Data Link Control

Functions included in the second layer of the OSI model, the data link layer are line discipline, flow control and
error control.

Line discipline coordinates the link systems. It determines which device can send and when it can send.
Flow control coordinates the amount of data that can be sent before receiving acknowledgment. It also provides
the receiver's acknowledgment of frames received intact, and so is linked to error control.
Error control means error detection and correction. It allows the receiver to inform the sender of any frames lost
or damaged in transmission and coordinates the retransmission of those frames by the sender

LINE DISCIPLINE

The line discipline functions of the data link layer oversee the establishment of links and the right of a particular
device to transmit at a given time.
Line discipline answers the question. Who should send now?
Line discipline can be done in two ways: enquiry/acknowledgment (ENQ/ACK) and poll/select. The first method

rg
is used in peer-to-peer communication; the second method is used in primary-secondary communication
s.o
ENQ/ACK
ic
Used in peer-to-peer communication.
Using ENQ/ACK, a session can be initiated by either station on a link as long as both are of equal rank. The
h

initiator first transmits a frame called an enquiry (ENQ) asking if the receiver is available to receive data. The
receiver must answer either with an acknowledgement (ACK) frame if it is ready to receive or with a negative
ac

acknowledgement (NAK) frame if it is not. If neither an ACK nor a NAK is received within a specified time limit,
initiator retransmits data. If the response is positive, the initiator is free to send its data. Once all of its data have
been transmitted, the sending system finishes with an end of transmission (EOT) frame.
te

Poll/Select

The poll/select method of line discipline works with topologies where one device is designated as a primary
station and the other devices are secondary stations. All exchanges must be made through the primary device
even when the ultimate destination is a secondary device.
www.teachics.org
The primary, therefore, is always the initiator of a session. If the primary wants to receive data, it asks the
secondaries if they have anything to send; this function is called polling. If the primary wants to send data, it tells
the target secondary to get ready to receive; this function is called selecting.

The select mode is used whenever the primary device has something to send. Before sending data, the primary
creates and transmits a select (SEL) frame, one field of which includes the address of the intended secondary.
If the secondary is awake and running, it returns an ACK frame to the primary. The primary then sends one or
more data frames, each addressed to the intended secondary.

The polling function is used by the primary device to solicit transmissions from the secondary devices. As noted
above, the secondaries are not allowed to transmit data unless asked (don't call us—we'll call you). When the

rg
primary is ready to receive data, it must ask (poll) each device in turn if it has anything to send. When the first
secondary is approached, it responds either with a NAK frame if it has nothing to send or with data (in the form of
a data frame) if it does. If the response is negative (a NAK frame), the primary then polls the next secondary in the
s.o
same way until it finds one with data to send. When the response is positive (a data frame), the primary reads the
frame and returns an acknowledgment (ACK frame) verifying its receipt.
There are two possibilities for terminating the exchange: either the secondary sends all its data, finishing with an
end of transmission (EOT) frame, or the primary says, "Time's up."
h ic
ac
te

FLOW CONTROL

Flow control refers to a set of procedures used to restrict the amount of data the sender can send before waiting
for acknowledgment.
Two methods have been developed to control the flow of data across communications links: stop-and-wait and
sliding window.

www.teachics.org
Stop-and-Wait

The sender waits for an acknowledgment after every frame it sends. Only when an acknowledgment has been
received is the next frame sent. This process of alternately sending and waiting repeats until the sender transmits
an end of transmission (EOT) frame.

The advantage of stop-and-wait is simplicity: each frame is checked and acknowledged before the next frame is
sent. The disadvantage is inefficiency: stop-and-wait is slow. Each frame must travel all the way to the receiver
and an acknowledgment must travel all the way back before the next frame can be sent.

rg
s.o
Sliding Window
The sender can transmit several frames before needing an acknowledgment. The receiver acknowledges only
some of the frames, using a single ACK to confirm the receipt of multiple data frames.
The sliding window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and the receiver. This window can hold frames
ic
at either end and provides the upper limit on the number of frames that can be transmitted before requiring an
acknowledgment. Frames may be acknowledged at any point without waiting for the window to fill up and may
h

be transmitted as long as the window is not yet full.

The frames are numbered modulo-n, which means they are numbered from 0 to n- 1. For example, if n= 8, the
ac

frames are numbered 0, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1. . . . The size of the window is n - 1 (in this case,
7). In other words, the window cannot cover the whole module (8 frames); it covers one frame less.
te

When the receiver sends an ACK, it includes the number of the next frame it expects to receive. In other words,
to acknowledge the receipt of a string of frames ending in frame 4. the receiver sends an ACK containing the
number 5. When the sender sees an ACK with the number 5, it knows that all frames up through number 4 have
been received. The window can hold n - 1 frames at either end; therefore, a maximum of n – 1 frames may be
sent before an acknowledgment is required.

