CHAPTER 4] Data Link Control and Protocols Data communication requires at least two devices working together, one to send and one to receive, Even such a ba: seat deal of oe eae sic arrangement requires a great deal of coordination for a igible exchange to occur. The most important responsibilities of the data link layer are flow control and error control. Collectively, these functions are known as data link control, In this chapter, we first informally define flow and error control. We then intro- duce three mechanisms that handle flow and error control. We finally discuss a popular a link protocol, HDLC. 11.1) FLOW AND ERROR CONTROL Flow and error control are the main functions of the data link layer. Let us i define each. formally low Control Flow control coordinates the amount of data that can be sent before receiving acknowl- edsment and is one of the most important duties of the data link layer. In most proto- I ‘a set of procedures that tells the sender how much data it can tranamit before it must wait for an acknowledgment From the receiver. The flow of data vw fewed to overwhelnr the receiver, Any receiving device has a limited speed at which itean process incoming data and a limited smount of memory in which data, The receiving device must be able to inform the sending device tetore those limits are reached and fo request thatthe transiting device send fewer efore those emporarily. Incoming data must be checked and processed before they frames oF stop Tempo f such processing is often slower than the rate of transmission can be used. The rae vpecivng device has a block of memory. called a buffer, reserved for aan data until they are processed. If the buffer begins to fill up, the for storing incoming. <* halt transmission until it is once again able to receiver miist be able to tell the sender to ie cols, flow control is must not be to store rece268 CHAPTER 11 DATA LINK CONTROL AND PROTOCOLS ee Ir jet the t of data that the | fe Deares used to restrict the amous Flow control refers to a set of P : | sender can send before waiting for acl | Error Control ction. It allows the receiver to Error control is both error detection and error correction sion ‘and coordinates the inform the sender of any frames lost oF damaged Less Tayer. the tert error control he data 5 retransmission of those frames by the sender. In ven ‘Betot bout) in the 7 / retransi refers primarily to methods of error detection and sisitt dean ne-an.cxror data link layer is often implemented simply: Anytime an eo exchange, specified frames are retransmitted. This process 1S CaNe0 T° request (ARQ): which is the | Error control in the data link layer is based on automatic repeat request, | retransmission of data. Flow and Error Control Mechanisms In this section we introduce three common flow and error control mechanisms: Stop- and-Wait ARQ, Go-Back- ARQ, and Selective-Repeat ARQ. Although these are sometimes referred to as protocols, we prefer the term mechanisms. 11.2 STOP-AND-WAIT ARQ " Stop-and-Wait ARQ is the simplest flow and error control mechanism, It has the fol- lowing features: HL The sending device keeps a copy of the last frame transmitted until it receives an acknowledgment for that frame. Keeping a copy allows the sender to retransmit lost or damaged frames until they are received correctly, For identification purposes, both data frames and acknowledgment (ACK) frames are numbered alternately 0 and 1. A data 0 frame is acknowledged by an ACK 1 frame, indicating thatthe receiver has received data frame 0 and is now expecting data frame 1. This numbering allows for identification of data frame: case of duplicate transmission (important in the case of lost acknowledgment or delayed acknowledgment, as we will sce shortly), BA damaged or lost frame is treated in the same receiver detects an error in the received frame, sends no acknowledgment. If the receiver recei (O instead of 1 or 1 instead of 0), it knows that out-of-order received frame. The sender has a control variable, which recently sent frame (0 or 1). The receiver that holds the number of the next frame ¢: manner by the receiver. If the it simply discards the frame and ves u frame that is out of order 4 frame is lost. It discards the we call S, that holds the number of the has a control variable, which we call R, ‘xpected (0 or 1),B Th SECTI le sender st ON 11.2. STOP-AND. 7 s vo )- WAIT, received