Data communication refers to the exchange of data between a source and a receiver via form of

transmission media such as a wire cable. Data communication is said to be local if communicating
devices are in the same building or a similarly restricted geographical area.
The meanings of source and receiver are very simple. The device that transmits the data is known
as source and the device that receives the transmitted data is known as receiver. Data
communication aims at the transfer of data and maintenance of the data during the process but
not the actual generation of the information at the source and receiver.
Datum mean the facts information statistics or the like derived by calculation or
experimentation. The facts and information so gathered are processed in accordance with
defined systems of procedure. Data can exist in a variety of forms such as numbers, text, bits and
bytes. The Figure is an illustration of a simple data communication system.

The term data used to describe information, under whatever form of words you will be using.
A data communication system may collect data from remote locations through data transmission
circuits, and then outputs processed results to remote locations.

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 network 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.
A protocol performs the following functions:
1. Data sequencing. It refers to breaking a long message into smaller packets of fixed size. Data
sequencing rules define the method of numbering packets to detect loss or duplication of
packets, and to correctly identify packets, which belong to same message.
2. Data routing. Data routing defines the most efficient path between the source and destination.
3. Data formatting. Data formatting rules define which group of bits or characters within packet
constitute data, control, addressing, or other information.
4. Flow control. A communication protocol also prevents a fast sender from overwhelming a slow
receiver. It ensures resource sharing and protection against traffic congestion by regulating the
flow of data on communication lines.
5. Error control. These rules are designed to detect errors in messages and to ensure
transmission of correct messages. The most common method is to retransmit erroneous message
block. In such a case, a block having error is discarded by the receiver and is retransmitted by the
sender.
6. Precedence and order of transmission. These rules ensure that all the nodes get a chance to
use the communication lines and other resources of the network based on the priorities assigned
to them.
7. Connection establishment and termination. These rules define how connections are
established, maintained and terminated when two nodes of a network want to communicate
with each other.
8. Data security. Providing data security and privacy is also built into most communication
software packages. It prevents access of data by unauthorized users.
9. Log information. Several communication softwares are designed to develop log information,
which consists of all jobs and data communications tasks that have taken place. Such information
may be used for charging the users of the network based on their usage of the network resources.
The effectiveness depends on four fundamental characteristics of data communications
1. Delivery: The data must be deliver in correct order with correct destination.
2. Accuracy: The data must be deliver accurately.
3. Timeliness: The data must be deliver in a timely manner. Late delivered Data useless.
4. Jitter: It is the uneven delay in the packet arrival time that cause uneven quality.

What is a Client?
A client is a computer hardware device or software that accesses a service made available by a
server. The server is often (but not always) located on a separate physical computer.

What is a Server?
A server is a physical computer dedicated to run services to serve the needs of other computers.
Depending on the service that is running, it could be a file server, database server, home media
server, print server, or web server.

What is a Host?
A host is a computer, connected to other computers for which it provides data or services over a
network. In theory, every computer connected to a network acts as a host to other peers on the
network. In essence, a host reflects the logical relationship of two or more computers on a
network. Any IP addressable network device can be said as a host.

What is Workstation?

A workstation (WS) is a computer dedicated to a user or group of users engaged in business or

professional work. It includes one or more high resolution displays and a faster processor than a
personal computer (PC). A workstation also has greater multitasking capability because of
additional random access memory (RAM), drives and drive capacity. A workstation may also have
a higher-speed graphics adapters and more connected peripherals.
The term workstation also has been used to reference a PC or mainframe terminal on a local area
network (LAN). These workstations may share network resources with one or more large client
computers and network servers.

Types of Networks

A computer network consists of two or more computers that are interconnected with each other
and share resources such as printers, servers, and hardware and exchange the data in the form
of files, facilitating electronic communication. Computers on a network can be connected
through twisted pair cables, telephone lines, radio waves, satellites or optical fiber cables. The
first computer network designed was the ‘Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
(ARPANET)’ by the United States Department of Defense. Since then, myriads of new computer
networking technologies have been designed. This tutorial only covers the first three network
technologies i.e LAN, WAN and MAN. However, currently there are multiple networking
technologies in use which have been enlisted below.