Sender Window
At the beginning of a transmission, the sender's window contains n - 1 frames. As frames are sent out, the left
boundary of the window moves inward, shrinking the size of the window. Once an ACK arrives, the window
expands to allow in a number of new frames equal to the number of frames acknowledged by that ACK.

That is, the sliding window of the sender shrinks from the left when frames of data are sent. The sliding window
of the sender expands to the right when acknowledgments are received.

Receiver Window
At the beginning of transmission, the receiver window contains not n - 1 frames but n - 1 spaces for frames. As
new frames come in, the size of the receiver window shrinks. The receiver window therefore represents not the
number of frames received but the number of frames that may still be received before an ACK must be sent. As
soon as an acknowledgment is sent, the window expands to include places for a number of frames equal to the
number of frames acknowledged.

www.teachics.org
That is, the sliding window of the receiver shrinks from the left when frames of data are received. The sliding
window of the receiver expands to the right when acknowledgments are sent

rg
s.o
h ic
ac

ERROR CONTROL
te

Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)

Error correction in the data link layer is implemented simply: anytime an error is detected in an exchange, a
negative acknowledgment (NAK) is returned and the specified frames are retransmitted. This process is called
automatic repeat request (ARQ).
ARQ error control is implemented in the data link layer as an adjunct to flow control.

Stop-and-Wait ARQ

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.

www.teachics.org
For identification purposes, both data frames and ACK frames are numbered alternately 0 and 1. A data 0 frame is
acknowledged by an ACK 1 frame, indicating that the receiver has gotten data 0 and is now expecting data 1.

If an error is discovered in a data frame, indicating that it has been corrupted in transit, a NAK frame is returned.
NAK frames, which are not numbered, tell the sender to retransmit the last frame sent. Stop-and-wait ARQ
requires that the sender wait until it receives an acknowledgment for the last frame transmitted before it
transmits the next one. When the sending device receives a NAK, it resends the frame transmitted after the last
acknowledgment, regardless of number.

The sending device is equipped with a timer. If an expected acknowledgment is not received within an allotted
time period, the sender assumes that the last data frame was lost in transit and sends it again.

Damaged Frames
When a frame is discovered by the receiver to contain an error, it returns a NAK frame and the sender retransmits
the last frame.

Lost Data Frame

The sending device waits for an ACK or NAK frame until its timer goes off, at which point it tries again. It
retransmits the last data frame, restarts its timer, and waits for an acknowledgment.

Lost Acknowledgment

rg
The sending device waits until its timer goes off, then retransmits the data frame. The receiver checks the number
of the new data frame. If the lost frame was a NAK. the receiver accepts the new copy and returns the
s.o
appropriate ACK (assuming the copy arrives undamaged). If the lost frame was an ACK. the receiver recognizes
the new copy as a duplicate, acknowledges its receipt, then discards it and waits for the next frame.
h ic
ac
te

www.teachics.org
Sliding Window ARQ
Two protocols are the most popular: go-back-n ARQ and selective-reject ARQ
The sending device keeps copies of all transmitted frames until they have been acknowledged. If frames through
6 have been transmitted, and the last acknowledgment was for frame 2, the sender keeps copies of frames 3
through 6 until it knows that they have been received undamaged.

In addition to ACK frames, the receiver has the option of returning a NAK frame if the data have been received
damaged. The NAK frame tells the sender to retransmit a damaged frame. Because sliding window is a continuous

rg
transmission mechanism (as opposed to stop-and-wait), both ACK and NAK frames must be numbered for
identification. ACK frames, you will recall, carry the number of the next frame expected. NAK frames, on the
other hand, carry the number of the damaged frame itself.
s.o
Note that data frames that are received without errors do not have to be acknowledged individually. If the last
ACK was numbered 3, an ACK 6 acknowledges the receipt of frames 3 and 4 as well as frame 5. Even damaged
frame, however, must be acknowledged. If data frames 4 and 5 are received damaged, both NAK 4 and NAK 5
ic
must be returned. However, a NAK 4 tells the sender that all frames received before frame 4 have arrived intact.

