Chapter 11

Data Link Control

11.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
11-1 FRAMING

The data link layer needs to pack bits into frames, so

that each frame is distinguishable from another.
Each frame has a

frame header , a field for holding the packet and

frame trailer.

11.2
Packets and Frames

Relationship between packets and frames.

Frame Size

Fixed size :- No need for defining the boundaries

of the frames, size itself can be used a
delimiter. (ATM - WAN cells)
Variable Size :- Need a way to define the end of
one frame & the begning of the next frame
(used in LAN).
 Character Oriented
 Byte stuffing
 Bit Oriented
Byte Count Framing Method
 It uses a field in the header to specify the number of
bytes in the frame.
 Once the header information is being received it will be
used to determine end of the frame.
 Trouble with this algorithm is that when the count is
incorrectly received the destination will get out of synch
with transmission.
 Destination may be able to detect that the frame is in

error but it does not have a means (in this algorithm)

how to correct it.
Fixed Size

A byte stream. (a) Without errors. (b) With

one error.
 Figure 11.1 A frame in a character-oriented protocol

11.7
 Figure 11.2 Byte stuffing and unstuffing

11.8
 Note

Byte stuffing is the process of adding 1

extra byte whenever there is a flag or
escape character in the text.

11.9
 Figure 11.3 A frame in a bit-oriented protocol

11.10
 Note

Bit stuffing is the process of adding one

extra 0 whenever five consecutive 1s
follow a 0 in the data, so that the
receiver does not mistake
the pattern 0111110 for a flag.

11.11
 Figure 11.4 Bit stuffing and unstuffing

11.12
 11-2 FLOW AND ERROR CONTROL

The most important responsibilities of the data link

layer are flow control and error control. Collectively,
these functions are known as data link control.

Topics discussed in this section:

Flow Control
Error Control

11.13
 Note

Flow control refers to a set of procedures

used to restrict the amount of data
that the sender can send before
waiting for acknowledgment.

11.14
 Note

Error control in the data link layer is

based on automatic repeat request,
which is the retransmission of data.

11.15
 11-3 PROTOCOLS

Data link layer can combine framing, flow control,

and error control to achieve the delivery of data from
one node to another. The protocols are normally
implemented in software by using one of the common
programming languages.

11.16
 Flow control refers to a set of procedures used to
restrict the amount of data that the sender can
send before waiting for acknowledgment.

11.17
11-4 NOISELESS CHANNELS

Let us first assume we have an ideal channel in which

no frames are lost, duplicated, or corrupted. We
introduce two protocols for this type of channel.
1) Simplest Protocol
2) Stop-and-Wait Protocol

Simplest Protocol is one that has no flow or enror

control.
Unidirectional protocol
The sender sends a sequence of frames without even
thinking about the receiver. To send three frames, three
events occur at the sender site and three events at the
receiver site.
 Figure 11.6 The design of the simplest protocol with no flow or error control

11.19
 Stop-and-Wait Protocol
If data frames arrive at the receiver site faster than they
can be processed, the frames must be stored until their
use.
 In Stop-and-Wait Protocol the sender sends one frame,
stops until it receives confirmation from the receiver and
then sends the next frame.
 This simple flow control will break down if ACK gets lost or
errors occur sender may wait for ACK that never arrives
 Sending two frames in the protocol involves the sender in
four events and the receiver in two events.
 Figure 11.8 Design of Stop-and-Wait Protocol

11.21
 Figure 11.9 Flow diagram for Example 11.2

11.22
11-5 NOISY CHANNELS
Noiseless channels are nonexistent.
Stop-and-Wait Automatic Repeat Request
Go-Back-N Automatic Repeat Request
Selective Repeat Automatic Repeat Request
Stop-and-Wait Automatic Repeat Request
1)Error correction in Stop-and-Wait ARQ is done by keeping a
copy of the sent frame and retransmitting of the frame when
the timer expires.
2)In Stop-and-Wait ARQ, we use sequence numbers to
number the frames. The sequence numbers are based on
modulo-2 arithmetic.
3)In Stop-and-Wait ARQ, the acknowledgment number always
announces in modulo-2 arithmetic the sequence number of
the next frame expected.
11.23
 Figure 11.10 Design of the Stop-and-Wait ARQ Protocol

11.24
 Example 11.3

Figure 11.11 shows an example of Stop-and-Wait ARQ.

Frame 0 is sent and acknowledged. Frame 1 is lost and
resent after the time-out. The resent frame 1 is
acknowledged and the timer stops. Frame 0 is sent and
acknowledged, but the acknowledgment is lost. The
sender has no idea if the frame or the acknowledgment
is lost, so after the time-out, it resends frame 0, which is
acknowledged.

11.25
 Figure 11.11 Flow diagram for Example 11.3

11.26
  The sender needs to wait for the ACK after every frame it
transmits. This is a source of inefficiency, and is particularly
bad when the propagation delay is much longer than the
transmission delay.

 Stop and wait can also create inefficiencies when sending

longer transmissions. When longer transmissions are sent
there is more likely chance for error in this protocol. If the
messages are short the errors are more likely to be
detected early. More inefficiency is created when single
messages are broken into separate frames because it
makes the transmission longer.

