UNIT-3

Error Detection
Error is a condition when the receiver’s information does not match the sender’s
information. During transmission, digital signals suffer from noise that can introduce
errors in the binary bits traveling from sender to receiver. That means a 0 bit may change
to 1 or a 1 bit may change to 0.
Data (Implemented either at the Data link layer or Transport Layer of the OSI Model) may
get scrambled by noise or get corrupted whenever a message is transmitted. To prevent
such errors, error-detection codes are added as extra data to digital messages. This helps
in detecting any errors that may have occurred during message transmission.

Types of Errors

Single-Bit Error

A single-bit error refers to a type of data transmission error that occurs when one bit (i.e.,
a single binary digit) of a transmitted data unit is altered during transmission, resulting
in an incorrect or corrupted data unit.

Single-Bit Error

Multiple-Bit Error

A multiple-bit error is an error type that arises when more than one bit in a data
transmission is affected. Although multiple-bit errors are relatively rare when compared
to single-bit errors, they can still occur, particularly in high-noise or high-interference
digital environments.
Multiple-Bit Error

Burst Error

When several consecutive bits are flipped mistakenly in digital transmission, it creates a
burst error. This error causes a sequence of consecutive incorrect values.

Burst Error
Error Detection Techniques

To detect errors, a common technique is to introduce redundancy bits that provide

additional information. Various techniques for error detection include:

1. Simple Parity Check

2. Two-dimensional Parity Check
3. Checksum
4. Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

Error Detection Methods

Simple Parity Check

Simple-bit parity is a simple error detection method that involves adding an extra
bit to a data transmission. It works as:
 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 scheme makes the total number of 1’s even, that is why it is called even parity
checking.

Disadvantages
 Single Parity check is not able to detect even no. of bit error.
 For example, the Data to be transmitted is 101010. Codeword transmitted to the
receiver is 1010101 (we have used even parity).
Let’s assume that during transmission, two of the bits of code word flipped to
1111101.
On receiving the code word, the receiver finds the no. of ones to be even and hence no
error, which is a wrong assumption.

Two-dimensional Parity Check

Two-dimensional Parity check bits are calculated for each row, which is equivalent to
a simple parity check bit. Parity check bits are also calculated for all columns, then both
are sent along with the data. At the receiving end, these are compared with the parity bits
calculated on the received data.

Checksum

Checksum error detection is a method used to identify errors in transmitted data. The
process involves dividing the data into equally sized segments and using a 1’s
complement to calculate the sum of these segments. The calculated sum is then sent along
with the data to the receiver. At the receiver’s end, the same process is repeated and if all
zeroes are obtained in the sum, it means that the data is correct.

Checksum – Operation at Sender’s Side

 Firstly, the data is divided into k segments each of m bits.
 On 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.
Checksum – Operation at Receiver’s Side
 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.
Disadvantages
 If one or more bits of a segment are damaged and the corresponding bit or bits of
opposite value in a second segment are also damaged.

Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

 Unlike the checksum scheme, which is based on addition, CRC is based on binary
division.
 In CRC, a sequence of redundant bits, called cyclic redundancy check bits, are
appended to the end of the data unit so that the resulting data unit becomes exactly
divisible by a second, predetermined binary number.
 At the destination, the incoming data unit is divided by the same number. If at this
step there is no remainder, the data unit is assumed to be correct and is therefore
accepted.
 A remainder indicates that the data unit has been damaged in transit and therefore
must be rejected.
Error Correction
Error Correction codes are used to detect and correct the errors when data is transmitted
from the sender to the receiver.

Error Correction can be handled in two ways:

o Backward error correction: Once the error is discovered, the receiver requests
the sender to retransmit the entire data unit.
o Forward error correction: In this case, the receiver uses the error-correcting
code which automatically corrects the errors.

A single additional bit can detect the error, but cannot correct it.

For correcting the errors, one has to know the exact position of the error. For example, If
we want to calculate a single-bit error, the error correction code will determine which
one of seven bits is in error. To achieve this, we have to add some additional redundant
bits.