wit as ord: ats at Mer it hin gg MF When jg i n allotted tine et ie Nt afr aged te time pen cue an acknowledgment is not it + the sender assumes th ' 'S at the frame was lost t Sender, Receiver Time Time Lost or Damaged Frame frame is handled in the same way by the receiver; when the receiver Jost or damaged 7 . . ives ‘a damaged frame, it discards it, which essentially means the frame is lost. The iver remains silent about a ost frame and keeps its value of R, For example, in Fig- Bsc frame 1, but it is lost. The receiver does nothing, retain- sender transmits ’ ure ee Send After the timer atthe sender ste expires, anther copy of frame 1 sing is sent.CHAPTER 11 DATA LINK CONTROL AND PROTOCOLS Figure 11.2 Time-out Stop-and-Wait ARQ, lost frame Sende Receiver Lost Acknowledgment A lost or damaged acknowledgment is.handled in the same way by the sender; if the sender receives a damaged acknowledgment, it discards it. Figure 11.3 shows a lost ACK 0. The waiting sender does not know if frame 1 has been received. When the timer for frame | expires, the sender retransmits frame |. Note that the receiver has already received frame 1 and is expecting to receive frame 0 (R = 0). Therefore, it silently discards the second copy of frame 1, Figure 11.3. Stop-and-Wait ARQ, lost ACK frame Time-out Saal Receiver R=0 Expecting frame 0, frame 1 discarded TimeSECTION 11.2 STOP-AND-WAITARQ 271 The reader may have di iscovered th If the frames Were not numbered, the roeth a duplicate), keeps it, vee “nsStpand wa AR ‘ait ARQ, numbering frames prevents the retaining of duplicate frames. ugh this example the need to number frames. ver, thinking that frame 1 is a new frame (not Delayed Acknowledgment Another problem that may occur is delayed acknowledgment. An acknowledgment can be delayed at the receiver or by some problem with the link. Figure 11.4 shows the delay of ACK 1: it is received after the timer for frame 0 has already expired. The sender has already retransmitted a copy of frame 0. However. the value of R at the receiver site is still 1, which means that the receiver expects to see frame 1. The receiver, therefore, discards the duplicate frame 0. Figure 11.4 Stop-and-Wait ARQ. delayed ACK Sender Receiver Time-out ‘Time-out wo ACKS, one that was delayed and one that was , is discarded. ted. The second ACK 1 is —_ fier the duplicate frame : ro number the acknowledgments, let us examine Fie sean understand WHY “eyed [ACK I reaches the sender, frame 1 is sent. However it - i e then receives an jain. After the 0°) the receiver. The sender : fra rel is ost and never reas CKS were not numbered, the sender would interpre the duplicate frame sents HO edgment for frame 1. Numbering the ACKs p e the acl cK as the second A frames. keep track of the received data fra | method to ki received t has now ‘The senderCHAPTER 1] DATA LINK CONTROL AND PROTOCOLS cd the next [Nani Seino Ieainenty are need it an acknowledgment is delayed and “enext) | frame is lost. Bidirectional Transmission The stop-and-wait mechanism we have discussed is unidirectic However, we can have bidirectional transmission if the two parlics have {Wo separate channel Is 7 ia duplex transmission or share the same channel for half-duplex transmission in this case, each party needs both Sand R variables to track frames sent and expected. Piggybacking Piggybacking is a method to combine a data frame with an a example, in Figure 11.5, Stations A and B both have data to send. separate data and ACK frames, station A sends a data frame that includes ¢ Station B behaves in a similar manner. 7 - Figure 11.5 Piggybacking Time Time Pigeybacking can save bandwidth because the overhead from a d ACK frame (addressees, CRC, etc.,) can be combined int rae amend an S 11.3 GO-BACK-N ARQ In Stop-and-Wait ARQ, at any point in time for a sender, there i ; i : sender, there is ousting ae hs awa we cae oe ane he sie cy, multiple frames should be in oth is, We need to Tet more than of the transmission medium, To improve transition while wailing for acknowledgment. InoSECTION 11.3 GO-BACK-NARQ 273 one frame be outstanding, Two pro tive Repeat ARO. We *Ocols use this concept: Go-B d Selec Tao bad Aetna CoDac ARQ ai Ske ARQ, we can Section and the second in Section 11.4. edgments; we Keep a send uy to W frames bef ing about acknowl- y COPY of these fram eee tames before worrying about ac! code requires adiona