Data Communication and Networks

By
Prof. Salman Naseer
 Text Books
1-“Data Communications and Networking”
2nd Edition
by
Behrouz A. Forouzan
2-“Data and Computer Communication”
6th Edition
by
William Stallings
DEFINITION OF DATA COMMUNICATION

• “Data Communication is the exchange of

Information from one entity to the other using a
Transmission Medium”.
–Exchange??????
–Information?????
–Entities???????
–Transmission????
–Medium????
We will try to answer all these Questions in this Course
• Today’s fast world demands better, secure
and most of all FAST ways of
communication
– In1970s are the days when you had to wait a
couple of weeks to get a letter from USA
– Why wait ONE week when you can get the
information you require in just a split of a
second
– Using what we know by the name of “DATA
COMMUNICATION”.
 HOW TO ACHIEVE THIS?
• How to achieve this ACCURACY,
SECURITY and SPEED for the transfer of
this information?
• What HARDWARE, and the SOFTWARE
is needed ?
• And, what should be the MEANS of
sending this info?
 DATA COMMUNICATION
• When we communicate , we share information
• Information can be LOCAL or REMOTE
• Between Individuals LOCAL communication occurs face
to face
• REMOTE communication occurs over a long distance
• When we refer to COMPUTER SYSTEMS, Data is
represented in the form of Binary Units (Bits) in the form
of Zeros (0’s) and One’s (1’s)
• Also the entities can most of the times be considered to
be COMPUTERS
“Data Communication is the exchange of data (in the
form of 0’s and 1’s) between two devices
(computers) via some form of the transmission
medium.”
• LOCAL
– Data communication is considered to be local if the
communicating devices are present in the same
building or a similarly restricted geographical area
• REMOTE
– Data Communication is considered remote, if the
devices are farther apart.
• Data Communication System
– For Data Communication to occur, the communicating
devices must be a part of a communication system
made up of some specific kind of hardware and
software This type of a system is known as a “DATA
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM”
• Effectiveness of Data Comm. System
– Delivery
– Accuracy
– Timeliness (Better NEVER than LATE)
• Example of the POSTAL MAIL
Components of a Data Comm. Systems
 Components of a Data Com
Systems
• Any system is made up of more than one
component.
• Similarly, a data communication system is
made up of 5 components
– Message
– Sender
– Receiver
– Medium
– Protocol
 MESSAGE
• Information or Data to be communicated
• Can be text, numbers, video or any combination of these
• In short anything that can be represented using binary
bits
Data Communication Messages
– Files (meaningful collections of records)
– Data/information requests (database queries, Web page
requests, etc.)
– Responses to requests and commands or error messages
– Status messages (about the network’s functional status)
– Control messages transmitted between network devices to
control network traffic
• SENDER
– Device that sends the data message
– Can be a Computer , Workstation, Video camera etc
– As already discussed, the data from the sender might
not be in the appropriate format for the transmission
medium and will need to be processed
• RECEIVER
– Device that receives the message
– Can be a computer, workstation, Television etc
– At times, the data received from the transmission
medium may not be in a proper form to be supplied to
the receiver and it must be processed
 MEDIUM
• Physical path that a message uses to travel from the Sender to the
Receiver
• Can be a Copper Cable (Telephone), Coaxial Cable (Cable TV),
Fiber Optic Cable, LASERS or Radio Waves (Wireless Medium)
• We will see that Data needs to be transferred in the form of
ELECTROMAGNETIC signals and The Transmission Medium
should be capable of carrying these EM Signals
• Transmission Media
 PROTOCOL
• Set of Rules Governing Communication
• Represents an Agreement between
communication devices
• Without Protocol, two devices may be connected
but they will not be able to communicate
• EXAMPLE: Consider the communication
between two individuals. They can only
communicate provided they both speak the
same language.
A little more complex Comm
System
EXAMPLE – ELECTRONIC MAIL
 Sender Side
• Input device and transmitter are components of a
Personal Computer
• User of a PC wishes to send a message ‘m’
• User activates electronic mail package e.g hotmail
• Enters the message via input device (keyboard)
• Character string is buffered in main memory as a
sequence of bits ‘g’
• PC is connected to some trans system such as a
Telephone Network
• via an I/O Transmitter like Modem
• Transmitter converts incoming stream ‘g’ into a signal ‘s’
 RECEIVER SIDE
• The transmitted signal ‘s’ is subject to a number of
impairments depending upon the medium
• Therefore, received signal ‘r’ may differ from ‘s’.
• Receiver attempts to estimate original ‘s’ based on its
knowledge of the medium and received signal ‘r’
• Receiver produces a bit stream g’(t)
• Briefly buffered in the memory
• Data is presented to the user via an output device like
printer, screen etc.
• The data viewed by user m’ will usually be an exact copy
of the data sent ‘m’