Suppose r is the number of redundant bits and d is the total number of the data bits. The
number of redundant bits r can be calculated by using the formula:

2r>=d+r+1

The value of r is calculated by using the above formula. For example, if the value of d is 4,
then the possible smallest value that satisfies the above relation would be 3.

To determine the position of the bit which is in error, a technique developed by R.W
Hamming is Hamming code which can be applied to any length of the data unit and uses
the relationship between data units and redundant units.

Hamming Code
Parity bits: The bit which is appended to the original data of binary bits so that the total
number of 1s is even or odd.

Even parity: To check for even parity, if the total number of 1s is even, then the value of
the parity bit is 0. If the total number of 1s occurrences is odd, then the value of the parity
bit is 1.

Odd Parity: To check for odd parity, if the total number of 1s is even, then the value of
parity bit is 1. If the total number of 1s is odd, then the value of parity bit is 0.

Algorithm of Hamming code:

o An information of 'd' bits are added to the redundant bits 'r' to form d+r.
o The location of each of the (d+r) digits is assigned a decimal value.
o The 'r' bits are placed in the positions 1,2,.....2k-1.
o At the receiving end, the parity bits are recalculated. The decimal value of the
parity bits determines the position of an error.

Relationship b/w Error position & binary number.

 Let's understand the concept of Hamming code through an example:

Suppose the original data is 1010 which is to be sent.

Total number of data bits 'd' = 4

Number of redundant bits r : 2r >= d+r+1
2r>= 4+r+1
Therefore, the value of r is 3 that satisfies the above relation.
Total number of bits = d+r = 4+3 = 7;

Determining the position of the redundant bits

The number of redundant bits is 3. The three bits are represented by r1, r2, r4. The
position of the redundant bits is calculated with corresponds to the raised power of 2.
Therefore, their corresponding positions are 1, 21, 22.

1. The position of r1 = 1
2. The position of r2 = 2
3. The position of r4 = 4

Representation of Data on the addition of parity bits:

Determining the Parity bits

Determining the r1 bit
The r1 bit is calculated by performing a parity check on the bit positions whose binary
representation includes 1 in the first position.
We observe from the above figure that the bit positions that includes 1 in the first position
are 1, 3, 5, 7. Now, we perform the even-parity check at these bit positions. The total
number of 1 at these bit positions corresponding to r1 is even, therefore, the value of
the r1 bit is 0.

Determining r2 bit
The r2 bit is calculated by performing a parity check on the bit positions whose binary
representation includes 1 in the second position.

We observe from the above figure that the bit positions that includes 1 in the second
position are 2, 3, 6, 7. Now, we perform the even-parity check at these bit positions. The
total number of 1 at these bit positions corresponding to r2 is odd, therefore, the value
of the r2 bit is 1.

Determining r4 bit
The r4 bit is calculated by performing a parity check on the bit positions whose binary
representation includes 1 in the third position.
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We observe from the above figure that the bit positions that includes 1 in the third
position are 4, 5, 6, 7. Now, we perform the even-parity check at these bit positions. The
total number of 1 at these bit positions corresponding to r4 is even, therefore, the value
of the r4 bit is 0.

Data transferred is given below:

Suppose the 4th bit is changed from 0 to 1 at the receiving end, then parity bits are
recalculated.

R1 bit
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The bit positions of the r1 bit are 1,3,5,7

We observe from the above figure that the binary representation of r1 is 1100. Now, we
perform the even-parity check, the total number of 1s appearing in the r1 bit is an even
number. Therefore, the value of r1 is 0.
R2 bit
The bit positions of r2 bit are 2,3,6,7.

We observe from the above figure that the binary representation of r2 is 1001. Now, we
perform the even-parity check, the total number of 1s appearing in the r2 bit is an even
number. Therefore, the value of r2 is 0.

R4 bit
The bit positions of r4 bit are 4,5,6,7.

We observe from the above figure that the binary representation of r4 is 1011. Now, we
perform the even-parity check, the total number of 1s appearing in the r4 bit is an odd
number. Therefore, the value of r4 is 1.

o The binary representation of redundant bits, i.e., r4r2r1 is 100, and its corresponding
decimal value is 4. Therefore, the error occurs in a 4th bit position. The bit value must
be changed from 1 to 0 to correct the error.

