COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

▪ Data communications are the exchange of data between two devices via some form of
transmission medium such as a wire cable.
▪ The communicating devices must be part of a communication system made up of a
combination of hardware, i.e. physical equipment, and software i.e. programs.
▪ The effectiveness of a data communications system depends on following four fundamental
characteristics:
o Delivery: The system must deliver data to the correct destination.
o Accuracy: The system must deliver the data accurately.
o Timeliness: The system must deliver data in a timely manner.
o Jitter: Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival time.

A data communications system has following five components:

• Message: The message is the information or data to be communicated. Information include

text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
• Sender: The sender is the device that sends the data message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, video camera, etc.
• Receiver: The receiver is the device that receives the message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, television, etc.
• Transmission medium: The transmission medium is the physical path by which a message
travels from sender to receiver, e.g. twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and
radio waves.
• Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications. It represents an
agreement between the communicating devices. These rules provide a method for orderly
and efficient exchange of data between sender and receiver, and for proper interpretation
of controls and data transmitted as raw bits and bytes.
Roles of a communication protocol:
a) Data sequencing: Data sequencing rules define method of numbering (or
sequencing) packets to detect loss or duplication of packets, and to identify packets
belonging to the same message.

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 b) Data routing: Data routing rules decide the path between source and destination
nodes of a message.
c) Data formatting: Data formatting rules define which group of bits and characters
within a packet constitutes data, control, addressing, or other information.
d) Flow control: Flsow control rules prevent a fast sender from flooding a slow
receiver with data by regulating flow of data on communication lines.
e) Error control: Error control rules detect errors in messages to ensure transmission
of correct messages. The most common method for correcting errors is to retransmit
an erroneous message block.
f) Precedence and order of transmission: These rules ensure that all nodes get a
chance to use communication lines and other resources of a network based on
priorities assigned to them.
g) Connection establishment and termination: These rules define how connections
are established, maintained, and terminated when two nodes of a network based on
priorities assigned to them.
h) Data security: These rules define mechanisms for providing security ad privacy of
messages sent / receiver over the network.
i) Log information: these rules define what types of log information the system
should maintain for all jobs and data communication tasks.

Types of Data Flow Communication

▪ Simplex:
o In simplex mode, the communication is unidirectional.
o Only one of the two devices on a link can transmit and the other can only receive.
o In this mode, sender device can use the entire capacity of the channel to send data
in one direction.
o E.g. keyboards and traditional monitors.

▪ Half-Duplex:
o In half-duplex mode, each station can both transmit and receive, but not at the same
time.
o When one device is sending, the other can only receive, and vice versa.
o This mode is used in cases where there is no need for communication in both
directions at the same time and the entire capacity of the channel can be utilized for
each direction.
o E.g. Walkie-talkies and Citizens Band radios.

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▪ Full-Duplex:
o It is also called duplex.
o In full-duplex mode, both stations can transmit and receive simultaneously.
o In this mode, signals going in one direction share the capacity of the link with
signals going in the other direction.
o This mode is used when communication in both directions is required all the time.
o The capacity of the channel must be divided between the two directions.
o E.g. telephone network.

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 Data Transmission Speed
▪ Bandwidth of a communication system refers to its data transfer rate.
▪ It is the amount of data that the system can transfer per unit of time.
▪ It is measured in bits per second(bps).
▪ bps is called baud.
Based on data transmission speed, there are basic categories of communication channels:
▪ Narrowband: Narrowband or sub-voice grade channels have speed in the range of 45 to
300 baud. e.g. telegraph lines
▪ Voice-band: Voice-band channels have speed up to 9600 baud. E.g. telephone voice
communication, from slow I/O devices to CPU or vice versa
▪ Broadband: Broadband channels have speed of 1 million baud or more. E.g. high-speed
compute-to-computer communication

Data Transmission Media

There are two categories :

❑ Guided Media (Wired):
o Guided media are the channels in which an instrument or an agent or a conduit is
provided to transmit the data between devices.
o A signal traveling through guided media is restricted by the physical boundaries of the
channel.

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 o Commonly used channels of guided media in networking are twisted-pair cable,
coaxial cable, and fiber optical cable.
❖ Twisted-Pair Wire
▪ It consists of two bunches of thin copper wires, each bunch enclosed separately in
a plastic insulation, then twisted around each other to reduce interference by
adjacent wires.
▪ It is also called unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable other than the plastic insulation
around the two individual bunches of copper wires, nothing else shields it from
outside interference.
▪ It is used commonly in local telephone communication and short distance (up to
about 1 km) digital data transmission.