If n-1 frames are awaiting acknowledgment, the sender starts a timer and waits before sending any more. If the
h

allotted time has run out with no acknowledgment, the sender assumes that the frames were not received and
retransmits one or all of the frames depending on the protocol.
ac

Go-Back-n ARQ
If one frame is lost or damaged, all frames sent since the last frame acknowledged are retransmitted.
te

Damaged Frame
Assume frames 0,1,2 and 3 have been transmitted, but the first acknowledgment received is a NAK 3. A NAK
means two things: (1) a positive acknowledgment of all frames received prior to the damaged frame and (2) a
negative acknowledgment of the frame indicated. If the first acknowledgment is a NAK 3. it means that data
frames 0, 1 and 2 were all received in good shape. Only frame 3 must be resent.

www.teachics.org
Lost Data Frame

If one or more frames are so noise corrupted that they become lost in transit, the next frame to arrive at the
receiver will be out of sequence. The receiver checks the identifying number on each frame, discovers that one or
more have been skipped, and returns a NAK for the first missing frame. A NAK frame does not indicate whether
the frame has been lost or damaged, just that it needs to be resent. The sending device then retransmits the
frame indicated by the NAK, as well as any frames that it had transmitted after the lost one.

rg
s.o
Lost Acknowledgment
ic
The sending device can send as many frames as the window allows before waiting for an acknowledgment. Once
that limit has been reached or the sender has no more frames to send, it must wait. If an acknowledgment has
not been received within the time limit, the sender retransmits every frame transmitted since the last ACK.
h
ac
te

Selective-Reject ARQ

In selective-reject ARQ, only the specific damaged or lost frame is retransmitted. If a frame is corrupted in transit,
a NAK is returned and the frame is resent out of sequence. The receiving device must be able to sort the frames
it has and insert the retransmitted frame into its proper place in the sequence.

www.teachics.org
The receiving device must contain sorting logic to enable it to reorder frames received out of sequence. It must
also be able to store frames received after a NAK has been sent until the damaged frame has been replaced.

The sending device must contain a searching mechanism that allows it to find and select only the requested frame
for retransmission.

A buffer in the receiver must keep all previously received frames on hold until all retransmissions have been
sorted and any duplicate frames have been identified and discarded.

To aid selectivity, ACK numbers, like NAK numbers, must refer to the frame received (or lost) instead of the next
frame expected.

Damaged Frames

A NAK acknowledges the intact receipt of any previously unacknowledged data frames and indicates an error in
the current frame. Unlike the receiver in a go-back-n system, however, the receiver in a selective-reject system
continues to accept new frames while waiting for an error to be corrected. Frames received after the error frame
cannot be acknowledged until the damaged frames have been retransmitted.

rg
s.o
h ic
ac
te

Lost Frames

If a frame is lost, the next frame will arrive out of sequence. When the receiver tries to reorder the existing
frames to include it, it will discover the discrepancy and return a NAK. Of course, the receiver will recognize the
omission only if other frames follow.

Lost Acknowledgment

Lost ACK and NAK frames are treated by selective-reject ARQ just as they are by go-back-n ARQ. When the
sending device reaches either the capacity of its window or the end of its transmission, it sets a timer. If no
acknowledgment arrives in the time allotted, the sender retransmits all of the frames that remain
unacknowledged. In most cases, the receiver will recognize any duplications and discard them.

Piggybacking
In real life, data frames are normally flowing in both directions: from node A to node B and from node B to node
A. This means that the control information also needs to flow in both directions. When a frame is carrying data
from A to B, it can also carry control information about arrived (or lost) frames from B; when a frame is carrying
data from B to A, it can also carry control information about the arrived (or lost) frames from A. This is called
Piggybacking.
Piggybacking is used to improve the efficiency of the bidirectional protocols.
www.teachics.org
 Data link protocols

A protocol in data communications is the set of rules used to implement one or more layers of the OSI model. A
data link protocol is a set of rules used to implement the data link layer. Data link protocols can be divided into
two subgroups:
• asynchronous protocols
• synchronous protocols

Asynchronous Protocols

Asynchronous protocols, used primarily in modems, feature start and stop bits and variable length gaps between
characters. In asynchronous transmission a clock is not required, instead it uses start and stop bits. Data flows in
a half-duplex mode, 1 byte or a character at a time, and in a continuous stream of bytes.

Different asynchronous protocols

rg
1) XMODEM
s.o
It is a half-duplex, stop and- wait ARQ protocol. Besides a NAK or an ACK, the sender can receive a cancel signal
(CAN), which aborts the transmission.

