Here, we will study the transmission modes of the computer network in detail with their advantages and disadvantages.
Transmission Modes define the flow of data and information between the two network devices.Sometimes, we called transmission modes as data communication modes or directional modes. These modes are defined in the physical layer of the OSI model.
Firstly, data Communication modes were introduced in Modems during the 1940s. After then, these were introduced in LANs, WANs, and other networking systems.
Following are three types of data transmission modes in a computer network which specify the data flow between the two network devices:
1. Simplex Transmission Mode
2. Half-Duplex Transmission Mode
3. Full-Duplex Transmission Mode
Simplex Mode
Simplex Mode is data transmission mode in which data flows only in one direction, i.e., the data communication between the devices is unidirectional. In a simplex data transmission mode, the sender device can only send the data and the receiver device only receives the data. The receiver device is not able to send the response back to the sender device.
Radio Station is the most common example of simplex mode, which transmits the signals to the listeners but does not allow them to respond back.
Other good examples of simple mode are keyboard devices and monitor devices. The keyboard is a device which only takes the data from the outside world and the monitor is a device which shows the entered data to the user. The monitor is not able to give a response back to the keyboard.
Advantages of Simplex Mode
Following are the advantages of Simplex Mode:
1. The main advantage of this mode is that it utilizes the whole bandwidth of the communication channel during the data communication. So, all data can be easily transferred at one time without any traffic issues.
2. This data transmission mode is very simple.
Disadvantages of Simplex Mode
In Simplex mode, bidirectional communication is not possible between the two network devices.
Half-Duplex Mode
Half-Duplex Mode is data transmission mode in which both the devices can transmit and receive the data but not in both directions at the same time. Sometimes, this transmission mode is also called Semi-Duplex mode.
In this data transmission mode, when the sender sends the data then the receiver can only receive the data and vice-versa. Both the devices can not communicate with each other simultaneously.
This transmission mode is used in those situations when there is no need for transmitting data for both directions at the same time.
The most common examples of Half-Duplex transmission mode are walkie-talkie and Internet Browsers. In Walkie-talkie, speakers at both ends cannot speak at the same time. They speak one by one.
Advantages of Half-Duplex Mode
Following are the advantages of Half-Duplex Mode:
1. The main advantage of this transmission mode is that the data can be transferred in both directions.
2. It utilizes the whole bandwidth of the communication channel during the data communication in one direction at a time.
Disadvantages of Half-Duplex Mode
Following are the disadvantages of Half-Duplex Mode:
1. The main disadvantage is that two-way communication is not possible between the sender and receiver at the same time.
2. The speed of data transmission is slow. Because, when one device sends the data then another device has to wait until the whole data is received.
Full-Duplex Mode
Half-Duplex Mode is data transmission mode in which both the devices can transmit and receive the data in both directions at the same time.
The communication between the sender and receiver device is bidirectional. This data transmission mode is used in those situations when there is a need for communication in both directions at the same time.
The most common example of a full-duplex is the mobile phone, where two users can easily communicate with each other simultaneously.
Advantages of Full-Duplex Mode
Following are the advantages of Full-Duplex Mode:
1. The main advantage of this transmission mode is that the data can be transferred in both directions at the same time.
2. Its performance is better than the half-duplex and simplex data transmission mode.
3. The speed of transmitting the data in this mode is faster.
Disadvantages of Full-Duplex Mode
This transmission mode uses the same transmission line for communication at the same time. So, it has no proper bandwidth utilization of the communication channel.