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2.1

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Industrial
Communication

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

What is Data Communications

Data Communications can be defined very simply as the transmission of data between two
points. It is one of many functions that must be performed for the processing of information.
With the explosive growth-in computer applications, data connectivity now spans to every
department of the organization.
As services continue to expand across these networks, the need to transparently transport
whatever type of information is requested will become the guiding requirement of the network.
The transparency between the network and the requested services made possible by layered
architectures and well-defined standards is a vital break-through in enhancing modem
information systems. To assure effective network services, data communication managers will
increasingly be asked to integrate transport connections that span a broad range of technical
complexity and employ a diversity of protocols.
The distance over which data moves within a computer may vary from a few thousandths of
an inch, as is the case within a single IC chip, to as much as several feet along the backplane
of the main circuit board. Over such small distances, digital data may be transmitted as direct,
two-level electrical signals over simple copper conductors. Except for the fastest computers,
circuit designers are not very concerned about the shape of the conductor or the analog
characteristics of signal transmission.
Frequently, however, data must be sent beyond the local circuitry that constitutes a computer.
In many cases, the distances involved may be enormous. Unfortunately, as the distance
between the source of a message and its destination increases, accurate transmission
becomes increasingly difficult. This results from the electrical distortion of signals traveling
through long conductors, and from noise added to the signal as it propagates through a
transmission medium. Although some precautions must be taken for data exchange within a
computer, the biggest problems occur when data is transferred to devices outside the
computer's circuitry. In this case, distortion and noise can become so severe that information
is lost.
Data Communications concerns the transmission of digital messages to devices external to
the message source. "External" devices are generally thought of as being independently
powered circuitry that exists beyond the chassis of a computer or other digital message
source. As a rule, the maximum permissible transmission rate of a message is directly
proportional to signal power, and inversely proportional to channel noise. It is the aim of any
communications system to provide the highest possible transmission rate at the lowest
possible power and with the least possible noise.

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

Communication Model

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2.3

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Industrial
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Fundamentals of Data Communication

Bits and Bytes

a) Bits
Computers happen to operate using the base-2 number system, also known as the binary
number system (just like the base-10 number system is known as the decimal number system).
The reason computers use the base-2 system is because it makes it a lot easier to implement
them with current electronic technology. You could wire up and build computers that operate in
base-10, but they would be fiendishly expensive right now. On the other hand, base-2 computers
are relatively cheap.
So computers use binary numbers, and therefore use binary digits in place of decimal digits. The
word bit is a shortening of the words "Binary digIT." Whereas decimal digits have 10 possible
values ranging from 0 to 9, bits have only two possible values: 0 and 1. Therefore, a binary
number is composed of only 0s and 1s, like this: 1011. How do you figure out what the value of the
binary number 1011 is? You do it in the same way we did it above for 6357, but you use a base of
2 instead of a base of 10. So:
(1 * 2^3) + (0 * 2^2) + (1 * 2^1) + (1 * 2^0) = 8 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 11

b) Bytes
Bits are rarely seen alone in computers. They are almost always bundled together into 8-bit
collections, and these collections are called bytes. Why are there 8 bits in a byte? A similar
question is, "Why are there 12 eggs in a dozen?" The 8-bit byte is something that people settled
on through trial and error over the past 50 years.
With 8 bits in a byte, you can represent 256 values ranging from 0 to 255, as shown here:
0 = 00000000
1 = 00000001
2 = 00000010
...
255 = 11111111

When you start talking about lots of bytes, you get into prefixes like kilo, mega and giga, as in
kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte (also shortened to K, M and G, as in Kbytes, Mbytes and Gbytes
or KB, MB and GB). The following table shows the multipliers:
Name

Abbr.

Size

Kilo

2^10 = 1,024

Mega

2^20 = 1,048,576

Giga

2^30 = 1,073,741,824

Tera

2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776

Peta

2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624

Exa

2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976

Zetta

2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

Yotta

2.4

Module :

