Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng.

Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Data Link Control

Introduction:
Communication requires at least two devices working together, one to send and one to receive. Even such a basic arrangement requires a great deal of coordination an exchange to occur. For example, in half duplex transmission, it is essential that only one device transmit at a time. If both ends of the link put signals on the line simultaneously, they collide, leaving nothing on the line but noise. The coordination of half duplex transmission is part of a procedure called line discipline. In addition to line discipline, data link control includes the functions: flow control and error control.

Line Discipline:
Line discipline answers the question, who should send now? Line discipline can be done in two ways: 1- ENQuiry/ACKnowledgment (ENQ/ACK): ENQ/ACK is used primarily in systems where there is no question of the wrong receiver getting the transmission, that is, when there is a dedicated link between two devices so that the only device capable of receiving the transmission is the intended one. ENQ/ACK coordinates which device may start a transmission and whether or not the intended recipient is ready and enabled. How it Works: The 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 acknowledgment (NAK) frame if it is not. By requiring a response even if the answer is negative, the initiator knows that its enquiry was in fact received even if the receiver is currently unable to accept a transmission. If neither an 43
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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

ACK nor a NAK is received within a specified time limit, the initiator assumes that the ENQ frame was lost in transmit, disconnects, and sends a replacement. An initiating system ordinarily makes three such attempts to establish a link before giving up. If the response to the ENQ is negative for three attempts, the initiator disconnects and begins the process again at another time. 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. This process is illustrated in following figure.

Station A

Station B

Establishment

ENQ ACK Data ACK Data ACK

Data Transfer

. . .
Data ACK

Termination

EOT

Time

Time

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

2- Poll/Select: The poll/select method of line discipline works with topologies where one device is designed as a primary station and the other devices are secondary stations. Multipoint systems must coordinate several nodes, not just two. The question to be determined in these cases, therefore, is more than just, Are you ready? It is also, which of the several nodes has the right to use the channel? How it Works: Whenever a multipoint link consists of a primary device and multiple secondary devices using a single transmission line, all exchanges must be made through the primary device even when the ultimate destination is a secondary device. The primary device controls the link; the secondary devices follow its instructions. It is up to the primary to determine which device is allowed to use the channel at a given time as shown in following figure. Primary Secondary A Secondary Secondary B C

Who has the right to the channel?

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. Every device on a link has an address that can be used for identification. Poll/select protocols identify each frame as being either to or from a specific device on the link. Each secondary device has an address that differentiate it from the others. 45
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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Flow Control:
Flow control refers to a set of procedures used to restrict the amount of data the sender can send waiting for acknowledgment. Two methods have been developed to control the flow of data across communications links:

1- Stop and Wait:

In the stop and wait method of flow control, the sender sends one frame and waits for an acknowledgment before sending the next frame, as shown in following figure.

Sender

Receiver

Wait Time

Data ACK

Wait Time

Data ACK Data

Wait Time ACK

Time

Time

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 is alone on the line. If the distance between devices is long, the time spent waiting for ACKs between each frame can add significantly to the total transmission time. 46
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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

2- Sliding Window:
In the sliding window method of flow control, several frames can be in transmit at a time. The sliding window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and receiver. This window can hold frames 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 be transmitted as long as the window is not yet full. To keep track of which frames have been transmitted and which received, sliding window introduces an identification scheme based on the size of the window. The frames are numbered modulo-n, which means they are numbered from 0 to n-1. For example, if n=8, the 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 modulo (8 frames); it covers one frame less. 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 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 acknowledgement is required. Conceptually, 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 acknowledgment are received. Conceptually, 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 acknowledgment are sent.

Example: The following figure shows a sample transmission that uses sliding window flow control with a window of seven frames. In this example, all frames arrive undamaged.

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Sender

Receiver

4 5

. .

0
Data 0

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

Data 1

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

ACK 2

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

0
Data 2

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

0
ACK 3

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

0
Data 3

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

0
Data 4

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

0
Data 5

1 2

. .

4 5

. .

1 2

. .

ACK 6

4 5

. .

1 2

. .

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

At the beginning of transmission, both sender and receiver windows are fully expanded to include seven frames ( seven transmittable frames in the sender window, seven placeholder frames in the receiver window). The frames within the window are numbered 0 through 7 and are part of larger data buffer, 13 of which are shown here.

