Data Communications
Data Communications
The continuing growth in high-speed network offerings with the continuing drop in
prices encourages the expansion of services. Thus, growth in services and growth
in traffic capacity go hand in hand.
Finally, trends in technology enable the provision of increasing traffic capacity and
the support of a wide range of services. Four technology trends are particularly
notable:
1. The trend toward faster and cheaper, both in computing and communications,
continues.
In terms of computing, this means more powerful computers and
clusters of computers capable of supporting more demanding applications,
such as multimedia applications.
In terms of communications, the increasing use of optical fiber has brought
transmission prices down and greatly increased capacity. For example, for
long-distance telecommunication and data network links, recent offerings of
dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) enable capacities of
many terabits per second. For local area networks (LANs) many enterprises
now have Gigabit Ethernet backbone networks and some are beginning to
deploy 10-Gbps Ethernet.
2. Both voice-oriented telecommunications networks, such as the public switched
telephone network (PSTN), and data networks, including the Internet, are more
“intelligent” than ever.
3. The Internet, the Web, and associated applications have emerged as dominant
features of both the business and personal world, opening up many
opportunities
4. There has been a trend toward ever-increasing mobility for decades, liberating
workers from the confines of the physical enterprise. Innovations include
voice mail, remote data access, pagers, fax, e-mail, cordless phones, cell phones
and cellular networks, and Internet portals.
Telecommunication & Data communication
Telecommunication
Any process that permits the channel from a sender to one or more receivers of
information of any nature, delivered in an easy to use form by any electromagnetic
system.
Data communication
Difference:
A COMMUNICATIONS MODEL
7. Flow control is required to assure that the source does not overwhelm the
destination by sending data faster than they can be processed and absorbed.
8. Addressing and routing means when more than two devices share a
transmission facility, a source system must indicate the identity of the intended
destination. The transmission system must assure that only the specific
destination system receives the data.
9. Further, the transmission system may itself be a network through which various
paths may be taken. A specific route through this network must be chosen.
1. The sender of data may wish to be assured that only the intended receiver
actually receives the data. And the receiver of data may wish to be assured that
the received data have not been altered in transit and that the data actually come
from the claimed sender.
Suppose that the input device and transmitter are components of a personal
computer. The user of the PC wishes to send a message m to another user. The
input data are transferred to the transmitter as a sequence of voltage shifts [g(t)]
representing bits on some communications bus. The transmitter is connected
directly to the medium and converts the incoming stream [g(t)] into a signal [s(t)]
suitable for transmission; The transmitted signal s(t) presented to the medium is
subject to a number of impairments, before it reaches the receiver. Thus, the
received signal r(t) may differ from s(t). The receiver will attempt to estimate the
original s(t), based on r(t) and its knowledge of the medium, producing a sequence
of bits These bits are sent to the output personal computer, In many cases, the
destination system will attempt to determine if an error has occurred and, if so,
cooperate with the source system to eventually obtain a complete, error-free block
of data.
Types of Computer Networks
A computer network, or a network, is a collection of computers and other
hardware interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of
resources and information. Types:
2. MAN
MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) is a larger network
of computers and other network devices which are
connected together and usually spans several buildings
or large geographical area.
All the devices that are part of MAN span across
buildings or small town.
MAN network has lower speed compared to LAN.
MAN connection speeds can be 10Mbps or 100Mbps.
MAN uses Guided Media or Unguided media.
3. WAN
WAN (Wide Area Network) is a group of computers and other network devices which
are connected together which is not restricted to a geographical location. Internet is
WAN.
All the devices that are part of WAN have no geographical boundaries.
WAN speed varies based on geographical location of the servers. WAN connects
several LANs.
Internet Intranet
1. Intranet is network of Computers
1. Internet is network of Computers
designed for a specific group of users.
which is open for all
2. Internet itself contains a large number 2. Intranet can be accessed from Internet
of intranets. but with restrictions.
A host may send data to another host anywhere on the Internet. The source host
breaks the data to be sent into a sequence of packets, called IP datagrams or IP
packets. Each packet includes a unique numeric address of the destination host.
This address is referred to as an IP address, because the address is carried in an IP
packet. Based on this destination address, each packet travels through a series of
routers and networks from source to destination. Each router, as it receives a
packet, makes a routing decision and forwards the packet along its way to the
destination.
Hosts are sometimes grouped together in a LAN. Individual hosts and LANs are
connected to an Internet service provider (ISP) through a point of presence
(POP).The connection is made in a series of steps starting with the customer
premises equipment (CPE). The CPE is the communications equipment located
onsite with the host.
Internet Terminology
Central Office (CO)
The place where telephone companies terminate customer lines and locate
switching equipment to interconnect those lines with other networks.
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)
Telecommunications equipment placed at the customer’s end Telephone handsets,
modems, cable TV set-top boxes, and digital subscriber line routers are examples.
Together, these elements determine not only the cost and capacity of the LAN, but
also the type of data that may be transmitted, the speed and efficiency of
communications, and even the kinds of applications that can be supported.
LAN Topologies
In the context of a communication network, the term topology refers to the way in
which the end points, or stations, attached to the network are interconnected.
Topology is the arrangement of the various elements (links, nodes, etc.) of
computer or network
1. Bus Topology
Data network with bus topology has a linear transmission cable, usually coaxial,
to which many network devices and workstations are attached along the
length. Server is at one end of the bus. When a workstation has to send data, it
transmits packets with destination address in its header along the bus. The data
travels in both the directions along the bus. When the destination terminal sees the
data, it copies it to the local disk.
