Data and Computer Communications”, 8/e, by

William Stallings, Chapter 7 “Data Link Control

BEB40903 Protocols”.
Data Communication Network

Chapter 2 – TRANSMISSION
FUNDAMENTAL
(Data Link Control Protocols)

In this chapter, we shift our emphasis to that of

sending data over a data communications link. To
achieve the necessary control, a layer of logic is
Data Link Control Protocols added above the physical layer, referred to as data
link control or a data link control protocol. Some
•need layer of logic above Physical of the requirements and objectives for effective data
•to manage exchange of data over a link communication between two directly connected
• frame synchronization transmitting-receiving stations:
• flow control •Frame synchronization: Data are sent in blocks
• error control called frames. The beginning and end of each frame
• addressing
• control and data
must be recognizable.
• link management •Flow control: The sending station must not send
frames at a rate faster than the receiving station can
absorb them.
•Error control: Bit errors introduced by the
transmission system should be corrected.
•Addressing: On a shared link, such as a local area
network (LAN), the identity of the two stations
involved in a transmission must be specified.
•Control and data on same link: the receiver must
be able to distinguish control information from the
data being transmitted.
•Link management: Procedures for the
management of initiation, maintenance, and
termination of a sustained data exchange over a link.
 Flow control is a technique for assuring that a
transmitting entity does not overwhelm a receiving
entity with data. The receiving entity typically
Flow Control allocates a data buffer of some maximum length for
a transfer. When data are received, the receiver must
•ensure sending entity does not overwhelm do a certain amount of processing before passing the
receiving entity data to the higher-level software. In the absence of
• by preventing buffer overflow flow control, the receiver's buffer may fill up and
•influenced by: overflow while it is processing old data.
• transmission time
• time taken to emit all bits into medium
Will assume data sent in a sequence of
• propagation time frames, with each frame containing a portion of the
• time for a bit to traverse the link data and some control information. The time it takes
•assume here no errors but varying delays for a station to emit all of the bits of a frame onto the
medium is the transmission time; this is proportional
to the length of the frame. The propagation time is
the time it takes for a bit to traverse the link between
source and destination. For this section, we assume
that all frames that are transmitted are
successfully received; no frames are lost, they
arrive in order sent, and none arrive with errors.
However, each transmitted frame suffers an arbitrary
and variable amount of delay before reception.

To start will examine mechanisms for flow control

in the absence of errors. The model we will use is
depicted in Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.1a, which is a
Model of Frame Transmission vertical-time sequence diagram. It has the
advantages of showing time dependencies and
illustrating the correct send-receive relationship.
Each arrow represents a single frame transiting a
data link between two stations. The data are sent in a
sequence of frames, with each frame containing a
portion of the data and some control information.
 The simplest form of flow control, known as stop-
and-wait flow control, works as follows. A source
entity transmits a frame. After the destination entity
Stop and Wait receives the frame, it indicates its willingness to
accept another frame by sending back an
•source transmits frame acknowledgment to the frame just received. The
•destination receives frame and replies with source must wait until it receives the
acknowledgement (ACK) acknowledgment before sending the next frame. The
•source waits for ACK before sending next destination can thus stop the flow of data simply by
•destination can stop flow by not send ACK withholding acknowledgment. This procedure works
•works well for a few large frames fine and, indeed, can hardly be improved upon when
•Stop and wait becomes inadequate if large a message is sent in a few large frames. However, it
block of data is split into small frames is often the case that a source will break up a large
block of data into smaller blocks and transmit the
data in many frames (because of limited buffer size,
errors detected sooner with less to resend, to prevent
media hogging). With the use of multiple frames for
a single message, the stop-and-wait procedure may
be inadequate, mainly since only one frame at a time
can be in transit.