fesse ‘until the ackn arrive. This pro- e Sequence Numbers n are num bered sequentially. However, because we need ber of eacl ach frame in the header, we need to set a limit. If “pws. bits for the sequence number, the sequence numbers 1. For example, if m is 3, the only sequence numbers are 0 However, we can Tepeat the sequence. So the sequénee num- 0.1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,0, 1,2,3, At the sender site, to hold the concept of a window. the outstanding frames until they are acknowledged, we use We imagine that all frames are stored in a buffer. The out- Standing frames are enclosed in a window. The frames to the left of the window are those that have already been acknowledged and can be purged: those to the right ofthe ‘window cannot be sent until the window slides over them. The size of the window is at most 2” — | for reasons that we discuss later The size of the window in this protocol is fixed, although we can have a variable- size window in other protocols such as TCP (See Chapter 22). The window slides to include new unsent frames when the correct acknowledgments are received. The wins dow is a sliding window. For example, in Figure 11.6a, frames 0 through 6 have been seni. In part b, the window slides two frames over because an acknowledgment was received for frames 0 and 1. Figure 11.6 Sender sliding window Window size = 7 j_Wedowsie 7 wef 5]6]|7 ON T1213 [4] 5 )6 a. Before sliding Window si: a Tele [aise ts| b. After sliding two frames274 CHAPTER 11 DATA LINK CONTROL AND PROTOCOLS Receiver Sliding Window / : col is always 1. The receiver j The size of the window at the receiver site in this, protocol ‘ 2 Mile ame arrivin vs always looking for a specific frame to arrive in a specific order. Any ne arriving out of or scaril Is to be resent. The receiver window also slides as of order is discarded and need When that ani ‘a io ‘ame 0. hen that arriv shown in Figure 11.7. In part a the receiver is waiting for frame 0. rrives, the window slides over. Figure 11.7 Receiver sliding window Poa a. Before sliding | | Ce aT 0 | b. After sliding Control Variables The sender has three variables, S, Sy, and S,. The S variable holds th of the recently sent frame; Si holds the sequence number of the first frame in the wine dow; and S;, holds the sequence number of the last frame in the window. The size of the window is W, where W= S,~Sp+1. The receiver only has one variable, R, that holds the sequence number of the frame i expects 10 receive. If the sequence number of the received frame is the same as.the value of R, the frame is accepted; if not, it is Tejected. Figure 11.8 shows the sender and receiver window with their control variables, - : Figure 11.8 Control variables a cfu. | * 7 ——__ Frames | | Frames waiting Framcgpge $ | sexnowleged | The ine iene Frames that cannot | ua be accepted | R 4. Sender window | _ . Receiver window i Timers The sender sets a timer for each frame sent, The goes: + The receiver has no ti imers.SECTION 11.3 GO-BACK-NARQ 275 Acknowledgment I (the receiver sends posit in order. Ifa frame Be ‘lame cknowledgments iffa frame has arrived safe and sound and discard all subsequent frames untlitreciec teeters receiver is silent and will Frere fet ames unlit eeives th one itis expecting Fi silence of the the sender to go back and rose kno wedged frame to expire. She in turn, causes timer. The receiver does not have - frames, beginning with the one with the expired cumulative acknowledgment for sev acknowleiae cach frame received. It can send one Resending Frame When a hea a fc anes the sender goes back and sends a set of frames starting from the aan p to the last one sent. For example, suppose the sender has already nt frame 6, but the timer for frame 3 expires. This means that frame 3 has not been acknowledged, so the sender goes back and sends frames 3, 4,5, 6 again. That is why -ol is called Go-Back-N ARQ. Operation Let us sce what happens in various situations. Normal Operation 11.9 shows a normal opel ism. The sender keeps track of the ration of this mechani: indows as the acknowledgments Figure 1 outstanding frames and updates the variables and wi arrive. ,-Back-N ARQ. normal operation Figure 11.9 6°‘6 CHAPTER 11 DATA LINK CONTROL AND PROTOCOLS Damaged or Lost Frame ¢ what happens if a frame is lost. Figure 1 Note that when the receiver receives frame 3, it Is € expecting frame 2, not