11.27
 Performance
One important issue in networking is the performance of the
network—how good is it?
 In networking, we use the term bandwidth in two contexts.

First, bandwidth in hertz, refers to the the range of

frequencies that a channel can pass.
Second, bandwidth in bits per second, refer to the number
of bits per second that a channel, a link, or even a network
can transmit.
Throughput
The throughput is a measure of how fast we can actually
send data through a network.

11.28
 A link may have a bandwidth of B bps, but we can only
send T bps through this link with T always less than B.
In other words, the bandwidth is a potential
measurement of a link; the throughput is an actual
measurement of how fast we can send data.
Latency (Delay)
 The latency or delay defines how long it takes for an

entire message to completely arrive at the destination

from the time the first bit is sent out from the source.
Latency =propagation time +transmission time +queuing
time + processing delay

11.29
Propagation Time
Propagation time measures the time required for a bit to
travel from the source to the destination.
Propagation time = Distance / Propagation speed
Transmission Time
Time between the first bit leaving the sender and the last
bit arriving at the receiver. The first bit leaves earlier and
arrives earlier; the last bit leaves later and arrives later.
The time required for transmission of a message depends
on the size of the message and the bandwidth of the
channel.
Transmission Delay = Message size/bandwidth bps
 Bandwidth-Delay Product
The bandwidth-delay product defines the number of bits that
can fill the link.

11.31
 Example 11.4

Assume that, in a Stop-and-Wait ARQ system, the

bandwidth of the line is 1 Mbps, and 1 bit takes 20 ms to
make a round trip. What is the bandwidth-delay product?
If the system data frames are 1000 bits in length, what is
the utilization percentage of the link?

Solution
The bandwidth-delay product is

11.32
 Example 11.4 (continued)

The system can send 20,000 bits during the time it takes
for the data to go from the sender to the receiver and then
back again. However, the system sends only 1000 bits. We
can say that the link utilization is only 1000/20,000, or 5
percent. For this reason, for a link with a high bandwidth
or long delay, the use of Stop-and-Wait ARQ wastes the
capacity of the link.

11.33
 Example 11.5

What is the utilization percentage of the link in

Example 11.4 if we have a protocol that can send up to
15 frames before stopping and worrying about the
acknowledgments?

Solution
The bandwidth-delay product is still
20,000 bits. The system can send up to
15 frames or 15,000 bits during a round
trip. This means the utilization is
15,000/20,000, or 75 percent. Of
course, if there are damaged frames,
the utilization percentage is much less
11.34
Disadvantage of Stop-and-Wait
• This is not a good use of transmission
medium.
• To improve efficiency, multiple frames
should be in transition while waiting for
ACK.
• Two protocol use the above concept,
– Go-Back-N ARQ
– Selective Repeat ARQ
Go-Back-N Automatic Repeat Request
In the Go-Back-N Protocol, the sequence numbers are
modulo 2m, where m is the size of the sequence number
field in bits.
The send window can slide one or more slots when a
valid acknowledgment arrives.

The window slides when a correct frame has arrived;

sliding occurs one slot at a time.

In Go-Back-N ARQ, the size of the send window must be

less than 2m; the size of the receiver window
is always 1.
 Figure 11.12 Send window for Go-Back-N ARQ

11.37
 Figure 11.13 Receive window for Go-Back-N ARQ

11.38
 Figure 11.14 Design of Go-Back-N ARQ

11.39
 Figure 11.15 Window size for Go-Back-N ARQ

11.40
 Acknowledgement
 Receiver sends positive ACK if a frame arrived safe and in order.
 If the frames are damaged/out of order, receiver is silent and
discard all subsequent frames until it receives the one it is
expecting.
 The silence of the receiver causes the timer of the
unacknowledged frame to expire.
 Then the sender resends all frames, beginning with the one with
the expired timer.
 For example, suppose the sender has sent frame 6, but the
timer for frame 3 expires (i.e. frame 3 has not been
acknowledged), then the sender goes back and sends frames 3,
4, 5, 6 again. Thus it is called Go-Back-N-ARQ
 The receiver does not have to acknowledge each frame
received, it can send one cumulative ACK for several frames.
Go-Back-N ARQ, normal operation
• The sender keeps track of the outstanding frames and updates the variables and windows as the

ACKs arrive.
Go-Back-N ARQ, lost frame
• Frame 2 is lost

• When the receiver

receives frame 3, it

discards frame 3 as it is

expecting frame 2

(according to window).

• After the timer for frame

2 expires at the sender

site, the sender sends

frame 2 and 3. (go back

to 2)
 Example 11.6
Figure 11.16 shows an example of Go-Back-N. This is an
example of a case where the forward channel is reliable,
but the reverse is not. No data frames are lost, but some
ACKs are delayed and one is lost. The example also
shows how cumulative acknowledgments can help if
acknowledgments are delayed or lost. After initialization,
there are seven sender events. Request events are
triggered by data from the network layer; arrival events
are triggered by acknowledgments from the physical
layer. There is no time-out event here because all
outstanding frames are acknowledged before the timer
expires. Note that although ACK 2 is lost, ACK 3 serves
as both ACK 2 and ACK 3.
11.44
 Figure 11.16 Flow diagram for Example 11.6

11.45
 Example 11.7

Figure 11.17 shows what happens when a frame is lost.