With the use of multiple frames for a single

message, the stop-and-wait procedure may be
inadequate, mainly since only one frame at a time
Stop and Wait Link Utilization can be in transit.
To show this, start by defining the bit length B of a
link as the number of bits present on the link at an
instance in time when a stream of bits fully occupies
the link. In situations where the bit length of the link
is greater than the frame length, serious
inefficiencies result, as shown in Stallings DCC8e
Figure 7.2. In the figure, the transmission time (the
time it takes for a station to transmit a frame) is
normalized to one, and the propagation delay (the
time it takes for a bit to travel from sender to
receiver) is expressed as the variable a = B / L
(where L is the number of bits in the frame).
When a is less than 1, the propagation time is
less than the transmission time. In this case, the
frame is sufficiently long that the first bits of the
frame have arrived at the destination before the
source has completed the transmission of the frame.
When a is greater than 1, the propagation time is
greater than the transmission time. In this case, the
sender completes transmission of the entire frame
 before the leading bits of that frame arrive at the
receiver. Both parts of Figure 7.2 (a and b) consist of
a sequence of snapshots, the first four show the
process of transmitting a data frame, and the last
shows the return of a small acknowledgment frame.
Note that for a > 1, the line is always underutilized
and even for a < 1, the line is inefficiently utilized.
In essence, for very high data rates, for very long
distances between sender and receiver, stop-and-
wait flow control provides inefficient line
utilization.

Stop & Wait flow control

•Transmit frame, wait for ack for next frame
Transmitter Receiver
0
Data

l/b + d
(l+ack)/b + 2d + tp Ack l/b + d + tp
(l+ack)/b + 2d + 2tp
Data
EDR = /(( +ack)/b + 2d + 2tp)

Time Time

Line Utilization = (/b) / ((+ack)/b + 2d + 2tp)

LU for Stop & Wait flow control

Transmitter Receiver
0
Data

l/b + d
Ack l/b + d + tp
(l+ack)/b + 2d + tp
(l+ack)/b + 2d + 2tp Data
Assuming:

ack <<  and tp  0

Time Time

Line Utilization = (/b) / ((+ack)/b + 2d + 2tp)

= 1/(1+2a)
Where: a = db/
= (One way propagation time) / (Frame transmission time)
Effect of “a” on Stop & Wait LU
•If a << 0.5 (short delay link)
• Line utilization  100%
•If a >> 0.5 (long delay link)
• Line utilization  0% !!!
• Example: half‐duplex satellite link, one way propagation delay
(2x36,000 kms/c + “slant” = 240 ms + 30 ms)
d = 270 ms,  = 1000 bits; b = 50 kbps;

a = db/ = 270x50/1000 = 13.5 >> 0.5
Line utilization = 1 / (1+2a) = 1/(1+2x13.5)  3.5 %

LU improvement: Piggyback
•Problem: “Ack” bits (only few bits) need a
whole frame to carry them
•Idea: Send data with ack
 Improve on the LU

LU for Stop & Wait + Piggyback

Tx 560
A Time
Rx 0 20 (ms)
580

B Tx 270
Time
Rx 310 (ms)

• Line utilization = 2 x /b / (2x(d+/b))

= 1 / (1+bd/ )
= 1/(1+a)
= 40 ms/580 ms
 6.9 % (compare to non‐piggyback of 3.5 %
only!)
 LU improvement
•With piggyback technique,
 LU = 1 / (1+bd/ )
•Conditions for higher LU:
• More bits per frame 
Big buffers
Error problem!
• Or less data rate b  more time to transmit data
• Or less propagation delay d: uncontrollable!

The essence of the problem described so far is that

Sliding Windows Flow Control only one frame at a time can be in transit. Efficiency
can be greatly improved by allowing multiple
• allows multiple numbered frames to be in transit
frames to be in transit at the same time. Consider
• receiver has buffer W long
two stations, A and B, connected via a full-duplex
• transmitter sends up to W frames without ACK
link. Station B allocates buffer space for W frames.
• ACK includes number of next frame expected
• sequence number is bounded by size of field (k)
Thus, B can accept W frames, and A is allowed to
• frames are numbered modulo 2k send W frames without waiting for any
• giving max window size of up to 2k ‐ 1 acknowledgments. To keep track of which frames
• receiver can ack frames without permitting further have been acknowledged, each is labeled with a a k-
transmission (Receive Not Ready)
bit sequence number. This gives a range of sequence
• must send a normal acknowledge to resume
numbers of 0 through 2k – 1, and frames are
• if have full‐duplex link, can piggyback ACks
numbered modulo 2k, with a maximum window size
of 2k – 1. The window size need not be the
maximum possible size for a given sequence number
length k. B acknowledges a frame by sending an
acknowledgment that includes the sequence number
of the next frame expected. This scheme can also be
used to acknowledge multiple frames, and is referred
to as sliding-window flow control. Most data link
control protocols also allow a station to cut off the
flow of frames from the other side by sending a
Receive Not Ready (RNR) message, which
acknowledges former frames but forbids transfer of
future frames. At some subsequent point, the station
must send a normal acknowledgment to reopen the
window. If two stations exchange data, each needs to
maintain two windows, one for transmit and one for
receive, and each side needs to send the data and
acknowledgments to the other. To provide efficient
support for this requirement, a feature known as
piggybacking is typically provided. Each data
 frame includes a field that holds the sequence
number of that frame plus a field that holds the
sequence number used for acknowledgment.

Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.3 depicts the sliding-

window process. It assumes the use of a 3-bit
Sliding Window Diagram sequence number, so that frames are numbered
sequentially from 0 through 7, and then the same
numbers are reused for subsequent frames. The
shaded rectangle indicates the frames that may be
sent; in this figure, the sender may transmit five
frames, beginning with frame 0. Each time a frame
is sent, the shaded window shrinks; each time an
acknowledgment is received, the shaded window
grows. Frames between the vertical bar and the
shaded window have been sent but not yet
acknowledged. As we shall see, the sender must
buffer these frames in case they need to be
retransmitted.
Sliding-window flow control is potentially
much more efficient than stop-and-wait flow
control. The reason is that, with sliding-window
flow control, the transmission link is treated as a
pipeline that may be filled with frames in transit. In
contrast, with stop-and-wait flow control, only one
frame may be in the pipe at a time.

An example is shown in Stallings DCC8e Figure

7.4. The example assumes a 3-bit sequence number
Sliding Window Example field and a maximum window size of seven frames.
Initially, A and B have windows indicating that A
may transmit seven frames, beginning with frame 0
(F0). After transmitting three frames (F0, F1, F2)
without acknowledgment, A has shrunk its window
to four frames and maintains a copy of the three
transmitted frames. The window indicates that A
may transmit four frames, beginning with frame
number 3. B then transmits an RR (receive ready) 3,
which means "I have received all frames up through
frame number 2 and am ready to receive frame
number 3; in fact, I am prepared to receive seven
frames, beginning with frame number 3." With this
acknowledgment, A is back up to permission to
transmit seven frames, still beginning with frame 3;
also A may discard the buffered frames that have
now been acknowledged. A proceeds to transmit
 frames 3, 4, 5, and 6. B returns RR 4, which
acknowledges F3, and allows transmission of F4
through the next instance of F2. By the time this RR
reaches A, it has already transmitted F4, F5, and F6,
and therefore A may only open its window to permit
sending four frames beginning with F7.

Pipeline protocols
Both channels carry frames from here
560
Tx A1 A2 Aw-1 Aw
A Time (ms)
Rx 0 20 B1 B2
580

310
B Tx 270 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6
Time (ms)
Rx A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7

w x /b = 2 x (d+ /b)

 w = 2x(db/ + 1)
 w = 2x (a+1)

Pipeline example
• =1000 bits, b= 50 kbps, d=270 ms:
 w = 2x(270x10‐3x50x103/103 + 1)
= 29 frames
Line utilization = 100 %!
Both channels are full of data after the
transition time (2d+ l/b = 560 ms)
Note: Line needs to be full‐duplex!
Sender window
• List of frame numbers that are sent and for which the
sending station is awaiting for acknowledgement
• Can be empty (no frames sent)
• Can grow up to a maximum specified by Max_Seq (Frame
numbers start from 0 up to Max_Seq),
• Sending a frame advances the upper edge of the window by
one unit,
Receiving ack‐n means that the receiver is acknowledging all
frames up‐to (n‐1) and expecting frame number (n).

Receiver window
•List of frame numbers that the receiver is
ready to accept
•Any frame number outside this list is rejected

