Bulehora University

College of Informatics
Department of IT
Chapter two:

Data communication

By Sadik A.

08/23/2025 Data Communication and Computer network

CONTENTS
• Under these chapter we will discuss in deatils about:-

The meaning and Types of Data transmission

The concepts and Terminolgy used in Data Transmission

What is Analog and digital data transmission?

Describe the Transmission Impairments

Transmission media and it’s types

Descuss the network topologies

08/23/2025 Data Communication and Computer network
 Meaning and Types of Data transmission

• Data communication is the process of sharing ideas, Information and

messages with others in a particular time and place. It refers to the
exchange of data between two or more parties. Parities may refer to
person’s organization or devices or machines.
• General models of data communication.

08/23/2025 Data Communication and Computer network

What is data transmission?

• It refers to the movement of data from the source device to the destination device
in the form of bits between two or more digital devices.

• This transfer of data takes place via some form of transmission media (for
example, coaxial cable, fiber optics etc.)

 Types of Data Transmission

 1. Parallel transmission

• In parallel trasmission:-

 All the bits of data are transmitted simultaneously on separate communication

lines.

All n bits of one group are transmitted with each clock pulse from one device to
another i.e. multiple bits are sent with each clock pulse.

Parallel transmission is used for short distance communication.

As shown in the fig, eight separate wires are used to transmit 8 bit data from
sender to receiver.
cont. ..

• Parallel transmission is :-

Speedy way of transmitting data as multiple bits are transmitted simultaneously with a
single clock pulse.

Costly method of data transmission as it requires n lines to transmit n bits at the same time.
2. Serial Transmission
• Data is transmitted as a single bit at a time using a fixed time interval for each bit.
This mode of transmission is known as bit-serial transmission.

• In which various bits of data are transmitted serially one after the other.

• It requires only one communication line rather than n lines to transmit data from
sender to receiver.

• In serial transmission, only single bit is sent with each clock pulse.

• The internal circuitry of computer transmits data in parallel fashion. So in order to

change this parallel data into serial data, conversion devices are used.
cont. ..

• Serial transmission is used for long distance communication.

As shown in fig., suppose an 8-bit data 11001010 is to be sent from source to
destination ,
cont. ..
• Use of single communication line reduces the transmission line cost by the factor
of n.

• Use of conversion devices at source and destination end may lead to increase in
overall transmission cost.

• Is slower as compared to parallel transmission as bits are transmitted serially one

after the other.
Data transmission terminologies
Transmitter: this refers to any machine or computer which sends data during data
transmission.

Receiver: destination of the transmitting data or information.

Transmission media: media which exists between the source and destination.

Guided media. Waves are guided along a physical path; twisted pair, optical fiber, coaxial
cable

Unguided media. Waves are not guided; air waves, radio, etc

Direct link. Signal goes from transmitter to receiver with no intermediate devices, other
than amplifiers and repeaters
cont. ..
Point-to-point link. Guided media with direct link between two devices, with
those two devices being the only ones sharing the medium.

Multi point guided configuration. More than two devices can share the same
medium.

Digital data: data in binary format.

Analog data: data in electrical signal format etc.

Analog and digital data transmission
• Analog data transmission: the transmission of a signal varying continuously with
time.

• Digital data transmission : when binary coding is used, the pulses are called
binary pulses and each pulse is said to represent one bit. The speed at which the
bits can be transmitted is represented in units of bits per second.
Analog and digital data
• Analog • Digital
• Discrete values
• Continuous values within
• e.g. text, integers
some interval
• Concerned with content
• e.g. sound, video
• Analog signal transmitted • Integrity endangered by noise,
attenuation etc.
without regard to content
• Repeaters used
• May be analog or digital data
• Repeater receives signal
• Attenuated over distance
• Use amplifiers to boost signal • Extracts bit pattern
• Also amplifies noise • Retransmits
• Attenuation is overcome
• Noise is not amplified
Transmission Impairments
• The signal is received will differ from the signal that is transmitted due to various
transmission impairments.

• For analog signal, the impairments cause various modifications that degrade the signal
quality. such us: 
 Attenuation

 Delay distortion

 Noise

 Dispersion

• For digital signal, A binary 1 may be changed into a binary 0 and vice versa due to bit
error.
cont. ..
Attenuation

• For the receiver to interpret the data accurately, the signal must be sufficiently
strong.When the signal passes through the medium, it tends to get weaker.As it
covers distance, it loses strength

Dispersion

• As signal travels through the media, it tends to spread and overlaps. The amount
of dispersion depends upon the frequency used.
cont . ..
Delay distortion

• Signals are sent over media with pre-defined speed and frequency. If the signal
speed and frequency do not match, there are possibilities that signal reaches
destination in arbitrary fashion. In digital media, this is very critical that some bits
reach earlier than the previously sent ones.

Noise

• Random disturbance or fluctuation in analog or digital signal is said to be Noise in

signal, which may distort the actual information being carried.
Transmission media
• Transmission media is a pathway that carries the information from sender to receiver.

• Transmission media is also called as Communication channel. We use different types of

cables or waves to transmit data.

• Data is transmitted normally through electrical or electromagnetic signals.

• An electrical signal is in the form of current.

• An electromagnetic signal is series of electromagnetic energy pulses at various frequencies.

• can be transmitted through copper wires, optical fibers, atmosphere, water and vacuum

• Different Medias have different properties like bandwidth, delay, cost and ease of
installation and maintenance.
Types of Transmission Media
• Transmission media is broadly classified into two groups.

