SYNCHRONOUS

DATA-LINK
PROTOCOL
By:
Daleon, Kayzeline L.
 CLUSTER
• Remote stations can have more than one
PC or printer.

• a group of computers, printers, and other

digital devices
 LCU
• single control unit

• Can serve cluster as many as 50 devices

 SYNCHRONOUS DATA
LINK PROTOCOLS
• Generally used with synchronous data and
synchronous modem

• Can either be character or bit oriented

• Example: IBM’s binary synchronous

communication (BSC)
 BINARY SYNCHRONOUS
COMMUNICATION
• Synchronous character-oriented data link
protocol

• Developed by IBM

• Sometimes called bisync or bisynchronous

communications
• With BSC, each data transmission is
preceded by a unique synchronization
(SYN) character
o S S
o Y Y message
o N N

• The message can be a poll, a selection,

an acknowledgement, or a message
containing user information
 The SYN Character
• ASCII – 16 HEX
• EBCDIC – 32 HEX
• Places the receiver in the character (byte) mode
and prepares it to receive data in eight bit
groupings
• With BSC, SYN characters are always transmitted in
pairs.
• Received data are shifted serially one bit at a time
through the detection circuit, where they are
monitored in groups of 16 bits looking for two SYN
characters.
 Two SYN characters
• Two SYN characters are used to avoid

misinterpreting a random eight-bit sequence in the

middle of a message with the same bit sequence

as a SYN character.
 Example
• If the ASCII characters A and b were received in
succession, the following bit sequence will occur

A(41H) b(62H)

0100000101100010

1hex 6hex
False STN character
 BSC Polling Sequence
• Uses poll/select format to control data
transmission.

• There are two polling formats used with

bisync: general and specific
 General Poll
Time fill Line turnaround
Leading pad Trailing pad

P S S E P S S S S E P
A Y Y O A Y Y P P - - N A
D N N T D N N A A Q D

Clearing character General poll twice(“ = any device)

Station polling
address twice

P S
Where A = pad Y = synchronization character
D N
E S
O = end of transmission P = station polling address
T A
“ = identifies a general poll
E
N = inquiry
Q
 Leading Pad
• Simply a string of alternating 1s and 0s
for clock synchronization.
 EOT character
• The EOT character is a clearing character
that places all secondary stations into the
line monitor mode.
 PAD character
• The PAD character immediately following the
second SYN character is simply a string of
successive logic 1s that serves as a time fill, giving
each of the secondary stations time to clear. The
number of logic 1s transmitted during this time fill is
not necessary multiple of eight bits.
Two more SYN characters
• Consequently, two more SYN characters are

transmitted to re-establish character

synchronization.
 Two Station Polling
Address (SPA)
• Two Station Polling Address (SPA) characters are
transmitted for error detection (character
redundancy). A secondary will not recognize or
respond to a poll unless its SPA appears twice in
succession.
 Two Quotation Marks
• The two quotation marks signify that the poll is a
general poll for any device at that station that has
a formatted message to send.
 Enquiry (ENQ)
• The enquiry (ENQ) character is sometimes called a
format or line turnaround because it simply
completes the polling sequence and initiates a line
turnaround.