The first field is a one-byte start of header (SOH) which tells header field is going to begin next. The second field is
a two-byte header(first one indicates sequence number; second one is used to check the validity of the sequence
ic
number). The fixed data field holds 128 bytes of data. CRC field checks for errors in the data field.
h
ac
te

2) YMODEM
It is similar to XMODEM, except data unit is 1024 bytes, 2 CANs are needed to abort transmission, ITU-T CRC is
used for error checking and multiple files can be sent simultaneously.

3) ZMODEM
Combines XMODEM and YMODEM

4) BLAST(Blocked Asynchronous Transmission)

Similar structure of XMODEM but it is full-duplex with sliding window flow control.

5) Kermit
Similar to XMODEM. Additionally, allows the transmission of control characters as text by adding fixed number to
their code and adding # character in front of them. # can be sent as text by adding another # in front of it.

www.teachics.org
 Synchronous Protocols

In synchronous transmission, the sender and receiver should have synchronized clocks and data can flow in a
full-duplex mode also, in the form of blocks or frames. Each block of characters is labelled with the
synchronization characters so that sender knows where the new byte starts since there is no gap between the
data.

Synchronous protocols are divided into two :

• Character Oriented Protocols
• Bit oriented Protocols

Character-Oriented Protocols

In a character-oriented protocol, the frame or packet is interpreted as a series of characters, each usually has 1-
byte(8 bits) size. All control information is in the form of an existing character encoding system (e.g., ASCII

rg
characters).

Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC or BISYNC)

s.o
• Character-oriented data link protocol developed by IBM
• Used in point-to-point and multipoint configurations,
• Supports half-duplex transmission
• Use stop-and-wait ARQ flow control and error correction.
ic
• BSC does not support full-duplex transmission or sliding window protocol.

There are two types of BSC frames:

h

• Control frames – A control frame contains control characters but no data. It carries information specific to the
ac

functioning of the data link layer itself like establishing connections, maintaining flow and error control and
terminating connections.
• Data frames – It contains part or all of the message data and may also contain control characters.
te

Control characters

Character Oriented Protocols are based on character encoding(conversion of symbol into binary number) schemes
such as ASCII(American Standard Code for Information Interchange). Control characters in such an encoding
scheme are non-printable characters used for communication and device control. Examples : ACK(decimal ASCII
code: 006), SOH(decimal ASCII code 001)etc.

BSC data frame shown below :

• Synchronization (SYN) characters alert receiver about arrival of a new frame and tells to synchronize its timing
with that of sender. There are two SYN characters eight bits each.
• Start of Header(SOH) comes next that tells header field is starting next which holds device addresses and
frame number.
www.teachics.org
• Start of text (STX) character signals receiver that the control information is ending and the next byte will be
data.
• Data field includes the actual information and consists of varying characters.
• End of text (ETX) character indicates end of the text or data
• Block check count (BCC) are included for error detection.

BSC control frame shown below :

Data Transparency

Sometimes a sequence of bits included as a part of data might be mistaken for control characters due to
similarity. Data transparency is the property that any combination of bits is allowed to send as data. Hence to

rg
allow data transparency, byte stuffing occurs in BSC frames.
s.o
h ic

The first DLE(Data Link Escape) tells the receiver that the text may contain control characters and to read them as
data. The last DLE tells the receiver that the transparent region has ended. If a DLE is present in data, an
ac

additional DLE precedes the DLE.

te

Bit-Oriented Protocols

In a bit-oriented protocol, the frame or packet is interpreted as a series of bits. Control information can be one or
multiple bits depending on the kind of information.

BIT-ORIENTED PROTOCOLS include :

• Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC)

• High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC)
• Link Access Protocols (LAPs)
• Local Area Networks (LANs)

SDLC was the first to be introduced. HDLC was developed based on SDLC. Later, LAPs and LANs were derived from
HDLC.

HDLC (High-Level Data Link Control)

Three Station types:

Primary – has all the control and commands other devices
Secondary – responds to primary’s commands
Combined - can both command and respond

www.teachics.org
Three configurations:
Unbalanced – one device is primary, others are secondary
Symmetrical – each physical station acts as primary and secondary. Primary aspect of one station links to
secondary of another and vice versa by separate links.
Balanced – link cab be controlled by both stations

rg
s.o
Modes of communication:
• Normal Response Mode (NRM) – used in primary-secondary relationship. Primary initiates/starts data
ic
transmission by commanding and permitting secondary, afterwards secondary responds.
• Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM) – same as primary-secondary except a secondary can also initiate
h

transmission when communication channel is idle.

• Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM) – used in combined station configuration. Any station can initiate
ac

transmission.

