Data and Computer

Communications
Chapter 7 – Data Link Control
Protocols

Tenth Edition
by William Stallings

Lecture slides by Dr. Ayesha Iqbal

 Data Link Control Protocols
 need layer of logic above Physical
 to manage exchange of data over a link
 frame synchronization
 flow control
 error control
 addressing
 control and data
 link management
 Flow Control
 ensure sending entity does not overwhelm
receiving entity
 by preventing buffer overflow
 influenced by:
 transmission time
• time taken to emit all bits into medium
 propagation time
• time for a bit to traverse the link
 assume here no errors but varying delays
Model of Frame Transmission
 Stop and Wait
 source transmits frame
 destination receives frame and replies with
acknowledgement (ACK)
 source waits for ACK before sending next
 destination can stop flow by not send ACK
 works well for a few large frames
 Stop and wait becomes inadequate if large
block of data is split into small frames
Stop and Wait Link Utilization
Sliding Windows Flow Control
 allows multiple numbered frames to be in transit
 receiver has buffer W long
 transmitter sends up to W frames without ACK
 ACK includes number of next frame expected
 sequence number is bounded by size of field (k)
 receiver can ack frames without permitting
further transmission
Sliding Window Diagram
Sliding Window Example
 Error Control
 detection and correction of errors such as:
 lost frames
 damaged frames
 common techniques use:
 error detection
 positive acknowledgment
 retransmission after timeout
 negative acknowledgement & retransmission
 Automatic Repeat Request
(ARQ)
 collective name for such error control
mechanisms, including:
 stop and wait
 go back N
 selective reject (selective retransmission)
 Stop and Wait
 source transmits single frame
 wait for ACK
 if received frame damaged, discard it
 transmitter has timeout
 if no ACK within timeout, retransmit
 if ACK damaged,transmitter will not recognize it
 transmitter will retransmit
 receiver gets two copies of frame
 use alternate numbering and ACK0 / ACK1
 Stop and Wait
 see example with both
types of errors
 pros and cons
 simple
 inefficient
 Go Back N
 based on sliding window
 if no error, ACK as usual
 use window to control number of
outstanding frames
 if error, reply with rejection
 discard that frame and all future frames until
error frame received correctly
 transmitter must go back and retransmit that
frame and all subsequent frames
 Go Back N - Handling
 Damaged Frame
 error in frame i so receiver rejects frame i
 transmitter retransmits frames from i
 Lost Frame
 frame i lost and either
• transmitter sends i+1 and receiver gets frame i+1
out of seq and rejects frame i
• or transmitter times out and send ACK with P bit
set which receiver responds to with ACK i
 transmitter then retransmits frames from i
 Go Back N - Handling
 Damaged Acknowledgement
 receiver gets frame i, sends ack (i+1) which is lost
 acks are cumulative, so next ack (i+n) may arrive
before transmitter times out on frame i
 if transmitter times out, it sends ack with P bit set
 can be repeated a number of times before a reset
procedure is initiated
 Damaged Rejection
 reject for damaged frame is lost
 handled as for lost frame when transmitter times out
 Selective Reject
 also called selective retransmission
 only rejected frames are retransmitted
 subsequent frames are accepted by the receiver
and buffered
 minimizes retransmission
 receiver must maintain large enough buffer
 more complex logic in transmitter
 hence less widely used
 useful for satellite links with long propagation
delays
Go Back N
vs
Selective
Reject
 High Level Data Link Control
(HDLC)
 an important data link control protocol
 specified as ISO 33009, ISO 4335
 station types:
 Primary - controls operation of link
 Secondary - under control of primary station
 Combined - issues commands and responses
 link configurations
 Unbalanced - 1 primary, multiple secondary
 Balanced - 2 combined stations
 HDLC Transfer Modes
 Normal Response Mode (NRM)
 unbalanced config, primary initiates transfer
 used on multi-drop lines, eg host + terminals
 Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM)
 balanced config, either station initiates transmission,
has no polling overhead, widely used
 Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM)
 unbalanced config, secondary may initiate transmit
without permission from primary, rarely used
 HDLC Frame Structure
 synchronous transmission of frames
 single frame format used
 Flag Fields and Bit Stuffing
 delimit frame at both ends with 01111110 seq
 receiver hunts for flag sequence to synchronize
 bit stuffing used to avoid confusion with data
containing flag seq 01111110
 0 inserted after every sequence of five 1s
 if receiver detects five 1s it checks next bit
 if next bit is 0, it is deleted (was stuffed bit)
 if next bit is 1 and seventh bit is 0, accept as flag
 if sixth and seventh bits 1, sender is indicating abort
 Address Field
 identifies secondary station that sent or will
receive frame
 usually 8 bits long
 may be extended to multiples of 7 bits
 LSB indicates if is the last octet (1) or not (0)
 all ones address 11111111 is broadcast
 Control Field
 different for different frame type
 Information - data transmitted to user (next layer up)
• Flow and error control piggybacked on information frames
 Supervisory - ARQ when piggyback not used
 Unnumbered - supplementary link control
 first 1-2 bits of control field identify frame type
 Control Field
 use of Poll/Final bit depends on context
 in command frame is P bit set to1 to solicit (poll)
response from peer
 in response frame is F bit set to 1 to indicate
response to soliciting command
 seq number usually 3 bits
 can extend to 8 bits as shown below
 Information & FCS Fields
 Information Field
 in information and some unnumbered frames
 must contain integral number of octets
 variable length
 Frame Check Sequence Field (FCS)
 used for error detection
 either 16 bit CRC or 32 bit CRC
 HDLC Operation
 consists of exchange of information,
supervisory and unnumbered frames
 have three phases
 initialization
• by either side, set mode & seq
 data transfer
• with flow and error control
• using both I & S-frames (RR, RNR, REJ, SREJ)
 disconnect
• when ready or fault noted
HDLC Operation Example
HDLC Operation Example
 Summary
 introduced need for data link protocols
 flow control
 error control
 HDLC