Transmission

Modes

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 A Taxonomy of Transmission Modes
• We use the term transmission mode to refer to the manner
in which data is sent over the underlying medium
• Transmission modes can be divided into two fundamental
categories:
• Serial — one bit is sent at a time
– Serial transmission is further categorized according to timing of
transmissions
• Parallel — multiple bits are sent at the same time
• Figure 9.1 gives an overall taxonomy of the transmission
modes discussed in the lecture.

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A Taxonomy of Transmission Modes

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 Parallel Transmission

• Parallel transmission allows transfers of multiple data bits at

the same time over separate media
• In general, parallel transmission is used with a wired
medium that uses multiple, independent wires
• Furthermore, the signals on all wires are synchronized so
that a bit travels across each of the wires at precisely the
same time
• Figure 9.2 illustrates the concept, and shows why engineers
use the term parallel to characterize the wiring

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Parallel Transmission

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 Parallel Transmission

• The figure omits two important details:

– First, in addition to the parallel wires that each carry data
• a parallel interface usually contains other wires that allow the sender and
receiver to coordinate
– Second, to make installation and troubleshooting easy
• the wires for a parallel transmission system are placed in a single physical
cable
• A parallel mode of transmission has two chief advantages:
– High speed: it can send N bits at the same time
• a parallel interface can operate N times faster than an equivalent serial
interface
– Match to underlying hardware: Internally, computer and
communication hardware uses parallel circuitry
• Data within a computer system is transmitted via parallel mode on buses
• a parallel interface matches the internal hardware well

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 Serial Transmission

• Serial transmission
– sends one bit at a time
– Data between computer systems is usually transmitted in bit serial
mode
• It may seem that anyone would choose parallel transmission
for high speeds
– However, most communication systems use serial mode
• There are two main reasons
– First, serial networks can be extended over long distances at much
less cost
– Second, using only one physical wire means that there is never a
timing problem caused by one wire being slightly longer than another
• Sender and receiver must contain a hardware that converts
data from the parallel form used in the device to the serial
form used on the wire
• Figure 9.3 illustrates the configuration 7
Serial Transmission

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 Transmission Order: Bits and Bytes

• In serial mode, when sending bits, which bit should be sent

across the medium first?
• Consider an integer: Should a sender transmit
– the Most Significant Bit (MSB)
– or the Least Significant Bit (LSB) first?
• We use the term little-endian to describe a system that
sends the LSB first
• We use the term big-endian to describe a system that sends
the MSB first
• Either form can be used, but the sender and receiver must
agree

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 Transmission Order: Bits and Bytes

• The order in which bits are transmitted does not settle the
entire question of transmission order
– Data in a computer is divided into bytes, and each byte is further
divided into bits (typically 8 bits per byte)
– Thus, it is possible to choose a byte order and a bit order
independently
– For example, Ethernet technology specifies that data is sent byte
big-endian and bit little-endian
• Figure 9.4 illustrates the order in which Ethernet sends bits
from a 32-bit quantity

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 9.5 Transmission Order: Bits and Bytes

Example:
Data bits are transmitted with the least significant bit first. For example,
the letter C = 0x43 (hex) = 01000011 (binary) will be transmitted as
11000010.
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 Timing of Serial Transmission

• Serial transmission mechanisms can be divided into three

broad categories (depending on how transmissions are
spaced in time):
• Asynchronous transmission can occur at any time
– with an arbitrary delay between the transmission of two data items
• Synchronous transmission occurs continuously
– with no gap between the transmission of two data items
• Isochronous transmission occurs at regular intervals
– with a fixed gap between the transmission of two data items

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 Asynchronous Transmission
• It is asynchronous if the system allows the physical medium
to be idle for an arbitrary time between two transmissions
• The asynchronous style of communication is well-suited to
applications that generate data at random
– (e.g., a user typing on a keyboard or a user that clicks on a link)
• The disadvantage of asynchrony arises from the lack of
coordination between sender and receiver
– While the medium is idle, a receiver cannot know how long the
medium will remain idle before more data arrives
• Asynchronous technologies usually arrange for a sender to
transmit a few extra bits before each data item
– to inform the receiver that a data transfer is starting
– extra bits allow the receiver to synchronize with the incoming signal
– the extra bits are known as a preamble or start bits
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RS-232 Asynchronous Character Transmission

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 Synchronous Transmission
• A synchronous mechanism transmits bits of data continually
– with no idle time between bits
– after transmitting the final bit of one data byte, the sender transmits a
bit of the next data byte
• The sender and receiver constantly remain synchronized
– which means less synchronization overhead
• Compare the 8-bit characters on
– an asynchronous system as illustrated in Figure 9.5
– and a synchronous system as illustrated in Figure 9.6
• On asynchronous system
– Each character sent requires an extra start bit and stop bit
– meaning that each 8-bit character requires a minimum of 10 bit
times, even if no idle time is inserted
• On synchronous system
– each character is sent without start or stop bits