To solve these problems, stations transmit data in small blocks, known as frames.
Each frame consists of a portion of the data that a station wishes to transmit, plus a
frame header that contains control information. Each station on the bus is assigned
a unique address, or identifier, and the destination address for a frame is included
in its header Figure 15.3 illustrates the scheme.
Switching
• Circuit switching
• Packet switching
• Frame relay
Fig: Example of
Packet Switching.
Frame Relay
ATM
ATM is a general class of digital packet switching technology that relay and
route traffic by means of an address contained within the header.
Unlike more familiar packet technology or frame relay, ATM uses fixed
length packets called cells
ATM is a switching technique (a set of protocol) using TDM
Data is split and encoded into small packets of fixed size (called cell)
Each packet can be routed differently along virtual paths set up in the
network
Constant data rate using packet switching technique
Anything from 10 Mbps to Gbps
Voice, video, data
The most obvious difference between frame relay and ATM is that
Frame relay uses variable-length packets, called frames, and ATM uses fixed-
length packets, called cells.
As with frame relay, ATM provides little overhead for error control, depending on
the inherent reliability of the transmission system and on higher layers of logic in
the end systems to catch and correct errors.
By using a fixed packet length, the processing overhead is reduced even further for
ATM compared to frame relay.
The result is that ATM is designed to work in the range of 10s and 100s of Mbps,
and in the Gbps range.
Comparison Between Frame Relay and ATM
BASIS FOR
FRAME RELAY ATM
COMPARISON
Circuit switching
Advantage
Packet switching
Advantage
Protocol Architecture
A protocol architecture is the layer structured of hardware and software that
supports exchange of data between systems.
In a protocol architecture, the modules are arranged in a vertical stack. Each layer
in the stack performs a related subset of the functions required to communicate
with another system.
Types:
Three-layer model
TCP/IP model
OSI model
Three-layer model
In very general terms, communications can be said to involve three agents:
applications, computers, and networks. One example of an application is a file
transfer operation. Thus, the transfer of data from one application to another
involves first getting the data to the computer in which the application resides and
then getting it to the intended application within the computer. With these concepts
in mind, it appears natural to organize the communication task into three relatively
independent layers:
1. Network access layer
2. Transport layer
3. Application layer
1. Network access layer: The network access layer is concerned with the
exchange of data between a computer and the network to which it is attached. The
sending computer must provide the network with the address of the destination
computer, so that the network may route the data to the appropriate destination.
The sending computer may wish to invoke certain services, such as priority,
different standards have been developed for circuit switching, packet switching,
local area networks, and others.
2. Transport layer: Regardless of the nature of the applications that are
exchanging data, there is usually a requirement that data be exchanged reliably.
Thus, it makes sense to collect those mechanisms in a common layer shared
by all applications; this is referred to as the transport layer.
3. Application layer: Finally, the application layer contains the logic needed to
support the various user applications. For each different type of application, such
as file transfer, a separate module is needed that is peculiar to that application.
Protocol Data Unit (PDU)
TCP/IP Model:
The TCP/IP protocol architecture is a result of protocol research and development
conducted on the experimental packet-switched network, funded by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and is generally referred to as the
TCP/IP protocol suite. This protocol suite consists of a large collection of protocols
that have been issued as Internet standards by the Internet Activities Board (IAB).
We can organize the communication task for TCPIIP into five relatively
independent layers:
1. Application layer
2. Host-to-host, or transport layer
3. Internet layer
4. Network access layer
5. Physical layer
The physical layer covers the physical interface between a data transmission
device (e.g., workstation, computer) and a transmission medium or network.
This layer is concerned with specifying the characteristics of the transmission
medium, the nature of the signals, the data rate, and related matters.
The network access layer is concerned with the exchange of data between an
end system and the network to which it is attached. The sending computer must
provide the network with the address of the destination computer, so that the
network may route the data to the appropriate destination. The sending
computer may wish to invoke certain services, such as priority; different
standards have been developed for circuit-switching, packet-switching (e.g.,
X.25), local area networks (e.g., Ethernet), and others.
The network access layer is concerned with access to and routing data across
a network for two end systems attached to the same network. In those cases
where two devices are attached to different networks, procedures are needed to
allow data to traverse multiple interconnected networks. This is the function of
the internet layer. The internet protocol (IP) is used at this layer to provide the
routing function across multiple networks.
Regardless of the nature of the applications that are exchanging data, there is
usually a requirement that data be exchanged reliably. Thus, it makes sense to
collect those mechanisms in a common layer shared by all applications; this is
referred to as the host-to-host layer, or transport layer. The Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) is the most commonly used protocol to provide this
functionality
Finally, the application layer contains the logic needed to support the various
user applications. For each different type of application, such as file transfer, a
separate module is needed that is peculiar to that application.
Operation of TCP and IP
The OSI Model
The open systems interconnection (OSI) model was developed by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) as a model for a computer communications
architecture and as a framework for developing protocol standards. It consists of
seven layers:
• Application
• Presentation
• Session
• Transport
• Network
• Data link
• Physical
Figure 2.6 illustrates the OSI model and provides a brief definition of the functions
performed at each layer. The intent of the OSI model is that protocols be developed
to perform the functions of each layer.
Comparison TCP/IP vs OSI
The designers of OSI assumed that this model would come to
dominate computer communications, eventually replacing
TCP/IP. This has not happened. The overall seven-layer model
has not flourished. Instead, the TCP/IP architecture has come to
dominate. There are a number of reasons for this outcome.