Chapter 1

Introduction

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 1-1 DATA COMMUNICATIONS
The term telecommunication means communication at a
distance. The word data refers to information presented
in whatever form is agreed upon by the parties creating
and using the data. Data communications are the
exchange of data between two devices via some form of
transmission medium such as a wire cable.

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 Figure 1.1 Five components of data communication

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 Figure 1.2 Data flow (simplex, half-duplex, and full-duplex)

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 1-2 NETWORKS

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as 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
network. A link can be a cable, air, optical fiber, or any
medium which can transport a signal carrying
information.

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 Network Criteria
 A network must be able to meet a certain number of
criteria. The most important of these are performance,
reliability, and security
 Performance
 Depends on Network Elements
 Measured in terms of Delay and Throughput
 Reliability
 Failure rate of network components
 Measured in terms of availability/robustness
 Security
 Data protection against corruption/loss of data due to:
 Errors
 Malicious users

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 Physical Structures

 Type of Connection
 Point to Point - single transmitter and receiver
 Multipoint - multiple recipients of single transmission
 Physical Topology
 Connection of devices
 Type of transmission - unicast, mulitcast, broadcast

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 Figure 1.3 Types of connections: point-to-point and multipoint

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 Types of Computer Networks

 Network hardware discuss technical issues involved in network

design.

 The networks are examined under two categories:

• Transmission Technology

• Scale
 1. Transmission Technology

 There are two types of transmission technology that are in

widespread use:

• Broadcast links

• Point-to-point links
 1.1 Broadcast Links
 The communication channel is shared by all the machines on the
network.

 Packets sent by any machine are received by all the others.

 An address field within each packet specifies the intended recipient.

 Some broadcast systems also support transmission to a subset of the

machines, which known as multicasting.
1.2 Point-to-point links
 Point-to-point networks consist of many connections between
individual pairs of machines.

 It is connection/communication between two machines.

 Point-to-point transmission with exactly one sender and exactly one

receiver is sometimes called unicasting.
 2. Scale
 On the basis of geographical area covered, network can be divided
into the following categories:
 2.1 Personal Area Network (PAN)
A PAN is a network that is used for communicating among computers
and computer devices (including telephones) in close proximity of
around a few meters within a room.

 Bluetooth - A short-range wireless network,

– Wireless keyboard, mouse etc. connected to a desktop
– Follows a master-slave paradigm
– The system unit (the PC) is normally the master, talking to
the mouse, keyboard, etc., as slaves.
– The master tells the slaves
• What addresses to use
• When they can broadcast
• How long they can transmit
• What frequencies they can use, etc.
 2.2 Local Area Network (LAN)
 A LAN is a privately owned network that operates within and nearby
a single building like a home, office or factory.

 LAN’s enable the sharing of resources such as files or hardware

devices that may be needed by multiple users.

 LAN’s can be either wired or wireless. Twisted pair, coax or fibre

optic cable can be used in wired LAN’s.
 Nodes in a LAN are linked together with a certain topology. These
topologies include: Bus, Ring and Star.
 Local Area Network (LAN)

 Example:
 WiFi: wireless LANs called IEEE 802.11
– every computer has a radio modem and an antenna that it
uses to communicate with other computers.
– each computer talks to a device called an AP(Access Point),
wireless router, or base station, relays packets between the
wireless computers and also between them and the Internet.

 Ethernet: wired LANs called IEEE 802.3

– Each computer speaks the Ethernet protocol and connects to
a box called a switch with a point-to-point link.
– The job of the switch is to relay packets between computers
that are attached to it.
 2.3 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
 A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a large computer network that
usually spans a city or a large campus.

 A MAN is optimized for a larger geographical area than a LAN,

ranging from several blocks of buildings to entire cities.

 A MAN typically covers an area of between 5 and 50 km diameter.

 Examples of MAN: Telephone company network that provides a high

speed DSL to customers and cable TV network.
2.4 Wide Area Network (WAN)
 WAN covers a large geographic area such as country, continent or
even whole of the world.

 A WAN is two or more LANs connected together. The LANs can be

many miles apart.

 To cover great distances, WANs may transmit data over leased high-
speed phone lines or wireless links such as satellites.

 Multiple LANs can be connected together using devices such as

bridges, routers, or gateways, which enable them to share data.

 The world's most popular WAN is the Internet.

 Figure 1.11 WANs: a switched WAN and a point-to-point WAN

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 Figure 1.12 A heterogeneous network made of four WANs and two LANs

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3. Network Topology

 The topology of a network is the geometric representation of the

relationship of all the links and linking devices (usually called nodes) to
one another.

 There are four basic topologies possible: mesh, star, bus, and ring.
 3.1 Mesh Topology
 Here every device has a point to point link to every other device.

 Node 1 must be connected with n-1 nodes.

 A fully connected mesh can have n(n-1)/2 physical channels to link n

devices.

 It must have n-1 I/O ports.