Example: Ws = 3; Wr = 1

Sw Rw
3 0 3 0

2 1 2 1
Frame 0

3 0 3 0

2 1 2 1
Frame 1

3 0 3 0

2 1 2 1
Frame 2
3 0 3 0

2 1 2 1
Stops sending until ack received Waits for Frame 3

Ack 3
 Error control refers to mechanisms to detect and
correct errors that occur in the transmission of
Error Control frames. The model that we will use, which covers
the typical case, was illustrated earlier in Figure
•detection and correction of errors such as:
7.1b. As before, data are sent as a sequence of
• lost frames
• damaged frames frames; frames arrive in the same order in which
•common techniques use: they are sent; and each transmitted frame suffers an
• error detection arbitrary and potentially variable amount of delay
• positive acknowledgment before reception. In addition, we admit the
• retransmission after timeout possibility of two types of errors:
• negative acknowledgement & retransmission •Lost frame: frame fails to arrive at the other side,
eg. because a noise burst damaged a frame so badly
it is not recognized
•Damaged frame: A recognizable frame does
arrive, but some of the bits are in error (have been
altered during transmission).
The most common techniques for error control are
based on some or all of the following ingredients:
•Error detection: As discussed in the Chapter 6.
•Positive acknowledgment: The destination returns
a positive acknowledgment to successfully received,
error-free frames.
•Retransmission after timeout: The source
retransmits a frame that has not been acknowledged
after a predetermined amount of time.
•Negative acknowledgment and retransmission:
The destination returns a negative acknowledgment
to frames in which an error is detected. The source
retransmits such frames.
 Collectively, these mechanisms are all referred to as
automatic repeat request (ARQ); the effect of
Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) ARQ is to turn an unreliable data link into a reliable
one. Three versions of ARQ have been standardized:
•collective name for such error control
mechanisms, including:
•Stop-and-wait ARQ
•Go-back-N ARQ
•stop and wait
•Selective-reject ARQ
•go back N
All of these forms are based on the use of the flow
•selective reject (selective retransmission)
control techniques discussed in Section 7.1. We
examine each in turn.

Stop-and-wait ARQ is based on the stop-and-wait

flow control technique outlined previously. The
Stop and Wait source station transmits a single frame and then must
await an acknowledgment (ACK). No other data
• source transmits single frame
• wait for ACK
frames can be sent until the destination station's
• if received frame damaged, discard it
reply arrives at the source station.
• transmitter has timeout Two sorts of errors could occur. First, the
• if no ACK within timeout, retransmit frame that arrives at the destination could be
• if ACK damaged,transmitter will not recognize it damaged. The receiver detects this by using the
• transmitter will retransmit
• receive gets two copies of frame error-detection technique referred to earlier and
• use alternate numbering and ACK0 / ACK1 simply discards the frame. To account for this
possibility, the source station is equipped with a
timer. After a frame is transmitted, the source station
waits for an acknowledgment. If no
acknowledgment is received by the time that the
timer expires, then the same frame is sent again.
Note that this method requires that the transmitter
maintain a copy of a transmitted frame until an
acknowledgment is received for that frame.
The second sort of error is a damaged
acknowledgment, which is not recognizable by A,
which will therefore time out and resend the same
frame. This duplicate frame arrives and is accepted
by B. B has therefore accepted two copies of the
same frame as if they were separate. To avoid this
problem, frames are alternately labeled with 0 or 1,
and positive acknowledgments are of the form
ACK0 and ACK1. In keeping with the sliding-
window convention, an ACK0 acknowledges receipt
of a frame numbered 1 and indicates that the
receiver is ready for a frame numbered 0.
 Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.5 gives an example of the
Stop and Wait use of stop-and-wait ARQ, showing the transmission
of a sequence of frames from source A to destination
•see example with both B. The figure shows the two types of errors just
types of errors described. The third frame transmitted by A is lost or
• pros and cons damaged and therefore B does not return an ACK. A
• simple times out and retransmits the frame. Later, A
• inefficient transmits a frame labeled 1 but the ACK0 for that
frame is lost. A times out and retransmits the same
frame. When B receives two frames in a row with
the same label, it discards the second frame but
sends back an ACK0 to each.
The principal advantage of stop-and-wait ARQ is its
simplicity. Its principal disadvantage is that stop-
and-wait is an inefficient mechanism.

The sliding-window flow control technique can be

adapted to provide more efficient line use,
Go Back N sometimes referred to as continuous ARQ. The form
of error control based on sliding-window flow
•based on sliding window control that is most commonly used is called go-
•if no error, ACK as usual back-N ARQ. In this method, a station may send a
•use window to control number of series of frames sequentially numbered modulo
outstanding frames
some maximum value. The number of
•if error, reply with rejection unacknowledged frames outstanding is determined
• discard that frame and all future frames until
error frame received correctly by window size, using the sliding-window flow
• transmitter must go back and retransmit that control technique. While no errors occur, the
frame and all subsequent frames destination will acknowledge incoming frames as
usual (RR = receive ready, or piggybacked
acknowledgment). If the destination station detects
 an error in a frame, it may send a negative
acknowledgment (REJ = reject) for that frame, as
explained in the following rules. The destination
station will discard that frame and all future
incoming frames until the frame in error is correctly
received. Thus, the source station, when it receives a
REJ, must retransmit the frame in error plus all
succeeding frames that were transmitted in the
interim.