FLOW CONTROL

Data Link Layer is responsible for reliable point-to-point data transfer over a physical
medium. To implement this data link layer provides three functions :
  Flow Control:
Flow control is an essential function that coordinates the amount of data the
sender can send before waiting for acknowledgment from the receiver.
 Error Control:
Error control is functionality used to detect erroneous transmissions in data
frames and retransmit them.

Flow Control in the Data Link Layer

Flow control is a set of procedures that restrict the amount of data a sender should send
before it waits for some acknowledgment from the receiver.

 Flow Control is an essential function of the data link layer.

 It determines the amount of data that a sender can send.
 It makes the sender wait until an acknowledgment is received from the receiver’s
end.
 Methods of Flow Control are Stop-and-wait , and Sliding window.

Purpose of Flow Control

 The device on the receiving end has a limited amount of memory (to store
incoming data) and limited speed (to process incoming data).
 The receiver might get overwhelmed if the rate at which the sender sends data is
faster or the amount of data sent is more than its capacity.
 Buffers are blocks in the memory that store data until it is processed. If the buffer
is overloaded and there is more incoming data, then the receiver will start losing
frames.
 The flow control mechanism was devised to avoid this loss and wastage of
frames. Following this mechanism, the receiver, as per its capacity, sends an
acknowledgment to send fewer frames or temporarily halt the transmission until
it can receive again.
 Thus, flow control is the method of controlling the rate of transmission of data to
a value that the receiver can handle.

Methods to Control the Flow of Data

Stop-and-wait Protocol

Stop-and-wait protocol works under the assumption that the communication channel
is noiseless and transmissions are error-free.

Working:

 The sender sends data to the receiver.

 The sender stops and waits for the acknowledgment.
 The receiver receives the data and processes it.
 The receiver sends an acknowledgment for the above data to the sender.
 The sender sends data to the receiver after receiving the acknowledgment of
previously sent data.
 The process is unidirectional and continues until the sender sends the End of
Transmission (EoT) frame.

 Example:

Advantages –
 This method is very easiest and simple and each of the frames is checked and
acknowledged well.
 This method is also very accurate.
Disadvantages –
 This method is fairly slow.
 In this, only one packet or frame can be sent at a time.
 It is very inefficient and makes the transmission process very slow

Sliding Window Protocol

Sliding Window

o The Sliding Window is a method of flow control in which a sender can transmit the
several frames before getting an acknowledgement.

o In Sliding Window Control, multiple frames can be sent one after the another due
to which capacity of the communication channel can be utilized efficiently.

o A single ACK acknowledge multiple frames.

o Sliding Window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and receiver end.

o The window can hold the frames at either end, and it provides the upper limit on
the number of frames that can be transmitted before the acknowledgement.

o Frames can be acknowledged even when the window is not completely filled.

o The window has a specific size in which they are numbered as modulo-n means
that they are numbered from 0 to n-1. For example, if n = 8, the frames are
numbered from 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1........

o The size of the window is represented as n-1. Therefore, maximum n-1 frames can
be sent before acknowledgement.

o When the receiver sends the ACK, it includes the number of the next frame that it
wants to receive. For example, to acknowledge the string of frames ending with
frame number 4, the receiver will send the ACK containing the number 5. When
the sender sees the ACK with the number 5, it got to know that the frames from 0
through 4 have been received.

Sender Window

o At the beginning of a transmission, the sender window contains n-1 frames, and
when they are sent out, the left boundary moves inward shrinking the size of the
 window. For example, if the size of the window is w if three frames are sent out,
then the number of frames left out in the sender window is w-3.

o Once the ACK has arrived, then the sender window expands to the number which
will be equal to the number of frames acknowledged by ACK.

o For example, the size of the window is 7, and if frames 0 through 4 have been sent
out and no acknowledgement has arrived, then the sender window contains only
two frames, i.e., 5 and 6. Now, if ACK has arrived with a number 4 which means
that 0 through 3 frames have arrived undamaged and the sender window is
expanded to include the next four frames. Therefore, the sender window contains
six frames (5,6,7,0,1,2).

