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MODULE – V
Digital Data Communication Techniques - Asynchronous transmission, Synchronous transmission-
Detecting and Correcting Errors-Types of Errors-Error Detection: Parity check, Cyclic Redundancy
Check (CRC) - Error Control Error Correction: Forward Error Correction and Hamming Distance.

1. Digital Data Communication Types

1.1 Parallel and serial mode

Digital data transmission can occur in two basic modes:

1) Parallel Communication:
 This transmission involves grouping several bits, say n, together and sending all the n bits at
a time.

 Figure hows how parallel transmission occurs for n = 8. This can be accomplishes with the
help of eight wires bundled together in the form of a cable with a connector at each end.
Additional wires, such as request (req) and acknowledgement (ack) are required for
asynchronous transmission.
 Primary advantage of parallel transmission is higher speed, which is achieved at the expense
of higher cost of cabling.
 Parallel transmission is feasible for short distances.

2) Serial Communication:
 This transmission involves sending one data bit at a time.

 Figure shows how serial transmission occurs; it uses a pair of wire for communication of data
in bit-serial form.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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 Since communication within devices is parallel, it needs parallel-to-serial and serial-to-

parallel conversion at both ends.
 However, it is slower than parallel mode of communication, serial mode of communication is
widely used because of the following advantages:
o Reduced Cost of Cabling: Lesser number of wires is required as compared to parallel
connection.
o Reduced Cross Talk: Lesser number of wires result in reduced cross talk.
o Inherent Device Characteristics: Many devices are inherently serial in nature.
o Portable device like PDAs, etc., use serial communication to reduce the size of the
connector.

Difference between Serial and Parallel Communication

Serial Communication Parallel Communication
The data is transmitted by sending one The stream of bits is divided into groups and one group
bit per each clock pulse. is sent per each clock pulse.
It is a slower mode of transmission, as It is a faster mode of transmission, as several bits can be
only one bit can be transmitted at a time. transmitted at a time.
It requires only one communication To send n bits at a time, it requires n communication
channel between communicating channel between communicating devices. As a result,
devices; thus, it is a cheaper mode of cost is increased by a factor of n as compared to serial
transmission transmission.
As communication within devices is No such converters are required.
parallel, both sender and receiver
require convener at the interface
between the device and the
communication channel.

1.2 Asynchronous and synchronous transmission

Synchronous transmissions are synchronized by an external clock, while asynchronous
transmissions are synchronized by special signals along the transmission medium.
Asynchronous Transmission
 In Asynchronous Transmission, data is sent in form of byte or character.
 This transmission is the half duplex type transmission.
 In this transmission start bits and stop bits are added with data.
 It does not require synchronization.

 For this reason it is most often used by inexpensive terminals that transmit single characters.
 Examples of Asynchronous Transmission
Emails, Forums, Letters, Radios, Televisions etc.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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Synchronous transmission
 In Synchronous Transmission, data is sent in form of blocks or frames.
 This transmission is the full duplex type.
 Between sender and receiver the synchronization is compulsory.
 In Synchronous transmission, there is no gap present between data.
 It is more efficient and more reliable than asynchronous transmission to transfer the large
amount of data.
 It offers real-time communication between linked devices.

 Special ’syn’ characters goes before the data being sent.

 The syn characters are included between chunks of data for timing functions.

 After the syn characters are received by the receiver, they are decoded and used to
synchronize the connection.
 After the connection is correctly synchronized, data transmission may begin.
 Examples of Synchronous Transmission
Chatrooms, Video conferencing, Telephonic conversations, Face-to-face interactions etc.

Difference between Synchronous Transmission and Asynchronous Transmission

Synchronous Transmission Asynchronous Transmission

In Synchronous transmission, Data is In asynchronous transmission, Data is sent in form of
sent in form of blocks or frames. byte or character.
Synchronous transmission is fast. Asynchronous transmission is slow.
Synchronous transmission is costly. Asynchronous transmission economical.
In Synchronous transmission, time In asynchronous transmission, time interval of
interval of transmission is constant. transmission is not constant, it is random.
In Synchronous transmission, There is In asynchronous transmission, There is present gap
no gap present between data. between data.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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2. Error Control
 If there is a change in one data stream (a bit) which is transferred and received, then error
occurs. For example, if 1 is transferred and 0 is received or reverse of it.
2.1 Types of Errors
 There are two types of errors are occurred in digital transmission systems:
1) Single-bit Errors: If there is a change in a single bit then the error is known as single bit
error i.e., 1 is changed to 0 or vice versa

2) Burst/Multiple-bit Errors Whenever two or more bits are changed in a given stream: then
this error is known as burst errors.

