Data Communication: - Data Communication is the exchange of data between

two devices via some form of transmission medium such as a wire cable. For data
communication to occur the communicating device must be part of a communication system
made up of a combination of hardware and software. The effectiveness of a data
communication system depends on three fundamental characteristics.

1. Delivery: - The system must deliver data to the correct destination. Data must be
received by the intended device or user and only by that device or user.
2. Accuracy: - The system must deliver the data accurately. Data that have been altered in
transmission and left uncorrected are unusable.
3. Timeliness: - The system must deliver data in a timely manner. Data delivered late are
useless. In the case of video and audio, timely delivery means delivering data as they
are produced in the same order, that they are produced and without significant delay.
This kind of delivery is called real-time transmission.

Components: - A data communication system has 5 components.

1. Message: - The message is the information to be communicated. It can consist of text,
numbers, pictures, sounds or video or any combination of these.
2. Sender: - The sender is the device that sends the data message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, video camera and so on.
3. Receiver: - The receiver is the device that receives that message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset etc.
4. Medium: - The Transmission medium is the physical path by which a message travels
from sender to receiver. It could be twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable or
radio waves.
5. Protocol: - A protocol is a set of rules that governs data communication. It represents
an agreement between the communicating devices. Without a protocol, two device may
be connected but not communicating.

Transmission Mode: A given transmission on a communications channel between two

machines can occur in several different ways. The transmission is characterised by:
 The direction of the exchanges.
 The transmission mode: the number of bits sent simultaneously.

There are 3 different transmission modes characterised according to the direction of the
exchanges:
1. Simplex: - In simplex mode, the communication is unidirectional, as on a one-way
street. Only one of the two devices on a link can transmit, the other can only receive.
This type of connection is useful if the data do not need to flow in both directions. (for
example, from your computer to the printer or from the mouse to your computer...).

2. Half Duplex: - In half-duplex mode, each station can both transmit and receive, but not
at the same time. When one device is sending the other can only receive and vice-versa.
The half duplex mode is like a one-lane road with two-directional traffic.
Example can be Walkie-Talkie.

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 3. Full Duplex: - In full-duplex (also called duplex) both station can transmit and
received simultaneously. The full duplex is like a two way street with traffic flowing in
both directions at the same time. Full-Duplex can be done by 2 way. Either the link
must contain two physical separate transmission paths, one for sending and the other for
receiving or the capacity of the channel is divided between signals traveling in both
directions. Example is Telephone Network.

There are 2 different transmission modes characterised according to the number of bits sent
simultaneously
Serial and parallel transmission
The transmission mode refers to the number of elementary units of information (bits) that can
be simultaneously translated by the communications channel. In fact, processors (and therefore
computers in general) never process (in the case of recent processors) a single bit at a time;
generally they are able to process several (most of the time it is 8: one byte), and for this reason
the basic connections on a computer are parallel connections.

Parallel connection
Parallel connection means simultaneous transmission of N bits. These bits are sent
simultaneously over N different channels (a channel being, for example, a wire, a cable or any
other physical medium). The parallel connection on PC-type computers generally requires 10
wires.

These channels may be:

 N physical lines: in which case each bit is sent on a physical line (which is why parallel
cables are made up of several wires in a ribbon cable)
 one physical line divided into several sub-channels by dividing up the bandwidth. In
this case, each bit is sent at a different frequency...

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Serial connection
In a serial connection, the data are sent one bit at a time over the transmission channel.
However, since most processors process data in parallel, the transmitter needs to transform
incoming parallel data into serial data and the receiver needs to do the opposite.

Networks
A network is a set of devices (also called nodes) connected by communication links. A
node can be a computer, printer or any other device capable of sending and / or receiving data
generated by other nodes on the networks.

Network Criteria : A network must be able to meet a certain number of criteria.

1. Performance: Performance can be measured in many ways, including transit time and
response time. Transit Time is the amount of Time required for a message to travel from one
device to another. Response time is the elapsed time between an inquiry and a response. The
performance of a network depends on a number of factors, including the number of users, the
type of transmission medium, the capabilities of the connected hardware and the efficiency of
the software.

2. Reliability: In addition to accuracy of delivery, network reliability is measured by the

frequency of failure, the time it takes a link to recover from a failure.

3. Security: Network security issues include protecting data from unauthorized access.

TYPE OF CONNECTION :
A network is two or more device connected together through links. A link is a
communication pathway that transfer data from one device to another. For communication to
occur, two devices must be connected in some way to the same link.
There are two possible type of connection:
1) Point-to-Point: - A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated link between two
devices. The entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission between those two
devices. Most point-to-point connections use an actual length of wire or cable to
connect the two ends, but other options, such as microwave or satellite links are also
possible. When you change television channels by infrared remote control, you are
establishing a point-to-point connection between the remote control and the television’s
control system.
2) Multipoint (broadcast): -Broadcast systems have a single communication channel that
is shared by all the machines on the networks. Data or say packets of data sent by any
machine are received by all the others. An address fields within the packets specifies for
whom it is intended. Upon receiving a packet a machine checks the address field. If the
packets is intended for some other machine, it is just ignored.
Broadcast systems generally also allow the possibility of addressing a packet to
all destinations by using a special code in the address fields. When a packet with this
code is transmitted, it is received and processed by every machine on the network. This
technique is called “Multicasting”.
Broadcast system can be further divided into static and dynamic, depending on
“how the channel is allocated”.
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 A typical Static Allocation would be to divide up time into discrete intervals,
and run a round robin, allowing each machine to broadcast only when its time slot
comes up. Static allocation wastes channel capacity when a machine has nothing to say
during its allocated slot, so some systems attempt to allocate the channel dynamically.
Dynamic allocation methods for a common channel are centralized or
decentralized. In the centralized channel allocation method, there is a single entity,
which determines who goes next. It might do this by accepting requests and making a
decision according to some internal algorithm. In the decentralized channel allocation
method, there is no central entity; each machine must decide for itself whether or not to
transmit.

“Computer Network”
Computer Network to mean an interconnected collection of autonomous
computer. Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange
information. The connection need not be via a copper wire; lasers, microwaves and
communication satellites can also be used.
If one computer are forcibly start, stop or control another one the computer are
not autonomous
“Distributed System”
A distributed system consists of a collection of autonomous computers,
connected through a network and distribution middleware, which enables computer to
coordinate their activities and to share the resource of the system, so that users perceive
the system as a single integrated computing facility.
Distinction between Computer Network and Distributed System
The key distinction is that in a distributed system, the existence of multiple
autonomous computers is transparent (i.e. not visible) to the user. You can type a
command to run a program and it runs. It is up to the operating system to select the best
processor, find and transport all the input files to that processor and put the result in the
appropriate place.
In other words, the user of a distributed system is not aware that there are
multiple processors; it looks like a virtual uniprocessor. Allocation of jobs to processors
and files to disks movement of files between where they are stored and where they are
needed and all other system functions must be automatic.
With a network, a user must explicitly log on to one machine, explicitly submit
jobs remotely, explicitly move files around and generally handle all the network
management personally. With a distributed system nothing has to be done explicitly; it
is all automatically done by the system without the user’s knowledge.
A distributed system is a special case of a network, one whose software gives it
a high degree of transparency. Thus the distinction between a network and a distributed
system lies with the software rather than with the hardware.