2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176

Representation codes

Bytes are frequently used to hold individual characters in a text document. In the ASCII
character set, each binary value between 0 and 127 is given a specific character. Most
computers extend the ASCII character set to use the full range of 256 characters available in a
byte. The upper 128 characters handle special things like accented characters from common
foreign languages.
You can see the 127 standard ASCII codes below. Computers store text documents, both on
disk and in memory, using these codes. For example, if you use Notepad in Windows 95/98 to
create a text file containing the words, "Four score and seven years ago," Notepad would use
1 byte of memory per character (including 1 byte for each space character between the words
-- ASCII character 32). When Notepad stores the sentence in a file on disk, the file will also
contain 1 byte per character and per space.
Try this experiment: Open up a new file in Notepad and insert the sentence, "Four score and
seven years ago" in it. Save the file to disk under the name getty.txt. Then use the explorer
and look at the size of the file. You will find that the file has a size of 30 bytes on disk: 1 byte
for each character. If you add another word to the end of the sentence and re-save it, the file
size will jump to the appropriate number of bytes. Each character consumes a byte.
If you were to look at the file as a computer looks at it, you would find that each byte contains
not a letter but a number -- the number is the ASCII code corresponding to the character (see
below). So on disk, the numbers for the file look like this:
F
o
u
r
a
n
d
s
e
v
e
n
70 111 117 114 32 97 110 100 32 115 101 118 101 110

By looking in the ASCII table, you can see a one-to-one correspondence between each
character and the ASCII code used. Note the use of 32 for a space -- 32 is the ASCII code for
a space. We could expand these decimal numbers out to binary numbers (so 32 = 00100000)
if we wanted to be technically correct -- that is how the computer really deals with things.

The ASCII Character Set

Characters sent through a serial interface generally follow the ASCII (American Standard
Code for Information Interchange) character standard. This standard relates binary codes to
printable characters and control codes. Fully 25 percent of the ASCII character set represents
nonprintable control codes, such as carriage return (CR) and line feed (LF). Most modern
character-oriented peripheral equipment abides by the ASCII standard, and thus may be used
interchangeably with different computers.

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THE ASCII TABLE :

Signaling
Analogue and Digital Signals
Continuous signals are analog. Analog data can take any value in a range.
Discrete signals are digital. Digital data can have only a limited number of values (e.g.: 1, 0)
Digital communication facilities are often preferred over analog communication facilities
because of the following digital transmission characteristics:
Stability
Quality
Speed
Capacity/Growth

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Although a digital signal's error loss from noise and interference is much less than that of
analog signals, analog signals are not as affected from attenuation over comparable
distances.

Signal Attenuation and Noise

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Any signal carried on a transmission media will be affected by attenuation and noise.
Attenuation
The decrease in amplitude of signal (current, voltage, power) during its transmission

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from one point to the next. To allow for attenuation, a limit is set on the length of cable
that can be used to ensure that the receiver will properly detect and interpret the
attenuated signal. Signal attenuation increases as function of frequency. The higher
the frequency the greater the attenuation.

Cross-Talk Noise
Usually caused by capacitive or inductive coupling between adjacent channels. You
hear the signal from the other channel. This can be a problem in high-speed digital
circuits- Proper shielding and cable separation can reduce cross-talk noise.
White Noise
Sometimes called Gaussian noise, this results from the transmission of extraneous
Signals over lines. It sounds like the ocean, at a distance.

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

DCE-DTE Interconnections

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

Data. Terminal Equipment (DTE)

is the source/destination of the data transmission. These devices are usually
terminals, personal computers, printers, or mainframe computers.
Data Communications Equipment (DCE)
provides the connection to the data communications facility and transmits the
message. This device is usually a modem or digital service unit.

2.5

Serial and Parallel Communication

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

Asynchronous Serial Communication

Most PC serial devices such as mice, keyboards and modems are asynchronous.
Asynchronous communication requires nothing more than a transmitter, a receiver and a wire.
It is thus the simplest of serial communication protocols, and the least expensive to
implement. As the name implies, asynchronous communication is performed between two (or
more) devices which operate on independent clocks. Therefore, even if the two clocks agree
for a time, there is no guarantee that they will continue to agree over extended periods, and
thus there is no guarantee that when point A begins transmitting, point B will begin receiving,
or that Point B will continue to sample at the rate Point A transmits. See the figure below for an
illustration of what happens when transmission clocks differ significantly.

To combat this timing problem, asynchronous communication requires additional bits to be

added around actual data in order to maintain signal integrity. Asynchronously transmitted
data is preceded with a start bit which indicates to the receiver that a word (a chunk of data
broken up into individual bits) is about to begin. To avoid confusion with other bits, the start bit
is twice the size of any other bit in the transmission. The end of a word is followed by a stop
bit, which tells the receiver that the word has come to an end, that it should begin looking for
the next start bit, and that any bits it receives before getting the start bit should be ignored. To
ensure data integrity, a parity bit is often added between the last bit of data and the stop bit.
The parity bit makes sure that the data received is composed of the same number of bits in
the same order in which they were sent. Use the link below to view a portrayal of how
asynchronous communication works.