 Local Area Network (LAN)

 Wide Area Network (WAN)
 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
 Storage Area Network (SAN)
 Controller Area Network (CAN)
 Personal Area Network (PAN)
 Global Area Network (GAN)
 Internet Area Network (IAN)

Local Area Network (LAN)

A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that is restricted to smaller physical areas e.g. a local
office, school, or house. Approximately all current LANs whether wired or wireless are based on
Ethernet. On a ‘Local Area Network’ data transfer speeds are higher than WAN and MAN that
can extend to a 10.0 Mbps (Ethernet network) and 1.0 Gbps (Gigabit Ethernet).

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Wide Area Network is a computer network that covers relatively larger geographical area such
as a state, province or country. It provides a solution to companies or organizations operating
from distant geographical locations who want to communicate with each other for sharing and
managing central data or for general communication.

WAN is made up of two or more Local Area Networks (LANs) or Metropolitan Area Networks
(MANs) that are interconnected with each other, thus users and computers in one location can
communicate with users and computers in other locations.

In ‘Wide Area Network’, Computers are connected through public networks, such as the
telephone systems, fiber-optic cables, and satellite links or leased lines. The ‘Internet’ is the
largest WAN in a world. WANs are mostly private and are built for a particular organization by
‘Internet Service Providers (ISPs)’ which connects the LAN of the organization to the internet.
WANs are frequently built using expensive leased lines where with each end of the leased line a
router is connected to extend the network capability across sites. For low cost solutions, WAP is
also built using a ‘circuit switching’ or ‘packet switching’ methods.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is a network that connects two or more computers,
communicating devices or networks in a single network that has geographic area larger than that
covered by even a large ‘Local Area Network’ but smaller than the region covered by a ‘Wide
Area Network’. MANs are mostly built for cities or towns to provide a high data connection and
usually owned by a single large organization.

Peer to Peer, Client-Server and Distributed Computer Systems

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network is created when two or more PCs are connected and share
resources without going through a separate server computer.
Client-server networks have one or more central computers, or servers, that hold the data and
manage resources.
The client-server model describes how a server provides resources and services to one or
more clients. Examples of servers include web servers, mail servers, and file servers. Each of
these servers provide resources to client devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets,
and smartphones.
Distributed computing is a model in which components of a software system are shared among
multiple computers to improve efficiency and performance. It is a system with multiple
components located on different machines that communicate and coordinate actions in order to
appear as a single coherent system to the end-user.

Peer to Peer Model Client-Server Model Distributed Computing

Transmission Modes in Computer Networks (Simplex, Half-Duplex and Full-Duplex)

Transmission mode means transferring of data between two devices. It is also known as
communication mode. Buses and networks are designed to allow communication to occur
between individual devices that are interconnected. There are three types of transmission mode:
Simplex Mode
Half-Duplex Mode
Full-Duplex Mode
Simplex Mode

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. The simplex mode can use the
entire capacity of the channel to send data in one direction.

Example: Keyboard and traditional monitors. The keyboard can only introduce input, the monitor
can only give the output.

Half-Duplex Mode

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 used in
cases where there is no need for communication in both direction at the same time. The entire
capacity of the channel can be utilized for each direction.

Example: Walkie- talkie in which message is sent one at a time and messages are sent in both the
directions.
Full-Duplex Mode

In full-duplex mode, both stations can transmit and receive simultaneously. In full-duplex mode,
signals going in one direction share the capacity of the link with signals going in other direction,
this sharing can occur in two ways:
Either the link must contain two physically separate transmission paths, one for sending and
other for receiving.
Or the capacity is divided between signals travelling in both directions.
Full-duplex mode is used when communication in both direction is required all the time. The
capacity of the channel, however must be divided between the two directions.
Example: Telephone Network in which there is communication between two persons by a
telephone line, through which both can talk and listen at the same time.

SERIAL AND PARALLEL COMMUNICATION

What is digital communication?

Digital communication can be considered as the communication happening between two (or
more) devices in terms of bits. This transferring of data, either wirelessly or through wires, can
be either one bit at a time or the entire data (depending on the size of the processor inside i.e.,
8 bit, 16 bit etc.) at once. Based on this, we can have the following classification namely, Serial
Communication and Parallel Communication.
Serial Communication
Serial Communication implies transferring of data bit by bit, sequentially. This is the most
common form of communication used in the digital word. Contrary to the parallel
communication, serial communication needs only one line for the data transfer. Thereby, the
cost for the communication line as well as the space required is reduced.

