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Introduction: the 5 pillars upon which the electrical power distribution systems automation is built are:
computer programming, computer aided design & drafting (CADD) including drawing digitization,
system control & data acquisition (SCADA) systems, local networks including LAN & WAN,
geographic information systems (GIS) including global positioning system (GPS) software. In this
article an introduction to LAN will be presented. Local networks are communication networks that
provide interconnection of a variety of data communicating devices within a small area. A local
network is a communication network, it is a facility for moving bits of data from one attached device to
another. Data communicating devices are any devices that communicate over a transmission medium
like: computers, terminals, peripheral devices, sensors, telephones, input/output modules of PLCs &
RTUs. Not all types of local networks are capable of handling all the aforementioned devices. The
geographic scope of a local network is small, confined to a single building, span several buildings in
other words a local network is installed in a maximum of a few tens of kilometers radius. In general, a
single organization will own the network and the attached devices. Typical characteristics of a local
network are: high data rates (.1 to 100 Mbps), short distances (.1 to 25 km) and low error rate (108 to
1011 ). The data rate and distance differentiate local networks from multiprocessor systems, and long
haul networks (WAN). Local networks can further be classified into high speed local networks, local
area networks and private branch exchanges (PBX).
Introduction to data communication:
Analog & Digital communication:
Analog and digital correspond to continuous and discrete. The common three contexts that these terms
are used in are: data, signaling & transmission. Data are entities that convey meaning. Information is
the interpretation of those data. Signals are electric or electromagnetic encoding of data. Signaling is
the act of propagating the signal along some suitable medium. Transmission is the communication of
data by the propagation & processing of signals. Analog data take on continuous values on some
interval, voice and video are examples of continuously varying patterns of intensity. Another example is
data collected by sensors/transducers like temperature & pressure (continuous valued) or current &
voltage. Digital data take on discrete values like integers, relays & switches contacts. Analog signal is
continuously varying electromagnetic wave that may be transmitted over a variety of media (function of
frequency): wire (twisted pair or coaxial), fiber optic cable, space propagation (radio frequency,
microwave, infrared & laser) and satellite communication. A digital signal is a sequence of voltage
pulses that may be transmitted over a wire medium. Digital signaling is less susceptible to noise
interference and is cheaper. The principal draw back is that digital signals suffer more in attenuation
than analog signals. Attenuation can lead to loss of information contained in the propagated signal.
Analog data are a function of time and occupy a limited frequency spectrum. Voice data have frequency
components in the range 20 Hz to 20 KHz. Most of the speech energy is in a much narrower range
(spectrum of voice signals is 300 to 3400 Hz). Digital data can also be represented by analog signals
through the use of modem. The modem converts a series of binary (two valued) voltage pulses into an
analog signal (by modulating a carrier frequency). Modems represent digital data in the voice spectrum
to allow the propagation over ordinary voice grade telephone lines. At the other end of the line a
modem demodulates the signal to recover the original data. On the other hand analog data can be
represented by digital signals. The device that performs this function is known as a codec. It takes an
analog signal that directly represents the voice data and approximates that signal by a bit stream. At the
other end of the line, the bit stream is used to reconstruct the analog data. Analog transmission is a
means of transmitting analog signals without regard to their content: the signals may represent analog
data (voice) or digital data (data that pass through a modem). The analog transmission system includes
amplifiers (for longer distances) that boost the energy in the signal. Amplifiers boost the noise
component. For analog data (eg. voice), a bit of distortion can be tolerated. For digital data cascaded
amplifiers will introduce errors. Digital transmission is concerned with the content of the signal.
Digital signal can be transmitted on only a limited distance before attenuation endanger the integrity of
the data. Repeaters are used to alleviate this problem, they receive the digital signal and after recovering
the pattern 1 and 0, retransmit a new signal. The same technique may be used with analog signals and
digital data. The transmission system has at appropriate spaced points retransmission devices rather
than amplifiers. Noise is noncumulative, as these devices recover the digital data from the analog
signal and generate a new analog signal. Digital signaling is not as practical as analog, but digital
transmission is superior to analog in cost & quality (in both voice and digital data).