Error Control:
Error correction is implemented simply: anytime an error is detected in an exchange, a negative acknowledgement (NAK) is returned and the specified frames are retransmitted. This process is called Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ). Error control refers to methods of error detection and retransmission. Error control is based on Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), which means retransmission of data in three cases: damaged frame, lost frame, and lost acknowledgment. ARQ error control is implemented as an adjunct to flow control. In fact, stop and wait flow control is usually implemented as stop and wait ARQ and sliding window is usually implemented as one of two variants of sliding window ARQ, called (go back n) or (selective reject).

a- Stop and Wait ARQ:

Is a form of stop and wait flow control extended to include retransmission of data in case of lost or damaged frames. For retransmission to work four features are added to the basic flow control mechanism: 1- The sending device keeps a copy of the last frame transmitted until it receives an acknowledgement for that frame. Keeping a copy allows the sender to retransmit. Lost or damaged frames until they are received correctly. 2- For identification purposes, both data frames and ACK frames are numbered alternately 0 and 1. A data frame is acknowledged by an ACK 1 frame, indicating that the receiver has gotten data 0 and is now expecting data 1. This numbering allows for identification of data frames in case of duplicate transmission (important in the case of lost acknowledgements).

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

3- 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. 4- 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:
As shown in following figure: Sender Receiver

Data 0 ACK 1 Data 1 ACK 0 Data 0 Error in frame 0 NAK Data 0 ACK 1

Time

Time

Lost Frame:
An of the frame types can be lost in transit:

Lost Data Frame:

As shown in following figure:

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Sender

Receiver

Data 0 Time out Data 0 ACK 1 Lost

Time

Time

Lost Acknowledgement:
As shown in following figure: Sender Receiver

Data 0

Time out

Lost

ACK 1 Data 0 Second Copy discarded ACK 1

Time

Time

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

b- Sliding Window ARQ:

Among several popular mechanism for continuous transmission error control, two protocols are the most popular: go back n and selective reject ARQ, both based on sliding window flow control. To extend sliding window to cover retransmission of lost or damaged frames, three features are added to the basic flow control mechanism: 1- The sending device keeps copies of all transmitted frames until they have been acknowledged. If frames 0 through 6 have been transmitted, and the last acknowledgement was for frame 2 (expecting 3), the sender keeps copies of frames 3 through 6 until it know that they have been received undamaged. 2- 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 transmit a damaged frame. Because sliding window is a continuous transmission mechanism (as apposed to stop and wait), both ACK and NAK frames must be numbered for identification. ACK frames, you will recall, carry the number of the damaged frame expected. NAK frames, on the other hand, carry the number of the damaged frame itself. In both cases, the message to the sender is the number of the frame that the receiver expects next. Note that data frames that are received without errors do not have to be acknowledged individually. 3- Like stop and wait ARQ, the sending device in sliding window ARQ is equipped with a timer to enable it to handle lost acknowledgements. In sliding window ARQ, n-1 frames (the size of the window) may be sent before an acknowledgement must be received. If the allotted time has run out with no acknowledgement, the sender assumes that the frames were not received and retransmits one or all of the frames depending on the protocol.

Go Back n ARQ:
In this sliding window go back n ARQ method, if one frame is lost or damaged, all frames sent since the last frame acknowledged are retransmitted. 52
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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Damaged Frames:
As shown in following figure: Sender Receiver

Data 0 Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 ACK 3

Error,Discarded Discarded

NAK 3 Data 5

Discarded

Resent Resent Resent

Data 3 Data 4 Data 5

Time

Time

Lost Data Frame:

As shown in following figure:

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Sender

Receiver

Data 0 Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 NAK 2 Lost

Discarded

Data 4 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4

Discarded

Time

Time

Lost Acknowledgement Frame:

As shown in following figure:

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

Sender

Receiver

Data 0 Data 1 Time out Data 2

Lost

ACK 3

Data 0 Data 1 Data 2

Time

Time

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. To make such selectivity possible, a selective reject ARQ system differs from a go back n ARQ system in the following ways: 1- The receiving device must contain sorting logic to enable it to reorder frames received out of sequence. It must also be able to sort frames received after a NAK has been sent until the damaged frame has been replaced.

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Lecture Notes of Computer Communications and Networks Prepared by Dr.Eng. Ziyad Tariq Al-Ta'i

2-

3-

4-

5-

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. This complexity requires a smaller window size than is needed by the go back n method if it is to work efficiently. It is recommended that the window size be less than or equal to (n+1)/2, where n-1 is the go back n window size.

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