Suppose that station A is sending frames to station

B. After each transmission, A sets an
Go Back N ‐ Handling acknowledgment timer for the frame just
•Damaged Frame transmitted. Suppose that B has previously
• error in frame i so receiver rejects frame i successfully received frame (i – 1) and A has just
• transmitter retransmits frames from i transmitted frame i. The go-back-N technique takes
•Lost Frame into account the following contingencies:
• frame i lost and either 1. Damaged frame.
• transmitter sends i+1 and receiver gets frame i+1 out of
seq and rejects frame i 2. Lost Frame
• or transmitter times out and send ACK with P bit set 3. Damaged Ack
which receiver responds to with ACK i
4. Damaged Reject
• 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
i. Go Back N ‐ Damaged Frame
• Receiver detects error in frame i
• Receiver sends rejection‐i
• Transmitter gets rejection‐i
• Transmitter retransmits frame i
and all subsequent

ii. Go Back N ‐ Lost Frame (1)

•Frame i lost
•Transmitter sends i+1
•Receiver gets frame i+1 out of
sequence
•Receiver send reject i
•Transmitter goes back to frame i
and retransmits

iii. Go Back N ‐ Lost Frame (2)

• Frame i lost and no additional frame sent
• Receiver gets nothing and returns neither
acknowledgement nor rejection
• Transmitter times out and sends
acknowledgement frame with P bit set to 1
• Receiver interprets this as command which
it acknowledges with the number of the
next frame it expects (frame i )
• Transmitter then retransmits frame i
 iv. Go Back N ‐ Damaged
Acknowledgement
• Receiver gets frame i and send
acknowledgement (i+1) which is lost
• Acknowledgements are cumulative, so next
acknowledgement (i+n) may arrive before
transmitter times out on frame i
• If transmitter times out, it sends
acknowledgement with P bit set as before
• This can be repeated a number of times
before a reset procedure is initiated

v. Go Back N ‐ Damaged Rejection

•As for lost frame (2)

Go Back N ‐
Diagram
 With selective-reject ARQ, the only frames
retransmitted are those that receive a negative
Selective Reject acknowledgment, in this case called SREJ, or those
• also called selective retransmission
that time out. Selective reject would appear to be
• only rejected frames are retransmitted more efficient than go-back-N, because it minimizes
• subsequent frames are accepted by the receiver the amount of retransmission. On the other hand, the
and buffered receiver must maintain a buffer large enough to save
• minimizes retransmission
post-SREJ frames until the frame in error is
• receiver must maintain large enough buffer
• more complex logic in transmitter retransmitted and must contain logic for reinserting
• hence less widely used that frame in the proper sequence. The transmitter,
• useful for satellite links with long propagation too, requires more complex logic to be able to send a
delays frame out of sequence. Because of such
complications, select-reject ARQ is much less
widely used than go-back-N ARQ. Selective reject is
a useful choice for a satellite link because of the
long propagation delay involved.

Selective Reject ‐
Diagram

Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.6a is an example of the

frame flow for go-back-N ARQ. Because of the
propagation delay on the line, by the time that an
acknowledgment (positive or negative) arrives back
at the sending station, it has already sent at least one
Go Back N vs additional frame beyond the one being
acknowledged. In this example, frame 4 is damaged.
Selective Frames 5 and 6 are received out of order and are
Reject discarded by B. When frame 5 arrives, B
immediately sends a REJ 4. When the REJ to frame
4 is received, not only frame 4 but frames 5 and 6
must be retransmitted. Note that the transmitter must
keep a copy of all unacknowledged frames. Figure
7.6a also shows an example of retransmission after
timeout. No acknowledgment is received for frame 5
within the timeout period, so A issues an RR to
 determine the status of B.
Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.6b illustrates
selective-reject ARQ. When frame 5 is received out
of order, B sends a SREJ 4, indicating that frame 4
has not been received. However, B continues to
accept incoming frames and buffers them until a
valid frame 4 is received. At that point, B can place
the frames in the proper order for delivery to higher-
layer software.