Data encoding:
Data, either analog or digital must be converted into signal for purposes of transmission. The mapping
from binary digits to signal elements is the encoding scheme used to be able to transmit digital data.
The receiver must know when a bit begins and ends (for sampling incoming bits one at a time) and
must recognize the value of each bit. The receiver will be more successful in interpreting the incoming
signal if the signal will have a high strength ( it will withstand more attenuation and will stand out to
any present noise). The receiver will be in a more difficult position to sample and make decisions with
high data rates (each bit occupies a small amount of time). The encoding scheme will affect the receiver
performance. With analog data, the encoding scheme will affect the transmission performance.
Digital data, analog signal:
The basis for analog signaling is a continuous constant frequency signal known as the carrier signal.
Digital data are encoded by modulating any of the three characteristics of the carrier: amplitude,
frequency, phase shift (or a combination of). Modulation of analog signals for digital data can be
classified into: amplitudeshift keying, frequencyshift and phaseshift keying.
Digital data, digital signal:
The transmission of digital data as digital signals is the technique used in a number of local networks.
Two families of coding techniques exist: nonreturn to zero (level and invert on ones) and biphase codes
(Manchester and differential Manchester).
Analog data, digital signal:
Digital signals to encode analog data are pulse code modulation (PCM) and delta modulation
(DM)schemes. The sampling theory states that if a signal f(t) is sampled at regular intervals of time and
at a rate higher than twice the highest significant signal frequency then the samples contain all the
information of the original signal (Nyquist frequency). The f(t) may be reconstructed from the samples
by the use of a low pass filter.
Multiplexing:
In both local and long haul (wide) area communications, the capacity of the transmission medium
exceeds that required for the transmission of a single signal. The medium, usually carry multiple signals
simultaneously. This technique is known as multiplexing. Multiplexing can further be classified into
frequency division and time division multiplexing, FDM & TDM. With FDM, a number of signals can
be carried simultaneously if each signal is modulated onto a different carrier frequency, and the carrier
frequencies are sufficiently separated so that the bandwidths of the signals do not overlap. Signal
source are fed into a multiplexer which modulates each signal onto a different frequency. Each signal
requires a certain bandwidth centered around its carrier frequency (a channel). TDM takes advantage of
the fact that the achievable bit rate of the medium exceeds the required data rate of a digital signal.
Multiple digital signals can be carried on a single transmission path by interleaving portion of each
signal in time. Interleaving can be for bits or bytes. The sequence of time slots dedicated to a particular
source is called a channel and one cycle of time slots is called a frame (per source).
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous transmission:
A fundamental requirement of digital data communications (analog or digital signal) is that the receiver
knows the starting time and duration of each bit that it receives. With asynchronous transmission, each
character (5 to 8 bits) is preceded by a start code and followed by a stop code. In synchronous
communication, blocks of characters or bits are transmitted without start and stop codes with a
predictable time of arrival or departure of each bit. The synchronization of the clocks of the sender and
receiver is achieved either by providing a separate clock line or embedding the clocking information in
the data signal. For the receiver to determine the beginning and end of the block of data, the block has
to begin with a preamble bit pattern and to end with a postamble bit pattern. The data plus the pre and
post amble is called a frame. The block of data can be classified into characteroriented and bit
oriented.
Communication switching techniques:
They can be classified into circuit, message, packet and hybrid. When 2 devices or more have to
communicate but they are very far apart, having the devices connected to each other is impractical. The
solution is connecting each device to a communication network. Communication is achieved by
transmitting data from source to destination through a network of intermediate nodes. The nodes are
not concerned with the content of the data, rather to provide a switching facility (routing the data from
node to node until they reach their destination). The collection of the nodes is referred to as a
communication network.
Components of a LAN: the components of a local network can be classified into hardware and software.
