Embedded Systems – Protocols
Vimukthi Pathirana
MEng. (AIT), BSc (Hons) Eng. (AIT)
Content
• Onboard Communication Interfaces: I2C, SPI, CAN, UART, Parallel
interface
• External Communication Interfaces: RS232 & RS485, USB, infrared,
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, GPRS, GPS
Communication Interface
• To communicate with various subsystems of the embedded system
and with the external world
1. Device/board level communication interface
(Onboard communication interface)
2. Product level communication interface
(External communication interface)
Onboard Communication Interface
• The communication channel which interconnects the various
components within and embedded product is referred as
device/board level communication interface
Example: Serial interfaces like I2C, SPI, UART, 1-wire ect
Parallel bus interface
External Communication Interface
• Data transfer between the embedded system and other devices or
modules.
• Could be either wired or wireless media and it can be a serial or
parallel interface.
Example: Wireless communication interfaces
Wired communication interfaces
External Communication Interface
Example: Wireless communication interface: Infrared (IR),
Bluetooth (BT), Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), Radio frequency (RF),
GPRS etc.
Wired communication interdace: RS-232C / RS-422 /
RS-485, USB, Eithernet (TCP-IP), IEEE 1394 port,
Parallel port etc.
Onboard Communication Interface
1. I2C (Inter Integrated Circuit) Bus
2. SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) Bus
3. UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter)
4. 1-Wires Interface
5. Parallel Interface
I2C (Inter Integrated Circuit)
• I2C – pronounced, I square C
• Is a synchronous bi-directional half duplex two wire serial interface
bus (one-directional communication at a given point of time)
• Has 2 lines SCL (serial clock line) and SDA (serial data line)
• Easy way of connection between microprocessor / microcontroller
systems and the peripheral chips.
I2C (Inter Integrated Circuit)
• Advantages of using I2C
• Has a low pin/signal count even with numerous devices on the bus
• Flexible, as it supports multi-master and multi slave communication
• Simple as it only uses 2 bi directional wires to establish communication among
multiple devices
• Adaptable as it can adapt to the needs of various slave devices
• Disadvantages of using I2C
• Limited speed
• Require more space
• May become complex as the number of devices increases.
SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface)
• Is a synchronous bi-directional full duplex four wire serial interface bus
• Introduced by Motorola
• Single master multi-slave system
• Easy way of connection between microcontrollers and small peripherals
like SD cards, sensors, registers, where speed is required.
SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface)
• Advantages of using UART
• Simple to operate, no complicated slave addressing system like I2C.
• Fastest compared to UART and I2C
• No start and stop bit. Can continuously transmit without interruption.
• Disadvantages of using UART
• More pin ports are occupied, the practical limit to a number of devices.
• No flow control specified, and no acknowledgement mechanism confirms
whether data is received unlike I2C
• No form of error check unlike in UART
• Only 1 master
UART
• Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter
• Can operate in all Simplex, half-duplex and full-duplex
• Asynchronous serial transmission protocol
UART
• Advantages of using UART
• Simple to operate, well documented as it is a widely used method with a lot of
resources online
• No clock needed
• Parity bit to allow for error checking
• Disadvantages of using UART
• Size of the date frame is limited to only 9 bits
• Cannot use multiple master systems and slaves
• Baud rates of each UART must be within 10% of each other to prevent data loss
• Low data transmission speeds
1-Wire interface
• Is a device communication bus system, that provides low-speed data,
signalling, and power over a single conductor.
• Similar to I2C, but with lower data rates and longer range.
• Communicate with small inexpensive devices such as digital
thermometers and weather instruments.
Parallel Communication
• Is a method of conveying multiple binary digits (bits) simultaneously.
• Communication channel is the number of electrical conductors used at
the physical layer to convey bits.
• Parallel communication implies more than one such conductor.
External Communication Interface
1. Wireless communication interface: Infrared (IR), Bluetooth (BT),
Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), Radio frequency (RF), GPRS etc.
2. Wired communication interdace: RS-232C / RS-422 / RS-485, USB,
Eithernet (TCP-IP), IEEE 1394 port, Parallel port etc.
Infrared (IR) Transmission
• The transmitter of an IR LED inside the circuit, which emits infrared
light for every electric pulse given to it.
• The LED on being biased emits light of the wavelength of 940mm as a
series of pulses, corresponding to the button pressed.
Ex: Remore Controllers
Bluetooth
• For short distances (using short-wavelength UHF band from 2.4 to
2.485 GHz) for exchanging data over radio waves.
• Originally conceived as a wireless alternative to Rs-232 data cables.
• Uses a radio technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum.
Wi-Fi
• Uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed internet and
• Originally conceived as a wireless alternative to Rs-232 data cables.
• Uses a radio technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum.
RS-232C / RS-422 / RS-485
• Rs-232 extend the UART communication signal for external data
communication
RS-232C / RS-422 / RS-485
