber can be transmitted at a different rate from the other signals
 Dense wavelength division multiplexing combines many (30, 40, 50 or more) onto one fiber
 Coarse wavelength division multiplexing combines only a few lambdas

 FDM with multiple beams of light at different frequency

 carried over optical fiber links
1. commercial systems with 160 channels of 10 Gbps
2. lab demo of 256 channels 39.8 Gbps
 architecture similar to other FDM systems
3. multiplexer consolidates laser sources (1550nm) for transmission over single fiber
4. Optical amplifiers amplify all wavelengths
5. Demux separates channels at the destination

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business

BIM II Semester
Data Communication and Computer Networks
Chapter 2: Data Communication Principles

Advantages and disadvantages of multiplexing techniques:

Multiplexing Techniques Advantages Disadvantages

Frequency Division Multiplexing Simple Noise problems due to analog
Popular with radio, TV, cable TV, signals
All the receivers, such as cellular Wastes bandwidth
telephones, do not need to be at Limited by frequency ranges
the same location
Synchronous Time Division Digital signals Wastes bandwidth
Multiplexing Relatively simple
Commonly used with T-1, ISDN
Statistical Time Division More efficient use of bandwidth More complex than synchronous
Multiplexing frame can contain control and time division multiplexing
error information
Packets can be of varying size
Wavelength Division Very high capacities over fiber Cost
Multiplexing signals can have varying speeds Complexity
scalable

Er. Nabendra Shrestha College of Applied Business

BIM II Semester