▪ One of these wires is used to carry signals to the receiver, and the other is used only
as a ground reference.
▪ The receiver uses the difference between the two.
▪ In addition to the signal sent by the sender on one of the wires, interference (noise)
and crosstalk may affect both wires and create unwanted signals.
▪ Twisted-pair cables are used in telephone lines to provide voice and data channels
Advantages:
▪ It is cheap.
▪ Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
▪ It can be used for high-speed LAN.
Disadvantage:
▪ This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.

❖ Coaxial Cable
▪ It consists of a central copper wire surrounded by a PVC insulation over which
there is a sleeve of copper mesh.
▪ The copper mesh sleeve is shielded again by an outer shield of thick PVC material.
▪ Signal is transmitted by inner copper wire, and is electrically shielded by the outer
copper mesh sleeve.

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Advantages:
▪ The data can be transmitted at high speed.
▪ It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
▪ It provides higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages:
▪ It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.
▪ If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network

❖ Optical Fibers
▪ Optical fibers are hair-thin threads of glass or plastic used as data transmission medium
like coaxial cable.
▪ Fiber optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
▪ Fiber optic is a cable that holds the optical fibers coated in plastic that are used to send
the data by pulses of light.
▪ The plastic coating protects the optical fibers from heat, cold, electromagnetic
interference from other types of wiring.
▪ Fiber optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Basic elements of Fiber optic cable:

o Core: The optical fiber consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic known as a core. A
core is a light transmission area of the fiber. The more the area of the core, the more light
will be transmitted into the fiber.

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 o Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main functionality of
the cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at the core interface as to cause the
reflection within the core so that the light waves are transmitted through the fiber.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket. The main purpose
of a jacket is to preserve the fiber strength, absorb shock and extra fiber protection.
Advantages:
▪ Large Bandwidth: The fiber optic cable provides more bandwidth as compared
copper. Therefore, the fiber optic carries more data as compared to copper cable.
▪ Faster speed: Fiber optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This allows the
fiber optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
▪ Low loss: Light signals can travel at much higher speed than electrical signals with no
significant loss of intensity over long distances.
▪ Small size and lightweight: Fiber optic cables are much smaller and lighter than
copper wires or coaxial cables.
▪ Security: Optical fiber offers increased security against unauthorized tampering of
information.
▪ Analog and digital signals transmission: Optical fibers enable transmission of both
analog and digital signals.
Disadvantages:
▪ Optical fibers cannot turn at sharp corners. They can turn at corners having radius of at
least a few inches.
▪ Aligning and joining two fiber optic cables is not so simple and easy as for twisted
copper wire pairs or coaxial cables. It requires special equipment to do so.

❑ Unguided Media (Wireless):

o It is also termed as unbounded media.
o There is no instrument or any physical entity to transmit the data through unguided
media.
o The signal is broadcasted through air and is open to access to all, one has a device with
capability to receive the signal can have access to data.
o The data is transmitted in the form of electromagnetic waves through unguided media.
o Electromagnetic waves transmits through free space in unrestricted manner.
o The wireless transmission can be classified as - Radio waves, Micro waves and
Infrared waves.

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 TYPES OF NETWORKS

Computer network is a system of interconnected computers that enable the computers to

communicate with each other and share their resources, data and applications. Computer networks
may be classified as:
A) Based on geographical area-

▪ Local Area Network(LAN) :

o LAN is usually privately owned and connects computers in a single office
building, campus, etc.
o It is generally used for connecting two or more personal computers through
some transmission medium such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, etc.
o Though the number of computers connected in a LAN is limited, the data is
transferred at an extremely faster rate.

▪ Metropolitan Area Network(MAN) :

o MAN is a network of computers that covers a large area like a city.
o The size of MAN generally lies between that of LAN and WAN, thus the
geographical area covered by MAN is comparatively larger than LAN but
smaller than WAN.
o It is generally owned by private organizations.
o It is generally connected with the help of optical fibers, copper wires, etc.

▪ Wide Area Network(WAN) :

o WAN is a group of computers that are connected in a large area such as country,
continent, etc.
o The size of MAN generally lies between that of LAN and WAN, thus the
geographical area covered by MAN is comparatively larger than LAN but
smaller than WAN.
o It is generally owned by private organizations.
o It is generally connected with the help of optical fibers, copper wires, etc.

B) Based on how computer nodes are used

▪ Client Server Networks (CSNs):

o Also known as client server architecture.
o The architecture is a two-tier architecture, which is divided in two layers.
o The first layer comprises of the user interface that is located on the client’s
desktop.
o The second layer is the database management layer, which is located on the
server machine so as to provide services to the clients.
o CSN basically consists of two computers, client computer and server computer.