Parallel Communication
Parallel communication implies transferring of the bits in a parallel fashion at a time. This
communication comes for rescue when speed rather than space is the main objective. The
transfer of data is at high speed owing to the fact that no bus buffer is present.

Parallel and Serial Communication (Interface)

MSB: Most Significant Bit
LSB: Least Significant Bit

Example:
For an 8-bit data transfer in Serial communication one bit will be sent at a time. The entire data
is first fed into the serial port buffer. From this buffer one bit will be sent at a time. Only after the
last bit is received the data transferred can be forwarded for processing. While in the Parallel
Communication a serial port buffer is not required. According to the length of the data, the
number of bus lines are available plus a synchronization line for synchronized transmission of
data.
Thus we can state that for the same frequency of data transmission Serial communication
is slower than parallel communication

So, the question naturally arises-

Why serial communication is preferred over parallel?

While parallel communication is faster when the frequency of transmission is same, it is
cumbersome when the transmission is long distance. Also, with the number of data channels it
should also have a synchronous channel or a clock channel to keep the data synchronized.

Crosstalk is any phenomenon by which a signal transmitted on one circuit or channel of a

transmission system creates an undesired effect in another circuit or channel. Parallel
communication can have crosstalk.

Comparison Chart

Serial Parallel
Basis for Comparison
Communication Communication

Data transmission Slow Comparatively fast

speed

Number of Single Multiple

communication link
used

Number of transmitted only one bit. n number of link will

bit/clock cycle carry n bits.

Cost Low High

Crosstalk Not present Present

System Up-gradation Easy Quite difficult

 Serial Parallel
Basis for Comparison
Communication Communication

Mode of transmission Full duplex Half duplex

Suitable for Long distance Short distance

High frequency More efficient Less efficient

operation

Types Of Noise In Communication

In electrical terms, noise is defined as the unwanted form of energy which tends to interface with
the proper reception and the reproduction of transmitted signals. Electronic Devices unwanted
random addition to the signal are considered as Noise. There are various types of Noise presents.
Classification of Noise:
There are several way to classify Noise, but conveniently Noise is classified as
1) External Noise
2) Internal Noise
External Noise:
External noise is defined as the type of Noise which is general externally due
to communication system. External Noise are analyzed qualitatively. Now, External Noise may be
classified as
a) Atmospheric Noise: Atmospheric Noise is also known as static noise which is the natural
source of disturbance caused by lightning, discharge in thunderstorm and the natural
disturbances occurring in the nature.
b) Industrial Noise: Sources of Industrial noise are automobiles, aircraft, ignition of electric
motors and switching gear. The main cause of Industrial noise is High voltage wires. These noises
are generally produced by the discharge present in the operations.
c) Extraterrestrial Noise: Even in normal conditions, it can disrupt smooth
electronics communications with the constant radiation it produces due to its high temperature.
And sometimes disturbances like corona discharges and sunspots can increase solar noise.
Extraterrestrial Noise exist on the basis of their originating source. They are subdivided into
i) Solar Noise
ii) Cosmic Noise

Internal Noise:
Internal Noise are the type of Noise which are generated internally or within the Communication
System or in the receiver. They may be treated qualitatively and can also be reduced or
minimized by the proper designing of the system. Internal Noises are classified as
1) Shot Noise: These Noise are generally arising in the active devices due to the random behavior
of Charge particles or carries. In case of electron tube, shot Noise is produces due to the random
emission of electron form cathodes.
2) Partition Noise: When a circuit is to divide in between two or more paths then the noise
generated is known as Partition noise. The reason for the generation is random fluctuation in the
division.
3) Low- Frequency Noise: They are also known as FLICKER NOISE. These type of noise are
generally observed at a frequency range below few kHz. Power spectral density of these noise
increases with the decrease in frequency. That why the name is given Low- Frequency Noise.
4) High- Frequency Noise: These noises are also known TRANSIT- TIME Noise. They are observed
in the semi-conductor devices when the transit time of a charge carrier while crossing a junction
is compared with the time period of that signal.
5) Thermal Noise: Thermal Noise are random and often referred as White Noise or Johnson
Noise. Thermal noise is generally observed in the resistor or the sensitive resistive components
of a complex impedance due to the random and rapid movement of molecules or atoms or
electrons.