Synchronous communication is a form of data transmission between devices that require the clocks of the receiving computer and the sending computer to be closely synchronised. Data communication based on synchronous transmission is transferred on a steady stream and there is real-time engagement in communication. In this case, there are very high rates of data transfer, because individual characters are not delimited. In other words, the synchronous communication is more efficient than the asynchronous communication.

 

Representation

SYN

SYN

SYN

STX

Block of up to 50 characters

ETX

 

The above structure represents a combination of data and control bits which is referred to as a frame or a packet structure. The first three control bits are synchronization bits and the fourth and last bit are the start of text (STX) and the end of text (EXT) respectively.

A very common example of such communication is a telephone call, whereby the receiver has to be on hand to receive the call and a two way communication is established. Examples of communication tools that based on synchronous transmission are online chat rooms, video and audio conferencing and instant messaging services.

Calculation of Efficiency

When calculating the efficiency of synchronous communication, the use of the 5-control character and the 50 characters of useful data is employed.

Efficiency = 50/55 * 100% = 90.9 %.

The efficiency calculation of the synchronous communication (90.9%) shows an improvement in efficiency over the asynchronous communication’s level of efficiency (80%).