Since most serial communications is via a UART this might help with the data transfer part:
Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The UART voltage swings are between 0 and 5 volts. This signal is inverted and expanded to higher voltages by line drivers for transmission and inverted again and reduced to 0/5 swings by line receivers on the receiving end.

The transmitted signal starts degrading immediately and at higher transmission speeds it can be expected to be useless beyond 50 feet due to RC effects. (with a scope you would see rounding of what started as sharp shapes of voltage transitions)