Data Communication – The Lifeblood of Digital Networks
Data communication is vital to our ever-growing digital world. Understanding how different methods for data transmission work is crucial in the design of reliable and efficient networks. Different methods determine the method by which data is transmitted.
To efficiently transfer data the hardware in a data communication circuit will use various methods like multiplexing and demultiplexing processes, which combine and separate signals into composite ones for transmission and then back into the individual components. This increases bandwidth and reduces costs. Signal amplifiers and error-detecting code reduce the possibility of data corruption due to electrical disturbances or noise.
Data communications also have the following set (protocol) of rules that are followed by both the sender’s and receiver’s computers. These rules ensure that the message is understood and accepted without error.
The sender can be a computer or other device that creates the message and then sends it. It could be in the form text, numbers, images or even videos. The computer or device which receives a message could be different from the sender. The transmission medium is the physical path from the sender to the receiver. It could be a wired medium, such as twisted pair wire fiber optic cable or wireless like microwaves, or radio waves.