Types of Frames:
te

Information Frames (I-Frames) – used to transport user data and control information relating to user data.
Supervisory Frames(S-Frames) – used only to transport flow and error control information.
Unnumbered Frames(U-Frames)–used for managing the link itself.

www.teachics.org
Flag – eight-bit sequence 01111110, marks the beginning and end of a frame. Sequence of bits in information may
resemble flag, hence to give data transparency, bit stuffing is done where an extra 0 is added whenever five
consecutive 1s are encountered which is discarded by the receiver to extract information.
Address – When primary send a frame it contains to address and when secondary sends a frame it has from
address.
Control – Used for flow management. An I-frame control field starts with 0. S-frame starts with 10 and U-frame
starts with 11.
FCS – Frame Check Field(FCS) is an error detection field.

Link Access Procedures(LAPs)

1) LAPB (Link access procedure, balanced)

• Subset of HDLC used only for connecting a station to a network.
• Provides only basic control functions required for communication between DTE and DCE.
• Used only in balanced configurations, combine station type with ABM mode.
• USED in ISDN.
2) LAPD (Link Access Procedure for D Channel)
• subset of HDLC used in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).
• Used for out-of-band (control) signalling.
• Uses Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM).

rg
3) LAPM (Link access procedure for modems)
• Subset of HDLC for modems.
s.o
• Designed to do asynchronous-synchronous conversion, error detection, and retransmission.

LANs(Local Area Networks)

LAN is a data communication system that allows a number of independent devices to communicate directly with
ic
each other in a limited geographic area.

LANs are dominated by four architectures: Ethernet, Token Bus, Token Ring and Fiber Distributed Data Interface
h

(FDDI). Ethernet, Token Bus and Token Ring are standards of the IEEE and are part of its Project 802. FDDI is an
ac

ANSI standard.

In 1985, the Computer Society of the IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) started a project, called
Project 802, to set standards to enable intercommunication among equipment from a variety of manufacturers. It
te

is a way of specifying functions of the physical layer and the data link layer of major LAN protocols. Project 802
has split the data link layer into two different sublayers: logical link control (LLC) and media access control
(MAC).

www.teachics.org
The LLC provides one single data link control protocol for all IEEE LANs. Media access control sublayer provides
different protocols for different LANs.

LLC defines a protocol data unit (PDU) that is somewhat similar to that of HDLC(High-level Data Link Control). The
header contains a control field like the one in HDLC; this field is used for flow and error control. The two other
header fields define the upper-layer protocol at the source and destination that uses LLC. These fields are called
the destination service access point (DSAP) and the source service access point (SSAP). The other fields defined in
a typical data link control protocol such as HDLC are moved to the MAC sublayer. In other words, a frame defined
in HDLC is divided into a PDU at the LLC sublayer and a frame at the MAC sublayer.

rg
EHERNET (IEEE 802.3)
s.o
IEEE 802.3 defines two categories: baseband and broadband.
The word base specifies a digital signal (in this case, Manchester encoding).
The word broad specifies an analog signal (in this case, PSK encoding).
IEEE divides the baseband category into five different standards: 10Base5, 10Base2,
ic
10Base-T, 1Base5, and 100Base-T. The first number (10, 1, or 100) indicates the data
rate in Mbps. The last number or letter (5, 2 or T) indicates the maximum cable length or the type of cable. IEEE
defines only one specification for the broadband 10Broad36.
h

The access mechanism used in an Ethernet is called carrier sense multiple access with collision
ac

detection(CSMA/CD).

The standards for ethernet have gone through four generations:

te

Addressing
Each station on an Ethernet network has its own network interface card (NIC) with a 6-byte (48 bits) physical
address. It is written in hexadecimal notation, with a colon between the bytes. Example: 06 : 01 : 02 : 01 : 2C : 4B

Frame format

www.teachics.org
Preamble: 7 bytes of alternating 0s and 1s that alerts the receiving system to the coming frame.
Start frame delimiter (SFD): 1 byte (10101011) signals the beginning of the frame. The SFD warns the station or
stations that this is the last chance for synchronization.
Destination address (DA): 6 bytes and contains the physical address of the destination.
Source address (SA): The SA field is also 6 bytes and contains the physical address of the sender of the packet.
Length or type: Defines the number of bytes in the data field.
Data: This field carries data encapsulated from the upper-layer protocols. It is a minimum of 46 and a maximum
of 1500 bytes
CRC: The last field contains error detection information

TOKEN RING (IEEE 802.5)

CSMA/CD access method in Ethernet give rise to collisions of frames, to avoid this Token Bus uses token passing
mechanism. Token is a simple placeholder frame that is passed from station to station around the ring. A station
may send data only when it has possession of the token. A station can sent 1 frame per turn.

