Flow and Error Control

Compiled by:
Vinod Kumar
Assistant Professor
Computer Application Department
Contents
1. Flow control
2. Error Control
3. Error and Flow Control Mechanism
i. Stop and Wait
ii. Go-Back-N ARQ
iii. Selective- Repeat ARQ

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Flow Control
• Flow control coordinates the amount of data that can be sent before receiving
acknowledgement
• It is one of the most important functions of data link layer.
• Flow control is a set of procedures that tells the sender how much data it can
transmit before it must wait for an acknowledgement from the receiver.
• Receiver has a limited speed at which it can process incoming data and a limited
amount of memory in which to store incoming data.
• Receiver must inform the sender before the limits are reached and request that
the transmitter to send fewer frames or stop temporarily.
• Since the rate of processing is often slower than the rate of transmission,
receiver has a block of memory (buffer) for storing incoming data until they are
processed.

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Error Control
• Error control includes both error detection and error correction.
• It allows the receiver to inform the sender if a frame is lost or damaged during
transmission and coordinates the retransmission of those frames by the sender.
• Error control in the data link layer is based on automatic repeat request (ARQ).
Whenever an error is detected, specified frames are retransmitted.

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Error and Flow Control Mechanisms
• Stop-and-Wait
• Go-Back-N ARQ
• Selective-Repeat ARQ

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Stop-and-Wait
 Sender keeps a copy of the last frame until it receives an
acknowledgement.
 For identification, both data frames and acknowledgements (ACK)
frames are numbered alternatively 0 and 1.
 Sender has a control variable (S) that holds the number of the
recently sent frame. (0 or 1)
 Receiver has a control variable ® that holds the number of the
next frame expected (0 or 1).
 Sender starts a timer when it sends a frame. If an ACK is not
received within a allocated time period, the sender assumes that
the frame was lost or damaged and resends it
 Receiver send only positive ACK if the frame is intact.
 ACK number always defines the number of the next expected
frame

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Stop-and-Wait ARQ, lost ACK frame
 When a receiver receives a
damaged frame, it discards it and
keeps its value of R.
 After the timer at the sender
expires, another copy of frame 1
is sent.

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Stop-and-Wait, lost ACK frame
• If the sender receives a damaged
ACK, it discards it.
• When the timer of the sender
expires, the sender retransmits frame
1.
• Receiver has already received frame
1 and expecting to receive frame 0
(R=0). Therefore it discards the
second copy of frame 1.

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Stop-and-Wait, delayed ACK frame
• The ACK can be delayed at the
receiver or due to some problem
• It is received after the timer for frame 0
has expired.
• Sender retransmitted a copy of frame 0.
However, R =1 means receiver expects
to see frame 1. Receiver discards the
duplicate frame 0.
• Sender receives 2 ACKs, it discards the
second ACK.

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Piggybacking
• A method to combine a data frame with
ACK.
• Station A and B both have data to send.
• Instead of sending separately, station A
sends a data frame that includes an ACK.
• Station B does the same thing.
• Piggybacking saves bandwidth.

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Disadvantage of Stop-and-Wait
• In stop-and-wait, at any point in time, there is only one frame that is sent and
waiting to be acknowledged.
• This is not a good use of transmission medium.
• To improve efficiency, multiple frames should be in transition while waiting for
ACK.
• Two protocol use the above concept,
• Go-Back-N ARQ
• Selective Repeat ARQ

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Go-Back-N ARQ
• We can send up to W frames before worrying about ACKs.
• We keep a copy of these frames until the ACKs arrive.
• This procedure requires additional features to be added to Stop-and-Wait ARQ.

