Chapter

2: Communication and Internet technologies

1. Three factors to be considered when transmitting data:

○ The direction of the data transmission (simplex/ duplex/ half duplex)
○ The method of transmission (serial/ parallel)
○ The method of synchronisation between the two devices (asynchronous/ synchronous)

2. Simplex, duplex and half-duplex data transmission

Simplex Duplex Half-duplex
Data is sent in one direction Data is sent in both directions at Data is sent in both directions
only. the same time. but only one at a time.

E.g. mouse to computer E.g. phone call E.g. Walkie-Talkie

3. Serial and parallel data transmission

Serial transmission Parallel transmission
Definition The transfer of data bits one bit at a time The transfer of data bits simultaneously
sequentially using a single wire. using multiple wires.
Distance More reliable over long distances Used over short distances
Up to 100 meters Limited to 5 meters
Costs Reduced costs as only one wires is More costly as multiple wires are needed
needed
Reliability More accurate/ safer transmission as bits Less safe transmission as errors in collation
are accuraletly collated at the receiving of data bits may occur at the reciever's side,
end as they are received one at a time. since they are received at the same time.
Interference Less interference as only a single wire is Interferences more likely as multiple wires
needed. are used.
Speed Slower transmission Faster transmission
Example USB/ connecting a computer to a modem Internal data transfer using busses/
integrated circuits

4. Asynchronous and synchronous data transmission

Asynchronous Synchronous
Signals are sent in a previously agreed pattern A continuous stream of data is sent.
of bits.
Data bits are grouped together and sent in The data is accompanied by timing signals generated
discrete groups with control bits. by an internal clock to ensure correct timing of data
transfer.
The receiver knows when the data starts and This ensures that the sender and receiver are
ends. synchronised with each other.
This prevents data from becoming mixed up. The receiver counts how many bits were sent and
then reassembles them into bytes of data.
Without control bits, it would be impossible The timing must be very accurate here since there are
to separate groups of data as they arrive. no control bits sent.
Asynchronous transmission is inexpensive and Synchronous data transmission is faster since fewer
effective for serial transmission. bits are sent.
Best suited for low speed connections, e.g. Used where this is an important issue, e.g. in network
mouse and keyboard communications.
Examples of use: USB, MIDI (its protocol uses Parallel transmission is synchronous in nature.
8-bit serial transmission with one start & one
stop bit - asynchronous).

5. USB
○ Uses asynchronous serial data transmission
○ Benefits:
- Has become an industry standard
- Backward compatible
- Drivers are automatically installed, devices automatically detected
- The USB connectors can only fit one way
- Several transmission rates are supported
○ Drawbacks:
- Cable length is limited to 5 meters
- Transmission rate is limited to 500 megabits per second

6. Error detection
1. Parity check
a. Used to detect errors in data transmission.
b. Parity checks can be even (an even number of 1-bits) or odd (an odd number of 1-bits).
c. One of the bits transmitted is known as the parity bit.
d. A parity bit (a 1 or a 0) is added to the byte being transmitted to make the sum of bits
either odd or even.
e. At the receiver, a check is performed to check if the data received is even or odd.
f. If the parity is incorrect, an error has occurred.

2. Checksum
a. Used to detect errors in data transmission.
b. Data is sent in blocks.
c. An additional value (called the checksum) is calculated for the block of data being
transmitted.
d. The checksum is transmitted along with the block of data.
e. At the receiver, a checksum for the block of data is recalculated and compared to the one
transmitted with the block.
f. If they don't match, an error has occurred.

3. Check digits
a. Used to detect errors in data entry.
b. A digit is calculated from the data.
c. It is added to the data.
d. The digit is recalculated when the data is entered into a computer.
e. Digits are compared to check for errors.

4. Automatic repeat request (ARQ)

a. An error detection method is performed, e.g. parity check, checksum.
b. If an error is detected at the receiver, a negative acknowledgement is sent back to the
transmitter, requesting it to resend the data.
c. The resend request will be repeated until the data is received error-free or until a limited
amount of resend requests is reached.
d. The receiver sends a positive acknowledgement when data is received error-free.