The hardware of a LAN will include the following components:
File servers: a network file server is a computer system used for the purpose of managing network file
system, servicing the network, printers & handling network communications. The server may be
dedicated in which case all of its processing power is allocated to network functions, or it may be non
dedicated where part of the server's functions may be allocated as a work station or other operating
system based applications. For larger networks, larger RAM memory amounts are required to support
disk caches and printer queues. The throughput performance of a server is a combination of several
factors including the processor type, processor speed, waitstate factor, memory caching capabilities,
hard disk performance.
Workstations: are attached to the server through the interface card (which is function of the type of
network & its protocol) and the cabling. The concept of distributed processing relies on the fact that
personal computers attached to networks perform their own processing after loading programs and data
from the server. This frees the server for network tasks. Files are then stored back on the server, where
they can be used by other workstations or included in the server backup. Workstations can be diskless.
They require special circuiting in the NIC to access the server.
Network interface cards (NIC): they provide the connection for network cabling to servers and
workstations. There are numerous types of cards that support many different types of cables/medium
( twisted pair, 50 ohm or 75 ohm coaxial, fiber optic or antenna) and network typologies (star, ring, bus
or tree). A network interface card provides the protocols and commands required to support the type of
network the card is designed for. Some boards will have additional memory for buffering incoming and
outgoing data packets, improving the throughput of the network. NIC contains various switches and
jumpers to select various hardware interrupts, input/output addresses and others, they should be
adjusted for the proper operation. The drivers of the network should be compatible with the NIC.
Network cabling: once the server, workstations and NIC's are in place, network cabling is used to
connect everything together. The type of cable used depends on many factors: performance, cost, ease
of installation, expandability, building code specification. The cable should be compatible with the
different cards used in the network servers workstations and other peripherals. The typical hardware
components for some of the commonly used networks (basebandcoax & twisted pair, broadband,
optical fiber & line of sight) are given hereafter:
Baseband systems: most baseband coaxial cable, rather than using the standard CATV 75 ohm, are
using a special 50 ohm cable. The special 50 ohm cable suffers less intense reflections from the
insertion capacitance of the taps and is not as susceptible to lowfrequency electromagnetic noise. The
lower the data rate, the longer the cable can be. At a lower data rate, the individual pulses of a digital
signal will last longer and will be recovered in the presence of attenuation and noise more easily than
with higher rate. The Ethernet specification specified the use of 50ohm cable with a 0.4 inch diameter
and a data rate 10 Mbps. With these parameters, the maximum length of the cable is set at 500 meters.
Stations attached to the cable by means of a tap are spaced 2.5 m. and multiples there of. The maximum
number of taps allowed is 100. This system is known as 10 base 5. For personal computers LANs, 10
base 2 can be specified, the thinner cable (.25 in) used is more flexible. The thinner cable is easier to
install and requires cheaper electronics than the thicker cable. It supports fewer taps over a shorter
distance (200 M). The typical components are: the transceiver, transceiver cable, controller, 50 ohm
coaxial cable and 50 ohm terminators. The transceiver taps into the coaxial cable. It transmits signals
from the station to the cable and vice versa. It also contains the electronics necessary to recognize the
presence of a signal on the coaxial cable and to recognize the collision of two signals. Ground isolation
for the signals from the cable and from the station is also provided. The transceiver cable comprises two
twisted pair (twin pair) and connects the transceiver to the controller. All the electronics could be
included at the transceiver end. It is preferable to have the electronics at the tap as simple as possible.
The twin pair supplies power to the transceiver and passes data signals between the transceiver and the
controller beside the control signals (which include a collision presence signal). The enabling and
disabling of the transceiver from the controller is possible by a control signal. The controller is an
implementation of all the functions (excluding those offered by the transceiver) needed to manage
access to the coax cable for the purpose of exchanging packets between the coax cable and the attached
station. Sometimes a repeater may be required to finalize the building of a LAN bus. The repeater
passes digital signals in both directions between the two segments, amplifying and regenerating the
signals as they pass through. Only one path of segments and repeaters is allowed between any two
stations.
