Protocol Efficiency and HDLC

• In this section:
– Protocol efficiency:
– Effective data rates
– Utilization
– Stop and wait flow control efficiency
– ARQ flow control efficiency

– The High-level data-link control (HDLC) protocol

– HDLC data frames
– HDLC operation

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 Protocol Efficiency
• Can be measured in various ways
• One measure: effective data rate (EDR)
• Parameters:
– R: bit rate, in bits per second
– S: signal speed in transmission medium, in metres per
second
– D: distance to send, in metres
– T: time to create one frame, in seconds
– TF: frame, TA: acknowledgement
– F: frame size, in bits
– N: number of user data bits in a frame, in bits
– A: number of bits in an acknowledgement, in bits

2
 Effective Data Rate calculation
• For an unrestricted protocol (i.e. no flow control,
or acknowledgements), the effective data rate
(EDR) is
N
EDR =
F time needed for one frame
T+
R

• For a stop and wait protocol:

N
EDR =
D F+A
2 + TF + TA +
S R

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 Example, for Stop-and-Wait
• Suppose:
– N = 160 bits, D = 200 ,A = 40 bits, TF = 1.5x10 s,
-6

TA = 0.5x10-6 s, S = 2x108 m/s, F = 200 bits,

R = 10 Mbps = 1x107 bits/s

N
=
D F+A
2 + TF + TA +
S R
160b
=
200m −6 −6 200b + 40b
2 + 1.5 × 10 s + 0.5 × 10 s +
2 ×108 m / s 1.0 ×107 b / s
≈ 5.7 ×106 b / s

• Note that this is about 57% of the bit rate 4

 Maximum Efficiency of Sliding Window
• Adjustments to stop and wait formula

• Instead of sending 1 frame, we could send W frames ⇒ replace N with N x W

• Acknowledgements could be piggy-backed on to data frames ⇒ replace F + A

with 2F, and replace TF + TA with 2TF

WN
EDR =
D F
2 + TF + 
•  Srate: number
Actual efficiency depends on error R of frames re-transmitted,
etc.

5
 Utilization
• Objective: obtain a measure of efficiency that is
independent of the transmission speed of the
medium.

• Utilization: fraction of time (1.0 ⇒ best case)

that transmitter can send bits, as opposed to
waiting for acknowledgements or flow control

• Simplifying assumptions:
– TF, TA are negligible
– A is much smaller than F, so that F+A ≈ F

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 Maximum Utilization (1)
• Time to send one frame and receive an acknowledgement is
D F
2 +
S R
• If the window size is W, the time to send W frames is
 D F
W2 + 
 S R
• Actual time spent transmitting bits is
F
W 
R
• Utilization (U) is the ratio of the actual time transmitting,
over the time needed to send and receive an
acknowledgement. The maximum utilization is
F
W
R 1
=
 D F DR
W2 +  2 +1
 S R FS 7
 Maximum Utilization (2)
• Simplify by using the ratio of propagation time (D/S) to
transmission time (F/R)
DR
• Let a =
FS
– This is a pure ratio (i.e. no units).
– Another way of viewing the value a is that if one
normalizes the frame transmission time to 1, the “length”
of the link in bits is a frames.

Frame a Frame 2 Frame 1

A B

• Therefore, the maximum utilization can be expressed as:

1
2a + 1 8
 Actual Utilization
• Example: Error free sliding window protocol.
– Send W frames, receive one acknowledgement.
– Two cases:
– Case 1: W ≥ 2a + 1
– The acknowledgement for frame 1 reaches A
before the sending window is exhausted.

Frame 2a+1 Frame a+3 Frame a+2

A Ack B

– In this case, the sender can transmit continuously

with no pause, and ratio of the actual utilization
to maximum utilization is 1.0

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 Actual Utilization
• Example: Error free sliding window protocol.
– Send W frames, receive one acknowledgement.
– Case 2: W < 2a + 1
– A exhausts the window at time W, and
cannot send frames until time 2a+1.
Frame W W–a+2 W–a+1
A Ack B

Frame W a+2
A Ack B

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 Normalized Utilization
• For error-free sliding window:
 1 W ≥ 2a + 1

U = W < 2a + 1
 W
 2a + 1

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 Utilization in the presence of errors
• Suppose that the probability of an error in a
frame is P.
1− P
• Stop and wait: U=
2a + 1

 1− P W ≥ 2a + 1

• Selective Reject: U =
W (1 − P ) W < 2a + 1

 2a + 1

 1− P
 W ≥ 2a + 1
1 + 2aP

• Go-back-N: U =
 W (1 − P ) W < 2a + 1

 ( 2a + 1)(1 − P + WP ) 12
 Utilization for P = 0.001

a 13
 Logical Link Control (LLC)
• In the IEEE 802 series of standards for local area networks
(LANs), LLC is above the medium access control layer (MAC)

• For Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), LLC is combined with

network layer functions.