Receiver Window

o At the beginning of transmission, the receiver window does not contain n frames,
but it contains n-1 spaces for frames.

o When the new frame arrives, the size of the window shrinks.
 o The receiver window does not represent the number of frames received, but it
represents the number of frames that can be received before an ACK is sent. For
example, the size of the window is w, if three frames are received then the number
of spaces available in the window is (w-3).

o Once the acknowledgement is sent, the receiver window expands by the number
equal to the number of frames acknowledged.

o Suppose the size of the window is 7 means that the receiver window contains
seven spaces for seven frames. If the one frame is received, then the receiver
window shrinks and moving the boundary from 0 to 1. In this way, window
shrinks one by one, so window now contains the six spaces. If frames from 0
through 4 have sent, then the window contains two spaces before an
acknowledgement is sent.

Example:

In the below example

1)The sender sends the frames 0 and 1 from the first window (because the window size
is 2).

2)The receiver after receiving the sent frames, sends an acknowledgment for frame 2 (as
frame 2 is the next expected frame).

3)The sender then sends frames 2 and 3. Since frame 2 is lost on the way, the receiver
sends back a “NAK” signal (a non-acknowledgment) to inform the sender that frame 2 has
been lost. So, the sender retransmits frame 2.

Advantages –
 It performs much better than stop-and-wait flow control.
 This method increases efficiency.
 Multiples frames can be sent one after another.
Disadvantages –
 The main issue is complexity at the sender and receiver due to the transferring of
multiple frames.
 The receiver might receive data frames or packets out the sequence.

FLOW CONTROL
Data Link Layer is responsible for reliable point-to-point data transfer over a physical
medium. To implement this data link layer provides three functions :

 Flow Control:
Flow control is an essential function that coordinates the amount of data the
sender can send before waiting for acknowledgment from the receiver.
 Error Control:
Error control is functionality used to detect erroneous transmissions in data
frames and retransmit them.

Flow Control in the Data Link Layer

Flow control is a set of procedures that restrict the amount of data a sender should send
before it waits for some acknowledgment from the receiver.

 Flow Control is an essential function of the data link layer.

 It determines the amount of data that a sender can send.
 It makes the sender wait until an acknowledgment is received from the receiver’s
end.
 Methods of Flow Control are Stop-and-wait , and Sliding window.

Purpose of Flow Control

 The device on the receiving end has a limited amount of memory (to store
incoming data) and limited speed (to process incoming data).
 The receiver might get overwhelmed if the rate at which the sender sends data is
faster or the amount of data sent is more than its capacity.
 Buffers are blocks in the memory that store data until it is processed. If the buffer
is overloaded and there is more incoming data, then the receiver will start losing
frames.
 The flow control mechanism was devised to avoid this loss and wastage of
frames. Following this mechanism, the receiver, as per its capacity, sends an
acknowledgment to send fewer frames or temporarily halt the transmission until
it can receive again.
  Thus, flow control is the method of controlling the rate of transmission of data to
a value that the receiver can handle.

Methods to Control the Flow of Data

Stop-and-wait Protocol

Stop-and-wait protocol works under the assumption that the communication channel
is noiseless and transmissions are error-free.

Working:

 The sender sends data to the receiver.

 The sender stops and waits for the acknowledgment.
 The receiver receives the data and processes it.
 The receiver sends an acknowledgment for the above data to the sender.
 The sender sends data to the receiver after receiving the acknowledgment of
previously sent data.
 The process is unidirectional and continues until the sender sends the End of
Transmission (EoT) frame.

