Difference between Bit-oriented protocol and byte oriented protocol?

Answer 1

In bit oriented Protocol, a flag is used to frame the bits sent. Simply put, you have a fllag (01111110) and the required bits are sent after the flag and you end the transmission again with a flag. Using this method you can send any number of bits of any length. Another important fact is the zero insertion method used. Say for example, you want to send the bit string 01111110. You cannot do this because it will be interpreted as a flag. However, by adding a zero after 5 consecutive 1's as a standard, this bit stream can be send. The transmitter sends the string as 011111010 and the receiver removes the zero after 5 consecutive 1's and stores the data as 01111110

In byte oriented protocol(character oriented protocol) the receiver considers 8 bits at a time and figuers out the relevant character. This system is used when communicating with printers and keyboards which use ASCII characters exclusively. (All the ASCII characters can be covered by 8 bits (256 characters). The main disadvantade of COP is that you cannot send 9 or 10 bits, arbitrary bits. Furthermore, in COP there are special characters - channel control characters, eg- SYN character which is used to synchronize the receiver and the transmitter. These characters cannot be transferred as data. They will be misread as control characters.