Chap.

5 Data Communication Interface 1

1. Asynchronous and Synchronous

Transmission

• Synchronization:
– Sender & receiver need to synchronize
– Different levels of sync
• Clock sync: bit level
• Block sync: block or message level (character/word level)
• Asynchronous Transmission
– Bits are sent on a character-by-character basis
– Independent clocks at sender & receiver (but matching
reasonably)
– Clock sync: receiver resync’s its clock every character
– Block sync: each character is “bracketed” by start &
stop bits
– Advantage: simple & cheap, usable up to ~20 kbps
– Disadvantage: not very efficient

Odd,even, Remain
Idle state idle or next
of line or unused
Start start bit
bit 5 to 8 data bits 1-2 bit times
0
P stop
bit
1
Character format
 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 2

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

start

0 93 186 279 372 465 558 651 744

Effect of timing error

• Synchronous Transmission
– Sender & receiver have identical clocks
• Separate clock line to carry clock signal from
sender
• “Self-clocking” transmission scheme
– Biphase encoding (e.g. Manchester) ← digital sig.
– Using carrier signal ← Analog sig.
• Block sync:
– Special preamble & postamble bit patterns used to
indicate start/end of a block (frame)

8-bit Control Data field Control 8-bit

flag fields fields flag

Synchronous frame format

 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 3

2. Line Configurations

• Topology
– Physical arrangements of stations on a
transmission medium
– Point-to-point & Multipoint
• Full Duplex and Half Duplex
Send and receive
A Only one way at a time B
Half-duplex
Send
A receive B Full-Duplex
simultaneously
 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 4

3. Interfacing

• Need a interface standard between DTE &

DCE which specify in detail
– mechanical
– electrical
– functional
– procedural interface
• An example of physical layer protocol
 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 5

• V.24/EIA-232-E
– Interface standard between DTE and DCE
– RS-232 was introduced in 1962 by EIA, and
current version is EIA-232-E (5th version), and
International version is ITU-T V.24
• RS: Recommended Standard
• EIA: Electronics Industry Association
• ITU: International Telecommunications Union (which has
superseded CCITT)
• ITU-T: ITU standard for Telecommunications
– Originally for modem, but can be used with digital
networks
– Official title for the standard is “Interface between
DTE and DCE employing serial binary data
interchange”
– Mechanical Specification
• specifics of the connector, assignment of
interchange circuits to pins, size, dimensions, etc.
• 25-pin connector (known as D-connector)
• since not all 25 pins are necessary, 9-pin D-
connectors are also available
 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 6

Pin assignments

– Electrical Specification
• NRZ-L
– Binary 1 (or OFF): -3V ~ -15V,
– Binary 0 (or ON): +3V ~ +15V
• For less than 20 kbps and 15 meters
– Functional Specification
• Functional specification of each interchange circuit,
i.e., meaning of each circuit
• Circuits can be grouped into the categories of
data,control, timing, and ground
Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 7

for 9-pin connector

 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 8

– Loopback testing
• Useful fault-isolating tool
• Local loopback & remote loopbck

Loopback circuit settings for V.24/EIA-232

Local loopback Remote loopback
Local Remote
Circuit Condition Circuit interface interface
DCE ready ON DCE ready ON OFF
Local loopback ON Local loopback OFF OFF
Remote loopback OFF Remote loopback ON OFF
Test mode ON Test mode ON ON
 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 9

– Procedural Specification
• Legal sequence of events for a particular
application
• Example1: Asynchronous private line modem
(limited-distance modem)
– less than 2.5km apart

DTE Transmitting
Request Transmit
DTE ready to send data to DCE
time
DTE
DCE
DCE ready Clear
to send

DTE Receiving Receive data

time
DTE
DCE
Set Received-line Receive data
signal detector from channel
and send to DTE
over Received data

• Example 2: Modem over the telephone network

– Need additional circuit: ring indicator
 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 10

V.24/EIA-232 dial-up operation

 Chap. 5 Data Communication Interface 11

– Null Modems
• Allow two DTEs communicate directly (with no
networks nor DCEs between them)

DTE DTE