 Example:

Advantages –
 This method is very easiest and simple and each of the frames is checked and
acknowledged well.
 This method is also very accurate.
Disadvantages –
 This method is fairly slow.
 In this, only one packet or frame can be sent at a time.
 It is very inefficient and makes the transmission process very slow

Sliding Window Protocol

Sliding Window

o The Sliding Window is a method of flow control in which a sender can transmit the
several frames before getting an acknowledgement.

o In Sliding Window Control, multiple frames can be sent one after the another due
to which capacity of the communication channel can be utilized efficiently.

o A single ACK acknowledge multiple frames.

o Sliding Window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and receiver end.

o The window can hold the frames at either end, and it provides the upper limit on
the number of frames that can be transmitted before the acknowledgement.

o Frames can be acknowledged even when the window is not completely filled.

o The window has a specific size in which they are numbered as modulo-n means
that they are numbered from 0 to n-1. For example, if n = 8, the frames are
numbered from 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1........

o The size of the window is represented as n-1. Therefore, maximum n-1 frames can
be sent before acknowledgement.

o When the receiver sends the ACK, it includes the number of the next frame that it
wants to receive. For example, to acknowledge the string of frames ending with
frame number 4, the receiver will send the ACK containing the number 5. When
the sender sees the ACK with the number 5, it got to know that the frames from 0
through 4 have been received.
Sender Window

o At the beginning of a transmission, the sender window contains n-1 frames, and
when they are sent out, the left boundary moves inward shrinking the size of the
window. For example, if the size of the window is w if three frames are sent out,
then the number of frames left out in the sender window is w-3.

o Once the ACK has arrived, then the sender window expands to the number which
will be equal to the number of frames acknowledged by ACK.

o For example, the size of the window is 7, and if frames 0 through 4 have been sent
out and no acknowledgement has arrived, then the sender window contains only
two frames, i.e., 5 and 6. Now, if ACK has arrived with a number 4 which means
that 0 through 3 frames have arrived undamaged and the sender window is
expanded to include the next four frames. Therefore, the sender window contains
six frames (5,6,7,0,1,2).

Receiver Window
 o At the beginning of transmission, the receiver window does not contain n frames,
but it contains n-1 spaces for frames.

o When the new frame arrives, the size of the window shrinks.

o The receiver window does not represent the number of frames received, but it
represents the number of frames that can be received before an ACK is sent. For
example, the size of the window is w, if three frames are received then the number
of spaces available in the window is (w-3).

o Once the acknowledgement is sent, the receiver window expands by the number
equal to the number of frames acknowledged.

o Suppose the size of the window is 7 means that the receiver window contains
seven spaces for seven frames. If the one frame is received, then the receiver
window shrinks and moving the boundary from 0 to 1. In this way, window
shrinks one by one, so window now contains the six spaces. If frames from 0
through 4 have sent, then the window contains two spaces before an
acknowledgement is sent.

Example:
In the below example

1)The sender sends the frames 0 and 1 from the first window (because the window size
is 2).

2)The receiver after receiving the sent frames, sends an acknowledgment for frame 2 (as
frame 2 is the next expected frame).

3)The sender then sends frames 2 and 3. Since frame 2 is lost on the way, the receiver
sends back a “NAK” signal (a non-acknowledgment) to inform the sender that frame 2 has
been lost. So, the sender retransmits frame 2.

Advantages –
 It performs much better than stop-and-wait flow control.
 This method increases efficiency.
 Multiples frames can be sent one after another.
Disadvantages –
 The main issue is complexity at the sender and receiver due to the transferring of
multiple frames.
 The receiver might receive data frames or packets out the sequence.
HIGH-LEVEL DATA LINK CONTROL(HDLC)
HDLC – Short for High-level Data Link Control, a transmission protocol used at the data
link layer (layer 2) of the OSI seven layer model for data communications.
The HDLC protocol embeds information in a data frame that allows devices to control
data flow and correct errors.
HDLC is an ISO standard developed from the Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC)
standard proposed by IBM in the 1970’s. HDLC NRM (also known as SDLC) .
HDLC is a bit oriented protocol that supports both half-duplex and full-duplex
communication over point to point & multipoint link.
Used on both point-to-point and multipoint (multi-drop) data links
Role of HDLC is to ensure that the data has been received without any loss or errors and
in the correct order
Provides connection-oriented and connection-less service

Types of Station

three types of stations and these are as follows:

