Unit 1 Introduction on Communication System

Structure 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Objectives 1.3 Introduction to Communication System 1.4 Historical Review 1.5 Wireless Communications 1.6 The Past Fifty Years 1.7 How Computers Communicate 1.8 Communication Systems 1.9 Summary

1.10 Keywords 1.11 Exercise

1.1 Introduction
Communications is the field of study concerned with the transmission of information through various means. It can also be defined as technology employed in transmitting messages. It can also be defined as the inter-transmitting the content of data (speech, signals, pulses etc.) from one node to another.

1.2 Objectives
At the end if this chapter you will be able to: Give Introduction to Communication System Know the Historical Review Explain Wireless Communications Define Communication Systems

1.3 Introduction to Communication System

Every day, in our work and in our leisure time, we come in contact with and use a variety of modern communication systems and communication media, the most common being the telephone, radio, television, and the Internet. Through these media we are able to communicate (nearly) instantaneously with people on different continents, transact our daily business, and receive information about various developments and events of note that occur all around the world. Electronic mail and facsimile transmission have made it possible to rapidly communicate written messages across great distances. Can you imagine a world without telephones, radio, and TV? Yet, when you think about it, most of these modern-day communication systems were invented and developed during the past century. Here, we present a brief historical review of major developments within the last two hundred years that have had a major role in the development of modern communication systems.

1.4 Historical Review

Telegraphy and Telephony. One of the earliest inventions of major significance to communications was the invention of the electric battery by Alessandro Volta in 1799. This invention made it possible for Samuel Morse to develop the electric telegraph, which he demonstrated in 1837. The first telegraph line linked Washington with Baltimore and became operational in May 1844. Morse devised the variable-length binary code given in Table 1.1, in which letters of the English alphabet were represented by a sequence of dots and dashes (code words). In this code, more frequently occurring letters are represented by short code words, while letters occurring less frequently are represented by longer code words.

The Morse code was the precursor to the variable-length source-coding methods that are described in Chapter 6. It is remarkable that the earliest form of electrical communications that

was developed by Morse, namely telegraphy, was a binary digital communication system in which the letters of the English alphabet were efficiently encoded into corresponding variablelength code words having binary elements. Nearly forty years later, in 1875, mile Baudot developed a code for telegraphy in which each letter was encoded into fixed-length binary code words of length 5. In the Baudot code the binary code elements have equal length and are designated as mark and space. An important milestone in telegraphy was the installation of the first transatlantic cable in 1858 that linked the United States and Europe. This cable failed after about four weeks of operation. A second cable was laid a few years later and became operational in July 1866. Telephony came into being with the invention of the telephone in the 1870s. Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention of the telephone in 1876, and in 1877 established the Bell Telephone Company. Early versions of telephone communication systems were relatively simple and provided service over several hundred miles. Significant advances in the quality and range of service during the first two decades of the twentieth century resulted from the invention of the carbon microphone and the induction coil. The invention of the triode amplifier by Lee De Forest in 1906 made it possible to introduce signal amplification in telephone communication systems and, thus, to allow for telephone signal transmission over great distances. For example, transcontinental telephone transmission became operational in 1915.Two world wars and the Great Depression during the 1930s must have been a deterrent to the establishment of transatlantic telephone service. It was not until 1953, when the first transatlantic cable was laid, that telephone service became available between the United States and Europe. Automatic switching was another important advance in the development of telephony. The first automatic switch, developed by Strowger in 1897, was an electromechanical step-by-step switch. This type of switch was used for several decades. With the invention of the transistor, electronic (digital) switching became economically feasible. After several years of development at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, a digital switch was placed in service in Illinois in June 1960. During the past thirty years there have been numerous significant advances in telephone

communications. Fiber optic cables are rapidly replacing copper wire in the telephone plant and electronic switches have replaced the old electromechanical systems.

