Unit-2

Data Communication and Networking

Network:- A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to
share resources (such as printers and CDs), exchange files, or allow electronic
communications. The computers on a network may be linked through cables,
telephone lines, radio waves, satellites, or infrared light beams.

Data Communication:- Data communications refers to the transmission of this

digital data between two or more computers and a computer network or data
network is a telecommunications network that allows computers to exchange data.
The physical connection between networked computing devices is established
using either cable media or wireless media. The best-known computer network is
the Internet. The basic elements of data communication are as follows:-

Information:- Message or information is the entity that is to be transmitted. It

can be in the form of audio, video, temperature, picture, pressure, etc.

Signal:- The single-valued function of time that carries the information. The
information is converted into an electrical form for transmission.

Transmitter:- It converts information into a signal that is suitable for

transmission over a medium. Transmitter increases the power of the signal
thro power amplifiers and also provides interfaces to match the transmission
medium, such as an antenna interface, fiber interface and so on.

Antenna:- An Antenna is a structure or a device that will radiate and receive

electromagnetic waves. So, they are used in both transmitters and receivers.
An antenna is basically a metallic object, often a collection of wires. The
electromagnetic waves are polarised according to the position of the antenna.

Channel:- A channel refers to a physical medium such as wire, cables, space

through which the signal is passed from the transmitter to the receiver. There
are many channel impairments that affect channel performance to a
pronounced level. Noise, Attenuation and distortion to mention the major
impairments.

Receiver :- The receiver machine work is to reproduce the message signal in

electrical form from the noised and distorted signal such that digital
demodulator is used that process the waveform signals into the sequence of
numbers that represents the discrete values which is in form of zeros and
 ones and then these discrete signals are used for the reconstruction of
information code from the attenuated signal.

Destination:- The destination is the final stage in the communication system.

Generally, humans at some place are considered as the destination. A
destination is a place where humans consume the information. For example,
if you are watching TV, you are considered as the destination.

Amplifier:- The electronic circuit or device that increases the amplitude or

the strength of the transmitted signal is called an amplifier. When the signal
strength becomes less than the required value, amplification can be done
anywhere in between transmitter and receiver. A DC power source will
provide for the amplification.

Block Diagram of communication system/Model [LONG]

Communication system:- The communication system is a system which describes
the information exchange between two points. The process of transmission and
reception of information is called communication. The major elements of
communication are the Transmitter of information, Channel or medium of
communication and the Receiver of information.

Fig:-block diagram of communication system

Information source:- As we know, a communication system serves to
communicate a message or information. This information originates in the
information source. In general, there can be various messages in the form of
words, group of words, code, symbols, sound signal etc. However, out of
these messages, only the desired message is selected and communicated.

Transmitter:- The transmitter is a device or a circuit that prepared the signal

for transmission over a long distance. A transmitter can be a large or
complex circuit if the communication system is large. There are so many
important roles of a transmitter. It modulates the signal using a carrier
signal. It amplifies the signal to increase the strength for large distance
communication. It converts the signal is required.
 Channel:- A channel refers to a physical medium such as wire, cables, space
through which the signal is passed from the transmitter to the receiver. There
are many channel impairments that affect channel performance to a
pronounced level. Noise, Attenuation and distortion to mention the major
impairments.
Receiver:- The main function of the receiver is to reproduce the message
signal in electrical form from the distorted received signal. This reproduction
of the original signal is accomplished by a process known as the
demodulation or detection. Demodulation is the reverse process of
modulation carried out in transmitter.

Destination:- The destination is the place where the whole communication

system ends and the receiver receives the actual message or information.
Communication Modes/Transmission Modes
Transmission mode refers to the mechanism of transferring of data between two
devices connected over a network. It is also called Communication Mode. These
modes direct the direction of flow of information. There are three types of
transmission modes. They are:
Simplex:- In this type of transmission mode, data can be sent only in one
direction i.e. communication is unidirectional. We cannot send a message
back to the sender. Unidirectional communication is done in Simplex
Systems where we just need to send a command/signal, and do not expect
any response back.Examples of simplex Mode are loudspeakers, television
broadcasting, television and remote, keyboard and monitor etc.
[Figure from book]
Half-duplex:- Half-Duplex is the data transmission mode in which the data
can flow in both directions but in one direction at a time. It is also referred
to as Semi-Duplex. In other words, each station can both transmit and
receive the data but not at the same time. When one device is sending the
other can only receive and vice-versa.
[Figure from book]
Full-duplex:- Full-Duplex is the data transmission mode in which the data
can flow in both directions at the same time. It is bi-directional in nature. It
is two-way communication in which both the stations can transmit and
receive the data simultaneously.
[Figure from book]