Frames 0, 1, 2, and 3 are sent. However, frame 1 is lost.
The receiver receives frames 2 and 3, but they are
discarded because they are received out of order. The
sender receives no acknowledgment about frames 1, 2, or
3. Its timer finally expires. The sender sends all
outstanding frames (1, 2, and 3) because it does not know
what is wrong. Note that the resending of frames 1, 2, and
3 is the response to one single event. When the sender is
responding to this event, it cannot accept the triggering of
other events. This means that when ACK 2 arrives, the
sender is still busy with sending frame 3.
11.46
 Example 11.7 (continued)

The physical layer must wait until this event is completed

and the data link layer goes back to its sleeping state. We
have shown a vertical line to indicate the delay. It is the
same story with ACK 3; but when ACK 3 arrives, the
sender is busy responding to ACK 2. It happens again
when ACK 4 arrives. Note that before the second timer
expires, all outstanding frames have been sent and the
timer is stopped.

11.47
 Figure 11.17 Flow diagram for Example 11.7

11.48
 Figure 11.18 Send window for Selective Repeat ARQ

11.49
 Piggybacking
 Stop-and-Wait discussed so far was
‘unidirectional’ in ‘bidirectional’ communications,
both parties send & acknowledge data, i.e. both
parties implement flow control
 piggybacking method: outstanding ACKs are
placed in the header of information frames
 piggybacking can save bandwidth since the
overhead from a data frame and an ACK frame
(addresses, CRC, etc) can be combined into just
one frame

11.50
 Figure 11.19 Receive window for Selective Repeat ARQ

11.51
 Figure 11.20 Design of Selective Repeat ARQ

11.52
 Note

In Selective Repeat ARQ, the size of the

sender and receiver window
must be at most one-half of 2m.

11.53
 Figure 11.22 Delivery of data in Selective Repeat ARQ

11.54
 Example 11.8

This example is similar to Example 11.3 in which frame 1

is lost. We show how Selective Repeat behaves in this
case. Figure 11.23 shows the situation. One main
difference is the number of timers. Here, each frame sent
or resent needs a timer, which means that the timers need
to be numbered (0, 1, 2, and 3). The timer for frame 0
starts at the first request, but stops when the ACK for this
frame arrives. The timer for frame 1 starts at the second
request, restarts when a NAK arrives, and finally stops
when the last ACK arrives. The other two timers start
when the corresponding frames are sent and stop at the
last arrival event.
11.55
 Example 11.8 (continued)

At the receiver site we need to distinguish between the

acceptance of a frame and its delivery to the network
layer. At the second arrival, frame 2 arrives and is stored
and marked, but it cannot be delivered because frame 1 is
missing. At the next arrival, frame 3 arrives and is
marked and stored, but still none of the frames can be
delivered. Only at the last arrival, when finally a copy of
frame 1 arrives, can frames 1, 2, and 3 be delivered to the
network layer. There are two conditions for the delivery
of frames to the network layer: First, a set of consecutive
frames must have arrived. Second, the set starts from the
beginning of the window.
11.56
 Example 11.8 (continued)

Another important point is that a NAK is sent after the

second arrival, but not after the third, although both
situations look the same. The reason is that the protocol
does not want to crowd the network with unnecessary
NAKs and unnecessary resent frames. The second NAK
would still be NAK1 to inform the sender to resend frame
1 again; this has already been done. The first NAK sent is
remembered (using the nakSent variable) and is not sent
again until the frame slides. A NAK is sent once for each
window position and defines the first slot in the window.

11.57
 Example 11.8 (continued)

The next point is about the ACKs. Notice that only two
ACKs are sent here. The first one acknowledges only the
first frame; the second one acknowledges three frames. In
Selective Repeat, ACKs are sent when data are delivered to
the network layer. If the data belonging to n frames are
delivered in one shot, only one ACK is sent for all of them.

11.58
 Figure 11.23 Flow diagram for Example 11.8

11.59
Selective Repeat ARQ, sender and receiver windows
• Go-Back-N ARQ simplifies the process at the receiver site. Receiver only keeps

track of only one variable, and there is no need to buffer out-of-order frames, they

are simply discarded.

• However, Go-Back-N ARQ protocol is inefficient for noisy link. It is bandwidth

inefficient and slows down the transmission.

• In Selective Repeat ARQ, only the damaged frame is resent. More bandwidth

efficient but more complex processing at receiver.

• It defines a negative ACK (NAK) to report the sequence number of a damaged

frame before the timer expires.

 Sliding Window Protocol
 A universally accepted flow control procedure is the
sliding window protocol
 Frames and acknowledgements are numbered using
sequence numbers
 Sender maintains a list of sequence numbers (frames) it
is allowed to transmit, called sending window
 Receiver maintains a list of sequence numbers it is
prepared to receive, called receiving window
 A sending window of size N means that sender can send
up to N frames without the need for an ACK

11.61