1.5 Wireless Communications

Wireless communications is, by any measure, the fastest growing segment of the communications industry. As such, it has captured the attention of the media and the imagination of the public. Cellular systems have experienced exponential growth over the last decade and there are currently around two billion users worldwide. Indeed, cellular phones have become a critical business tool and part of everyday life in most developed countries, and are rapidly supplanting antiquated wire line systems in many developing countries. In addition, wireless local area networks currently supplement or replace wired networks in many homes, businesses, and campuses. Many new applications, including wireless sensor networks, automated highways and factories, smart homes and appliances, and remote telemedicine, are emerging from research ideas to concrete systems. The explosive growth of wire less systems coupled with the proliferation of laptop and palmtop computers indicate a bright future for wireless networks, both as stand-alone systems and as part of the larger networking infrastructure. However, many technical challenges remain in designing robust wireless networks that deliver the performance necessary to support emerging applications. In this introductory chapter we will briefly review the history of wireless networks, from the smoke signals of the pre-industrial age to the cellular, satellite, and other wireless networks of today. We then discuss the wireless vision in more detail, including the technical challenges that must be overcome to make this vision a reality. We describe current wireless systems along with emerging systems and standards. The gap between current and emerging systems and the vision for future wireless applications indicates that much work remains to be done to make this vision a reality.

The invention of the vacuum tube was especially instrumental in the development of radio communication systems. The vacuum diode was invented by Fleming in 1904 and the vacuum triode amplifier was invented by De Forest in 1906, as previously indicated. The invention of the triode made radio broadcast possible in the early part of the twentieth century. Amplitude modulation (AM) broadcast was initiated in 1920 when radio station KDKA, Pittsburgh, went on the air. From that date, AM radio broadcasting grew rapidly across the country and around the world. The superheterodyne AM radio receiver, as we know it today, was invented by Edwin Armstrong during World War l. Another significant development in radio communications was the invention of Frequency modulation (FM).

Cellular and cordless phones rapidly became mass-market consumer products. There were about 250 Million subscribers in the year 2000, and a market of 500 to 600 Million handhelds per year. Around that year many operators invested Billions of Euros on spectrum for Third Generation (3G) systems, such as UMTS. However, the insight that these could only be recouped over periods of rapid growth for ten years or more may have accelatered the malaise in the telecomm markets after 2001. Products for enhanced communication services, such as data, electronic mail, high resolution digital video or even full multimedia communication entered the market. Services such as the GSM Short Message Service greatly extent the capabilities of pagers. I-mode is a successful text and multimedia service in Japan, and Europe is betteing on WAP: The Wireless Application Protocol. The projected growth of the number of Internet users to 500 Million worldwide indicates potential when wireless and computing technologies are merged. The (r)evolutionary development of such systems appeared is focussed towards larger capacity, better quality, more bandwidth, wider coverage, lower power consumption and more services. This development remains a technical challenge, with many issues still to be resolved.

1.6 The Past Fifty Years

Currently, most of the wireline communication systems are being replaced by fiber optic cables which provide extremely high bandwidth and make possible the transmission of a wide variety of information sources, including voice, data, and video. Cellular radio has been developed to provide telephone service to people in automobiles, buses, and trains. High-speed communication networks link computers and a variety of peripheral devices literally around the world. Today we are witnessing a significant growth in the introduction and use of personal communications services, including voice, data, and video transmission. Satellite and fiber optic networks provide high-speed communication services around the world. Indeed, this is the dawn of the modern telecommunications era. There are several historical treatments in the development of radio and telecommunications covering the past century.

1.7 How Computers Communicate

Data communication is the most important branch of the information technology. Today no business can be successful with the proper implementations of the communication systems. Computers can talk to each other to send and receive the voice, video and data signals. For two computers to communicate each other it is important that both the computers should understand a common language known as protocols.

There are different types of protocols such as TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI and NetBIOS. In the Ethernet networking, TCP/IP is the most commonly used suite of protocols. It is used both in the LAN and WAN. Following is the basic requirement of every computer in a network to communicate.

