Point-to-Point Asynchronous Transmission

The objective of this posting is to try and explain why our DTX Series of products do NOT require any IP addresses in the simplest way I can. The DTX Series range of BFR Digital products offers Point-to-Point Asynchronous Transparent Transfer of data.

Let’s break this down into 2 separate parts:

1. Point-to-Point

Point-to-Point is the simplest network topology and is merely a permanent network connection between two network end points. The simplest comparison is that of a tin-can telephone.


2. Asynchronous transmission

Asynchronous transmission is a data link protocol primarily used for point-to-point network topologies. Data is transmitted between the two network end points and an indefinite amount of time may lapse between the transmission of data packets. The data packets are prepared for transmission by encapsulating the data. This encapsulated packet of data is called a frame. Then a start bit is placed in front of the frame, this start bit alerts the receiver to the incoming data. At the end of the frame a stop bit is included and this tells the receiver that it is the end of the incoming data. The one step missing here is the portion with the error handling but for the purpose of this explanation we will ignore this step.

Let’s say that you want to transmit a data packet from IP address 192.168.1.10 to IP address 192.168.1.15 over a DTX fibre optic link. The DTX link will transmit all data presented to it regardless of the final IP destination. The IP address along with its data will be encapsulated into a frame and transmitted from one end of the link to the other. On the receiving end the encapsulation is removed and the destination IP address and its data are presented to the receiving end of the network in its original state. This is why the DTX Series of products do not require their own individual IP addresses and behave as though the link were just a simple CAT5 cable linking two network end points.


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