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Asynchronous Serial Communication Model

In asynchronous communication, data is preceded with a start bit which indicates to the
receiver that a word (a chunk of data broken up into individual bits) is about to begin. To avoid
confusion with other bits, the start bit is twice the size of any other bit in the transmission. The
end of a word is followed by a stop bit, which tells the receiver that the word has come to an
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end, that it should begin looking for the next start bit, and that any bits it receives before
getting the start bit should be ignored. To insure data integrity, a parity bit is often added
between the last bit of data and the stop bit. The parity bit makes sure that the data received
is composed of the same number of bits in the same order in which they were sent. See the
diagram in Figure 11 for a portrayal of how asynchronous communication works.
Upgraded UARTs For Increased Performance
At the heart of every asynchronous serial system is the Universal Asynchronous
Receiver/Transmitter or UART. The UART is responsible for implementing the asynchronous
communication process described above as both a transmitter and a receiver (both encoding
and decoding data frames). The UART not only controls the transfer of data, but the speed at
which communication takes place. However, the first UARTs could only handle one byte of
information at a time, which meant that the computer needed to immediately process any
transmission or risk losing data as the next byte of information pushed its way onto the UART.
Not only does this makes for unreliable and slow communication, it can slow down the entire
system.
Improved UARTs, such as the 16750 UARTs, increase communication speed and lower
system overhead by offering 64-byte FIFOs (first in first out buffers). With the 64-byte FIFO
buffer, the UART can store enough information that the data stream need not be suspended
while the computer is busy. This is particularly helpful in heavy multitasking operating systems
such as Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP and OS/2.
ii)

Synchronous Serial Communication

Coordinated Speed
As its name implies, synchronous communication takes place between a transmitter and a
receiver operating on synchronized clocks. In a synchronous system, the communication
partners have a short conversation before data exchange begins. In this conversation, they
align their clocks and agree upon the parameters of the data transfer, including the time
interval between bits of data. Any data that falls outside these parameters will be assumed to
be either in error or a placeholder used to maintain synchronization. (Synchronous lines must
remain constantly active in order to maintain synchronization, thus the need for placeholders
between valid data.) Once each side knows what to expect of the other, and knows how to
indicate to the other whether what was expected was received, then communication of any
length can commence.
The theory behind asynchronous and synchronous communication is essentially the same:
Point B needs to know when a transmission from Point A begins, when it ends, and if it was
processed correctly. However, the difference lies in how the transmission is broken down.
Think of the difference in terms of a friendly chat. With asynchronous communication you
would need to stop after every word to make sure the listener understood your meaning, and
knew that you were about to speak the next word. With synchronous communication, you
would establish with your listener that you were speaking English, that you will be speaking
words at measured intervals, and that you would utter a complete sentence, or paragraph, or
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extended soliloquy, before pausing to confirm understanding. Further, you would establish with
your listener beforehand that any extraneous noises you make during the speech or between
speeches (coughing, burping, hiccupping) should be ignored. Clearly the second approach is
much faster, even though initializing communication may take slightly longer. In fact, by
replacing the start, stop and parity bits around individual words with start, stop and control
(processing instructions and error checking) sequences around large continuous data blocks,
synchronous communication is about 30% faster than asynchronous communication, before
any other factors are considered.
Clock Synchronization
In order to initiate a successful synchronous communication link, several distinct pieces of
hardware must be configured around a common clock. This configuration must take two data
lines into account, the transmission line (the line it uses to send data) and the reception line
(the line it uses to receive data). It is essential not only that all devices in the system be
synchronized with each other, but also that each individual device have its transmission and
reception lines synchronized as well.
There are three clocking methods by which to achieve synchronization: internal, external, and
recovered clocking. All three methods derive the clock signal for the reception line from the
incoming data. The clock signal for the transmission line will always be generated by the
devices internal oscillator, but the phase reference used by the internal oscillator differs for
each of the clocking methods. When internal clocking is used, the transmit clock is phase
locked to the device's own internal oscillator. For external clocking, the transmit clock is phase
locked to the phase of the oscillator belonging to another device in the network. For recovered
clocking, the transmit clock phase is locked to the clock derived from the incoming data.
In general, the DCE device (such as a modem) uses internal clocking, while the DTE device
(such as a PC) uses external clocking and synchronizes around the DCE device. In cases
where DTE-DTE or DCE-DCE connections are necessary, one device must be configured
atypically, or a device such as a modem-eliminator or tail-circuit buffer must be placed
between the two. However, in large networks with multiple devices this is not always possible.
One solution for such networks is to have all devices synchronize around a single modem's
clock source. However, this solution has the tendency to result in clock drift, and thus can
potentially corrupt data. The other solution is to use recovered clocking so that a modem can
derive the clock from data on its reception line then send that information out on its transmit
line to be used by the next modem in line, etc.
Data Buffers
Though synchronous communication enables transmission of large amounts of data at high
speed, it puts in place extensive control and error-checking mechanisms to prevent data
corruption. However, in full-duplex networks using bit-oriented protocols, the transmitter is
most likely sending frame B before it knows if frame A was received successfully. (This is not
as much of a problem in slower byte-oriented protocols where data flows in only one direction
at a time.) To maintain the highest possible data rates, synchronous hardware must contain
sufficient data buffers to store transmitted data (for resending if necessary) until a successful
transfer is confirmed.
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Fundamentals of Data Communication