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Sequence Numbers
• Frames from a sender are numbered sequentially.
• We need to set a limit since we need to include the sequence number of each
frame in the header.
• If the header of the frame allows m bits for sequence number, the sequence
numbers range from 0 to 2 m – 1. for m = 3, sequence numbers are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7.
• We can repeat the sequence number.
• Sequence numbers are:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, …

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 Sender Sliding Window
• At the sending site, to hold the
outstanding frames until they are
acknowledged, we use the
concept of a window.
• The size of the window is at most
2m -1 where m is the number of
bits for the sequence number.
• Size of the window can be
variable, e.g. TCP.
• The window slides to include
new unsent frames when the
correct ACKs are received
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 Receiver Sliding Window
• Size of the window at the
receiving site is always 1 in
this protocol.
• Receiver is always looking
for a specific frame to arrive
in a specific order.
• Any frame arriving out of
order is discarded and needs
to be resent.
• Receiver window slides as
shown in fig. Receiver is
waiting for frame 0 in part a.
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Control Variables
• Sender has 3 variables: S, SF, and SL
• S holds the sequence number of recently sent frame
• SF holds the sequence number of the first frame
• SL holds the sequence number of the last frame
• Receiver only has the one variable, R, that holds the sequence number of the frame it expects
to receive. If the seq. no. is the same as the value of R, the frame is accepted, otherwise
rejected.

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Acknowledgement
• Receiver sends positive ACK if a frame arrived safe and in order.
• If the frames are damaged/out of order, receiver is silent and discard all subsequent
frames until it receives the one it is expecting.
• The silence of the receiver causes the timer of the unacknowledged frame to expire.
• Then the sender resends all frames, beginning with the one with the expired timer.
• For example, suppose the sender has sent frame 6, but the timer for frame 3 expires
(i.e. frame 3 has not been acknowledged), then the sender goes back and sends
frames 3, 4, 5, 6 again. Thus it is called Go-Back-N-ARQ
• The receiver does not have to acknowledge each frame received, it can send one
cumulative ACK for several frames.

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Go-Back-N ARQ, normal operation
• The sender keeps track of the outstanding frames and updates the variables and
windows as the ACKs arrive.

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Go-Back-N ARQ, lost frame
• Frame 2 is lost
• When the receiver receives
frame 3, it discards frame 3 as
it is expecting frame 2
(according to window).
• After the timer for frame 2
expires at the sender site, the
sender sends frame 2 and 3.
(go back to 2)

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Go-Back-N ARQ, damaged/lost/delayed ACK
• If an ACK is damaged/lost, we can have two situations:
• If the next ACK arrives before the expiration of any timer, there is no need for
retransmission of frames because ACKs are cumulative in this protocol.
• If ACK1, ACK2, and ACk3 are lost, ACK4 covers them if it arrives before the
timer expires.
• If ACK4 arrives after time-out, the last frame and all the frames after that are
resent.
• Receiver never resends an ACK.
• A delayed ACK also triggers the resending of frames

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Go-Back-N ARQ, sender window size
• Size of the sender window must be less than 2 m. Size of the receiver is always 1. If m = 2, window size = 2 m
–1=
3.
• Fig compares a window size of 3 and 4.

Accepts as the
1st frame in the
next cycle-an
error

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Selective Repeat ARQ, sender and receiver windows
• Go-Back-N ARQ simplifies the process at the receiver site. Receiver only
keeps track of only one variable, and there is no need to buffer out-of-order
frames, they are simply discarded.
• However, Go-Back-N ARQ protocol is inefficient for noisy link. It bandwidth
inefficient and slows down the transmission.
• In Selective Repeat ARQ, only the damaged frame is resent. More bandwidth
efficient but more complex processing at receiver.
• It defines a negative ACK (NAK) to report the sequence number of a damaged
frame before the timer expires.

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Selective Repeat ARQ, lost frame
• Frames 0 and 1 are
accepted when received
because they are in the
range specified by the
receiver window. Same for
frame 3.
• Receiver sends a NAK2 to
show that frame 2 has not
been received and then
sender resends only frame 2
and it is accepted as it is in
the range of the window.

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Selective Repeat ARQ, sender window size
• Size of the sender and receiver windows must be at most one-half of 2 m. If m
= 2, window size should be 2 m /2 = 2. Fig compares a window size of 2 with a
window size of 3. Window size is 3 and all ACKs are lost, sender sends
duplicate of frame 0, window of the receiver expect to receive frame 0 (part of
the window), so accepts frame 0, as the 1st frame of the next cycle – an error.

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