 Applications:
1. Telephone Regional office.
2. WAN.(Wide Area Network).
Figure: A fully connected mesh topology (five devices)
 Mesh Topology: Advantages

1. They use dedicated links so each link can only carry its own data
load. So traffic problem can be avoided.

2. It is robust. If any one link get damaged it cannot affect others.

3. It gives privacy and security.(Message travels along a dedicated

link)

4. Fault identification and fault isolation are easy.

 Mesh Topology: Disadvantages

1. The amount of cabling and the number of I/O ports required are
very large. Since every device is connected to each devices through
dedicated links.

2. The sheer bulk of wiring is larger than the available space.

3. Hardware required to connected each device is highly expensive.

3.2 Star Topology
 Here each device has a dedicated point-to-point link to the central
controller called “Hub”(Act as a Exchange).
 There is no direct traffic between devices.
 The transmission are occurred only through the central “hub”.
 When device 1 wants to send data to device 2; First sends the data to
hub. Which then relays the data to the other connected device.
 Applications:
1. Star topology used in Local Area Networks(LANs).
2. High speed LAN often used STAR.
Figure: A star topology connecting four stations
 Star Topology: Advantages

1. Less expensive than mesh since each device is connected only to the
hub.
2. Installation and configuration are easy.
3. Less cabling is needed than mesh.
4. Robustness.(if one link fails, only that links is affected. All other
links remain active)
5. Easy to fault identification & to remove parts.
6. No disruptions to the network than connecting(or) removing
devices.
 Star Topology: Disadvantages

1. Even it requires less cabling than mesh when compared with other
topologies (Ring or bus), it is still large.

2. Dependency of the whole network on one single point(hub). When it

goes down. The whole system is dead.
 3.3 Bus Topology
 A bus topology is multipoint.

 Here one long cable act as a backbone to link all the devices are
connected to the backbone by drop lines and taps.

 Drop line- is the connection b/w the devices and the cable.

 Tap- is the splitter that cut the main link.

 This allows only one device to transmit at a time.

 Applications:
1. Most computer motherboard.
Figure: A bus topology connecting three stations
 Bus Topology: Advantages

Advantages:
1. Ease of installation
2. Less cabling

Disadvantages:
1. Difficult reconfiguration and fault isolation.
2. Difficult to add new devices.
3. Signal reflection at tap can degradation in quality.
4. If any fault in backbone can stops all transmission.
 3.4 Ring Topology
 Here each device has a dedicated connection with two devices on
either side.
 The signal is passed in one direction from device to device until it
reaches the destination and each device have repeater.
 When one device received signals instead of intended another device,
its repeater then regenerates the data and passes them along.
 To add or delete a device requires changing only two connections.
 Applications:
1. Ring topologies are found in some office buildings or school
campuses.
2. Today high speed LANs made this topology less popular.
Figure: A ring topology connecting six stations
 Ring Topology

Advantages:
1. Easy to install.
2. Easy to reconfigure.
3. Fault identification is easy.

Disadvantages:
1. Unidirectional traffic.
2. Break in a single ring can break entire network.
 Figure: A hybrid topology: a star backbone with three bus networks

A network can be hybrid. For example, we can have a main star topology with
each branch connecting several stations in a bus topology.
 Figure 1.10 An isolated LAN connecting 12 computers to a hub in a closet

1.37
 1-3 THE INTERNET

The Internet has revolutionized many aspects of our daily

lives. It has affected the way we do business as well as the
way we spend our leisure time. The Internet is a
communication system that has brought a wealth of
information to our fingertips and organized it for our use.

Topics discussed in this section:

A Brief History
The Internet Today (ISPs)

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 Figure 1.13 Hierarchical organization of the Internet

1.39
 1-4 PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS

In this section, we define two widely used terms: protocols

and standards. First, we define protocol, which is
synonymous with rule. Then we discuss standards, which
are agreed-upon rules. The key elements of a protocol are
syntax, semantics and timing

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 1-4 PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS

Standard: Guidelines to be followed when a new design is to be formulated.

Protocol: The working set of rules and specifications that are used to make
something happen.

More info-
Standard
An example of standards would be 802 standards for ethernet,3GPP for mobile
communication etc. One of them, 802.3u, lays down the specifications related to
FastEthernet. So, if anyone were to design a hardware or software related to
FastEthernet, they would have to follow those specifications. And that new design
would work with all the pre-existing, as well as future software's | hardware's
implementations of FastEthernet.
Protocol
An example of protocol would be TCP/IP,DHCP,ICMP,GTP,DIAMETER,RADIUS
etc. The specifics of the above would detail the addressing format, number of bits
used, methods to decide grouping, size of data chunks and more.

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 Elements of a Protocol

 Syntax
 Structure or format of the data
 Indicates how to read the bits - field delineation
 Semantics
 Interprets the meaning of the bits
 Knows which fields define what action
 Timing
 When data should be sent and what
 Speed at which data should be sent or speed at which it is being
received.

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