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Synchronous Transmission

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 Isochronous Transmission

• Isochronous transmission
– is designed to provide steady bit flow for multimedia applications
• Delivering such data at a steady rate is essential
– because variations in delay known as jitter can disrupt reception
(cause pops or clicks in audio/make video freeze for a short time)
• Isochronous network is designed to accept and send data at
a fixed rate, R
– Network interface is such that data must be handed to the network
for transmission at exactly R bits per second
• For example, an isochronous mechanism designed to
transfer voice operates at a rate of 64,000 bits per second
– A sender must generate digitized audio continuously
– A receiver must be able to accept and play the stream

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 DCE and DTE Equipment
• Terms Data Communications Equipment (DCE) and Data
Terminal Equipment (DTE) were originally created by AT&T
– Short for Data Terminal Equipment, a device that controls data
flowing to or from a computer.
– The term is most often used in reference to serial
communications defined by the RS-232C standard.
– To distinguish between the communications equipment owned by
the phone company and the terminal equipment owned by a
subscriber

• The terminology persists: if a business leases a data circuit

from a phone company
– the phone company installs DCE equipment at the business
– and the business purchases DTE equipment that attaches to the
phone company’s equipment
– In practical terms, the DCE is usually a modem and the DTE is the
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computer itself
DCE and DTE Equipment

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 Standards
• Standards are needed to guarantee interoperability of both hardware
and software

• Standards can be established by agreement or imposed by a dominant

manufacturer

• A standard is a document approved by a recognized body that provides

for common and repeated use, rules and guidelines for products or
related processes and production methods.

Standards Organisations
• The International Standards Organisation (ISO)
• The Institute of Electronic Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
• The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
• Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
 De-Facto Standard
•A 'de-facto' standard is one created almost by default because of one
dominant player in that industry.

•Standards are necessary to ensure that products from different

manufacturers can work together as expected.

•There is no formal outside organisation that approved or signed off the

standard.

•IBM effectively created the 'de-facto' standard for the personal computer
industry.

Examples:

•QWERTY keyboard
•The AT command set for controlling modems
•Microsoft Word format for documents
•Photoshop PSD format for editable images
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 De-Jure Standard
•The opposite of an informal de-facto standard is the 'de jure'
standard, meaning 'by force of law'.

•A de jure standard is one developed and approved by an official

organisation.

•For example the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic

Engineers) has the authority to create electrical standards such as
wireless communication

Examples of de jure standards

•Wireless 801.11n
•Internet TCP / IP protocol
•ASCII character set
•Unicode international character encoding

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 De-Jure Standard
The usual way for a de jure standard to be created is to
· First of all identify a need for the standard. For example people
wanted to make wireless enabled computer equipment but there was no
standard in place to make sure equipment would be compatible. There
was no de-facto standard in place either

· Identify an organization that has the expertise to create a standard.

In the case of wireless the IEEE was chosen.

· Form an expert group. Usually experts from industry are invited to sit
on the committee. In the case of wireless the group was called '801'.

· Create a draft standard. This is the ideas stage, the experts seek
opinions from industry.

· Refine the standard. This can take ages - many years - this is the main
criticism of de jure standards, they can be extremely slow to come out.

· Publish the final standard. For example 801.11n is a wireless

communication standard
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 Pros and Cons of standards
Advantages of standards Disadvantages of standards
A de-facto standard comes about usually by one dominant
Allows equipment made by different companies to work
company in a sector setting out what they want to do. This
together as long as the follow the same standards.
de-facto standard may not be the best technical solution.

It can take years for de-jour standards to be agreed

They provide a known level of quality
through committees.

They provide an indication of the performance expected They can become out of date almost as soon as they are
i.e. early modems had an expected speed such as 9600 released e.g. the wireless standards had a problem
bits per second because they used a certain standard keeping up with technical developments

Having no agreed standard in a new industry can slow

down innovation and cost a lot of money. e.g. the
In technology especially, standards can rapidly go out of
companies backing the early Blu-Ray disc were
date so there is a need to keep revising it to remain
competing with companies backing other technologies.
relevant.
Those non-Blu Ray companies ended up losing a lot of
money as their technology lost ground.

Following a standard minimises risk for the company as

they know their equipment will work with other makers.

Can save money in the development stage because

there is no need to 're-invent the wheel'.
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 Network Protocol

Network Protocol is a set of rules that governs the

communications between computers on a network.

A protocol defines what is communicated, how it is

communicated, and when it is communicated.

Rules of Network Protocol include guidelines that regulate

the following characteristics of a network:

•access method
•allowed physical topologies
•types of cabling, and
•speed of data transfer

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 Network Protocol
The key elements of a protocol are syntax, semantics, and timing.

Syntax. The term syntax refers to the structure or format of the data, meaning
the order in which they are presented. For example, a simple protocol might
expect the first 8 bits of data to be the address of the sender, the second 8
bits to be the address of the receiver, and the rest of the stream to be the
message itself.

Semantics. The word semantics refers to the meaning of each section of bits.
How is a particular pattern to be interpreted, and what action is to be taken
based on that interpretation? For example, does an address identify the route
to be taken or the final destination of the message?

Timing. The term timing refers to two characteristics: when data should be
sent and how fast they can be sent. For example, if a sender produces data at
100 Mbps but the receiver can process data at only 1 Mbps, the transmission
will overload the receiver and some data will be lost.
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Commonly used network symbols

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