Parallel Communication

The original 8-bit parallel port was developed by IBM in 1981 as a faster interface to dot matrix
printers than the then standard one-bit serial port. The parallel port greatly increases transfer
speeds by using an eight wire connector which transmits the eight bits in a byte of data
simultaneously, thus sending an entire byte of data in the time it takes to send a single bit in a
serial system. This byte of data is supplemented by several other handshaking signals, each
sent on its own wire, which ensures that data transfer takes place smoothly.

Serial vs. Parallel Communication

The major drawback to the original parallel port or Standard Parallel Port (SPP) was that it
allowed for communication in only one direction--computer to printer. While there were wires
which the printer could use to indicate its status to the computer, it could do no more than put
a positive or negative charge on these wires.

2.6
i)

Data Transmission
Parallel transmission

Parallel transmission is where n wires are used to send n bits at a time. It can therefore
increase the transfer speed by a factor of n over serial transmission. Because this is
expensive, parallel transmission is usually limited to short distances.
Parallel port sends and receives data eight bits at a time over 8 separate wires. This allows
data to be transferred very quickly; however, the cable required is more bulky because of the
number of individual wires it must contain. Parallel ports are typically used to connect a PC to
a printer and are rarely used for much else.
ii)

Serial transmission

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Fundamentals of Data Communication

In serial transmission one bit follows another, so we need only one communication channel
rather than n to transmit data between two communicating devices.
The concept of serial communication is simple. The serial port sends and receives bytes of
information one bit at a time. Although this is slower than parallel communication, which allows
the transmission of an entire byte at once, it is simpler and can be used over longer distances.
For example, the IEEE 488 specifications for parallel communication state that the cabling
between equipment can be no more than 20 meters total, with no more than 2 meters
between any two devices; serial, however, can extend as much as 1200 meters.
Typically, serial is used to transmit ASCII data. Communication is completed using 3
transmission lines: (1) Ground, (2) Transmit, and (3) Receive. Since serial is asynchronous,
the port is able to transmit data on one line while receiving data on another. Other lines are
available for handshaking, but are not required. The important serial characteristics are baud
rate, data bits, stop bits, and parity. For two ports to communicate, these parameters must
match:
1. Baud rate: a speed measurement for communication. It indicates the number of bit
transfers per second. For example, 300 baud is 300 bits per second. When we refer to
a clock cycle we mean the baud rate. For example, if the protocol calls for a 4800 baud
rate, then the clock is running at 4800Hz. This means that the serial port is sampling
the data line at 4800Hz. Common baud rates for telephone lines are 14400, 28800,
and 33600. Baud rates greater than these are possible, but these rates reduce the
distance by which devices can be separated. These high baud rates are used for
device communication where the devices are located together, as is typically the case
with GPIB devices.
2. Data bits: a measurement of the actual data bits in a transmission. When the computer
sends a packet of information, the amount of actual data may not be a full 8 bits.
Standard values for the data packets are 5, 7, and 8 bits. Which setting you choose
depends on what information you are transferring. For example, standard ASCII has
values from 0 to 127 (7 bits). Extended ASCII uses 0 to 255 (8 bits). If the data being
transferred is simple text (standard ASCII), then sending 7 bits of data per packet is
sufficient for communication. A packet refers to a single byte transfer, including
start/stop bits, data bits, and parity. Since the number of actual bits depends on the
protocol selected, the term packet is used to cover all instances.
3. Stop bits: used to signal the end of communication for a single packet. Typical values
are 1, 1.5, and 2 bits. Since the data is clocked across the lines and each device has
its own clock, it is possible for the two devices to become slightly out of sync.
Therefore, the stop bits not only indicate the end of transmission but also give the
computers some room for error in the clock speeds. The more bits that are used for
stop bits, the greater the lenience in synchronizing the different clocks, but the slower
the data transmission rate.

