Fahim Shahzad (Lecturer)

 The fundamental problem of communication

is that of reproducing at one point either
exactly or approximately a message selected
at another point - The Mathematical Theory
of Communication, Claude Shannon
 Data communications deals with the transmission of
signals in a reliable and efficient manner.
 Networking deals with the technology and architecture
of the communications networks used to interconnect
communicating devices.
 Trends
◦ traffic growth at a high & steady rate
◦ development of new services
◦ advances in technology
 Data Transmission & Network requirements
◦ emergence of high-speed LANs
◦ corporate WAN needs
◦ digital electronics
 The fundamental purpose of a communications
system is the exchange of data between two
parties.
 An example is shown in the next slide, which is
communication between a workstation and a
server over a public telephone network.
 Another example is the exchange of voice
signals between two telephones over the same
network.
 1. Source: This device generates the data to be
transmitted; examples are telephones and
personal computers.
 2. Transmitter: Usually, the data generated by a
source system is not transmitted directly in the
form in which they were generated.
 Rather, a transmitter transforms and encodes the
information so that it can be transmitted across
some sort of transmission system.
 For example, a modem takes a digital bit stream
from an attached device such as a personal
computer and transforms that bit stream into an
analog signal that can be handled by the telephone
network.
 3. Transmission system: This can be a single
transmission line or a complex network
connecting source and destination.
 4. Receiver: The receiver accepts the signal
from the transmission system and converts it
into a form that can be handled by the
destination device.
 5. Destination: Takes the incoming data from
the receiver.
Transmission system utilization Addressing

