Data Communications

Data communications sounds pretty technical and perhaps it really is. The simple fact is that in many ways we all deal with and use data communications almost every day. Data communication is using an electronic device, more often than not today a computer, to gather and send information to either a like device or sometimes a completely dissimilar system.

We do this every day; day and day out when we get on our computers like you are right now. When your computer gathers and sends any type of information to another computer that is a form of data communication. One device is gathering and sending to another similar device. Accessing the internet is yet another form of data communication, just on a much larger scale, perhaps the largest scale of data communication. This data can take any number of forms from text or graphics to video or music files. This is just one of the more common ways that we see data communication at work There are many different ways. Data communications is advancing and changing so fast anymore it’s all that the people in the field can do to keep up. It is actually changing on a weekly basis.

The other forms that we commonly encounter in the data communications arena are the cameras that are mounted on light poles. These cameras catch the motion of cars as they speed by, if you happen to drive through a red light these cameras are set to photograph your license plate number, this photo is transferred and read by yet another computer which then cross references your license plate with its data base, determines who you are and automatically sends you a ticket in the mail. The level of technology required to make all of this happen in the data communication world is impressively high. The field simply by virtue of what it is stays constantly on the cutting edge; anything less and the competition and the field itself will overwhelm you and pass you by.

Another way we interact with data communications is the way we do our banking anymore, especially representative of this is the way we use debit cards. The ATM device reads our card, analyzes our account, determines the amount in the count subtracts or adds a given amount, and then completes the transaction with another institutions computer all in the matter of a minute or less. We now take this totally for granted but if you were to stop and think about it for a moment its totally amazing. The world of data communications also includes the world of phones, but in comparison they must seem rather mundane. Many phones today aren’t so much phones anymore but small hand held computers. Again the technology is actually quite amazing. The world of data communication is growing so fast few disciplines in the history of the world have ever developed and advanced so fast and not only kept the pace up but increased it. At this rate the level of development in just ten years should be all but inconceivable.