• In other standards, LLC comprises all of layer 2:

– High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC), ISO 3009 / 4305
– Link Access Procedure, Balanced (LAPB),
ITU-T protocol for X.25 systems
– Link Access Procedure, D-Channel (LAPD), ITU-T protocol for
ISDN (Integrated Services Data Network) systems
– Link Access Procedure for Frame-Mode Bearer Services (LAPF),
data link protocol for Frame Relay
– Point-to-Point protocol (PPP) used between home computers and
internet service providers (RFC 1661)

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 High-level Data Link Control (HDLC)
• Original source: IBM’s synchronous data link
control (SDLC)

• Related protocols: ITU-T’s link access procedure

standards (LAPB, …), PPP

• ISO Standards: 3009, 4305

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 HDLC Basics
• Stations:
– Primary: sends data, controls the link with
commands
– Secondary: receives data, responds to control
messages
– Combined: can issue both commands and responses
• Link configuration:
– Unbalanced: one primary station, one or more
secondary stations
– Balanced: two combined stations

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 HDLC Basics
• Data transfer modes (not a complete set; these are most
common)
– Normal response mode (NRM):
– Used with unbalanced configuration
– Primary initiates data transfer; secondary can only
reply
– Asynchronous balanced mode (ABM):
– Used with balanced configurations
– Either side may send data at any time

• Address modes
– Regular: sequence numbers have 3 bits
– Extended: sequence numbers have 7 bits

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 HDLC overall frame format

octets

01111110 Address Control data CRC FS

1 variable 1 or 2 variable 2 or 4

ITU-T versions
of the CRC are used

frame separator (FS): bit stuffing used for all

fields between separators
18
 HDLC address fields

bits 1 7

F address

• F bit:
– if 1, this is the final octet of the address
– if 0, another address octet follows

• If the link is strictly point-to-point, the value of the field will

be 10000000, as the address is not relevant

• An address of 11111111 represents “all stations”

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 HDLC control field types
• Information (I-frames)
– Carries upper level data
– Also includes ARQ sequence numbers for sending and
receiving

• Supervisory messages (S-frames)

– Used for flow control
– 4 types
– Includes receiving sequence number

• Un-numbered messages (U-frames)

– Used for link setup and disconnection
– 15 types

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 I-frame control field

bits 1 3 1 3

regular
0 NS P/F NR mode
bits 1 7 1 7
extended
0 NS P/F NS mode

• NS: sending sequence number

• NR: receiving sequence number
• P/F: poll or final bit
– Command frame: asks for response (P – poll)
– Response frame: indicates response (F – final)

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 S-Frame Control field

bits 1 1 2 1 3
regular
1 0 S P/F NR
mode
• S field
– RR: receive ready (bits: 00)
– Positive acknowledgement, ready for I frame
– Used when no reverse data; otherwise NR sent in an I-frame
– RNR: receive not ready (bits 10)
– Positive acknowledgement, not ready to receive
– REJ: reject (bits 01)
– Negative acknowledgement, go-back-N ARQ method
– SREJ: selective reject (bits: 11)
– Negative acknowledgement, selective reject ARQ method

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 S-Frame Control field

bits 1 1 2 4 1 7
extended
1 0 S 0000 P/F NR
mode

• The S field is the same as the regular mode

• The four zeros are needed to ‘pad’ the field to two full
octets, 16 bits.

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 U-frame control field

bits 1 2 1 3

1 1 M1 P/F M2
• SNRM: set normal response mode (M1 = 00, M2 = 001)
• SABM: set asynchronous balanced mode (M1 = 11, M2 = 100)
• SABME: set asynchronous balanced mode, extended (M1 = 11, M2 =
110)
• DISC: disconnect (M1=00, M2=010)
• UA: un-numbered acknowledgement (M1 = 00, M2 = 110)
• RSET: resets send and receive sequence numbers (M1 = 11, M2=001)
• FRMR: frame reject (M1 = 10, M2=001)
• (see Forouzan, Table 11.1, p. 286)

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 HDLC operation
• One of the messages SNRM, SABM, SABME, … is used
to set up the link initially.
– Sets the mode, and the length of sequence numbers
• UA is used as a positive acknowledgment for U-frames
• After setting up the link, data transfer can occur.
• The DISC message is used to terminate the connection.
• If a damaged U-frame is received, FRMR is sent as a
reply.

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 Connection

A B
SABM

UA

DISC

UA

26
 Sample Two-Way Data Exchange
NR
NS
A B
Frame type
I,0,0

I,0,1
I,1,1 NR Sequence
numbers:
I,2,1 next message
expected
I,1,3

S,RR,2
Frame type
Message
NR 27
 Go-Back-N ARQ

A B
I,0,0
I,1,0

I,2,0

S,REJ,1
I,1,0
I,2,0
I,3,0

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 Selective Reject ARQ

A B
I,0,0
I,1,0

I,2,0

S,SREJ,1
I,1,0

I,3,0

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 Receiver Busy

A B
I,3,0

S,RNR, 4
S,RR,0,P

S,RNR,4,F
S,RR,0,P

S,RR,4,F
I,4,0

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 Timeout

A B
I,0,0
I,1,0

I,0,0

I,1,0

S,RR,2

31