2.2 Error Control

 Data can be corrupted during transmission. For reliable communication, errors must be
detected and corrected.
 Error control provides error detection and correction.
 There are two basic strategies for dealing with errors.
1) To include only enough redundancy to allow the receiver to confirm that an error
occurred, but not aware of which error and therefore request it for re-transmission.
2) Second method is to include enough unwanted data along with each block of data sent to
enable to receiver to extract what the transmitted character must have been.

2.2.1 Error Detection

 Error detection means to decide whether the received data is correct or not without having a
copy of the original message.
 Error detection uses the concept of redundancy, which means adding extra bits for detecting
error at the destination.
 Error detection often uses error detecting codes. Error detecting code is to include only
enough redundancy to allow the receiver to deduce that an error occurred, but not which
error, and have it request a retransmission.
 There are following four error detection methods:
1) VRC (Vertical Redundancy Check)
2) LRC (Longitudinal Redundancy Check)
3) CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check)
4) Checksum Error Detection

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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Parity Check/Vertical Redundancy Checking (VRC)

 It is also known as parity check

 It is least expensive mechanism for error detection
 In this technique, the redundant bit called parity bit is appended to every data unit so that the
total number of 1s in the unit becomes even (including parity bit)

Example :
1110110 1101111 1110010
- After adding the parity bit
11101101 11011110 11100100

 When parity checking is used, an error that changes one bit in a character can be detected
because the parity bit will be incorrect.
 VRC can detect all single – bit errors
 It can detect burst errors if the total number of errors in each data unit is odd.
 VRC cannot detect errors where the total number of bits changed is even. If two 0 bits are
changed to Is, the VRC will not detect the error because the number of 1 bits will still be an
even number. So an odd number of bit errors can be detected, but an even number cannot.
 Therefore, more sophisticated checking techniques are employed in most data transmission
systems.

Longitudinal Redundancy Check (LRC)

 In this method, a block of bits is organized in table(rows and columns) calculate the parity bit
for each column and the set of this parity bit is also sending with original data.
 From the block of parity we can check the redundancy.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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Suppose the following block is sent :

10101001 00111001 11011101 11100111 10101010
(LRC)
However, it is bit by burst of length eight and some bits are corrupted:
10100011 10001001 11011101 11100111 10101010
(LRC)
When the receiver checks the LRC, some of the bits are not follow even parity rule and whole block
is discarded.

10100011 10001001 11011101 11100111 10101010

Advantage:
 LRC of n bits can easily detect burst error of n bits.
Disadvantage:
 If two bits in one data units are damaged and two bits in exactly same position in another
data unit are also damaged, the LRC checker will not detect the error.

Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

 The sending device performs binary division and CRC remainder is appended to original data
before transmission and sends to the receiving device.
 At its destination, the incoming data unit is divided by the same number. If at this step there
is no remainder, the data unit assumes to be correct and is accepted, otherwise it indicates
that data unit has been damaged in transmission and therefore must be rejected.

At sender side,
1. A string of n 0’s (one less than the number of bits in divisor) is appended to the data unit to
be transmitted.
2. Binary division is performed of the resultant string with the CRC generator.
3. After division, the remainder so obtained is called as CRC.
4. The string of 0’s appended to the data unit earlier is replaced by the CRC remainder.
5. The newly formed code word (Original data + CRC) is transmitted to the receiver.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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At receiver side,
1. The transmitted code word is received.
2. The received code word is divided with the same CRC generator.
3. On division, the remainder so obtained is checked.
4. If the remainder is zero, Receiver assumes that no error occurred in the data during the
transmission. Receiver accepts the data.
5. If the remainder is non-zero, Receiver assumes that some error occurred in the data during
the transmission. Receiver rejects the data and asks the sender for retransmission.

Sender

Receiver

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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Checksum Error Detection

 Suppose our data is a list of five 4-bit numbers that we want to send to a destination. In
addition to sending these numbers, we send the sum of the numbers.
 For example, if the set of numbers is (7, 11, 12, 0, 6), we send (7, 11, 12, 0, 6, 36), where 36 is
the sum of the original numbers. The receiver adds the five numbers and compares the result
with the sum. If the two are the same, the receiver assumes no error, accepts the five
numbers, and discards the sum. Otherwise, there is an error somewhere and the data are not
accepted.
 In checksum error detection scheme, the data is divided into k segments each of m bits.
 In the sender’s end the segments are added using 1’s complement arithmetic to get the sum.
The sum is complemented to get the checksum.
 The checksum segment is sent along with the data segments.
 At the receiver’s end, all received segments are added using 1’s complement arithmetic to get
the sum. The sum is complemented.
 If the result is zero, the received data is accepted; otherwise discarded.