The 3 bytes token is passed from a device to another. A station that currently holds token can send data frame
that passes through all stations in ring topology until destination station is found. The destination station changes
4 bits of last byte and sends the frame to sender. The sender recognizes frame from source address field, discards
frame and passes token to next device.

rg
s.o
h ic
ac
te

• One device is considered as a monitor station. The monitor sets a timer each time the token passes. If the
token does not reappear in the allotted time, it is presumed to be lost and the monitor generates a new
token and introduces it to the ring.
• The address is 6 bytes of NIC(Network Interface Card)
• Three types of frames: data/command, token, and abort.

www.teachics.org
Every station has a priority code that can be entered into a frame which is passing through the station to reserve
the token for next cycle. It is entered in AC field.
FC specifies the type of frame(control or data) and gives information for smooth working of ring logic.
FS is altered by the receiver to indicate it has received the data which is checked by the sender when it gets the
frame back after rotation.

rg
TOKEN BUS (IEEE 802.4)

• Combines features of Ethernet and Token Ring

s.o
In factory automation the nodes are computers that controls manufacturing process. In this type of application,
real-time processing with minimum delay is needed. Processing must occur at the same speed as the objects
moving along the assembly line. Ethernet cannot be used because of collision problem and Token ring cannot be
ic
used because assembly line uses bus topology.

It combines the physical configuration of Ethernet (a bus topology) and the collision-free (predictable delay)
h

feature of Token Ring. Token Bus is a physical bus that operates as a logical ring using tokens.
ac

Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)

Access method used is Token Passing. In FDDI. access is limited by time. A station may send as many frames as it
can within its allotted access period. It contains two token rings, a primary ring for data and token transmission
te

and a secondary ring that provides backup if the primary ring fails.

FDDI differentiates between two types of data frames: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous(S-frames)
here refers to information that is real-time, while asynchronous (A-frames) refers to information that is not.

There are several time registers in FDDI. When a token arrives, THT(Token Holding Timer) is set as a value equal to
TTRT(Target Token Rotation Time) – TRT(Token Rotation Timer), that is, difference between average token
rotation time and actual time taken to complete a rotation. Station sends synchronous data first and sends
asynchronous data as long as THT is positive.

Frame format:

www.teachics.org
 COMPARISON

SWITCHING
• Switching : Exchange of information from one network to another or one network segment to another.
• Switches are hardware and/or software devices which can create temporary connections between two or
more devices linked to the switch and not directly. Switches occupy the same place in the network as
hubs, but can read MAC address and forwards data to network segment with the destined receiver. It can

rg
be called as a bridge with many ports.
• Switched network(Figure 1) has a series of interlinked switches and they either connect to communicating
devices or is used only for routing.
s.o
• Three methods of switching
1. circuit switching
2. packet switching
3. message switching
ic
Figure 1
h
ac
te

Circuit Switching
• Creates direct physical connection between two devices such as phones or computers (Figure 2)
• Connection between two stations is a dedicated path made of one or more links
• Before starting communication stations must reserve resources such as channels, switch buffers, switch
processing time, and switch input/output ports and they remain dedicated during data transfer until the
teardown phase. Figure 2

www.teachics.org
 Three Phases of circuit switching:
• Set up phase: Before the two stations can communicate, a dedicated circuit needs to be established. The
sender sends a setup request, switches in between finds a dedicated channel between themselves. An
acknowledgment from intended receiver is sent in the opposite direction to sender. Only after sender
receives this acknowledgment is the connection established.
• Data transfer phase: After the set up of dedicated circuit, the two parties can transfer data. The data
transferred are not packetized (physical layer transfer of signal). The data are in a continuous flow
although there may be periods of silence.
• Tear down phase: When either sender or receiver needs to disconnect, a signal is sent to each switch to
release the resources that was reserved.
• n inputs and m outputs
• n-by-n folded switch can connect n lines in full-duplex mode(Figure 3)
• Circuit Switching can use either of the two technologies:
• space-division switches
• time-division switches
Figure 3

rg
s.o
ic
Crossbar Switch
• Connects n inputs to m outputs in a grid, using electronic microswitches (transistors) at each crosspoint
(Figure 1)
h

• Connecting n inputs to m outputs requires n x m crosspoints and hence makes the size of the crossbar
ac

huge and is also inefficient because only small percent of crosspoints are in use at a given time.
Multistage Switch
• Combine crossbar switches in several stages, i.e., splitting the crossbar switch into the smaller units and
then interconnecting them.
te

• Devices are linked to switches that are linked to a hierarchy of other switches.
• The design of a multistage switch depends on the number of stages and the number of switches desired
in each stage. Normally, the middle stages have fewer switches than first and last.
• Reduces the number of crosspoints and if one path fails, another path is available.