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 o The client computers send requests related to processing of data to the server
computer, whereas the server computers receive and execute the requests sent
by the client computer.
Advantages are:
o There is a proper distribution of computing tasks between client computer and
server computer.
o All the important data is stored on the server and only authorized persons are
allowed to access the data from the server.
o It is easy to manage the data updates as data is stored in a centralized manner
on a server.
o Multiple client computers having varying hardware configuration are able to
interact with a server.
Disadvantages are:
o If the server crashes, the complete network breaks down.
o When the load on the server and network traffic increases, the network
congestion may occur.

▪ Peer-to-peer Network(PPN) :

o There is no separate division as clients and servers in PPN.

o Every computer in PPN is treated equally and can send as well as receive the
messages directly.
o This type of architecture is commonly used for file sharing and chatting in real
time.
o Computers connected in PPN can easily share their resources with the other
computers.
o PPN is used in variety of fields such as business, education,
telecommunications, military, etc.
Advantages are:
o It is relatively cheaper than CSN, as the centralized server is not required.
o It is simpler than CSN because computer connected in the network can
communicate efficiently with each other.
Disadvantages are:
o It is less secure because message flows freely between the computers.
o It is decentralized as there is no specific space for the storage of files.

▪ Value-added Network(VAN) :
o VAN is a network that is usually adds the value to the transmitted information
by providing value-added services.
o It is generally used by the companies privately for Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI).
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 o It also provides the auto error detection, error correction and protocol
conversion services for data modification.

NETWORK TOPOLOGIES

▪ Network topology refers to the arrangement of computers in a network through some

physical medium such as cable, optical fiber, etc.
▪ Topology determines the shape of the network and the communication path between
the various computers of the network.

Types of Network Topologies are:

(i) Mesh Topology

▪ Every device has a dedicate point-to-point link to every other device. This dedicate
link carries traffic only between the two devices it connects.
Advantages are:
▪ Message delivery is reliable and secure due to the presence of dedicated link.
▪ The use of dedicated links guarantees that each connection can carry its own data
load, eliminating the traffic problems that can occur when links must be shared by
multiple devices.
▪ It is robust. If one link becomes unusable, it does not affect the entire system.
Disadvantages are:
▪ Because every device is connected to every other device, installation and
maintenance is difficult.
▪ Hardware required to connect each link (I/O ports and cables) can be prohibitively
expensive.

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(ii) Star Topology
▪ Each device has a dedicated point-to-point link only to a central controller, called
a hub.
▪ The devices are not directly linked to one another.
▪ It does not allow direct traffic between devices.
▪ The controller acts as an exchange: If one device wants to send data to another, it
sends the data to the controller, which then transmits the data to the other connected
device.
▪ Each device needs only one link and one I/O port to connect it to any number of
other devices.
Advantages are:
▪ It is easy to install and reconfigure.
▪ The use of dedicated links guarantees that each connection can carry its own data
load, eliminating the traffic problems that can occur when links must be shared by
multiple devices.
▪ It is robust. If one link fails, only that link is affected. All other links remain active
▪ Fault identification and fault isolation is easy.
Disadvantages are:
▪ If hub fails, the whole system is dead.
▪ It is expensive due to the cost of hub.

(iii) Ring Topology;

▪ Each device has a dedicated point-to-point connection with only two devices on
either side of it.
▪ Data is passed along the ring in one direction, from device to device, until it reaches
its destination.
▪ Each device in the ring incorporates a repeater, which passes the message to next
node when the message is intended for another node.

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 Advantages are:
▪ Each device is linked to only its immediate neighbor so, it is easy to install and
reconfigure.
▪ To add or delete a device requires changing only two connections.
▪ Addition of new nodes does not degrade the performance of the network.
▪ Fault identification and fault isolation is easy.
Disadvantages are:
▪ The failure of one node in the ring topology affects the other nodes in the ring.
▪ It is relatively expensive to construct the ring topology.

(iv) Bus Topology

▪ It is multipoint.
▪ One long cable act as a backbone to link all the devices in a network.
▪ Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps.
▪ A drop line is a connection running between the device and the main cable.
▪ A tap is a connector to splices into the main cable.
Advantages are:
▪ It requires less cabling.
▪ It is relatively simple to install and configure.
▪ The failure of one computer does not affect the other computers in the network.
Disadvantages are:
▪ It is difficult to reconnection and fault isolation.
▪ The failure of backbone cable results in the breakdown of the entire network.
▪ Addition of new nodes degrades the performance of the network.

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(v) Hybrid Topology
▪ It is the combination of multiple topologies, used for constructing a single large
topology.
▪ It is created when two different network topologies are interconnected.
▪ It generally combines the features of the two topologies and is therefore more
effective and efficient than the individual topologies.
Advantages are:
▪ It is more effective as it uses multiple topologies.
▪ It contains the best and efficient features of the combined topologies from which it
is constructed.
Disadvantages are:
▪ It is more complex than the other topologies.
▪ It is difficult to install and reconfigure.

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