4. Parity: a simple form of error checking that is used in serial communication. There are
four types of parity: even, odd, marked, and spaced. The option of using no parity is
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also available. For even and odd parity, the serial port sets the parity bit (the last bit
after the data bits) to a value to ensure that the transmission has an even or odd
number of logic high bits. For example, if the data is 011, then for even parity, the
parity bit is 0 to keep the number of logic-high bits even. If the parity is odd, then the
parity bit is 1, resulting in 3 logic-high bits. Marked and spaced parity does not actually
check the data bits, but simply sets the parity bit high for marked parity or low for
spaced parity. This allows the receiving device to know the state of a bit to enable the
device to determine if noise is corrupting the data or if the transmitting and receiving
device clocks are out of sync

a)

Asynchronous transmission
It is so named because the timing of a signal is unimportant. Information is received
and transmitted by agreed-upon patterns, which are based on grouping the bit stream
into bytes. One start bit (0) is sent at the beginning and one or more stop bits (1) at the
end of each byte. There may be a gap between each byte.
The strategy with this scheme is to avoid the timing problem by not sending long,
uninterrupted streams of bits. Instead, data are transmitted one character al a time,
where each character is five to eight bits in length. Timing or synchronization must
only be maintained within each character: the receiver has the opportunity to
resynchronize at the beginning of each new character.

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Figure 6.1 illustrates this technique. When no character is being transmitted, the line
between transmitter and receiver is in an idle state. The definition of idle is equivalent
to the signaling element for binary 1. Thus, for NRZ.-L signaling which is common for
asynchronous transmission, idle would be the presence of a negative voltage on the
line. The beginning of a character is signaled by a start bit with a value of binary 0.
This is followed by the five to eight bits that actually make up the character.
The bits of the character arc transmitted beginning with the least significant bit. For
example, for IRA characters, the first bit transmitted is the bit labeled b. Usually, the
data bits are followed by a parity bit, which therefore is in the most significant bit
position. The parity bit is set by the transmitter such that the total number of ones in
the character, including the parity bit is even (even parity) or odd (odd parity),
depending on the convention being used. This bit is used by the receiver for error
detection.
The final element is a stop element which is a binary 1, A minimum length for the stop
element is specified, and this is usually 1, 1.5, or 2 times the duration of an ordinary
bit. No maximum value is specified. Because the stop element is the same as the idle
state, the transmitter will continue to transmit the stop element until it is ready to send
the next character.
If a steady stream of characters is sent, the interval between two characters is uniform
and equal to the slop element. For example, if the slop element is one bit time and the
IRA characters ABC are sent (with even parity bit), the pattern is
0100000101011111000101011000011 111 ... 111. The start bit (0) starts the timing
sequence for the next nine elements, which are the 7-bit IRA code, the parity bit, and
the stop clement. In the idle state, the receiver looks for a transition from 1 to 0 to
signal the beginning of the next character and then samples the input signal at one-bit
intervals for seven intervals. It then looks for the next 1-to-0 transition, which will occur
no sooner than one more bit time.

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The timing requirements for this scheme are modest. For example, IRA characters are
typically sent as 8-bit units, including the parity hit. If the receiver is 5 percent slower or
faster than the transmitter, the sampling of the eighth character bit will be displaced by
45 percent and still be correctly sampled.
Figure 6-1 c shows the effects of a liming error of sufficient magnitude to cause an
error in reception. In this example we assume a data rate of' 10,000 bits per second
(10 kbps); therefore, each bit is of 0.1I millisecond (ms) duration. Assume that the
receiver is fast by 6 percent, or 6 s per bit time. Thus, the receiver samples the
incoming character every 94s (based on the transmitter's clock). As can be seen, the
last sample is erroneous.
An error such as this actually results in two errors. First, the last sampled bit is
incorrectly received. Second, the bit count may now he out of alignment. If bit 7 is a 1
and bit 8 is a 0, bit 8 could he mistaken for a start bit. This condition is termed a
framing error, as the character plus start bit and stop clement are sometimes referred
to as a frame. A framing error can also occur if some noise condition causes the false
appearance of a start bit during the idle state.

b)

