CHAPTER FIVER

INTRODUCTION DATA COMMUNICATION

Data: - Data refers to the raw facts that are collected while information refers to processed data
that enables us to take decisions and also the word data refers to any information which is presented
in a form that is agreed and accepted upon by is creators and users.

Data Communication is a process of exchanging data or information. In case of computer

networks this exchange is done between two devices over a transmission medium. This process
involves a communication system which is made up of hardware and software. The hardware part
involves the sender and receiver devices and the intermediate devices through which the data
passes. The software part involves certain rules which specify what is to be communicated, how it
is to be communicated and when. It is also called as a Protocol.

Characteristics of Data Communication

The effectiveness of any data communications system depends upon the following four
fundamental characteristics:

1. Delivery: The data should be delivered to the correct destination and correct user.
2. Accuracy: The communication system should deliver the data accurately, without introducing
any errors. The data may get corrupted during transmission affecting the accuracy of the delivered
data.
3. Timeliness: Audio and Video data has to be delivered in a timely manner without any delay;
such a data delivery is called real time transmission of data.

Components of data communication system

A Communication system has following components:

1. Message: It is the information or data to be communicated. It can consist of text, numbers,

pictures, sound or video or any combination of these.

2. Sender: It is the device/computer that generates and sends that message.

3. Receiver: It is the device or computer that receives the message. The location of receiver
computer is generally different from the sender computer. The distance between sender and
receiver depends upon the types of networks used in between.

4. Medium: It is the channel or physical path through which the message is carried from sender
to the receiver. The medium can be wired like twisted pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable
or wireless like laser, radio waves, and microwaves.

5. Protocol: It is a set of rules that govern the communication between the devices. Both sender
and receiver follow same protocols to communicate with each other.

DATA REPRESENTATION
There may be different forms in which data may be represented. Some of the forms of data used
in communications are as follows:

1. Text

Text includes combination of alphabets in small case as well as upper case. It is stored as a pattern
of bits. Prevalent encoding system: ASCII, Unicode

2. Numbers

Numbers include combination of digits from 0 to 9. It is stored as a pattern of bits. Prevalent

encoding system: ASCII, Unicode

3. Images
An image is worth a thousand words‖ is a very famous saying. In computers images are digitally
stored. A Pixel is the smallest element of an image. To put it in simple terms, a picture or image is
a matrix of pixel elements. The pixels are represented in the form of bits. Depending upon the type
of image (black and white or color) each pixel would require different number of bits to represent
the value of a pixel. The size of an image depends upon the number of pixels (also called
resolution) and the bit pattern used to indicate the value of each pixel.

4. Audio

Data can also be in the form of sound which can be recorded and broadcasted. Example: What we
hear on the radio is a source of data or information. Audio data is continuous, not discrete.
5. Video

Video refers to broadcasting of data in form of picture or movie.

Data can be Analog or Digital.

1. Analog data: - refers to information that is continuous; ex. sounds made by a human voice

2. Digital data: - refers to information that has discrete states. Digital data take on discrete values.
For example, data are stored in computer memory in the form of 0s and 1s

Computer Network

Computer networks are designed to transfer data from one point to another. During transit data
is in the form of electromagnetic signals. In the study of computer networks, it is essential to
study the way our networks work. Computer networks are operated by network models; most
prominently the OSI and the TCP/ IP Model. The main objective of a computer network is to be
able to transfer the data from sender to receiver. This task can be done by breaking it into small
sub tasks. Each subtask will have its own process or processes to do and will take specific inputs
and give specific outputs to the subtask before or after it. In more technical terms we can call
these sub tasks as layers. In general, every task or job can be done by dividing it into sub task or
layers.

Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model

The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model was developed by International Organization for
Standardization (ISO).ISO is the organization, OSI is the model. It was developed to allow systems
with different platforms to communicate with each other. Platform could mean hardware, software
or operating system. It is a network model that defines the protocols for network communications.
It is a hierarchical model that groups its processes into layers. It has 7 layers as follows: (Top to
Bottom)

1. Application Layer

2. Presentation Layer

3. Session Layer

4. Transport Layer
5. Network Layer

6. Data Link Layer

7. Physical Layer

Each layer has specific duties to perform and has to cooperate with the layers above and below it.

1. Physical Layer

The Physical Layer provides a standardized interface to physical transmission media, including a.
Mechanical specification of electrical connectors and cables, for example maximum cable length,
Electrical specification of transmission line, Bit-by-bit or symbol-by-symbol delivery. On the
sender side, the physical layer receives the data from Data Link Layer and encodes it into signals
to be transmitted onto the medium. On the receiver side, the physical layer receives the signals
from the transmission medium decodes.

2. Data Link Layer

The Data Link layer adds reliability to the physical layer by providing error detection and
correction mechanisms. On the sender side, the Data Link layer receives the data from Network
Layer and divides the stream of bits into fixed size manageable units called as Frames and sends
it to the physical layer. On the receiver side, the data link layer receives the stream of bits from the
physical layer and regroups them into frames and sends them to the Network layer. This process
is called Framing.