Computer must understand the common languages known as protocol such as TCP/IP. TCP/IP must be properly installed and configured in every computer. Every computer must possess a LAN card with updated driver and exact configurations. Apply unique IP address, subnet mask and gateway address to every computer. Apply unique and meaningful computer name to every computer such as PC-1, PC-2, PC-2, Name-Server1, Gateway etc.

Coaxial, Twisted Pair UTP/STP or Fiber optic cables. Both end of any cable should not properly inserted in the computer and in the Hub or switch.

A Hub or switch is required when you have more than two computers in your network.

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A DSL router is required if you want to have high speed Internet connectivity. A wireless router, Wireless LAN cards and access points if you want to have wireless communication between the computers.

A workgroup or domain should be created to allow the computers to communicate. Any computer in the networks either be a part of a workgroup or domain.

The above are the minimum basic requirements of the computers to be able to communicate with each other in a network. When two or more computers communicate they are basically sharing the information, data and resources with each other. There are some predefined rules, standards and devices that are involved in the overall communication process. In the data communication, it is important to learn about the layers model. ISO has introduced a layer model, which is known as OSI layers model. OSI layers model tells us that how data reaches from source to destination. There are seven layers in the OSI layers model.
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Application Presentation

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Session Transport Network Data Link Physical

These are the logical layers are data packets travels through all the layers to reach its destination. With the layered model, it is easy to understand the data communication flow and to troubleshoot the problems. Also, you need to understand the common network communication devices such as hub, switch, router, model and CSU/DSU. Hub and Switch are the LAN communication devices and Router is a LAN/WAN communication device.

1.8 Communication Systems

Process describing transfer of information, data, instructions between one or more systems through some media. Examples people, computers, cell phones, etc. Computer communication systems

The information exchanged between devices on a network or other communications medium is governed by rules or conventions that can be set out in a technical specification called a communication protocol standard. The nature of the communication, the actual data exchanged and any state-dependent behaviors are defined by the specification.

In digital computing systems, the rules can be expressed by algorithms and data structures. Expressing the algorithms in a portable programming language, makes the protocol software operating system independent.

Signals passing through the communication channel can be Digital, or analog Analog signals: continuous electrical waves Digital signals: individual electrical pulses (bits) Receivers and transmitters: desktop computers, mainframe computers, etc.

Communications Components Basic components of a communication system Communication technologies Communication devices Communication channels Communication software

1.9 Summary
The information exchanged between devices on a network or other communications medium is governed by rules or conventions that can be set out in a technical specification called a communication protocol standard. The nature of the communication, the actual data exchanged and any state-dependent behaviors are defined by the specification. In digital computing systems, the rules can be expressed by algorithms and data structures. Expressing the algorithms in a portable programming language, makes the protocol software operating system independent. Operating systems are usually conceived of as consisting of a set of cooperating processes that manipulate a shared store (on the system itself) to communicate with each other. This communication is governed by well-understood protocols. These protocols can be embedded in the process code itself as small additional code fragments. In contrast, communicating systems have to communicate with each other using shared transmission media, because there is no common memory. Transmission is not necessarily reliable and can involve different hardware and operating systems on different systems. To implement a networking protocol, the protocol software modules are interfaced with a framework implemented on the machine's operating system. This framework implements the networking functionality of the operating system. The best known frameworks are the TCP/IP model and the OSI model. At the time the Internet was developed, layering had proven to be a successful design approach for both compiler and operating system design and, given the similarities between programming languages and communication protocols, layering was applied to the protocols as well. This gave rise to the concept of layered protocols which nowadays forms the basis of protocol design.

1.10 Keywords

Communication System TV Telegraphy Telephony AM FM TCP/IP LAN WAN Digital Analog

1.11 Exercise
1) Give Introduction to Communication System. 2) What is Wireless Communications? 3) How Computers Communicate? 4) Define Communication Systems.