2.2.2 Error Correction

 Error correction is much more difficult than error detection.
 The most commonly used error correction methods are:
1) Retransmission/Reverse Error Correction: In error correction by retransmission,
when an error is detected, the receiver can have the sender retransmit the entire data
unit. Reverse error correction methods are stop and wait, go-back-N or selective
retransmission.
2) Forward Error Correction: In forward error correction method, a receiver can use an
error-correcting code, which automatically corrects certain errors. Block parity, Hamming
code, interleaved code and convolutional code are some of the forward error correction
methods.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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Hamming Code
 It is a technique developed by R.W.Hamming in the late 1940s.
 Hamming code can be applied to data units of any length and uses the relationship between
data and redundancy bits.
 Redundant bits are extra binary bits that are generated and added to the information-
carrying bits of data transfer to ensure that no bits were lost during the data transfer.
 The number of redundant bits can be calculated using the following formula:
2^r ≥ m + r + 1
where, r = redundant bit, m = data bit
 Suppose the number of data bits is 7, then the number of redundant bits can be calculated
using: = 2^4 ≥ 7 + 4 + 1 Thus, the number of redundant bits= 4
 These redundancy bits are placed at the positions which correspond to the power of 2.
 As in the above example:
The number of data bits = 7
The number of redundant bits = 4
The total number of bits = 11
The redundant bits are placed at positions corresponding to power of 1, 2, 4, and 8

Suppose the data to be transmitted is 1011001, the bits will be placed as follows:

Determining the Parity bits –

1. R1 bit is calculated using parity check at all the bits positions whose binary representation
includes a 1 in the least significant position.
R1: bits 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11

2. R2 bit is calculated using parity check at all the bits positions whose binary representation
includes a 1 in the second position from the least significant bit.
R2: bits 2,3,6,7,10,11

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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3. R4 bit is calculated using parity check at all the bits positions whose binary representation
includes a 1 in the third position from the least significant bit.
R4: bits 4, 5, 6, 7

4. R8 bit is calculated using parity check at all the bits positions whose binary representation
includes a 1 in the fourth position from the least significant bit.
R8: bit 8,9,10,11

Thus, the data transferred is:

Error detection and correction –

Suppose in the above example the 6th bit is changed from 0 to 1 during data transmission, then it
gives new parity values in the binary number:

The bits give the binary number as 0110 whose decimal representation is 6. Thus, the bit 6
contains an error. To correct the error the 6th bit is changed from 1 to 0.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET

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Hamming Distance
 Hamming distance is a metric for comparing two binary data strings. While comparing two
binary strings of equal length, Hamming distance is the number of bit positions in which the
two bits are different.
 The Hamming distance between two strings, a and b is denoted as d(a,b).
 It is used for error detection or error correction when data is transmitted over computer
networks. It is also using in coding theory for comparing equal length data words.
Calculation of Hamming Distance
In order to calculate the Hamming distance between two strings, and , we perform their XOR
operation, (a⊕ b), and then count the total number of 1s in the resultant string.

Example 1:
Suppose there are two strings 1101 1001 and 1001 1101.

11011001 ⊕ 10011101 = 01000100. Since, this contains two 1s, the Hamming distance,
d(11011001, 10011101) = 2.

Minimum Hamming Distance

In a set of strings of equal lengths, the minimum Hamming distance is the smallest Hamming
distance between all possible pairs of strings in that set.

Example 2:
Suppose there are four strings 010, 011, 101 and 111.

010 ⊕ 011 = 001, d(010, 011) = 1.

010 ⊕ 101 = 111, d(010, 101) = 3.

010 ⊕ 111 = 101, d(010, 111) = 2.

011 ⊕ 101 = 110, d(011, 101) = 2.

011 ⊕ 111 = 100, d(011, 111) = 1.

101 ⊕ 111 = 010, d(011, 111) = 1.

Hence, the Minimum Hamming Distance, dmin = 1.

Lecture Note – Mr. Sarath V Sankaran, JCET