Jahmal Richard Data Communication

Data Communication
1. Explaining the operations of simplex and duplex data communications

Simplex
Data in a simplex channel is always one way. Simplex channels are not often used because it is not possible to send back error or control signals to the transmit end. It's like a one way street. An example of simplex is Television, or Radio.

Half Duplex A half-duplex channel can send and receive, but not at the same time. It's like a one-lane bridge where two way traffic must give way in order to cross. Only one end transmits at a time, the other end receives. In addition, it is possible to perform error detection and request the sender to retransmit information that arrived corrupted. Another example of half-duplex is talk-back radio, and CB Radio (Citizens Band). You might have seen movies where truckies (drivers of very big trucks) communicate to each other, and when they want the other person to speak they say "over". This is because only one person can talk at a time. Full Duplex Data can travel in both directions simultaneously. There is no need to switch from transmit to receive mode like in half duplex. Its like a two lane bridge on a two-lane highway. Have you ever watched these television talk shows where the host has a number of people on the show, and they all try to talk at once. Well, that's full duplex! Of course, in the world of data communications, full duplex allows both way communication simultaneously. An example can be a consumer which uses a cable connection to not only receive TV channels, but also the same cable to support their phone and Internet surfing.

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2. Explaining the operations of synchronous and asynchronous data communications

Asynchronous means "not synchronous". Synchronous means "agreed timing for the sending of ones and zeroes (bits)"--that is, the transmit and receive sides of the communications circuit have bothered to coordinate (synchronize) their signal and have agreed just what a digital bit encoded into the signal looks like. All communications paths have carrier signals, the signals have a frequency, and encoding bits into the signal involves spacing them out at regular intervals, and carving out just how long it takes to transmit a bit Asynchronous communication utilizes a transmitter, a receiver and a wire without coordination about the timing of individual bits. There is no coordination between the two end points on just how long the transmiter leaves the signal at a certain level to represent a single digital bit. Each device uses a clock to measure out the 'length' of abit. The transmitting device simply transmits. The receiving device has to look at the incoming signal and figure out what it is receiving and coordinate and retime its clock to match the incoming signal.

3. Explaining the use and importance of regenerators in digital systems 4. Explaining the concepts of mutual information and channel capacity Each time the source (transmitter) sends a symbol, it is said to use the channel.The channel capacity is the maximum average information that can be sent per channel use.By definition, channel capacity (C) is the
maximum data rate at which reliable transmission of information over the channel is possible. At rates R<C reliable transmission of information over the channel is possible and at rates R>C reliable transmission is not possible. Shannon formula states that : C=max_p(x) { I(x;y) } where I(x;y) denotes the mutual information between X (channel input) and Y (channel output) and the maximization is carried out over all input probability distributions of the channel ( p(x) ). the mutual information between to random variables X and Y is defined as I(x;y)=xy{ p(x)p(y|x)log[p(x,y)/( p(x)p(y) )] } where the mutual information is in bits and the logarithm is in base 2.

5. Explaining the basic operating principles of PCM and FSK, PSK and DPSK digital modulation techniques
If the modulating signal is digital, the modulation is termed amplitude-shift keying (ASK), frequencyshift keying (FSK), or phase-shift keying (PSK), since in this case the discrete amplitudes of the digital signal can be said to shift the parameter of the carrier signal between a finite number of values. For a modulating signal with only two amplitudes, binary is sometimes added before these terms.

Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier wave. The simplest FSK is binary FSK (BFSK). BFSK uses a pair of discrete frequencies to transmit binary (0s and 1s)

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information. With this scheme, the "1" is called the mark frequency and the "0" is called the space frequency. The time domain of an FSK modulated carrier is illustrated in the figures to the right Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, DVD and Compact Disc formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems. A PCM stream is a digital representation of an analog signal, in which the magnitude of the analog signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, with each sample being quantized to the nearest value within a range of digital steps Differential phase shift keying (DPSK) Differential phase shift keying (DPSK), a common form of phase modulation conveys data by changing the phase of carrier wave. In Phase shift keying, High state contains only one cycle but DPSK contains one and half cycle.

Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave).

6. Stating the basic principles of error detection and correction, including CRC and Hamming Codes
Error detection and correction or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital

data over unreliable communication channels. Many communication channels are subject to channel noise, and thus errors may be introduced during transmission from the source to a receiver. Error detection techniques allow detecting such errors, while error correction enables reconstruction of the original data. A cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is an error detecting code commonly used in digital networks and storage devices to detect accidental changes to raw data. Blocks of data entering these systems get a short check value attached, based on the remainder of a polynomial division of their contents; on retrieval the calculation is repeated, and corrective action can be taken against presumed data corruption if the check values do not match. CRCs are so called because the check (data verification) value is a redundancy (it adds no information to the message) and the algorithm is based on cyclic codes. CRCs are popular because they are simple to implement in binary hardware, easy to analyze mathematically, and particularly good at detecting common errors caused by noise in transmission channels. Because the check value has a fixed length, the function that generates it is occasionally used as a hash function Hamming codes are a family of linear error-correcting codes. Hamming codes can detect up to two and correct up to one bit errors. By contrast, the simple parity code cannot correct errors, and can detect only an odd number of errors. Hamming codes are special in that they are perfect codes, that is, they achieve the highest possible rate for codes with their block length and minimum distance.

7. Stating the basic principles of Intercomputer Communications- UART and USART

UART - Universal Asyncronous Receiver Transmitter USART - Universal Syncronous Asyncronous Receiver Transmitter

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UART is a type of "asynchronous receiver/transmitter", a piece of computer hardware that translates data between parallel and serial forms. UARTs are commonly used in conjunction with communication standards such as EIA, RS-232, RS-422 or RS-485. The universal designation indicates that the data format and transmission speeds are configurable and that the actual electric signaling levels and methods (such as differential signaling etc.) typically are handled by a special driver circuit external to the UART. a UART that can also communicate synchronously; these devices are called USARTs (universal synchronous/asynchronous receiver/transmitter).

8. Describing the commonly used demodulation techniques

Demodulation is the act of extracting the original information-bearing signal from a modulated carrier wave. A demodulator is an electronic circuit (or computer program in a software-defined radio) that is [1] used to recover the information content from the modulated carrier wave. These terms are traditionally used in connection with radio receivers, but many other systems use many kinds of demodulators. Another common one is in a modem, which is a contraction of the terms modulator/demodulator.

9. Describing Ring, Star and Bus computer networking topologies

A network topology describes a network's layout and arrangement, the way in which the computers and hardware (printers, scanners, etc), known as nodes, are all linked together. There are 3 key network topologies each of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. Bus topology The type of network topology is where all the nodes of the network are connected to a central line. All data transmitted between nodes goes through the central cable.

Jahmal Richard Data Communication

Advantages

Easy to add and remove nodes Requires small amount of cable compared to other topologies so is less expensive and easier to setup and troubleshoot.

Disadvantages

A failure in the central line means the whole network will go down. Only one route for data to take so will performance will decrease as more data is transmitted.

Ring topology In a ring topology all the nodes are connected together in a loop. Data is transmitted from node to node in a single direction.

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Advantages

As all the data can only travel in one direction the transmission of messages is simple and high rates can be achieved.

There is no dependence or need of a central computer or mainframe.

Disadvantages

If on node or line fails then data cannot continue to be transmitted between all the rest of the nodes in the network.

Harder to add new nodes into the system, requires the network to be disrupted.

Star topology In the star network topology each node is connected directly to a central computer or mainframe.

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Advantages

More secure connection as data is sent directly between nodes (unlike ring networks) A failure of the cable will only affect one node, hence faults are easier to pinpoint. Easy to add new nodes without any disruption

Disadvantages

Requires and is dependant upon a central computer. Requires more cable and is therefore more expensive to setup.

Sources http://uva.ulb.ac.be/cit_courseware/datacomm/dc_014.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamming_code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demodulation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_asynchronous_receiver/transmitter ..