frame 3 (according, to its wine expires at the sender site, the sender sends frames 2.4m 1.10 shows that frame 2 is lost, carded because the receiver is Jow). After the timer for frame 2 1d 3 (it goes back to 2). Now let us Figure 11.10 Go-Back-N ARQ, lost frame Sender Receiver Time-out Time ‘Time Damaged or Lost Acknowledgment “If an acknowledgment is damaged or lost, we can h ‘ 1 ave two situati acknowledgment arrives before the expiration of any timer. there is no need tee mission of frames because acknowledgments are cumulative i ‘7 no need for retrans- means ACK | to ACK 4, So if ACK T, ACK ¢ in this protocol. ACK 4 them However, if the next ACK affives aft » and ACK 3 ate Tost, ACK 4 covers é ver, if after the time- — CONE afier th ae resem. Note thatthe receiver never esende wy aCe gs allie frames sends an and details as an exercise. CK. We leave the figure Delayed Acknowledgment ‘A delayed acknowledgment also trigger . figure and details asan creieise. rs the resending of frames. Again, we leave the umm ealSender w3. SECTIO, 7 Sender Window Size N 11.3 GO-BACK-NARQ 277 We can now show wi le, wi Why the r he Choose nj wth Size of the sender wind Compares a window ch means now must be less than 2". As an exame : he si . Size of 3 ang a of the window can be 2” Figure 11.14 ~ 1, oF 3. Figure | s (ot f2f3}0) s folnfa]3 3 ng p R $ Time-out 5 9 5 : Comectly p—— s a, Window size < 2" '. Window size = 2 If the size of the window is 3 (less than 2°) and all three acknowledgments are lost, the frame 0 timer expires and all three frames are resent. However, the window of the receiver is now expecting frame 3, not frame 0, so the duplicate frame is correctly dis- carded, On the other hand, if the su the window is 4 (equal to 2°) and all acknowl- Tost thie sender will send the duplicate of frame 0. However, this time the edgnients ar Siaiour * he receiver expects foresee Fame D s0it seeps fame O, nota a dupl- cate, but as the first frame in the next cycle. This is an error. and Piggybacking ARQ, Go-Back-N ARQ can also be bidirectional. We ficiency of the transmission. However, note \dow and a receiver window. We leave the Bidirectional Transmission | and-Wait Asin te ce 0 neice iggyba can also use PigeY i ‘that each. direction needs both ® eae configuration of the windowTER I DATA LINK CONTROL AND PROTOCOLS CU4 SELECTIVE REPEAT ARQ ° sceiver site. The receiver keeps track of Go-Back-N ARQ simplifies the process at the receive! only one varia dis und there is no need to buffer out-of-order frames: they are simply arded, However, this protocol is very inefficient for frame has a higher probability of damage, frames. This resendin noisy link. Ina noisy link a which means the resending of multiple uses up the bandwidth and slows down the transmission, For noisy links, there is another mechanism that does not resend NV frames when just one frame is damaged: only the damaged frame is resent. This mechanism is called Selec tive Repeat ARQ. It is more efficient for noisy links, but the processing at the receiver is more complex. Sender and Receiver Windows The configuration of the sender and its control variables for Selective Repeat ARQ are the same as those for Go-Back-N’ ARQ. However, for reasons to be discussed later, the size of the window should be at most one-half of the value 2”, The receiver window size must also be this size. This window, however, specifies the range of the accepted received frame. In other words, in Go-Back-, the receiver is looking for one specific sequence number; in Selective Repeat, the receiver is looking for a range of sequence numbers. The receiver has two control variables Ry and R, to define the boundaries of the window, Figure 11.12 shows the sender and receiver windows. Figure 11.12 Selective Repeat ARQ. sender and receiver wi dows Fame | fo Frames waiting Frames re | aciaouteaged | | | She cen andashnowledged | | Yeneehay” SSS, RR, 4 b. Receiver window Selective Repeat ARQ also defines a negat imer expires. Operation Let us show the operation of th e mech; ith a hats sow ta nism with an example of a lost frame, as shown mes 0 and | are accepted whey by the receiver window. When frame } ion because they are in the range specified son. However, the receiver sends a NAK Sone itis al When the sender receives the Nave because itis inthe range of the Iso accepted for the same rea 2 to show that fra iv AK 2 itaceen that frame 2 has not been received: window, only frame 2, which is then acceptea SECTIOI IN 11.4 SELECTIVE REPEAT ARQ 279 Time Time Lost and Delayed ACKs and NAKs layed ACKs and NAKs as exercises. Note that the sender also sets We leave lost and del: a timer for each frame sent. Sender Window Size the size of the sender and receiver windows must be at most ample, we choose m = 2, which means the size of the win 14 compares a window size of 2 with a window We can now show W one-half of 2”. For an ex! dow should be 2/2, or 2. Figure 1 size of 3. Ifthe res and frame not frame 0. 