Figure 1

www.teachics.org
Figure 2 shows a three stage design doing job of a single 15-by- 15 crossbar switch. Each first-stage switch has two
outputs, intermediate switches must connect to all three first-stage switches and all three last-stage switches thus
having three inputs and three outputs, third-stage switch must have inputs from each of the intermediate
switches. Hence, they provide several options(paths) for connecting each pair of linked devices. An example is
shown in figure 3.

Figure 2

Figure 3

rg
s.o
ic

Blocking
h

Reduction in the number of crosspoints in multistage switches results in blocking where one input cannot be
ac

connected to an output because there is no path available between them when all of the possible intermediate
switches are occupied.
te

Time Division Switches

• Use time division multiplexing(TDM)
• Switching happens with the help of TSI(Time Slot Interchange) and TDM bus
• Without TSI the data is sent in the same order as in the timeslots in TDM as shown below

• With TSI the order of data input can be changed to send to desired destinations as shown below

• A TSI has a Random Access Memory(RAM) with number memory locations equal to the number of data
inputs
• Each memory location has the size same as that of a single time slot
• It has a control unit that decides the desired order of incoming data
www.teachics.org
 • TDM bus has a high speed bus where input and output lines are connected through input and output
gates known as microswitches.
• During a time slot only corresponding single input gate is closed, control unit decides on the pair of input
and output combination of the gates and during the same time slot only one corresponding output gate is
closed to transmit a burst of data.
• In this way the desired order of data input is achieved after passing through TSI

rg
s.o
h ic
ac
te

Packet Switching
• Message divided into fixed or variable size packets
• Each packet contains data and control information such as priority values, source and destination
addresses
• No resource reservation such as bandwidths or processing time, resources are allocated on demand
• Two approaches to packet switching are :
1. Datagram Approach (Datagram Network)
2. Virtual Circuit Approach (Virtual Circuit Network)
▪ SVC(Switched Virtual Circuit)
▪ PVC(Permanent Virtual Circuit)
Datagram Approach
• Each packet is treated independently even if they belong to same message or session
• Packets in this approach is called datagrams
• Packets belonging to same message may take different routes or paths to reach destination
• Referred to as connectionless network
• Transport layer in the destined device reorder the received packets that came in without any order
• Uses a routing table based on destination address that is dynamic and is updated periodically

www.teachics.org
 Routing table

Virtual Circuit Approach

• Relationship between all packets belonging to same message or session is preserved
• Single route is chosen through which all packets of same message travel one by one
• Implemented in to ways :
▪ Switched Virtual Circuit
This format is similar to dial up lines in circuit switching. Here, a virtual circuit is created for the duration of a
specific exchange. Alternate route can be taken in case of a failure. Each time a device has to communicate to

rg
another device, a new route is established which may be the same or different route than the previous one.
▪ Permanent Virtual Circuit
This one is similar to leased line in circuit switching. The same virtual circuit is provided between two devices
every time they have to communicate.
s.o
Message Switching
• Uses store and forward approach
ic
• A node, usually a special computer with a number of disks, receives a message and stores it until
appropriate route is free to send
• It is considered a switching technique because there is no direct link between the sender and receiver of a
h

transmission
• A message is delivered to the node along one path then rerouted along another to its destination
ac

• Messages are stored and relayed from secondary storage (disk) unlike in packet switching where the
packets are stored and forwarded from primary storage (RAM)
• Used for unintelligent devices earlier, not commonly in use today
te

www.teachics.org
 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

ISDN was introduced so as to digitize the telephone network, to standardize subscriber services, provide interface
between user and network, and facilitate the internetworking of existing voice and data networks.

SERVICES
Bearer services – allows user to send information from one device to another on a network. The transfer voice,
data and video take place without processing or changing the information. It belongs to first 3 layers of OSI
model(physical, data link, network). It can be provided using circuit or packet switched networks.
Teleservices – These are value-added services provided by the network. The information may be processed and
changed. It belongs to 4-7 layers(transport, session, presentation, application). It includes telephony, telefax,
videotex, and teleconferencing .
Supplementary Services – provide additional functionality to the bearer services and teleservices. Examples are
call waiting, message handling.