The most important data link control protocol is

High Level Data Link Control HDLC (ISO 3009, ISO 4335). Not only is HDLC
(HDLC) widely used, but it is the basis for many other
•an important data link control protocol important data link control protocols, which use the
•specified as ISO 33009, ISO 4335 same or similar formats and the same mechanisms as
•station types:
employed in HDLC.
• Primary ‐ controls operation of link To satisfy a variety of applications, HDLC defines:
• Secondary ‐ under control of primary station three station types:
• Combined ‐ issues commands and responses • Primary station: Responsible for controlling the
•link configurations operation of the link. Frames issued by the primary
• Unbalanced ‐ 1 primary, multiple secondary are called commands.
• Balanced ‐ 2 combined stations • Secondary station: Operates under the control of
the primary station. Frames issued by a secondary
are called responses. The primary maintains a
separate logical link with each secondary station on
the line.
•Combined station: Combines the features of
primary and secondary. A combined station may
issue both commands and responses.
It also defines two link configurations:
•Unbalanced configuration: Consists of one
primary and one or more secondary stations and
supports both full-duplex and half-duplex
transmission.
•Balanced configuration: Consists of two
combined stations and supports both full-duplex and
half-duplex transmission.
 HDLC defines three data transfer modes:
•Normal response mode (NRM): Used with an
HDLC Transfer Modes unbalanced configuration. The primary may initiate
• Normal Response Mode (NRM) data transfer to a secondary, but a secondary may
• unbalanced config, primary initiates transfer only transmit data in response to a command from
• used on multi‐drop lines, eg host + terminals
the primary. NRM is used on multi-drop lines, in
• Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM)
• balanced config, either station initiates transmission, has no
which a number of terminals are connected to a host
polling overhead, widely used computer.
• Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM) •Asynchronous balanced mode (ABM): Used with
• unbalanced config, secondary may initiate transmit without
permission from primary, rarely used
a balanced configuration. Either combined station
may initiate transmission without receiving
permission from the other combined station. ABM is
the most widely used of the three modes; it makes
more efficient use of a full-duplex point-to-point
link because there is no polling overhead.
•Asynchronous response mode (ARM): Used with
an unbalanced configuration. The secondary may
initiate transmission without explicit permission of
the primary. The primary still retains responsibility
for the line, including initialization, error recovery,
and logical disconnection. ARM is rarely used; it is
applicable to some special situations in which a
secondary may need to initiate transmission.
HDLC uses synchronous transmission. All
transmissions are in the form of frames, and a single
HDLC Frame Structure frame format suffices for all types of data and
•synchronous transmission of frames control exchanges.
•single frame format used Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.7a depicts the structure of
the HDLC frame. The flag, address, and control
fields that precede the information field are known
as a header. The FCS and flag fields following the
data field are referred to as a trailer.
 Flag fields delimit the frame at both ends with the
unique pattern 01111110. A single flag may be used
Flag Fields and Bit Stuffing as the closing flag for one frame and the opening
• delimit frame at both ends with 01111110 seq
flag for the next. On both sides of the user-network
• receiver hunts for flag sequence to synchronize
interface, receivers are continuously hunting for the
• bit stuffing used to avoid confusion with data
containing flag seq 01111110 flag sequence to synchronize on the start of a frame.
• 0 inserted after every sequence of five 1s While receiving a frame, a station continues to hunt
• if receiver detects five 1s it checks next bit for that sequence to determine the end of the frame.
• if next bit is 0, it is deleted (was stuffed bit)
• if next bit is 1 and seventh bit is 0, accept as flag Because the protocol allows the presence of
• if sixth and seventh bits 1, sender is indicating abort arbitrary bit patterns, there is no assurance that the
pattern 01111110 will not appear somewhere inside
the frame, thus destroying synchronization. To avoid
this problem, a procedure known as bit stuffing is
used. For all bits between the starting and ending
flags, the transmitter inserts an extra 0 bit after each
occurrence of five 1s in the frame. After detecting a
starting flag, the receiver monitors the bit stream.
When a pattern of five 1s appears, the sixth bit is
examined. If this bit is 0, it is deleted. If the sixth bit
is a 1 and the seventh bit is a 0, the combination is
accepted as a flag. If the sixth and seventh bits are
both 1, the sender is indicating an abort condition.
With the use of bit stuffing, arbitrary bit patterns can
be inserted into the data field of the frame. This
property is known as data transparency. Stallings
DCC8e Figure 7.8 shows an example of bit stuffing.
Note that in the first two cases, the extra 0 is not
strictly necessary for avoiding a flag pattern but is
necessary for the operation of the algorithm.
The address field identifies the secondary station
that transmitted or is to receive the frame. This field
Address Field is not needed for point-to-point links but is always
• identifies secondary station that sent or will receive included for the sake of uniformity. The address
frame field is usually 8 bits long but, by prior agreement,
• usually 8 bits long an extended format may be used in which the actual
• may be extended to multiples of 7 bits address length is a multiple of 7 bits. The leftmost
• LSB indicates if is the last octet (1) or not (0)
bit of each octet is 1 or 0 according as it is or is not
• all ones address 11111111 is broadcast
the last octet of the address field. The remaining 7
bits of each octet form part of the address. The
single-octet address of 11111111 is interpreted as the
all-stations address in both basic and extended
formats. It is used to allow the primary to broadcast
a frame for reception by all secondaries.
 HDLC defines three types of frames, each with a
Control Field different control field format. Information frames
(I-frames) carry the data to be transmitted for the
• different for different frame type
• Information ‐ data transmitted to user (next layer up)
user (the logic above HDLC that is using HDLC).
• Flow and error control piggybacked on information frames Additionally, flow and error control data, using the
• Supervisory ‐ ARQ when piggyback not used ARQ mechanism, are piggybacked on an
• Unnumbered ‐ supplementary link control
information frame. Supervisory frames (S-frames)
• first 1‐2 bits of control field identify frame type
provide the ARQ mechanism when piggybacking is
not used. Unnumbered frames (U-frames) provide
supplemental link control functions. The first one or
two bits of the control field serves to identify the
frame type. The remaining bit positions are
organized into subfields as indicated in Figures 7.7c
and d (next slide).