3 and al this time. the part of the ), so it accept the next cycle. This is clearly an error. eae maar: Wisin nee Fea) ‘Repeat “In Selective ie sive ofthe window is2 andall acknowledgments 6 lost, the timer for frame 0 wing Howeve, the window of the recive is now expect ree duplicate fame iscorectly discarded. When the ee oun owledgments are Tost, the sender sends a duplicate of ‘window of the receiver expects to receive frame 0 (0 is frame 0, not as a duplicate, but as the first frame in frame the window is frame 0. However window)ender window size Figure 11.14 Selective Repeat ARQ, sender wi Sender Receiver | mel) oe ST 10} 1]2)3, oe -ow [OLE § A. ly accepted Correctly Discarded] Time Time Time Time a. Window si 1 b. Window size > 2"~" Bidirectional Transmission and Piggybacking Asin the case of Stop-and-Wait ARQ and the Go-Back-N ARQ, Selective Repeat ARQ can also be bidirectional. We can use piggybacking to improve the efficiency of the transmission. However, note that cach direction needs both a sender window and a receiver window. We leave the configuration of the windows Bandwidth-Delay Product A measure of the efficiency of an ARQ system is the product of the bandwidth (in bits Per second) and the round-trip delay (in seconds). If the link has an adequate band- width, the sender will exhaust its window quickly and will wait for the acknowledg- ments to come. If the delay is long, the nder can also exhaust its window while waiting. So the product of these two {i tors can be i ‘an be used t an ARQ system. The bandwidth-delay eee eee Product is a measure of the number of bits we an send out of our system while waiting for news from the receiver. = Example 1 In a Stop-and-Wait ARQ system, the ba stem, the bandwidth make a round trip. What is the bandwidth-delay ‘o the line is 1 Mbps, and 1 bit takes 20 ms to in length what isthe wilzation percentage fy Product? If the system data frames are 1000 bits ie link? Solution ‘The bandwidth-delay product jg 6 1x 10% x 20 x 10 = 20,000 bitsSECTION 115 HDLC 281 ‘The stem can send 2, : 000 bi reciverand thn back ag tit kes for he dao go fro teed he : Ick again, Howey uilzation is only 1000120 00, gg ie the sytem ends only 100 bits Wecan say that eink delay, use of Stop-and.Writ ape For this reason, fora lnk with high bandwidth or long it ARQ wastes the capacity ofthe ink Example 2 ‘Whats the tization, ere 2 15-rame sequence? Preentage ofthe link in Example | ifthe ink uses Go-BackW ARQ with Solution ‘The bandwidth dig in ce is ill 20000 The syecan sen pS ames ot 15.00 is iit ip. This means the uilizaton is 15 00°20 00, or 5 pce OF cous, if there es, the utlzation percentage is much es because frames have fo beeen Pipelining In networking and in other areas, task is often begun before the previous task has cnded, This is known as pipelining. Tere is no pipelining in Stopand-Wait ARQ because we need to wait fora frame to reach the destination and be acknowledged fore the next frame canbe sent. However, piclning does aply to Go-BackwN ARQ and Selective Repeat ARQ because several frames can be sent before we receive news about the previous frames. Pipelining improves theeffieny ofthe arson he umber of bis in tran- ston sage wth espet othe tanith pole ee 11.5 HDLC High-level Data Link Cor pal-taplex and fllsupes comm implements the ARQ mechanisms We trol (HDLC) san cal rotcl designe support both ication over pint--pont and multipoint inks. cussed inthis caper. ransfer Modes HDLC provides 16°" ‘common modes of transmission: NRM and ABM. Configurations and Tl RM ie scsi rd Wee In normal reper wa mullet sa primary station can send com- ane Ft ey gn: ENR se rn oo ma; sn lle it inks — ABM ed mode (ABM) the configuration i balanced. The link is inane nan eh primary and a secondary, as shown in point-to-point Fioure 11.16.