Wired or Guided Media

Wireless or Unguided Media

1. Wired media/ Bounded/Guided
• Majority of networks today are connected by some sort of wiring or cabling.

• These are the cables that are tangible or have physical existence and are limited
by the physical geography.

 There are 3 primary cable types:

i. Coaxial

ii. Twisted pair

iii. Fiber-optic
i. Coaxial cable cont. ..
• Coaxial cable has two wires of copper.

• The core wire lies in center and is

made of solid conductor.

• Core is enclosed in an insulating

sheath. Over the sheath the second
wire is wrapped around and that too in
turn encased by insulator sheath.

• This all is covered by plastic cover.

cont. ..
• Because of its structure coaxial cables • There are three categories of Coax
are capable of carrying high frequency cables namely,
signals than that of twisted pair cables. I. RG-59 (Cable TV),
• The wrapped structure provides it a II. RG-58 (Thin Ethernet) and
good shield against noise and cross
III. RG-11 (Thick Ethernet). RG stands
talk.
for Radio Government.
• It provide high bandwidth rates of up
 It uses the BNC connector to connect
to 450 mbps.
to computers and other devices.
2 Twisted pair cont. ..
• Twisted-pair cable consists of two
insulated strands of copper wire
twisted around each other.

• There are two types of twisted-pair

cable:

1. unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) and

2. shielded twisted-pair (STP) cable.

cont. ..
• UTP is the most popular type of twisted-pair cable and is fast becoming the most popular
LAN cabling.

• It is cheap and easy to use.

• Its performance over long distances is not as good as coaxial cable. while it cover max.
of 100 meter where as coaxial cable 500 meter.

• There are a number of different types (or categories) of UTP cable.

• Most telephone systems use UTP cable (with the RJ11 connector), and many LANs
nowadays also use UTP (with the RJ45 connector).

• UTP cable often is installed using a Registered Jack 45 (RJ-45) connector.

cont. ..
• The RJ-45 is an eight-wire connector
used commonly to connect computers
onto a local-area network (LAN),
especially Ethernets.

• Speed and throughput—10 to 1000

Mbps

• Average cost per node—least expensive The main advantage is it is very cheap

• Media and connector size—Small

and easy to install

• Maximum cable length—100 m (short).

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)

Unshielded Twisted Pair UTP is a four-pair wire medium used in a variety of networks. Each
of the eight copper wires in the UTP cable is covered by insulating material.
-Each pair of wires is twisted around each other. This type of cable relies on the cancellation
effect produced by the twisted wire pairs to limit signal degradation caused by EMI and RFI.
- Reduce crosstalk between the pairs in UTP cable, the number of twists in the wire pairs
varies.

5.25
 Shielded Twisted Pair (STP and ScTP)
STP – Shielded Twisted Pair ScTP – Screened Twisted Pair

• Shielded twisted-pair cable (STP) combines the techniques of shielding, cancellation, and twisting
of wires.

• Each pair of wires is wrapped in metallic foil.

• The four pairs of wires are wrapped in an overall metallic braid or foil.

• A new hybrid of UTP with traditional STP is Screened UTP (ScTP), also known as Foil Twisted
Pair (FTP).

• ScTP is essentially UTP wrapped in a metallic foil shield, or screen.

5.26
color cde cont. ..
According to the 568 standard for UTP, there are color codes.

 568A (for eight wires or four pair of wires)

1. White-green 3. White-orange 5. White-blue 7. White-

brown

2. Green 4. Blue 6. Orange 8. Brown

 568B

1.White-orange 3. White-green 5. White-blue 7. White-brown

2. Orange 4. Blue 6. Green 8. Brown

• For crossover: cross over (1-3, 2-6, 3-1, 6-2) the other remain the same.
UTP Straight-through Cable (568B)

5.28
UTP Cross-over Cable

5.29
Wiring-Diagram

5.30
 Straight- or Crossover

Use straight-through cables for the following cabling:

• Switch to router
• Switch to PC or server
• Hub to PC or server

Use crossover cables for the following cabling:

• Switch to switch
• Switch to hub
• Hub to hub
• Router to router
• PC to PC
• Router to PC
5.31
Straight- or Crossover

5.32
Straight- or Crossover

5.33
Twisted Pair - Applications
• Most common medium
• Telephone network
• Between house and local exchange
• For local area networks (LAN)
• 10Mbps or 100Mbps

5.34
Twisted Pair - Properties

• Cheap
• Easy to work
• Low data rate
• Short range

5.35
UTP Categories

5.36
Wireless media/unbounded
• are the ways of transmitting data without using any cables.

• This transmission uses Microwave, Radio wave, Infrared as transmission media.

• There are two main types of hardware associated with wireless communication in
computing: Bluetooth and 802.11.

• Bluetooth only allows very short-range transmission (typically less than 10m) and
802.11, or wireless Ethernet, is the standard for wireless networking of computers.
cont. ..
• The common wireless Media includes:

1) Microwave : Consists of high frequency waves (1000-3000 MHZ) that travel in

straight lines through the air rather than trough wire.

 Microwave system consists of towers located at interval of 25 to 30 miles on

which dish like antennas are mounted.

 have the capacity to carry large quantities of data,

used for the transmission of television and Telephonic.

cont. ..
2. Satellites : have an integral part of worldwide communications system.

• Point to point Communication system s is very difficult in the case of remote

and isolated location, which is surrounded by oceans, mountain, other obstacles
created by nature.

3.Infrared wave : is used for very short range communication purposes such as
television and its remote. Infrared travels in a straight line hence it is directional by
nature.
Assignment Two
1) list and discus the types, components of coaxial cable and the BNC connector?