3. Network Layer

The network layer makes sure that the data is delivered to the receiver despite multiple
intermediate devices. The network layer at the sending side accepts data from the transport layer,
divides it into packets, adds addressing information in the header and passes it to the data link
layer. At the receiving end the network layer receives the frames sent by data link layer, converts
them back into packets, verifies the physical address (verifies if the receiver address matches with
its own address) and the send the packets to the transport layer. The main responsibility of Network
Layer is transmission of packets from source to destination.

4. Transport Layer

A logical address at network layer facilitates the transmission of data from source to destination
device. But the source and the destination both may be having multiple processes communicating
with each other. Hence it is important to deliver the data not only from the sender to the receiver
but from the correct process on the sender to the correct process on the receiver. The transport
layer takes care of process-to-process delivery of data and makes sure that it is intact and in order.
At the sending side, the transport layer receives data from the session layer, divided it into units
called segments and sends it to the network layer. At the receiving side, the transport layer receives
packets from the network layer, converts and arranges into proper sequence of segments and sends
it to the session layer.

5. Session Layer

The session layer establishes a session between the communicating devices called dialog and
synchronizes their interaction. It is the responsibility of the session layer to establish and
synchronize the dialogs. It is also called the network dialog controller. The session layer at the
sending side accepts data from the presentation layer adds checkpoints to it called syn bits and
passes the data to the transport layer. At the receiving end the session layer receives data from the
transport layer removes the checkpoints inserted previously and passes the data to the presentation
layer.

6. presentation layer

The communicating devices may be having different platforms. The presentation layer performs
translation, encryption and compression of data. The presentation layer at sending side receives
the data from the application layer adds header which contains information related to encryption
and compression and sends it to the session layer. At the receiving side, the presentation layer
receives data from the session layer decompresses and decrypts the data as required and translates
it back as per the encoding scheme used at the receiver.
7. Application Layer

The application layer enables the user to communicate its data to the receiver by providing certain
services.

TCP/IP MODEL
TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and is a suite of
communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet. TCP/IP is also used
as a communications protocol in a private computer network (an intranet or extranet). The purpose
of TCP/IP model is to allow communication over large distances.
Following are the five layers of the TCP/IP model:

1. Physical Layer

2. Data-Link Layer

3. Internet Layer

4. Transport Layer

5. Application Layer
1. Physical Layer

The Physical Layer is the lowest layer of the TCP/IP model. It deals with data in the form of
bits. This layer mainly handles the host-to-host communication in the network. It defines the
transmission medium and mode of communication between two devices. The medium can be
wired or wireless, and the mode can be simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex.

2. Data-Link Layer

The Data-Link Layer is the second layer of the TCP/IP layer. It deals with data in the form of
data frames. It mainly performs the data framing in which, it adds some header information to
the data packets for the successful delivery of data packets to correct destinations. For this, it
performs physical addressing of the data packets by adding the source and the destination address
to it. The data-link layer facilitates the delivery of frames within the same network. It also
facilitates the flow and error control of the data frames. The flow of the data can be controlled
through the data rate. Also, the errors in the data transmission and faulty data frames can be
detected and retransmitted using the checksum bits in the header information.

3. Internet/ Network Layer

The Internet layer of the TCP/IP model is approximately the same as the Network layer of
the OSI model. It deals with data in the form of datagrams or data packets. This layer mainly
performs the logical addressing of the data packets by adding the IP (Internet Protocol) address
to it. The IP addressing can be done either by using the Internet Protocol Version 4(IPv4) or
Internet Protocol Version 6(IPv6). The Internet layer also performs routing of data packets using
the IP addresses. The data packets can be sent from one network to another using the routers in
this layer. This layer also performs the sequencing of the data packets at the receiver's end. In
other words, it defines the various protocols for logical transmission of data within the same or
different network. The protocols that are used in the Internet layer are IP (Internet Protocol),
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol), IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol), ARP
(Address Resolution Protocol), RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol), etc.

4. Transport Layer
The Transport layer is the fourth layer of the TCP/IP model. It deals with data in the form of
data segments. It mainly performs segmentation of the data received from the upper layers. It
is responsible for transporting data and setting up communication between the application layer
and the lower layers. This layer facilitates the end-to-end communication and error-free delivery
of the data. It also facilitates flow control by specifying data rates. The transport layer is used
for process-to-process communication with the help of the port number of the source and the
destination.
The Transport layer facilitates the congestion control using the following protocols:

1. TCP: TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol. It is a connection-oriented

protocol. It performs sequencing and segmentation of data. It also performs flow and
error control in data transmission. There is an acknowledgement feature in TCP for the
 received data. It is a slow but reliable protocol. It is suitable for important and non-real
time data items.
2. UDP: UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol. It is a connection-less protocol. It does
not perform flow and error control in data transmission. There is no acknowledgement
feature in UDP for the received data. It is a fast but unreliable protocol. It is suitable for
real-time data items.

5. Application Layer
The Application layer in the TCP/IP model is equivalent to the upper three layers (Application,
Physical, and Session Layer) of the OSI model. It deals with the communication of the whole
data message. The Application layer provides an interface between the network services and the
application programs. It mainly provides services to the end-users to work over the network. For
Example, file transfer, web browsing, etc. This layer uses all the higher-level protocols like
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NFS, DHCP, FMTP, SNMP, SMTP, Telnet, et
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