Chapter 7

DATA LINK CONTROL PROTOCOLS

by
Sherry O. Panicker, MCA, M. Phil
Asst. Professor
Dept. of Computer Science
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Topics covered
•Data Link Layer Control Protocols
-Flow control
-Error control
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Flow Control
• ensure sending entity does not overwhelm receiving entity

• by preventing buffer overflow

• influenced by:

• transmission time

• time taken to emit all bits into medium

• propagation time

• time for a bit to traverse the link

• assume here no errors but varying delays

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Model of Frame Transmission

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Stop and Wait Flow Control

• source transmits frame
• destination receives frame and replies with
acknowledgement (ACK)
• source waits for ACK before sending next
• destination can stop flow by not send ACK
• works well for a few large frames
• Stop and wait becomes inadequate if large block of data
is split into small frames
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Stop and Wait Link Utilization

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Sliding Windows Flow Control

• allows multiple numbered frames to be in transit
• receiver has buffer W long
• transmitter sends up to W frames without ACK
• ACK includes number of next frame expected
• sequence number is bounded by size of field (k)
• frames are numbered modulo 2k
• giving max window size of up to 2k - 1
• receiver can ack frames without permitting further transmission
(Receive Not Ready)
• must send a normal acknowledge to resume
• if have full-duplex link, can piggyback ACks
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Sliding Window Diagram

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Sliding Window Example

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2. Error Control - detection and correction of

errors

• 2 types of errors are:

• lost frames : fails to arrive at rxr
• damaged frames : recognizable frame arrives..but bits damaged

• common techniques for error control are based on :

• error detection
• positive acknowledgment : destn returns, if successfully received error
free frames
• retransmission after timeout
• negative acknowledgement & retransmission
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Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)

collective name for such error control mechanisms.

Most Error Control techniques are based on

(1) Error Detection Scheme (e.g., Parity checks, CRC), and

(2) Retransmission Scheme

Error control schemes that involve error detection and retransmission

of lost or corrupted frames are referred to as Automatic Repeat Request

(ARQ) error control.

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Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) (2)

3 standardized versions of ARQ retransmission schemes

1.Stop-and-Wait ARQ

2.Go-Back-N ARQ

3.Selective Repeat ARQ

The protocol for sending ACKs in all ARQ protocols are based on the
sliding window flow control scheme.
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1. Stop and Wait ARQ

• source transmits single frame
• wait for ACK
• if received frame damaged, discard it & no ACK
• transmitter waits till timeout
• if no ACK within timeout, retransmit
• if ACK damaged, transmitter will not recognize it
• transmitter will retransmit
• receiver gets two copies of frame
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1. Stop and Wait ARQ (2)

To avoid this problem, frames are alternatively labeled with

0 or 1.
ie. Frames have 1-bit sequence numbers (SN = 0 or 1)
o positive acknowledgment are ACK0 / ACK1
o ACK0 – frame numbered 1……
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Stop and Wait

• see example with
both types of errors
• pros and cons
• simple
• inefficient
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2. Go Back N ARQ (continuous ARQ)

• based on sliding window

• if no error, the operations are identical to Sliding Window. Use window
to control number of outstanding frames

A station may send multiple frames as allowed by the window size

• Receiver sends a REJ i if frame i is in error. After that, the receiver
discards all incoming frames until the frame in error was correctly
retransmitted
• If sender receives a REJ i it will retransmit frame i and all packets i+1,
i+2,... which have been sent, but not been acknowledged
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Go Back N ARQ (2) - Handling

Ex. Station A sending frames to station B. After each txn, A sets ACK
timer. B rxd (i-1), A just txd i. Contingencies (possibilities) are :

1.Damaged Frame If rxd frame i is invalid, B discards the frame. 2

subcases
a.Within a time A sends frame i+1. B receives it out of order and sends
REJ i. A retransmits frame i and all subsequent frames.
b.or A times out and send RR frame with P bit set to 1, which B
responds by sending RR indicating next frame expected ie. frame i
transmitter then retransmits frames from i

Alternatively just retransmit when timer out.

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Go Back N ARQ (3) - Handling

2. Damaged RR (Acknowledgement)
2 subcases
a. receiver gets frame i, sends RR(i+1) which is lost.
acknowledgments are cumulative, so next RR(i+n) may arrive
before transmitter times out on frame I
b. if transmitter times out, it sends ack with P bit set. Can be
repeated a number of times before a reset procedure is initiated
3. Damaged REJ (Rejection)
• REJ, for a damaged frame, is lost
• handled as for lost frame when transmitter times out..1b
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Selective Reject ARQ

• 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 logic in transmitter
• hence less widely used
• useful for satellite links with long propagation
delays
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Go Back N
vs
Selective
Reject
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High Level Data Link Control

(HDLC)
• an important data link control protocol
• specified as ISO 33009, ISO 4335
• 3 station types:
• Primary - controls operation of link. Frames issued are called
commands.
• Secondary - under control of primary station. Frames issued are called
responses
• Combined - issues commands and responses
• 2 link configurations
• Unbalanced - 1 primary, multiple secondary
• Balanced - 2 combined stations. supports full and half duplex txns.
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HDLC Data Transfer Modes - 3

• Normal Response Mode (NRM)
• unbalanced config, primary initiates transfer
• used on multi-drop lines, eg host + terminals
• Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM)
• balanced config, either station initiates transmission, has no polling
overhead, widely used
• Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM)
• unbalanced config, secondary may initiate transmit without
permission from primary, rarely used
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HDLC Frame Structure

• HDLC uses synchronous transmission of frames

• single frame format used for all types of data and controls.

• Rxrs continuously hunt for flag sequence to synch on start of a

frame.
Header Trailer
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HDLC Frame Structure - Flag Fields and Bit

Stuffing
• delimit frame at both ends with 01111110 seq
• receiver hunts for flag sequence to synchronize
• bit stuffing used to avoid confusion with data containing flag seq 01111110
• 0 inserted after every sequence of five 1s
• if receiver detects five 1s it checks next bit
• if next bit is 0, it is deleted (was stuffed bit)
• if next bit is 1 and seventh bit is 0, accept as flag
• if sixth and seventh bits 1, sender is indicating abort
• Data transparency
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HDLC Frame Structure -Address Field

• identifies secondary station that sent or will receive frame
• usually 8 bits long
• may be extended to multiples of 7 bits
• LSB indicates if is the last octet (1) or not (0)
• all ones address 11111111 is broadcast
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HDLC Frame Structure - Control Field

• different for different frame type
• Information - data 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 1-2 bits of control field identify frame type
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HDLC Frame Structure - Control Field

• use of Poll/Final bit depends on context
• in command frame is P bit set to1 to solicit (poll) response from peer
• in response frame is F bit set to 1 to indicate response to soliciting
command
• seq number usually 3 bits
• can extend to 8 bits as shown below
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HDLC Frame Structure - Information & FCS

Fields
• Information Field
• in information and some unnumbered frames
• must contain integral number of octets
• variable length
• Frame Check Sequence Field (FCS)
• used for error detection
• either 16 bit CRC or 32 bit CRC
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HDLC Operation
• consists of exchange of information, supervisory and unnumbered
frames
• have three phases
• initialization
• by either side, set mode & seq
• data transfer
• with flow and error control
• using both I & S-frames (RR, RNR, REJ, SREJ)
• disconnect
• when ready or fault noted
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HDLC Operation Example

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HDLC Operation Example

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Summary
• introduced need for data link protocols
• flow control
• error control
• HDLC