A Deeper Perspective on the Fundamentals of Digital Communication, Security, and Privacy Protocols

Kutub Thakur, Abu Kamruzzaman, Al-Sakib Khan Pathan

• Editore: CRC Press
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000609769
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Technology & Engineering
• Categoria: Mobile & Wireless Communications

This book, divided into three parts, describes the detailed concepts of Digital Communication, Security, and Privacy protocols.

In Part One, the first chapter provides a deeper perspective on communications, while Chapters 2 and 3 focus on analog and digital communication networks.

Part Two then delves into various Digital Communication protocols. Beginning first in Chapter 4 with the major Telephony protocols, Chapter 5 then focuses on important Data Communication protocols, leading onto the discussion of Wireless and Cellular Communication protocols in Chapter 6 and Fiber Optic Data Transmission protocols in Chapter 7.

Part Three covers Digital Security and Privacy protocols including Network Security protocols (Chapter 8), Wireless Security protocols (Chapter 9), and Server Level Security systems (Chapter 10), while the final chapter covers various aspects of privacy related to communication protocols and associated issues.

This book will offer great benefits to graduate and undergraduate students, researchers, and practitioners. It could be used as a textbook as well as reference material for these topics. All the authors are well-qualified in this domain. The authors have an approved textbook that is used in some US, Saudi, and Bangladeshi universities since Fall 2020 semester – although used in online lectures/classes due to COVID-19 pandemic.

PART ONE Introduction to Analog and Digital Communication Protocols

1Evolution of Communication Protocols

DOI: 10.1201/9781003300908-2

What Is a Communication Protocol?

A communication protocol is a set of predefined rules and laws used for establishing meaningful communication between sender and receiver of the signals (via the transmission of signals or information from one communication node to another communication node). The communicating nodes are commonly referred to as the transmitter and the receiver.¹ Telecommunication protocols play a vital role in modern communication technologies, such as:

• Telephone systems
• Television systems
• Satellite systems
• Data communication
• The Internet technologies
• Brain–computer interface
• Tele-learning systems
• Radar systems
• Cellular phone systems

All the aforementioned communication systems interact with the sender and the receiver of the signals with the help of numerous communication protocols. The natures of those communication protocols are different from each other, but the core principles and objectives of all those communication protocols are the same. If you look into the communication system with a deeper perspective, you will find that there are many communication protocols involved in accomplishing modern communication through multiple nodes of communication networks spread across the continents. At every point of time, the conversion of protocols and the change of the state of signals occur, which are handled by different protocols associated with signal processing and communication.

Physically speaking, a communication system consists of a sender, a receiver, and a communication channel on which the signal or message is transmitted from one sender to a receiver of the signals or message. But in real-world communication systems, the number of components of a communication system is six as listed in the following:²

• Terminal nodes – The terminal nodes also referred to as terminals are the receiving and sending elements in the communication system. In other words, we can say that the sender device and the receiver device are the terminals of the communication systems. The terminals can also be named input devices and output devices in modern telecommunication systems.
• Communication channel – For transmitting electrical or electromagnetic signals from one point to another one, a channel of communication is required. The channel of communication is built on certain wires, vacuums, and air medium in modern communication systems. Examples of communication media include twisted pair, coaxial cables, fiber, microwave, extra-terrestrial ultrahigh frequency (UHF), optics, light, and so on.
• Message – Message is the information coded into the signals, which is transmitted from one terminal of communication to the other one. The message may consist of image, video, audio, or text.
• Communication protocols – Communication protocols are the most fundamental component of establishing a meaningful communication between two terminals of the communication system. It is a set of predefined rules and responses of the signals sent from one node to the other one. The entire process of transmitting of message from sender to receiver is done by communication protocols.
• Communication processors – A communication processor is another very important part of the communication system, which plays a very critical role in processing the control, feedback, and other additional supportive functions required for establishing a smooth communication across different types of network elements other than transmitters and receivers. Examples of communication processors include signal converters, boosters, signal inverters, multiplexers, dividers, and the like.
• Control software – A software platform that is used for managing, configuring, controlling, and performing other operations and maintenance activities on the communication systems is known as control software. This software also communicates between two elements of nodes through certain communication protocols.

As discussed earlier, a communication protocol is like spine in the entire communication system; so, any kind of snag or glitch in the communication protocol will lead to the collapse of meaningful communication. There are so many examples of communication, and a few examples of modern communication protocols are listed as follows.

• Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
• Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) Protocol
• Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) Protocol
• And many more

History of Communication Protocols

The history of telecommunication protocols is as old as sending remote signals in inter-location communication. The start of the communication protocols dates back hundreds of years when people started using smoke and fire signals for remote communication. Later, the drums were used for remote communication through different types of drumbeat combinations. The use of voice and visual signals were the only two major sources of remote communication at that time.

Slowly and gradually, the proper systems for remote communication were established. Among such preliminary telecommunication systems, semaphore is very important to name. The first semaphore system emerged in Europe in the 1790s. The antenna pattern of semaphore is an example of communication protocol.³ Electricity was invented at the beginning of the 1800s and evolved through a couple of decades until people started using it as communication signals. In the 1790s, visual telegraphy based on clock hands of a pair of clocks was introduced. The formation of the hands of the clocks in different formats was an example of communication protocol in that visual form of telegraphy.

Later, Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring created the first electrochemical-based telegraph in 1809. In this telegraphy, the current would electrolyte the chemical solutions and a series of air bubbles would be produced at the receiver. The series of bubbles was used as the codes of communication. And, this entire system of bubble signals and their understanding is an example of communication protocol.

Samuel Morse developed a communication protocol for a new and advanced version of electrical signal-based telegraphy in 1837. In this advanced telegraphy, the Morse code was used as the communication protocol. Thus, the advancements continued in the communication protocols. The patent for the electric telephone was awarded to Alexander Graham Bell in the US in 1876. This phone would use a liquid transmitter for sending voice information from one telephone set to another one. The oscillating current/voltage was used for transmitting signals. The name of oscillating signals is now referred to as amplitude modulation (AM) of the input signal over current. Later, the same AM was used for transmitting the voice signals over radio waves.

The other examples of different communication protocols used for telephone communication include TDM, SS7, Channel-Associated Signaling (CAS), SIP, and so on. The advancement of communication protocols continued not only in voice communication over telephone, television, and radar systems but also in data transmission. Many of the data transmission protocols started after the middle of the 20th century.

Frequency modulation (FM), pulse modulation, and other protocols were used in television and satellite communication. The microwave and UHF were used in the other extra-terrestrial communication. Numerous communication control protocols were deployed in the wireless communication arena. The revolution in interactive communication started with the advent of data communication networks pioneered by the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and TCP/IP in 1983.⁴ The creation of the world wide web (WWW) by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 became the core protocol for the Internet, which revolutionized the communication systems in the world.

Many cellular mobile and wireless technologies powered by numerous modern communication protocols have changed the landscape of modern telecommunication. Among such communication protocols and technologies, 3G, 4G, 5G, Bluetooth, ZigBee, IoT, Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO), and numerous types of wireless modulation mechanisms are some of the very important ones.

Types of Signals Used in Communication History

Communication is the name of transmission of a meaningful signal from one person to another one. Similarly, from the technological aspects, communication is the transmission of a meaningful signal from one poin...