Data communication is crucial to our ever-growing digital world. Understanding how various modes of data transmission work is crucial to designing efficient and reliable networks. From the single-way simplicity of simplex communications to the bidirectional nature of full duplex communications, different methods dictate the way data is transferred and received.
To transfer data efficiently hardware in a communication circuit employs a variety of techniques like multiplexing and demultiplexing processes, which combine and separate signals into composite ones for transmission, and then back into individual components. This maximizes bandwidth utilization and reduces the cost. Signal amplifiers and error-detecting code reduce the possibility of data corruption due to electrical or electromagnetic disturbances.
Data communications also includes a set of rules (protocol) that are followed by both the computers that send and receive the data. These rules ensure that the message is recognized and understood correctly.
The sender can be a computer or another device that creates the message and then transmits it. It could take the form of text, numbers, pictures and sounds, or videos. The device or computer that receives a message may be the same or different from the sender. The transmission medium is the physical pathway between the sender and the receiver. It can be a wired media such as twisted pair wire or fiber optic cable or wireless like radio waves or microwaves.
