What is data communication? How does data communication work?

Data communication

Data communication is the process of transferring any data from one end to another end or from one computer to another computer or from one device to another device or from one person to another. Here, data refers to the electrical form of information stored in a computer. Communicating devices consist of hardware and software for data communication. The performance of data communication system mainly depends on three characteristics. For example:

(i) Delivery: The system must deliver the data to the right end.

(ii) Accuracy: The system must deliver data accurately.

(iii) Timelines: The system must deliver timely data.

Main element of data communication and work: A data communication system usually consists of five elements; namely--

(i) Message, 

(ii) Source and sender of data, 

(iii) Receiver of data, 

(iv) Medium, 

(v) Protocol

(1) Message: The message is what is sent. Messages can be of various types, such as text, image, audio/sound, video etc.

(2) Source and sender of data: The place from which the data is collected is called the source. The data collected from the source is called source data. The device or computer from which the data is sent is called the sender. Data is sent from the sending device. There can be different types of sending devices; For example, computers, telephone sets, etc. Computers, terminals etc. are used as senders.

(3) Data receiver or receiver: The source or sender of data using data communication medium, to whom or to which the computer sends the data i.e. the computer that receives the data can be identified as the data receiver or receiver. For example, computers, telephone sets, etc.

(4) Medium: The medium is the path (physical or wireless) through which data is sent from the sending device to the receiving device. For example, twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable or air/wireless etc.

(5) Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules that communicating devices follow. A computer is a data processing device. Computer processed data is transmitted from one end to another through a transcript system. The components of data transcript system are- modem, transmitter, switch, receiver etc.