Chapter Five

Part I - Data Link Layer

 Introduction
• The second layer in OSI reference model
• uses the service provided by the physical layer.
• receives packets from the network layer.
• Two datalink layer entities exchange frames.
• The data link layer has a number of specific functions it can
carry out.
• These functions include:
– Providing a well-defined service interface to the network layer.
– Regulating the flow of data so that slow receivers are not
swamped by fast senders.
– Dealing with transmission errors.
• Each frame contains
– frame header,
– payload field for holding the packet,
– frame trailer
 Framing
• is the division of stream of bits from the network layer into
manageable units (called frames).
• Each frame consists of the sender’s address and a destination
address.
• Frames could be of fixed size or variable size.
• fixed-size framing,
– there is no need for defining the boundaries of the frames
• as the size itself can be used to define the end of the frame and the beginning of
the next frame
• variable-size framing,
– we need a way to define the end of the frame and the beginning of
the next frame.
• To separate one frame from the next, an 8-bit (or 1-byte) flag
is added at the beginning and the end of a frame.
– But the problem with that is, any pattern used for the flag could also
be part of the information.
• So, there are two ways to overcome this problem:
1. Byte stuffing (or character stuffing)
2. Bit stuffing
• To enable a receiver to easily delineate the frame boundaries,
– these two techniques reserve special bit strings as frame
boundary markers
– and encode the frames so that these special bit strings do not
appear inside the frames.
• Bit stuffing
– reserves the 01111110 bit string as the frame boundary
marker
– and ensures that there will never be six consecutive 1
symbols transmitted by the physical layer inside a frame
– a frame is sent as follows.
• First, the sender transmits the marker, i.e. 01111110.
• Then, it sends all the bits of the frame and inserts an additional
bit set to 0 after each sequence of five consecutive 1 bits.
• The marker is also sent to mark the end of the frame.
– The receiver performs the opposite to decode a received frame.
– increases the number of bits required to transmit each frame.
 – If transmission errors occur, stuffed bits or markers can be in
error.
– In these cases, the frame affected by the error and possibly the
next frame will not be correctly decoded by the receiver,
• but it will be able to resynchronize itself at the next valid marker.
– The table below illustrates the application of bit stuffing to
some frames.

Original frame Transmitted frame

0001001001001001001000011 0111111000010010010010010010000110
1111110
0110111111111111111110010 01111110011011111011111011111011001
001111110
01111110 0111111001111101001111110
 – Bit stuffing can be easily implemented in hardware.
– However, implementing it in software is difficult given the
higher overhead of bit manipulations in software.
• Character (Byte) Stuffing
– Some characters are used as markers to delineate the frame
boundaries.
– Many character stuffing techniques use the DLE, STX and
ETX characters of the ASCII character set.
– DLE STX is used to mark the beginning of a frame.
– DLE ETX is used to mark the end of a frame.
– When transmitting a frame, the sender adds a DLE character
after each transmitted DLE character.
– The receiver detects the frame boundaries and removes the
second DLE when it receives two consecutive DLE characters.
• The following table illustrates the character stuffing
Original frame Transmitted frame
1234 DLE STX 1 2 3 4 DLE ETX
1 2 3 DLE STX 4 DLE STX 1 2 3 DLE DLE STX 4 DLE ETX
DLE STX DLE ETX DLE STX DLE DLE STX DLE DLE ETX DLE ETX
• like bit stuffing, increases the length of the transmitted
frames.
• When transmission errors occur, the receiver may incorrectly
decode one or two frames (e.g. if the errors occur in the
markers).
• However, it will be able to resynchronize itself with the next
correctly received markers.
 Flow control
• assuring that a transmitting entity does not overwhelm a
receiving entity with data
– Slow receivers not swamped by fast senders
• it is an end-to-end mechanism for regulating traffic between
source and destination
• Different methods
• Stop-and-Wait Flow Control
• Sliding-Window Flow Control
• Stop-and-Wait Flow Control
– The simplest form of flow control
– Source transmits frame
– Destination receives frame and replies with
acknowledgement
– Source waits for ACK before sending next frame
– Only one frame can be in transit at a time
– Destination can stop flow by not sending ACK
– Works well for a few frames
• Sliding Windows Flow Control
– Allow multiple frames to be in transit
– Receiver has buffer W long
– Transmitter can send up to W frames without ACK
– Each frame is numbered
– ACK includes number of next frame expected
– Sequence number bounded by size of field (k)
• Frames are numbered modulo 2k
– Efficient
• Many frames can be in transit
• Key Differences Between Stop-and-Wait Protocol and Sliding
Window Protocol
Basis for Stop-and-Wait Sliding Window
Comparison
Behavior Request and Reply Simultaneously
transmit
Number of frames Only one Multiple
Efficiency Less More comparatively
Acknowledgment Sent for each arriving Window of
packet acknowledgement is
maintained
Type of Transmission Half Duplex Full Duplex
Propagation Delay Long Short
Link Utilization Poor Better
 Error detection
 When an electromagnetic signal flows from one point to
another, several things can change its shape and timing
 If the signal is carrying encoded binary data, such changes
can alter the meaning of the data
 Causes of Error
 Attenuation: any reduction in the strength of a signal
 Delay Distortion: different propagation speeds of signals at
different frequencies
 Noise: additional signals inserted between transmitter and
receiver
 Types of errors
 Single bit error
 only one bit in a data unit (byte, character, packet, ...) is changed
from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1

