Fieldbus and Networking in Process Automation

2 Networking

2.1 Introduction

The field of communication has expanded at a very fast pace over the last several decades. Initially, only voice communication was in vogue, but availability of microprocessors, microcomputers, and peripheral equipments have drastically changed the whole scenario. Today, a multitude of information, mostly in digital form, is transported worldwide in a fraction of a second, almost without any kind of error. Very high volumes of digital data along with faster, more reliable, and secure communications are the need of the hour.

The original information from the source can be in either analog or digital form. If it is analog, it is first to be digitized and then sent. A data communication system involves transmission, ...