Communication Protocols

Communication Protocols

You may be wondering how do the computers send and receive data across communication links. The answer is data communication software. It is this software that enables us to communicate with other systems. The data communication software instructs computer systems and devices as to how exactly data is to be transferred from one place to another. The procedure of data transformation in the form of software is commonly called protocol.

The data transmission software or protocols perform the following functions for the efficient and error free transmission of data.

1. Data sequencing: A long message to be transmitted is broken into smaller packets of fixed size for error free data transmission.
2. Data Routing: It is the process of finding the most efficient route between source and destination before sending the data.
3. Flow control: All machines are not equally efficient in terms of speed. Hence the flow control regulates the process of sending data between fast sender and slow receiver.
4. Error Control: Error detecting and recovering is the one of the main function of communication software. It ensures that data are transmitted without any error.