20CSE111 COMPUTER NETWORKS

Prepared by
Mr.Thangarasan T,
AP/CSE
UNIT II THE DATA LINK LAYER
Introduction, Link layer addressing. Error
detection and Correction: Cyclic codes,
Checksum, Forward error correction. Data link
control: DLC Services, Data link layer protocols,
HDLC, Point to Point Protocol. Media Access
control: Random Access, Controlled Access,
Channelization and connecting devices.
Point to Point Protocol
POINT-TO-POINT PROTOCOL (PPP):
One of the most common protocols for point-to-point access is the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).
 Today, millions of Internet users who need to connect their home
computers to the server of an Internet service provider use PPP.
The majority of these users have a traditional modem; they are
connected to the Internet through a telephone line, which
provides the services of the physical layer.
But to control and manage the transfer of data, there is a need for
a point-to-point protocol at the data-link layer.
 PPP Services:
 The designers of PPP have included several services to make it suitable for a point-to point
protocol, but have ignored some traditional services to make it simple.
Services Provided by PPP
 PPP defines the format of the frame to be exchanged between devices. It also defines how
two devices can negotiate the establishment of the link and the exchange of data.
 Authentication is also provided in the protocol, but it is optional.
 The new version of PPP, called Multilink PPP, provides connections over multiple links.
 One interesting feature of PPP is that it provides network address configuration. This is
particularly useful when a home user needs a temporary network address to connect to the
Internet
Services Not Provided by PPP
 PPP does not provide flow control.
 PPP has a very simple mechanism for error control. A CRC field is used to detect errors. If
the frame is corrupted, it is silently discarded; the upper-layer protocol needs to take care of
the problem. Lack of error control and sequence numbering may cause a packet to be
received out of order.
 PPP does not provide a sophisticated addressing mechanism to handle frames in a
multipoint configuration.
 Figure: PPP frame format

11.6
Framing:
PPP uses a character-oriented (or byte-oriented) frame.
1. Flag. A PPP frame starts and ends with a 1-byte flag with the bit pattern
01111110.
2. Address. The address field in this protocol is a constant value and set to
11111111 (broadcast address).
3. Control. This field is set to the constant value 00000011 (imitating unnumbered
frames in HDLC).
4. Protocol. The protocol field defines what is being carried in the data field: either
user data or other information. This field is by default 2 bytes long, but the two
parties can agree to use only 1 byte.
5. Payload field. This field carries either the user data or other information. The
data field is a sequence of bytes with the default of a maximum of 1500 bytes; but
this can be changed during negotiation. The data field is byte-stuffed if the flag
byte pattern appears in this field. Because there is no field defining the size of the
data field, padding is needed if the size is less than the maximum default value or
the maximum negotiated value.
6. FCS. The frame check sequence (FCS) is simply a 2-byte or 4-byte standard CRC.
  The transition diagram, which is an
Transition Phases: FSM, starts with the dead state. In this
state, there is no active carrier (at the
physical layer) and the line is quiet.
 When one of the two nodes starts the
communication, the connection goes
into the establish state. In this state,
options are negotiated between the
two parties.
 If the two parties agree that they need
authentication (for example, if they do
not know each other), then the system
needs to do authentication (an extra
step); otherwise, the parties can simply
start communication. Several packets
may be exchanged here.
 Data transfer takes place in the open
state. When a connection reaches this
state, the exchange of data packets
can be started. The connection remains
in this state until one of the endpoints
wants to terminate the connection.
Multiplexing :
Although PPP is a link-layer
protocol, it uses another set of
protocols to establish the link,
authenticate the parties
involved, and carry the
network-layer data.
Three sets of protocols are
defined to make PPP powerful:
the Link Control Protocol (LCP),
two Authentication Protocols
(APs), and several Network
Control Protocols (NCPs).
At any moment, a PPP packet
can carry data from one of
these protocols in its data field,
as shown in the Figure.
Link Control Protocol:
 The Link Control Protocol (LCP) is responsible for establishing,
maintaining, configuring, and terminating links. It also provides
negotiation mechanisms to set options between the two endpoints. Both
endpoints of the link must reach an agreement about the options before
the link can be established.
 All LCP packets are carried in the payload field of the PPP frame with the
protocol field set to C021 in hexadecimal.

 The code field defines the type of LCP packet. There are 11 types of
packets, as shown in following Table.
Table LCP packets
Common options
Authentication Protocols:
Authentication means validating the identity of a user who needs to
access a set of resources.
PPP has created two protocols for authentication:
1. Password Authentication Protocol and
2. Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol.
Note that these protocols are used during the authentication phase.
PAP
The Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) is a simple authentication
procedure
with a two-step process:
a. The user who wants to access a system sends an authentication
identification (usually the user name) and a password.
b. The system checks the validity of the identification and password and
either accepts or denies connection.
Figure PAP packets encapsulated in a PPP frame
CHAP
The Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is a three-
way handshaking authentication protocol that provides greater
security than PAP. In this method, the password is kept secret; it is
never sent online.
a. The system sends the user a challenge packet containing a
challenge value, usually a few bytes.
b. The user applies a predefined function that takes the challenge value
and the user’s own password and creates a result. The user sends the
result in the response packet to the system.
c. The system does the same. It applies the same function to the
password of the user (known to the system) and the challenge value
to create a result. If the result created is the same as the result sent
in the response packet, access is granted; otherwise, it is denied.
CHAP is more secure than PAP, especially if the system continuously
changes the challenge value.
Figure CHAP packets encapsulated in a PPP frame
Network Control Protocols:
PPP is a multiple-network-layer protocol. It can carry a network-layer
data packet from protocols defined by the Internet, OSI, Xerox, DECnet,
AppleTalk, Novel, and so on.
To do this, PPP has defined a specific Network Control Protocol for each
network protocol.
For example, IPCP (Internet Protocol Control Protocol) configures the
link for carrying IP data packets.
Xerox CP does the same for the Xerox protocol data packets, and so on.
Note that none of the NCP packets carry network-layer data; they just
configure the link at the network layer for the incoming data.
IPCP
One NCP protocol is the Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP).
This protocol configures the link used to carry IP packets in the
Internet.
The format of an IPCP packet is shown in following Figure.
Figure IPCP packet encapsulated in PPP frame
Table Code value for IPCP packets
Figure IP datagram encapsulated in a PPP frame
Multilink PPP:
The availability of multiple channels in a single point-to-point
link motivated the development of Multilink PPP.
 In this case, a logical PPP frame is divided into several actual
PPP frames. A segment of the logical frame is carried in the
payload of an actual PPP frame, as shown in following Figure.