HISTORY

Initially, telecommunications networks were entirely analog networks. With the rise of digital processing,
Modems were developed to allow digital exchanges over existing analog lines. To reduce cost and improve
performance, the telephone companies gradually began to add digital technologies while continuing their analog
services to their customers.

rg
Three types of customers were identified at this time: traditional customers using their local loops only for analog
purposes; customers using analog facilities to transmit digital information via modem; and customers using
digital services to transmit digital information.
s.o
Customers began to require access to a variety of networks, such as packet switched networks and circuit-
switched networks. To meet these needs, the telephone companies created Integrated Digital Networks (IDNs).
An IDN is a combination of networks available for different purposes. Access to these networks is by digital pipes,
ic
which are time-multiplexed channels.
h
ac
te

The ISDN integrates customer services with the IDN. Initiative was to replace the analog local loops with digital
subscriber loops. Voice transmissions can be digitized at the source itself. ISDN will then allow all communication
connections in a home or building to occur via a single interface. Each user is linked to the central office through a
digital pipe. These pipes can be of different capacities to allow different rates of transmission and support
different subscriber needs.

www.teachics.org
SUBSCRIBER ACCESS TO ISDN

To allow flexibility, digital pipes between customers and the ISDN office (the subscriber loops) are organized into
multiple channels of different sizes. The ISDN standard defines three channel types, each with a different
transmission rate: bearer channels(B channel), data channels(D channel), and hybrid channels(H channel).

1) B channel

• Defines data rate of 64kbps.

• Can carry any type of digital information in full-duplex mode.

2) D channel

• 16 or 64 Kbps
• The main function is to carry control signalling for the B channels.
• As opposed to (in-band) signalling where control information such as call establishment, ringing, call interrupt
is carried by the same channel that carries the data, ISDN separates control signals onto a channel of their
own, the D channel. This method is called common-channel (out-of-band) signalling.
• Therefore, subscriber uses the D channel to connect to the network and secure a B channel connection. D
channel acts like an operator between the user and the network.

3) H channels

rg
• Data rates of 384 Kbps (H0), 1536 Kbps (H11), or 1920 Kbps (H12).
• These rates suit H channels for high data-rate applications such as video, teleconferencing, and so on.
s.o
User Interfaces

Digital subscriber loops are of two types: basic rate interface (BRI) and primary rate interface (PRI).

BRI - specifies a digital pipe consisting of two B channels and one 16 Kbps D channel. It is designed to meet the
ic
needs of residential and small-office customers.

PRI - specifies a digital pipe with 23 B channels and one 64 Kbps D channel.
h

Functional Grouping
ac

Functional grouping defines the function of each type of equipment used in the ISDN. A functional grouping is
shown below.
te

Subscribers choose the specific devices best suited to their needs from these groupings.

Network Termination 1 (NT1) - controls the physical and electrical termination of the ISDN at the user's premises
and connects the user's internal system to the digital subscriber loop.

Network Termination 2 (NT2) - performs functions at the physical, data link, and network layers of the OSI model
(layers 1, 2 and 3). NT2s provide multiplexing (layer 1 ). flow control ( layer 2) and packetizing ( layer 3 ). An NT2
provides intermediate signal processing between the data-generating devices and an NT1.

www.teachics.org
Terminal Equipment 1 (TE1) - the same thing as DTE(source or destination of data) in other protocols. It refers to
digital subscriber equipment. Terminal equipment 1 (TE1) is any device that supports the ISDN standards.
Examples : digital telephones, integrated voice/data terminals etc.

Terminal Equipment 2 (TE2) - TE2 equipment is any non-ISDN device, such as a terminal, workstation, host
computer, or regular telephone. TE2 devices are not immediately compatible with an ISDN network but can be
used with the help of another device called a terminal adapter (TA).

Terminal Adapter (TA) - A terminal adapter (TA) converts information received in non-ISDN format from a TE2
into a format capable of being carried by the ISDN.

Reference Points

Just as the functional grouping defines the function of each type of equipment used in the ISDN, a reference
point defines the functions of the connections between them.

rg
s.o
ic

Reference point R defines the connection between a TE2 and a TA.

h

Reference point S defines the connection between a TE1 or TA and an NT1 or NT2 (if present).
ac

Reference point T defines the interface between an NT2 and an NT1.

Reference point U defines the interface between an NT1 and the ISDN office.
te

For more tutorials: https://www.teachics.org

www.teachics.org