2

CHAPTER

Data transmission
At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand that data are broken down into packets to be transmitted
• Describe the structure of a packet
• Describe the process of packet switching
• Describe how data is transmitted from one device to another using different methods of data transmission
• Explain the suitability of each method of data transmission, for a given scenario
• Understand the universal serial bus (USB) interface and explain how it is used to transmit data
• Methods of error detection
• Understand the need to check for errors after data transmission and how these errors can occur
• Describe the processes involved in each of the following error detection methods for detecting errors in data after
transmission: parity check (odd and even), checksum and echo check
• Describe how a check digit is used to detect errors in data entry and identify examples of when a check digit is used,
including ISBN numbers and bar codes
• Describe how an automatic repeat request (ARQ) can be used to establish that data is received without error
• Understand the need for and purpose of encryption when transmitting data
• Understand how data is encrypted using symmetric and asymmetric encryption

2.1 Types and methods of data transmission

Exercise 1 Data packets

A document is too large a section of data to be transmitted from one device to another. There is no infrastructure capacity
to transmit such a large amount of data at once. Therefore, it needs to be broken down into packets, which are a much
smaller unit of data.

1 Name the three different sections in the structure of a data packet.

2 In which section of the data packet would you normally find the destination address?

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3 What kind of address is the destination address normally?

4 In which section of the data packet would you find the main content of the data being sent?

5 In which section of the data packet would you normally find the packet number?

6 What kind of data might you find in the trailer of a data packet?

7 In packet switching, does each packet take the same route or can they take a different route? Circle the answer.

Same route      Different route

8 In packet switching, the data packets will always arrive in order.

Tick (✔) to show whether this statement is true or false.

Tick (✔)
True
False

9 What is the name of the network device that chooses the route a data packet will take?

10 In packet switching, when are the data packets reordered after transmission?

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11 Draw a diagram to represent how data is transmitted across a network using packet switching. Your diagram should include
a minimum of two devices and four routers.

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Exercise 2 Data transmission

Data is transmitted from one device to another using the serial or parallel method.

1 Tick (✔) to show which method transmits data one bit at a time.

Number of wires Tick (✔)

Single wire
Multiple wires

2 Tick (✔) to show how many wires are used in parallel data transmission.

Data transmission method Tick (✔)

Serial
Parallel

3 Describe the benefit of using parallel data transmission, instead of serial data transmission.

4 List two benefits of using serial data transmission, instead of parallel data transmission.

Exercise 3 Transmission methods

Data is also transmitted from one device to another using the simplex, half-duplex or full-duplex methods.

1 Does simplex data transmission happen in one direction only or in both directions? Circle the answer.

One direction only      Both directions

2 Can you think of two applications where simple data transmission would be suitable?

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3 Draw a diagram to show how data is transmitted using half-duplex data transmission.

4 Can you describe how data is sent using full-duplex data transmission?

5 A website designer has a web server beside their desk. They need to be able to send data to and receive data from the web
server at the same time, and may also need to make quick changes to the data on the web server, so data transmission to
the web server is time critical.

Which data transmission methods should be used to send data from the website designer’s computer to the web server? Why?

6 An office manager creates a back-up of the data stored on her computer at the end of each day. The file server that stores
the back-up is located in a building 1 km from her office. It is very important the data is stored without error on the file
server. She only needs to send data to the back-up, and does not receive data from the file server.

Which data transmission methods should be used to send data from the office manager’s computer to the file server? Why?

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Exercise 4 USB Interface

An interface called USB can be used to connect one device to another.

1 Tick (✔) to show which type of data transmission is used in a USB connection.

Data transmission method Tick (✔)

Serial
Parallel

2 List three benefits of using a USB interface to connect a mobile phone to a computer.

3 What are two drawbacks of connecting a server to a computer using a USB interface?

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2.2 Methods of error detection

When data is transmitted from one device to another, there is a chance that errors can occur in the data. This could be because
packets of data go missing, or because of interference during transmission. Therefore, several error detection methods can be
used to find any errors.

Exercise 1 Error dectection

1 Which error detection method adds an 8th bit to 7 bits of data, to make each byte meet an odd or even check?
Circle the answer.
Parity check      Checksum      Echo check

2 In which error detection method does the receiver send data back to the sender, to compare the two versions of the data?
Circle the answer.
Parity check      Checksum      Echo check

3 Which error detection method uses an algorithm to calculate a value from the data?This value is transmitted with the data
to the receiver. Circle the answer.

Parity check      Checksum      Echo check

4 The following four bytes of data have been transmitted from one computer to another. Each byte was transmitted using an
even parity check. All the bytes have arrived correctly. Write the parity bit that was added to each byte for it to be correct for
an even parity check.

Parity bit Byte

1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 1 1 1 0 0 0
1 0 1 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 1 1 1

5 Can you think of a reason why an error that has occurred in the transmission of data from one device to another is not
detected by a parity check?

Errors can also occur when data is entered into a device. The data entry could be manual (being typed into a device),
or automatic, (such as scanning a barcode). Therefore, there is also an error detection method for data entry, which is
called a check digit.

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Exercise 2 Check digit

1 How is a check digit used to detect errors in data entry?

Exercise 3 Automatic repeat request

Sometimes errors are found in data after transmission. So, systems need a way to request that the data is resent. One method for
this is an automatic repeat request (ARQ).

1 During an ARQ process, data is transferred from the sending device to the receiving device. The sending device then
starts a timer. The receiving device checks the data for errors, using one of the error detection methods you have
studied. What happens next in the ARQ process?

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2.3 Encryption
Data is very valuable and we should always make sure that it is stored and transmitted in a secure way. Encryption is one way
that data can be kept secure.

Exercise 1 Encryption

1 What is the name given to the data before encryption?

2 Name the encryption algorithm that is used to encrypt the data.

3 What is the name given to the data after encryption?

4 Tick (✔) to show whether same key or different keys are used to encrypt and decrypt data in symmetric encryption.

Keys used Tick (✔)

Same key
Different key

The paragraph below explains how asymmetric encryption is used to encrypt data.

Fill in the missing words.

The text is encrypted into text using

a key. The encrypted data is transmitted to the receiving device.

The text is decrypted using a key.

5 Which encryption method is more secure? Why?

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