Unshielded twisted pair communication medium (spare telephone wires running from wiring closets to
each office) with baseband systems is common in office buildings.
Broadband systems: the broadband is suitable for tens of kilometers radius from the headend and
hundreds of devices. The main components of the system are: coaxial cable, terminators, amplifiers,
directional couplers, modems, controllers. Cables used in broadband networks can be classified into:
trunk, distribution (or feeder) and drop cables. The first uses a semirigid construction (nonflexible) of
which the outer portion of the cable is made of solid aluminum. It comes in six sizes from .412 to 1
inch in diameter can be used indoors and outdoors. The second type is used for shorter distances and for
branch cables. It is .4 to .5 inch in diameter and is either semirigid or flexible. It is used indoors. The
choice of the size and flexibility degree depends on the physical constraints of the route, the required
signal level and local safety and building codes. The third type is used to connect outlets or stations to
distribution cables. It is usually 10 to 15 feet long. Its size can be any of the following RG59 (.242"),
RG6 (.336") or RG11 (.405") and is flexible. To compensate for cable attenuation, amplifiers are used
on trunk or distribution cables (which can be as long as 800 meters). For split systems, amplifiers must
be bidirectional passing and amplifying lower frequency in one direction and higher frequency in the
other. Directional couplers provide a means of dividing one input into two outputs, and combining two
inputs into one output. Spliters used to branch the cable. Modems are needed to convert between the
digital data of the attached stations and the analog signal on the medium.
Fiber LAN: one of the most important consideration in the use of optical fibers and light rays for
communication and data transmission is the fact that light rays are almost immune to electrical
interference when sent over an optical fiber transmission path. Thus, interference due to sparks,
lightning and crosstalk are not present in an optical fiber. Electromagnetic energy radiation from fiber
optics does not exist. The three basic elements in a fiber optic system are the transmitter, the optical
fiber and the receiver. The first is the unit which must generate the light rays and be capable of being
switched on and off and being possible to modulate data (intelligence) onto the light rays. The second
must have a purity and cladding including protection from mechanical damage so that it is transparent
to the light frequencies in use. It is capable of being spliced and repaired, it conveys the rays a
reasonable distance before a repeater is used to reamplify the light beams and retransmit them. The
third reconverts those light rays back to analog or digital currents and voltages. The passive star coupler
is fabricated by fusing together a number of optical fibers. To form a network, each device is connected
to the coupler with two fibers (one for transmit and one for receive). The transmit fibers enter the
coupler on one and the receive fibers exit on the other. The attenuation that will occur in the network
consists of the following: optical connector losses (1 to 1.5 dB per connector), optical cable attenuation
(310 dB/Km) and optical power division in the coupler (the coupler divides the optical power from one
transmission path to all reception paths, equally, for a 16 port the effective loss will be 12 dB).
The central coupler of the active star is an active repeater. Like the passive star, it appears as a bus to
the attached devices. The receiver module detects the optical signal, passed on to the control module
and than to the transmitter module where it is retransmitted in an optical form on all output fibres. The
classification of taps type either active or passive can be used to characterize the LAN or HSLN bus.
With active taps the following occur; optical signal energy enters the tap from the bus, clocking
information is recovered from the signal and the signal is converted into an electrical signal, the
converted signal is presented to and modified by the nodes, the optical output (a light beam) is
modulated according to the electrical signal and inserted on the bus. With passive taps, the portion of
the optical energy is extracted from the bus (by the tap). It injects optical energy directly into the
medium. Transmission of light rays is classified into single and multimode.
Line of Sight Media: because of the high frequency at which these devices operate (microwave 10 to 10
Hz, infrared 10 to 10 Hz; laser 10 to 10 ) the potential for very high data rates exists (several Mbps
over short links). When it is difficult to swing cables between buildings/underground or on poles, this
technique proves to be extremely useful. The infrared link consists of a pair of transmitter/receiver
(transceivers) that modulate noncoherent infrared light. Transceivers must be within the line of sight (of
each other) installed on either a roof top or within a building with data transmitted through adjacent
exterior windows. These systems are highly directional (difficult to jam, intercept or inject data into).