 are least likely type of errors in serial data transmission

• However, a single-bit error can happen if we are having a parallel
data transmission.
– For example, if 16 wires are used to send all 16 bits of a word at the
same time and one of the wires is noisy, one bit is corrupted in each
word.
 Burst error
• two or more bits in the data unit have changed from 0 to 1 or vice-
versa.
• doesn’t necessary means that error occurs in consecutive bits.
• The length of the burst error is measured from the first corrupted
bit to the last corrupted bit.
– Some bits in between may not be corrupted.

• Burst errors are mostly likely to happen in serial transmission.

• The duration of the noise is normally longer than the duration of a
single bit, which means that the noise affects data;
• it affects a set of bits
• The number of bits affected depends on the data rate and duration
of noise.
 Error Detection
• Basic approach used for error detection is the use of
redundancy,
– where additional bits are added to facilitate detection and
correction of errors.
 Three Methods
• Parity Check
• Checksum
• Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
• Parity Check
– a redundant bit, called a parity bit, is added to every data unit
so that the total number of 1s in the unit (including the parity
bit) becomes even (or odd for odd-parity);
– Blocks of data from the source are subjected to a check bit or
Parity bit generator form,
• where a parity of 1 is added to the block if it contains an odd
number of 1’s and 0 is added if it contains an even number of
1’s.
– this method can detect all single-bit errors;
– it can detect burst errors only if the total number of errors in
each data unit is odd
– Even number of bit errors goes undetected
Even-parity Checking Scheme
• Checksum
– the data is divided into k segments each of m bits.
– In the sender’s end the segments are added using 1’s
complement arithmetic to get the sum.
– The sum is complemented to get the checksum.
– The checksum segment is sent along with the data segments.
– At the receiver’s end, all received segments are added using 1’s
complement arithmetic to get the sum.
– The sum is complemented.
– If the result is zero, the received data is accepted; otherwise
discarded
• For example: Find the checksum at sender and receiver for
the following segments. (k = 4 and m = 8)
10110011, 10101011 01011010 11010101
Sender Receiver
10110011 10110011
10101011 10101011
01011110 01011110
1 1
01011111
01011111
01011010
01011010 10111001
10111001 11010101
11010101 10001110
10001110 1
1 10001111
Add Checksum 01110000
Sum: 10001111
Sum 11111111
Checksum: 01110000 Complement: 00000000
Conclusion: Accept Data
 Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
 is the most powerful and easy to implement technique.
 based on binary division
 a sequence of redundant bits, called cyclic redundancy check
bits (CRC) are appended to the end of a data unit
 so that the resulting data unit becomes exactly divisible by a
second, predetermined binary number
– append a string of n 0s into the data unit ( n = divisor bits # –1)
– divide result by the divisor using binary division
– remainder of division becomes the CRC
– replace the appended 0s with CRC
– Send data (original + CRC)
– Receiver divides the whole data by divisor
‾ If remainder ,ERROR
‾ Otherwise  NO ERROR
 Error Control
• Detection and correction of errors
– Lost frames
– Damaged frames
• Automatic Repeat Request
– Error detection
– Positive acknowledgment
– Retransmission after timeout
– Negative acknowledgement and retransmission
 ARQ
 Packets are numbered
 Positive acknowledgment (ACK) for successfully received
packets
 Retransmission can be made if:
• Time expires (lost or corrupted)
• Received in error (NAK)
 Popular ARQ protocols are: Stop-and-wait, Selective Repeat
and Go-Back-N
 Stop-and-wait ARQ (SWA)
 Next packet is sent after previous packet acknowledgment
 Retransmission if time expires
 Numbered only to identify corresponding data packet and ACK
 Reasons for retransmission
• Damaged packets
• Lost packets
• Lost acknowledgment
Normal operation
Lost frame
Lost ack
Delayed ack
 Go-Back-N ARQ
 Continuous packet transmission like SRA
 Unlike SRA Out of order packets are discarded
 Time out packet and packets following are retransmitted
 Unlike SRA no buffering
 Like SWA no re-sequencing overhead
Go-Back-4: 4 frames are outstanding; so go back 4

fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr time
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A

B
A A A Out-of-sequence frames A A A A A A
C C C C C C C C C
K K K K K K K K K
1 2 3 error 4 5 6 7 8 9

ACKing next frame expected

 Selective Repeat ARQ (SRA)
 Continuously transmission packets
 Packets are assigned sequence number
 Arrival of packets can be in any order
 Packets are buffered before delivery
 Increases data transfer rate compared to SWA
 Retransmission for
• Damaged packets
• Lost packets
• Lost acknowledgments
 fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr time
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 7 8 9 10 11 12
A

B A A N A A A A A A A A A
C C A C C C C C C C C C
K K K K K K K K K K K K
1 2 2 2 2 7 8 9 1 1 1
2 error 0 1 2