Considerations for Sending Data Over a Wireless Link

Linx modules are designed to create a robust wireless link for the transfer of data. Since they are wireless devices, they are subject to external influences that are not present in wired communications. These influences are capable of interrupting and corrupting the data that is being sent by the transmitter, causing the output at the receiver to be incorrect. To correct for this possible interference, it is recommended that a designer implement some sort of noise-tolerant protocol. The goal of the protocol is to synchronize communications between the transmitting and receiving ends, identify valid data packets, verify that the data packets are correct and possibly even correct bad data in a packet

To better understand the requirements for such a protocol, we will first examine all of the potential sources of data corruption that create the need for the protocol. To do this we will develop a general model for the communications channel that the data must go through from the transmitter to the receiver. Using this model, we can account for all of the external and internal influences on the data stream.