Data Link Control Protocols

Dr. Muazzam A. Khan

Flow Control
• Ensuring the sending entity does not overwhelm
the receiving entity
—Preventing buffer overflow
• Transmission time
—Time taken to emit all bits into medium
• Propagation time
—Time for a bit to traverse the link
Model of Frame Transmission
Stop and Wait
• Source transmits frame
• Destination receives frame and replies with
acknowledgement
• Source waits for ACK before sending next frame
• Destination can stop flow by not send ACK
• Works well for a few large frames
Fragmentation
• Large block of data may be split into small
frames
—Limited buffer size
—Errors detected sooner (when whole frame received)
—On error, retransmission of smaller frames is needed
—Prevents one station occupying medium for long
periods
• Stop and wait becomes inadequate
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
Sliding Window Diagram
Sliding Window Enhancements
• Receiver can acknowledge frames without
permitting further transmission (Receive Not
Ready)
• Must send a normal acknowledge to resume
• If duplex, use piggybacking
—If no data to send, use acknowledgement frame
—If data but no acknowledgement to send, send last
acknowledgement number again, or have ACK valid
flag (TCP)
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
Automatic Repeat Request
(ARQ)
• 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
—Receive gets two copies of frame
—Use ACK0 and ACK1
Stop and Wait -
Diagram
Stop and Wait - Pros and Cons
• Simple
• Inefficient
Go Back N
• Based on sliding window
• If no error, ACK as usual with next frame
expected
• 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 - Damaged Frame
• Receiver detects error in frame i
• Receiver sends rejection-i
• Transmitter gets rejection-i
• Transmitter retransmits frame i and all
subsequent
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
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
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
Go Back N -
Diagram
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 login in transmitter
Selective Reject -
Diagram
High Level Data Link Control
• HDLC
• ISO 33009, ISO 4335
HDLC Station Types
• Primary station
—Controls operation of link
—Frames issued are called commands
—Maintains separate logical link to each secondary
station
• Secondary station
—Under control of primary station
—Frames issued called responses
• Combined station
—May issue commands and responses
HDLC Link Configurations
• Unbalanced
—One primary and one or more secondary stations
—Supports full duplex and half duplex
• Balanced
—Two combined stations
—Supports full duplex and half duplex
HDLC Transfer Modes (1)
• Normal Response Mode (NRM)
—Unbalanced configuration
—Primary initiates transfer to secondary
—Secondary may only transmit data in response to
command from primary
—Used on multi-drop lines
—Host computer as primary
—Terminals as secondary
HDLC Transfer Modes (2)
• Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM)
— Balanced configuration
— Either station may initiate transmission without receiving
permission
— Most widely used
— No polling overhead
• Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM)
— Unbalanced configuration
— Secondary may initiate transmission without permission form
primary
— Primary responsible for line
— rarely used
Flag Fields
• Delimit frame at both ends
• 01111110
• May close one frame and open another
• Receiver hunts for flag sequence to synchronize
• Bit stuffing used to avoid confusion with data containing
01111110
— 0 inserted after every sequence of five 1s
— If receiver detects five 1s it checks next bit
— If 0, it is deleted
— If 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 of each octet indicates that it is the last octet (1) or not (0)
• All ones (11111111) is broadcast
Control Field
• Different for different frame type
—Information - data to be 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 one or two bits of control filed identify
frame type
• Remaining bits explained later
Control Field Diagram
Information Field
• Only in information and some unnumbered
frames
• Must contain integral number of octets
• Variable length
Frame Check Sequence Field
• FCS
• Error detection
• 16 bit CRC
• Optional 32 bit CRC
HDLC Operation
• Exchange of information, supervisory and
unnumbered frames
• Three phases
—Initialization
—Data transfer
—Disconnect