Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives To provide the student with an understanding of the concepts and theory relating to data communications and of the various communications systems used in the transmission of digital information.
Synopsis Data communications: concepts and terminology; analog and digital data transmission, transmission media; data encoding. Asynchronous and synchronous transmission; error detection techniques. Data link control; data flow control; error control. Multiplexing. Data communication networking: communication networking techniques; circuit, message and packet switching; the PSTN; virtual circuits and datagrams; routing, traffic control, error control. Local networks, local network technology; the star, bus and ring topology; access control protocols; ethernet, Token Ring and FDDI networks. Computer communications architecture: protocols and architecture; the layered approach, the OSI model; network access protocols. Bridges and routers; internetworking.
Assessment Examination: 70% + Assignments: 30%