All of the control field formats contain the poll/final

(P/F) bit. Its use depends on context. Typically, in
Control Field command frames, it is referred to as the P bit and is
• use of Poll/Final bit depends on context
• in command frame is P bit set to1 to solicit (poll) set to 1 to solicit (poll) a response frame from the
response from peer peer HDLC entity. In response frames, it is referred
• in response frame is F bit set to 1 to indicate response to as the F bit and is set to 1 to indicate the response
to soliciting command
• seq number usually 3 bits
frame transmitted as a result of a soliciting
• can extend to 8 bits as shown below command.
Note that the basic control field for S- and I-
frames uses 3-bit sequence numbers, as shown on
previous slide. With the appropriate set-mode
command, an extended control field can be used for
S- and I-frames that employs 7-bit sequence
numbers. U-frames always contain an 8-bit control
field.
 The information field is present only in I-
frames and some U-frames. The field can contain
Information & FCS Fields any sequence of bits but must consist of an integral
number of octets. The length of the information field
•Information Field
• in information and some unnumbered frames
is variable up to some system-defined maximum.
• must contain integral number of octets The frame check sequence (FCS) is an error-
• variable length detecting code calculated from the remaining bits of
•Frame Check Sequence Field (FCS) the frame, exclusive of flags. The normal code is the
• used for error detection 16-bit CRC-CCITT defined in Section 6.3. An
• either 16 bit CRC or 32 bit CRC optional 32-bit FCS, using CRC-32, may be
employed if the frame length or the line reliability
dictates this choice.

HDLC operation consists of the exchange of I-

frames, S-frames, and U-frames between two
HDLC Operation stations. The various commands and responses
•consists of exchange of information, defined for these frame types are listed in Stallings
supervisory and unnumbered frames DCC8e Table 7.1. In describing HDLC operation,
•have three phases we will discuss these three types of frames. The
• initialization operation of HDLC involves three phases:
• by either side, set mode & seq First, one side or another initializes the data
• data transfer
• with flow and error control link so that frames may be exchanged in an orderly
• using both I & S‐frames (RR, RNR, REJ, SREJ) fashion. During this phase, the options that are to be
• disconnect used are agreed upon, such as which of the three
• when ready or fault noted
modes (NRM, ABM, ARM) is requested, and
whether 3- or 7-bit sequence numbers are to be used.
After initialization, the two sides exchange
user data and the control information to exercise
flow and error control. Both sides may begin to send
user data in I-frames, starting with sequence number
0. The N(S) and N(R) fields of the I-frame are
sequence numbers that support flow control and
error control. S-frames are also used for flow control
and error control. The receive ready (RR) frame
acknowledges the last I-frame received. Receive not
ready (RNR) acknowledges an I-frame, as with RR,
but also asks the peer entity to suspend transmission
of I-frames. When again ready, it sends an RR. REJ
initiates the go-back-N ARQ. It indicates that the
last I-frame received has been rejected and that
retransmission of all I-frames beginning with
number N(R) is required. Selective reject (SREJ) is
used to request retransmission of just a single frame.
Finally, one of the two sides signals the
 termination of the operation, either on its own
initiative if there is some sort of fault, or at the
request of its higher-layer user. HDLC issues a
disconnect by sending a disconnect (DISC) frame.

