CSE 316 · Data Communication · Forouzan Ch. 1
Everything becomes bits
What to look at: text, numbers and colour all end up as the same thing — a run of 1s and 0s. Only the agreed rule for reading them back differs.
Characters
0
Unicode code points
UTF‑8 bytes
0
what goes on the wire
Route 1 — send it as text
Each digit is a character: look it up in ASCII, send 8 bits per digit.
0 bits
0 bytes · the receiver must know the character code
Route 2 — send it as a binary number
No lookup table at all — the number is the bit pattern.
0 bits
0 bits are strictly needed · stored in 8‑bit slot
How big is the raw picture?
Bits
0
width × height × bpp