What Are The Components Of Data Communication System?

What Are The Components Of Data Communication System?

Data Communications refers to the exchange of data between two devices using one or multiple forms of a transmission medium. In other words, it is the movement of data from one device to another device via the electrical or optical medium. ​Data Communication System ​facilitates this movement of data from one device to another. The components of a data communication system are made of the hardware and the software.

The main components of a Data Communication System are as follows:

➢ Message ➢ Sender ➢ Receiver ➢ Transmission Medium or Communication Channel ➢ Protocol (Encoder & Decoder)

Message It is the information that is transmitted for communication from one device to the other. This data can include text, video, might have sound, images, or a combination of all of these.

Sender The device that sends messages or data to another device is referred to as the Sender. In a data communication system, the transmitter is usually the computer and is also known as the Sender. Apart from Computer, workstation, telephone, video camera, etc can also be a sender in a Data Communication System.

Receiver The receiver is that device that receives the data or the message transmitted from the sender. It is also called the sink. It is to be noted that the device that acts as the receiver is capable of

accepting the data or the messages. A receiver can be a computer, fax machine, video camera, etc.

Communication Channel The path through which the data is transmitted from one medium to another is called the Communication Channel. A wire acts as the communication channel if the sender and the receiver are in the same building. And if they are in different locations, the communication channel can be telephone lines, fiber optics, satellites, etc.

Protocol The Protocol comprises the Encoder and the Decoder.

Encoder ​- It is a device that converts digital signals into analog signals so that it can pass through the transmission medium. This process of converting digital signals into analog signals is called encoding and the device that carries out this function is called the encoder.

Decoder ​- Communication usually uses analog signals. To receive the data from a communication channel, the coded analog signals need to be converted back to digital signals.

This process of decoding the analog signals back to digital signals is called decoding and the device that carries out this function is called the decoder.

The Types of Data used in a Data Communication System The types of data used in a Data Communication System consist of data, images, text, audio, video, etc.

Text & Numeric Data​ - Text data includes words, sentences, and paragraphs. Numeric data is represented in decimal, hexadecimal, octal, and the binary number system.

Audio & Video Data ​- Audio data includes the sound and can be any music, speech or an electronically stored sound. Video Data includes the motion pictures, that has the actions and the movements. A video camera can be used to create it.

Images ​- Images include charts, graph, picutres, sketches, and lot more. They are also represented in bit patterns.