Examples of HDLC operation are shown here in

Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.9.
HDLC Operation Example Figure 7.9a shows the frames involved in
link setup and disconnect. One side issues an SABM
command and starts a timer. Upon receiving the
SABM,the recipient returns a UA response and sets
local variables and counters to initial values. The
initiating entity receives the UA response, sets its
variables and counters, and stops the timer. The
logical connection is now active, and both sides may
begin transmitting frames. Should the timer expire
without a response to an SABM, the originator will
repeat the SABM, as illustrated. The same figure
(Figure 7.9a) shows the disconnect procedure. One
side issues a DISC command, and the other responds
with a UA response.
Figure 7.9b illustrates the full-duplex
exchange of I-frames. When an entity sends a
number of I-frames in a row with no incoming data,
then the receive sequence number is simply repeated
(e.g., I,1,1; I,2.1 in the A-to-B direction). When an
entity receives a number of I-frames in a row with
no outgoing frames, then the receive sequence
number in the next outgoing frame must reflect the
cumulative activity (e.g., I,1,3 in the B-to-A
direction).
Figure 7.9c shows an operation involving a
busy condition, where the entity's receive buffer fills
up and it must halt the incoming flow of I-frames,
using an RNR command. In this example, A issues
an RNR, which requires B to halt transmission of I-
frames. The station receiving the RNR will usually
 poll the busy station at some periodic interval by
sending an RR with the P bit set. This requires the
other side to respond with either an RR or an RNR.
When the busy condition has cleared, A returns an
RR, and I-frame transmission from B can resume.

Figure 7.9d shows an example of error recovery

using the REJ command. In this example, A
HDLC Operation Example transmits I-frames numbered 3, 4, and 5. Number 4
suffers an error and is lost. When B receives I-frame
number 5, it discards this frame because it is out of
order and sends an REJ with an N(R) of 4. This
causes A to initiate retransmission of I-frames
previously sent, beginning with frame 4. A may
continue to send additional frames after the
retransmitted frames.
An example of error recovery using a
timeout is shown in Figure 7.9e. In this example, A
transmits I-frame number 3 as the last in a sequence
of I-frames. The frame suffers an error. B detects the
error and discards it. However, B cannot send an
REJ, because there is no way to know if this was an
I-frame. If an error is detected in a frame, all of the
bits of that frame are suspect, and the receiver has
no way to act upon it. A, however, would have
started a timer as the frame was transmitted. This
timer has a duration long enough to span the
expected response time. When the timer expires, A
initiates recovery action. This is usually done by
polling the other side with an RR command with the
P bit set, to determine the status of the other side.
Because the poll demands a response, the entity will
receive a frame containing an N(R) field and be able
to proceed. In this case, the response indicates that
frame 3 was lost, which A retransmits.
 Chapter 7 summary.
Summary
•introduced need for data link protocols
•flow control
•error control
•HDLC

Review Questions
•List and briefly define some of the requirements
for effective communications over a data link.
•Define flow control.
•Describe stop‐and‐wait flow control.
•What are reasons for breaking a long data
transmission up into a number of frames?
•Describe sliding‐window flow control.
•What is the advantage of sliding‐window flow
control compared to stop‐and‐wait flow control?
•What is piggybacking?
 Review Questions
•Define error control.
•List common ingredients for error control for a link
control protocol.
•Describe automatic repeat request (ARQ).
•List and briefly define three versions of ARQ.
•What are the station types supported by HDLC?
Describe each.
•What are the transfer modes supported by HDLC?
Describe each.
•What are the three frame types supported by HDLC?
Describe each.

•Most slides are adapted from:

• Behrouz A. Forouzan, Data communications and
networking, 4th Ed., McGraw‐Hill, 2007.
• William Stallings, Data and Computer
Communication, 9th Ed., Prentice Hall, 2011.