Interfacing Routing

Signal generation Recovery

Synchronization Message formatting

Exchange management Security

Error detection and correction Network management

Flow control
 Transmission system utilization refers to the
need to make efficient use of transmission
facilities that are typically shared among a
number of communicating devices.
 Various techniques (referred to as
multiplexing) are used to allocate the total
capacity of a transmission medium among a
number of users.
 Congestion control techniques may be
required to assure that the system is not
overwhelmed by excessive demand for
transmission services.
 To communicate, a device must interface with
the transmission system.
 Generally communication depend on the use of
electromagnetic signals propagated over a
transmission medium.
 Once an interface is established, signal
generation is required for communication.
 The properties of the signal, such as form and
intensity, must be such that the signal is
◦ capable of being propagated through the
transmission system, and
◦ interpretable as data at the receiver.
 There must be some form of synchronization
between transmitter and receiver.
 The receiver must be able to determine when a
signal begins to arrive and when it ends.
 It must also know the duration of each signal
element.
 Exchange management handles a variety of
requirements for communication between two
parties.
 If data is to be exchanged in both directions
over a period of time, the two parties must
cooperate.
 For example, for two parties to engage in a
telephone conversation, one party must dial the
number of the other, causing signals to be
generated that result in the ringing of the called
phone.
 The called party completes a connection by lifting
the receiver.
 For data processing devices, more will be needed
than simply establishing a connection.
 Certain conventions must be decided.
 These conventions may include whether both
devices may transmit simultaneously or must take
turns, the amount of data to be sent at one time,
the format of the data, and what to do if certain
contingencies such as an error arise.
 In all communications systems, there is a potential
for error.
 Transmitted signals are distorted to some extent
before reaching their destination.
 Error detection and correction are required in
circumstances where errors cannot be tolerated.
 This is usually the case with data processing
systems.
 For example, in transferring a file from one
computer to another, it is simply not acceptable
for the contents of the file to be accidentally
altered.
 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.
 Addressing handles information about addresses
that a source system must indicate the identity of
the intended destination.
 The transmission system must assure that the
destination system, and only that system, receives
the data.
 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 which is known as routing.
 Recovery is a concept distinct from that of
error correction.
 Recovery techniques are needed in situations
in which an information exchange is
interrupted due to a fault somewhere in the
system.
 The objective is either to be able to resume
activity at the point of interruption.
 Or at least to restore the state of the systems
involved to the condition prior to the
beginning of the exchange.
 Message formatting has to do with an agreement
between two parties as to the form of the data to
be exchanged or transmitted e.g. binary data.
 Frequently, it is important to provide some
measure of security in a data communications
system.
 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
purported sender.
 Network management capabilities are needed
to configure the system, monitor its status,
react to failures and overloads, and plan
intelligently for future growth.
 Take electronic mail as an example for data
communications model.
 The process is modeled as follows:
• User keys in message m comprising bits g buffered in
source PC memory
• Input data is transferred to I/O device (transmitter) as
sequence of bits g(t) using voltage shifts
• Transmitter converts these into a signal s(t) suitable for
transmission media being used
• Whilst transiting media, signal may be impaired so
received signal r(t) may differ from s(t)
• Receiver decodes signal recovering g’(t) as estimate of
original g(t)
• Which is buffered in destination PC memory as bits g’
being the received message m’
 The basic building block of any communications
facility is the transmission line.
 For use within the business premises, this choice is
generally completely up to the business.
 For long-distance communications, the choice is
generally but not always made by the long-distance
carrier.
 In either case, changes in technology are rapidly
changing the mix of media used.
 The ever-increasing capacity of fiber optic channels is
making channel capacity a virtually free resource.
 The growing use of wireless transmission, is a result of the
trend toward universal personal telecommunications and
universal access to communications.
 Despite the growth in the capacity and the drop in cost of
transmission facilities, transmission services remain the
most costly component of a communications budget.
 Thus, techniques that increase the efficiency of the use of
these facilities, such as multiplexing and compression
become important.
 The number of computers in use worldwide is
in the hundreds of millions.
 Advances in technology have led to greatly
increased capacity and the concept of
integration, allowing equipment and networks
to deal simultaneously with voice, data,
image, and even video.
 There are two broad categories of networks:
Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area
Networks (WAN).
 Wide area networks generally cover a large
geographical area.
 Typically, a WAN consists of a number of
interconnected switching nodes.
 Traditionally, WANs have been implemented
using one of two technologies: circuit
switching and packet switching.
 More recently, frame relay and ATM networks
have assumed major roles.
 A dedicated communications path is
established between two stations through
the nodes of the network.
 That path is a connected sequence of
physical links between nodes, with a logical
channel dedicated to the connection.
 Data generated by the source station are
transmitted along the dedicated path as
rapidly as possible.
 The most common example of circuit
switching is the telephone network.
 Data is sent in a sequence of small chunks,
called packets.
 Each packet is passed through the network
from node to node along some path leading
from source to destination.
 At each node, the entire packet is received,
stored briefly, and then transmitted to the
next node.
 Packet-switching networks are commonly
used for terminal-to-computer and
computer-to-computer communications.
 Frame relay was developed to take advantage
of high data rates and low error rates on
modern WAN links.
 Original packet-switching networks were
designed with a data rate to the end user of
about 64 kbps.
 Frame relay networks are designed to operate
efficiently at user data rates of up to 2 Mbps.
 The key to achieving these high data rates is
to strip out most of the overhead involved
with error control.
 ATM is a result of developments in
circuit switching and packet switching.
 ATM can be viewed as an evolution
from frame relay.
 ATM uses fixed-length packets, called
cells.
 As with frame relay, ATM provides
little overhead for error control.
 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.
 ATM allows the definition of multiple
virtual channels with data rates that are
dynamically defined at the time the
virtual channel is created.
 A LAN is a communications network that
interconnects a variety of devices and
provides a means for information exchange
among those devices.
 The scope of the LAN is small, typically a
single building or a cluster of buildings.
 It is usually the case that the LAN is owned by
the same organization that owns the attached
devices.
 The internal data rates of LANs are typically
much greater than those of WANs.
 LANs come in a number of different
configurations.
 The most common are switched LANs and
wireless LANs.
 The most common switched LAN is a
switched Ethernet LAN, others are ATM &
Fibre Channel LANs.
 Wireless networks provide advantages in the
areas of mobility and ease of installation and
configuration.
 MAN
 middle ground between LAN and WAN
 private or public network
 high speed
 large area
 The Internet evolved from the ARPANET,
developed in 1969 by the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of
Defense.
 It was the first operational packet-switching
network.
 The network was so successful that ARPA applied
the same packet-switching technology to tactical
radio communication (packet radio) and to
satellite communication (SATNET).
 The need for interworking between these led
development of methods and protocols for such
internetworking, which led eventually to the
development of TCP/IP.
 Figure illustrates the key elements that comprise
the Internet.
 The purpose is to interconnect end systems, called
hosts; including PCs, workstations, servers,
mainframes, and so on.
 Most hosts that use the Internet are connected to a
network, such as a local area network (LAN) or a
wide area network (WAN).
 These networks are in turn connected by routers.