5. Echo check
a. When data is sent to another device, this data is sent back again to the sender.
b. The sender compares the two sets of data to check if any errors occurred during the
transmission process.
c. This isn’t very reliable. If the two sets of data are different, it isn’t known whether the
error occurred when sending the data in the first place, or if the error occurred when
sending the data back for checking
d. It is another way to check that the data was transmitted correctly if no errors have
occurred during the second transmission.

7. Internet Service Provider (ISP)

○ A company that provides a user with access to the internet normally with a fee.
○ It monitors internet usage.
○ Dial-up connection:
- Uses telephone lines.
- Used by people in remote areas with no access to the cables for broadband.
- Cheaper but very slow.
○ Broadband connection:
- Uses fiber-optic or co-axid cables.
- More expensive but faster, more secure and more reliable.
○ Terms of service: are rules a customer must follow when using the internet service provided by
an ISP, e.g. limitations to the amount of data.

8. Web server
○ A computer that hosts a website.
○ It stores each page of the website and its related content.
○ Requesting information from a web server is called downloading.
○ Sending information to a website is called uploading.
○ A computer that accesses information from a server is a client.

9. Internet Protocol (IP) address

○ A numerical ID given to each device on the network.
○ The IP address gives the geographical location of the device.
○ It is assigned by the network.
○ (IPv4): It is a 32-bit number usually written in the form 109.56.244.2 (4 groups of 3 number
ranging from 0-255).
○ Static IP address: the device keeps the IP address even if it gets disconnected from the network.
○ Dynamic IP address: the IP address will be different each time the device connects to the
internet.
○ The IP address gives the geographical location of the device.

10. MAC address

○ Media access control address
○ A hardware address that uniquely identifies each device on the network.
Ø It is a hardware address because it refers to the network interface card (NIC) which is part
of the device.
○ Assigned by the device's manufacturer.
○ It is made up of 6 pairs of 2 hexadecimal digits, translated into a 48-bit binary code.
○ Format: NN-NN-NN-DD-DD-DD:
- First half (NN-NN-NN): the manufacturer identity number
- Second half (DD-DD-DD): the device serial number
○ Two types of MAC address:
1) Universally administered MAC address (UAA)
- The most common type
- Set by the manufacturer at the factory

2) Locally administered MAC address (LAA)

- LAA is used to change the MAC address in certain occasions.
Ø Certain software used on mainframe systems needs all the MAC addresses of
devices to fall into a strict format.
Ø It may be necessary to bypass a MAC address filter on a router or a firewall which
only allows MAC addresses with a certain format to be accepted.
Ø To get past network restrictions, it may be necessary to emulate unrestricted MAC
addresses.

11. Hypertext transfer protocol (http/ https)

○ It is an access protocol.
○ The core protocol that governs transmission of data via the internet between the client and the
webserver.
○ It works as a request-response action.
○ Https is slower than http but more secure. It is used when sensitive data is being transferred
across the internet and works by encryption.

12. HTML (structure and presentation)

○ Stands for hypertext mark-up language.
○ Used to create/develop/author webpages.
○ Translated by a web browser to display webpages.
○ Uses opening and closing tags to display/format content.
○ Has two components:
1. Structure:
- Instructs how the layout of the content is displayed
2. Presentation:
- Instructs how the content will be formatted e.g. colour/style/CSS

13. Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

○ This is the website address.
○ It is made up of:
- An access protocol (http/ https)
- A domain name/ web server name
- A file name
○ It is translated by a DNS (domain name server)

14. Web browser:

○ Software which allows the user to view webpages on the computer screen.
○ It translates HTML documents and displays the result.
○ It identifies protocols, such as https, SSL.
○ It translates embedded scripting, for example JavaScript.
○ It provides functions, such as bookmarks and history.

15. Cookies
○ Packets of information sent by a web server to a web browser.
○ Generated each time the user visits the website.
○ Every time a user visits the website, cookies will have collected some key information about the
user.
○ They carry out user tracking and also store/ maintain user preferences
○ Cookies aren’t programs but are simply pieces of data.
○ The information gathered by cookies forms an anonymous user profile and doesn’t contain
personal information (such as credit card numbers or passwords).
○ Because of the information they do collect, however, they are subject to privacy and security
concerns.