 Primary Station
This station mainly looks after data like management. In the case of the
communication between the primary and secondary station; it is the
responsibility of the primary station to connect and disconnect the data link. The
frames issued by the primary station are commonly known as commands. (sends
data, controls the link with commands)
 Secondary Station
The secondary station operates under the control of the primary station. The
Frames issued by the secondary stations are commonly known as responses.(
receives data, responds to control messages)
 Combined Station
The combined station acts as both Primary stations as well as Secondary
stations. The combined station issues both commands as well as responses.( can
issue both commands and responses)

Link configuration:

➢ Unbalanced: one primary station, one or more secondary stations

➢ Balanced: two combined stations

Transfer Modes
HDLC supports two types of transfer modes, normal response mode and asynchronous
balanced mode.

 Normal Response Mode (NRM) − Here, two types of stations are there, a primary
station that send commands and secondary station that can respond to received
commands. It is used for both point - to - point and multipoint communications.

 Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM) − Here, the configuration is balanced, i.e.

each station can both send commands and respond to commands. It is used for
only point - to - point communications.

HDLC Frame
HDLC is a bit - oriented protocol where each frame contains up to six fields. The structure
varies according to the type of frame. The fields of a HDLC frame are −

 Flag − It is an 8-bit sequence that marks the beginning and the end of the frame.
The bit pattern of the flag is 01111110.
 Address − It contains the address of the receiver. If the frame is sent by the
primary station, it contains the address(es) of the secondary station(s). If it is sent
by the secondary station, it contains the address of the primary station. The
address field may be from 1 byte to several bytes.
 Control − It is 1 or 2 bytes containing flow and error control information.
 Payload − This carries the data from the network layer. Its length may vary from
one network to another.
 FCS − It is a 2 byte or 4 bytes frame check sequence for error detection. The
standard code used is CRC (cyclic redundancy code)

Types of HDLC Frames

There are three types of HDLC frames. The type of frame is determined by the control
field of the frame −

 I-frame − I-frames or Information frames carry user data from the network layer.
They also include flow and error control information that is piggybacked on user
data. The first bit of control field of I-frame is 0.
 S-frame − S-frames or Supervisory frames do not contain information field. They
are used for flow and error control when piggybacking is not required. The first
two bits of control field of S-frame is 10.
 U-frame − U-frames or Un-numbered frames are used for myriad miscellaneous
functions, like link management. It may contain an information field, if required.
The first two bits of control field of U-frame is 11.
Frame Format

There are up to six fields in each HDLC frame. There is a beginning flag field, the address
field then, a control field, an information field, a frame check sequence field(FCS), and an
ending field.

In the case of the multiple-frame transmission, the ending flag of the one frame acts as
the beginning flag of the next frame.

Let us take a look at different HDLC frames:

Now its time to discuss the fields and the use of fields in different frame types:

1. Flag Field

This field of the HDLC frame is mainly a sequence of 8-bit having the bit pattern
01111110 and it is used to identify the beginning and end of the frame. The flag field
mainly serves as a synchronization pattern for the receiver.

2. Address Field

It is the second field of the HDLC frame and it mainly contains the address of the
secondary station. This field can be 1 byte or several bytes long which mainly depends
upon the need of the network. In case if the frame is sent by the primary station, then
this field contains the address(es) of the secondary stations. If the frame is sent by the
secondary station, then this field contains the address of the primary station.

3. Control Field

This is the third field of the HDLC frame and it is a 1 or 2-byte segment of the frame and
is mainly used for flow control and error control. Bits interpretation in this field mainly
depends upon the type of the frame.
4. Information Field

This field of the HDLC frame contains the user's data from the network layer or the
management information. The length of this field varies from one network to another.

5. FCS Field

FCS means Frame check sequence and it is the error detection field in the HDLC
protocol. There is a 16 bit CRC code for error detection.

Features

1.This protocol uses bits to stuff flags occurring in the data.

2.This protocol is used for point-to-point as well as multipoint link access.

3.HDLC is one of the most common protocols of the data link layer.

4.HDLC is a bit-oriented protocol.

5.This protocol implements error control as well as flow control.