DATA COMMUNICATION

FUNDAMENTALS

1
A SIMPLIFIED COMMUNICATION MODEL

2
 Analog vs Digital Transmission
Terminology
• Analog data take on continuous values in a given
interval, e.g. audio (human speech) or video.
• Digital data take on discrete values, e.g. text or
integers.
• Signals are electromagnetic representations of data.
• Signaling is the physical propagation of the signal
along a suitable medium.
• Transmission is the communication of data by the
propagation and processing of signals.
3
• An analog signal is a continuously varying
electromagnetic wave.
• Used in early telephone systems.
• Analog signals had the drawback that they
attenuate (weaken) over long distances. Needed
amplifiers to boost the signals. However,
amplifiers distort the signal and introduce noise.
• A digital signal is a sequence of binary voltage
pulses (0’s and 1’s).
• Digital transmission avoids the noise problem by
encoding the analog signal into digital form. The
digitized version is then sent across the network.
4
Analog vs Digital, cont.

• The original analog signal is then recreated at the

receiving end. The signal is propagated over longer
distances by the use of repeaters.
• A repeater receives the signal, reconstructs the
pattern of 0’s and 1’s, then retransmits the new
signal.

5
Why Digital?
• Ease with which digital signals are generated
compared to analog.
• Digital signals are subject to less distortion and
interference than are analog signals.
• Easier to detect and correct errors in digital data.
• Digital circuits are :
– more reliable
– more flexible
– cheaper

6
 Data Encoding
Both analog and digital data can be encoded as either
analog or digital signals.
• Digital Data -> Digital Signals
The simplest form of encoding digital data is to assign
one voltage level to binary 1 and another to binary 0.
For e.g. A sending device might use a negative
voltage (-V) to represent a binary 1 and a positive
voltage (+V) to represent a binary 0.
The receiving device senses the voltage and interprets
a +V as a binary 0 and a -V as binary 1.

7
Transmission of Binary Data:

In reality the transmitted signals are

attenuated (reduced) and distorted by the
transmission medium.
8
 The extent of attenuation and distortion is strongly
influenced by:
• the type of transmission medium
• the bit rate of the transmitted data
• the distance between the 2 communicating devices.
The simplest encoding scheme is the Non-Return-
to-Zero (NRZ) scheme, -V => binary 1 and +V =>
binary 0.
More complex encoding schemes are used to
improve performance. For e.g. Manchester
encoding scheme. Binary 1 encoded as low-high
signal. Binary 0 encoded as a high-low signal.
9
10
Analog Data -> Digital Signals
• Analog data are often digitized in order to be
transmitted via digital transmission facilities. Pulse
Code Modulation (PCM ) is a technique used for this.
• A codec (coder -decoder)converts analog signals to
digital data - used mainly for voice data.
• The transmission of data across a long distance
requires a modulator at one end to modulate the signal,
i.e. modify the carrier wave. A demodulator is required
at the other end to demodulate or reproduce the
original signal.
A modem is a device which performs modulation and
demodulation functions. 11
 Terminology
• Attenuation - a measure of how much loss a
signal experiences when it travels down a
communication medium.
• Amplitude - the strength of the signal (expressed
as volts or decibels).
• Baud Rate - a measure of the number of line
changes which occur every second. For binary
signal, this is expressed in bits per second (bps). If
each signal represents 1 bit, baud is the same as
bps. When each signal represents more than one
bit, baud does not = bps. More precise to refer to it
as the symbol rate.

12
• Noise - background interference. Noise
makes it impossible to achieve the
maximum transmission rate of a system.
• Frequency - The rate of change the signal
undergoes every second, (expressed in
Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second. A 30 Hz
signal changes 30 times a second.

13
 Frequency, cont.

A cycle is one complete movement of the wave from its

original position and back to the same point again.
The number of cycles (waves) per second is called Hertz.
14
• Bandwidth - the frequency range (or
spectrum) of a signal. It is measured as the
difference between the highest and lowest
frequencies.
• The maximum rate at which the hardware
can change a signal is known as its effective
bandwidth. Bandwidth is measured in
cycles per second or Hertz.
• The capacity of the channel is related to the
effective bandwidth and is measured in bits
per second.
15
 Relationship between Data Rate and
Bandwidth

In the 1924 H. Nyquist discovered a fundamental

relationship between the bandwidth of a system and
the maximum number of bits per second that can be
transmitted over that system. It is called the Nyquist
Sampling Theorem which states that:
the maximum data rate in bits per second that can
be achieved over a transmission system of
bandwidth B is 2B.
16
E.g. A voice channel is used to transmit data via
modem. Assuming a bandwidth of 3100 Hz, then
the transmission capacity of the channel (i.e. the
maximum data rate) is 2B = 6200 bps.
The above formula is based on the assumption that
the channel is noiseless and the transmission system
uses 2 voltage levels - one bit for each signal
element.
If the system uses K possible values for voltage,
instead of two, Nyquist’s theorem states that the
maximum data rate possible, in bits per second is:
D = 2Blog2K
17
Nyquist’s formula provides an absolute maximum
that cannot be achieved in practice. Noise is inherent
in real communication systems, making impossible
to achieve the theoretical maximum data rate.
•In 1948, Claude Shannon extended Nyquist’s work
to specify the maximum data rate that can be
achieved over a transmission system that introduces
noise. Shannon’s theorem states that:
C = Blog2(1 + S/N)
where C is the effective channel capacity
B is the hardware bandwidth, S is the average signal
power and N is the average noise power.
18
• The term S/N is called as the signal-to-noise
ratio.
• It is not represented directly. Instead,
engineers use the quantity 10log10S/N, which
is measured in decibels (dB).
For e.g. a S/N ratio of 100 is represented as
20 dB and a ratio of 1000 is represented as 30
dB.
• In practice, Shannon’s theorem determines
how fast one can send data across a voice
telephone call. 19
Application of Shannon’s theorem:
Voice telephone system has a S/N ratio of ~
30dB and a bandwidth of approximately 3000
Hz. The max. no. of bits that can be
transmitted across such a system is limited to:
c = 3000 log2(1 + 1000)
i.e. approximately 30,000 bps (30kbps).
Faster transmission will only be possible after
the S/N ratio is improved.
20