ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Binary Synchronous Communications

Okay kiddo, have you ever played the game where you pass a note to your friend in class? Well, imagine that note is really important homework that needs to get to your teacher. Binary synchronous communication lets computers pass notes to each other very quickly and accurately.

So, imagine the computer is the note writer and the teacher is the receiver. In binary synchronous communication, the computer sends the message to the receiver one bit at a time. A bit is like a tiny computer letter - it's either a 0 or a 1.

But just like when you pass a note to your friend, sometimes things can go wrong. Maybe your friend can't read your handwriting or drops the note. In computer terms, this is called "noise" - when the signal gets messed up.

So to make sure the message gets to the teacher accurately, the computer and the receiver use something called "synchronization." This means they both agree on when to send and receive the bits.

And just like when you and your friend pass notes in class, sometimes you need to add extra information to make sure the message gets across. In binary synchronous communication, this extra information is called "control characters." These control characters tell the receiver when the message starts and stops.

So binary synchronous communication is like passing notes in class, but with computers - sending messages one bit at a time, with synchronization and control characters added to make sure the message gets to the right place accurately and quickly.