Binary, Bits & Bytes

Binary, Bits & Bytes

Introduction: 
In this blog post, I will be explaining what binary, bits, and bytes are and how they fit with packets and frames in the process of encapsulation. Furthermore, I will also be identifying any limitations and provide examples and or diagrams where relevant to help expand on the overall knowledge.

Binary, Bits & Bytes:

Binary is the computer’s language which is composed of 1’s or 0’s, this indicates whether it is on or off, true or false and more (an example of binary is ASCII as it assigns each number/alphabet an unique binary code depending on how often it is used – read more about ASCII in my other blog post ‘Data Transmission’).

However, within binary, there are bits and this makes it the smallest part of an information as a whole. When eight bits are put together, it will form to become a byte which is a piece data (smallest piece a computer can send). These pieces of data can range from addresses to sequencing to even the file. Depending on the packets, the 8^th bit is usually would be used for error checking when the recipient device receives it and if data corruption is detected, an acknowledgement/permission would be sent for the sender device to resend the packet.

Moreover, there are different file sizes depending on how many bits/bytes there are. For example, a kilobyte is composed of 1000 bytes (technically 1024 because data can never be stored accurately) and a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes and so forth to even gigabytes. In summary, the larger the file the more bytes will be needed, (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Binary

Packets & Frames:

Binary, bits and bytes are related to packets because in the process of packet switching, the larger file is broken down into manageable chunks also known as packets to be sent across the network. One packet contains bytes (information and data elements mentioned above) and is used to avoid data corruption as well as to save time so the whole file does not have to be resent as a whole Furthermore, for the packet to be sent accordingly and safely, it is separated and encapsulated by frames on each side, (see figure 1).

The limitations of packets and frames are the speed – although it is a fast way of sending data the packets can only hold a limited amount of bytes of roughly 64KB. So if the packets were over 64KB it would require two packets. In a larger file, this can then slow down the whole process.

Harvard Referencing: (In order of reference)
- Figure 1: Chan, D. 2015. Binary, Bits, Bytes & Packets, Frames. [Accessed 31 January 2015].

Bibliography: (In alphabetical order)
- Anderson, K. Atkinson-Beaumont, D.Kaye, A. Lawson, J. McGill, R. Phillips, J and Richardson, D. 2011. Information Technology Level 3 Book 1 BTEC National. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.