Infrared and laser are susceptible to environmental interference. With microwave transceivers, they are
mounted externally to a building, they are less directional than their counterparts.
How does a local network works? The nature of local networks is defined by the following: topology
which can be any or a combination of star, bus, tree or ring, transmission media which can be any or a
combination of twisted pair, coaxial cable, optical fiber cable or line of sight & medium access control
which can be classified into centralized (polling, centralized reservation) or distributed (token bus,
token ring, delay scheduling, distributed reservation, slotted ring, register insertion, carrier sense
multiple access CSMA/collision detect CD or listen whilee talk). Local area networks are the most
common of the three types (LANs, HSLN, circuit switched local networks). It is used to refer to a
general purpose local network which can serve a wide variety of devices over a large area. LAN
supports minis, main frames, terminals and peripherals. This network can carry data, voice, video and
graphics. Office & factory automation fall into this category of networks. Layers 1 through 3 of the ISO
OSI reference model are required for proper functioning of a packet switched network. The layers are:
physical, data link and network. The first is concerned with transmission of unstructured bit stream
over physical link. It deals with the mechanical, electrical, functional and procedural characteristics to
establish, maintain and deactivate the physical link. The second provides for the reliable transfer of data
across the physical link, sends blocks of data (frames) with the necessary synchronization, error and
flow control. The third layer provides the upper layers with independence from the data transmission
and switching technologies. LAN protocol layers are the physical & the data link (has the medium
access control and logical link control sublayers plus the service access points). The physical layer
functions are: encoding/decoding of signals, preamble generation/removal (for synchronization) and bit
transmission/reception. Local networks consist of collection of devices that must share the network's
transmission capacity. Means of controlling access to the transmission medium is needed so when two
particular devices have to communicate they can perform this function in an orderly manner. Control is
either exercised in a centralized or distributed fashion. The constrains on how medium access control is
exercised is dictated by the topology and is a trade off among: cost, performance, complexity. Access
control can be categorized into synchronous and asynchronous. With synchronous techniques, a
specific capacity is dedicated to a connection. Asynchronous is the allocation of the capacity
dynamically depending on the immediate needs of various connections. Asynchronous approach can
further be divided into round robin, reservation and contention. Examples for distributed asynchronous
(round robin) medium access control are: token bus, token ring, delay scheduling and implicit token; for
distributed contention are:CSMA/CD, slotted ring and register insertion.
Tasks of a local network: the LAN should provide to the system administrator the following facilities to
run & monitor the network:
Installation commands are used to install network operating system on the file server, to create
workstation disks and boot files, also to create remote workstations.
Menu utilities: are designed to make both administrator and user interaction with the operating system
easier. They can be used to make alterations to a user session, change directory and file attributes, and
monitor the system.
Security commands: are designed to keep unauthorized people out of the system using login
commands and passwords. Directory and file privileges are the approaches used to secure and control
accessibility to the different information on the server. Managing users and user rights commands are
also used to achieve control of accessibility.
Directory commands: to list, rename, view, map, etc. directories.
File commands: They are used to handle files on a network system.
Messaging and broadcasting: messages can be addressed to a single user, a group of/all users.
Printer commands: are used to define new printers, print jobs, to make printer handling easier,
manipulate print jobs, to check printer status.
Backup commands: backup are made to tape drivers or another hard disk on a network system. They
can be used to backup specific files in specific directories (such as those changed since last backup).
Server commands: like attaching to another server while remain logged into the current file server, or
to view the information of all connected file servers, to the network.
System information: these commands are used to display information about the network, curent file
server or other file servers on the network.
Performance monitoring: to give the information regarding the activities of all logged in workstations,
to check all file servers performance.
Disk utilities: can be used to monitor the performance of a file server and its volumes, the statistics of
a volume (eg. its files in use).
Maintenance commands: are used to maintain the file server or network, to notify users and prevent
users from logging on.