Asynchronous transmission is simple and cheap but requires an overhead of two to

three bits per character. For example, for an 8-hit character with no priority bit, using a
1-bit-long stop element, two out of every ten bit convey no information but are there
merely for synchronization; thus the overhead is 20 percent. Of course, the percentage
overhead could he reduced by sending larger blocks of hits between the start bit and
slop element. However, as Figure 6.1c indicates, the larger the block of bits, the
greater the cumulative timing error. To achieve greater efficiency, a different form of
synchronization, known as synchronous transmission, is used.
Synchronous transmission
In synchronous transmission the bit stream is combined into longer "frames" which
may contain multiple bytes. It is the responsibility of the receiver to group the bits. Byte
synchronization is accomplished in the data link layer.
With synchronous transmission, a block of bits is transmitted in a steady stream
without start and stop codes. The block may be many bits in length. To prevent timing
drift between transmitter and receiver, their clocks must somehow be synchronized.
One possibility is to provide a separate clock line between transmitter and receiver.
One side (transmitter or receiver) pulses the line regularly with one short pulse per bit
time. The other side uses these regular pulses as a clock. This technique works well
over short distances, but over longer distances the clock pulses are subject to the
same impairments as the data signal, and timing errors can occur. The other
alternative is to embed the clocking information in the data signal. For digital signals,
this can be accomplished with Manchester or Differential Manchester encoding.

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For analog signals, a number of techniques can be used; for example, the carrier
frequency itself can be used to synchronize the receiver based on the phase of the
carrier.
With synchronous transmission, there is another level of synchronization required. to
allow the receiver lo determine the beginning and end of a block of data. To achieve
this, each block begins with a preamble bit pattern and generally ends with a
postamble bit pattern. In addition, other bits are added to the blocks that convey
control information used in the data link control procedures. The data plus preamble,
postamble, and control information are called a frame. The exact format of the frame
depends on which data link control procedure is being used.
Figure 6-2 shows, in general terms, a typical frame formal for synchronous
transmission. Typically, the frame starts with a preamble called a flag which is eight
bits long. The same flag is used as a postamble. The receiver looks for the occurrence
of the flag pattern to signal the start of a frame. This is followed by some number of
control fields, then a data field (variable length for most protocols), more control fields,
and finally the flag is repeated.
For sizable blocks of data, synchronous transmission is far more efficient than
asynchronous. Asynchronous transmission requires 20 percent or more overhead.
The control information, preamble, and postamble in synchronous transmission are
typically less than 100 bits.

2.7

Transmission Modes

i)

Half Duplex

Half duplex means that signals can be passed in either direction, but not in both
simultaneously. A telephone channel often includes an echo-suppressor, allowing
transmission in only one direction, this renders the channel half-duplex. Echo
suppressors are slowly being replaced by echo cancellers, which are theoretically fullduplex devices.
With half-duplex transmission, only one of two stations on a point-to-point link may
transmit at a time. This mode is also referred lo as two-way alternate, suggestive of the
fact that two stations must alternate in transmitting. This can be compared to a onelane, two-way bridge. This form of transmission is often used for terminal-to-computer
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Topic 2

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Industrial
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Fundamentals of Data Communication

interaction. While a user is entering and transmitting data, the computer is prevented
from sending data to the terminal, which would appear on the terminal screen and
cause confusion.

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Topic 2
ii)

Module :

Industrial
Communication

Code :
SRD
35103

Fundamentals of Data Communication

Full Duplex
Full duplex means that signals can be passed in either direction, simultaneously. Full
duplex operation on a two-wire line requires the ability to separate a receive signal from
the reflection of the transmitted signal. This is accomplished by either FDM (frequency
division multiplexing) in which the signals in the two directions occupy different
frequency bands and are separated by filtering, or by Echo Canceling (EC).
For full-duplex transmission, two stations can simultaneously send and receive data
from each other. Thus, this mode is known as two-way simultaneous, and may be
compared to a two-lane, two-way bridge. For computer to computer data exchange,
this form of transmission is more efficient than half-duplex transmission.
With digital signaling, which requires guided transmission, full-duplex operation usually
requires two separate transmission paths (e.g.. two twisted pairs), while hall duplex
requires only one. For analog signaling, it depends on frequency: If a station transmits
and receives on the same frequency, it must operate in half-duplex mode for wireless
transmission- although it may operate in full-duplex mode for guided transmission using
two separate transmission lines. If a station transmits on one frequency and receives
on another, it may operate in full-duplex mode for wireless transmission and in fullduplex mode with a single line for guided transmission.

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