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The Data Link Layer 1. Data Link Layer Design Issues

The document discusses the key functions and design issues of the data link layer, which includes framing data, error control, and flow control. The data link layer takes packets from the physical layer and encapsulates them into frames with a header and trailer. It provides reliable communication between two connected machines by dealing with transmission errors and regulating data flow. Common services include unacknowledged connectionless, acknowledged connectionless, and acknowledged connection-oriented. Framing methods insert start and end flags or bytes to delineate frames, while error control involves acknowledgments and retransmissions to ensure reliable delivery. Flow control manages transmission rates to avoid overwhelming receivers.

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Kiran Kumar
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274 views4 pages

The Data Link Layer 1. Data Link Layer Design Issues

The document discusses the key functions and design issues of the data link layer, which includes framing data, error control, and flow control. The data link layer takes packets from the physical layer and encapsulates them into frames with a header and trailer. It provides reliable communication between two connected machines by dealing with transmission errors and regulating data flow. Common services include unacknowledged connectionless, acknowledged connectionless, and acknowledged connection-oriented. Framing methods insert start and end flags or bytes to delineate frames, while error control involves acknowledgments and retransmissions to ensure reliable delivery. Flow control manages transmission rates to avoid overwhelming receivers.

Uploaded by

Kiran Kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Data Link Layer

1. Data Link Layer Design Issues


• Network layer services
• Framing
• Error control
• Flow control

Algorithms for achieving:


Reliable, + Efficient, communication of a whole units – frames (as opposed to bits – Physical Layer) between
two machines.
Two machines are connected by a communication channel that acts conceptually like a wire (e.g., telephone
line, coaxial cable, or wireless channel).
Essential property of a channel that makes it “wire-like” connection is that the bits are delivered in exactly the
same order in which they are sent.
For ideal channel (no distortion, unlimited bandwidth and no delay) the job of data link layer would be trivial.
However, limited bandwidth, distortions and delay makes this job very difficult.
Data Link Layer Design Issues
Physical layer delivers bits of information to and from data link layer.
The functions of Data Link Layer are:
1. Providing a well-defined service interface to the network layer.
2. Dealing with transmission errors.
3. Regulating the flow of data so that slow receivers are not swamped by fast senders.
Data Link layer
- Takes the packets from Physical layer, and
- Encapsulates them into frames
- Each frame has a
o frame header – a field for holding the packet, and
o frame trailer.
- Frame Management is what Data Link Layer does.

Fig: Relationship between packets and frames.

Services Provided to the Network Layer


• Principal Service Function of the data link layer is to transfer the data from the network layer on the
source machine to the network layer on the destination machine.
– Process in the network layer that hands some bits to the data link layer for transmission.
– Job of data link layer is to transmit the bits to the destination machine so they can be handed
over to the network layer there.

(a) Virtual communication. (b) Actual communication.


Possible Services Offered
1. Unacknowledged connectionless service.
2. Acknowledged connectionless service.
3. Acknowledged connection-oriented service.
Unacknowledged Connectionless Service:
• It consists of having the source machine send independent frames to the destination machine without
having the destination machine acknowledge them.
• Example: Ethernet, Voice over IP, etc. in all the communication channel were real time operation is
more important that quality of transmission.
Acknowledged Connectionless Service:
• Each frame send by the Data Link layer is acknowledged and the sender knows if a specific frame has
been received or lost.
• Typically the protocol uses a specific time period that if has passed without getting acknowledgment
it will re-send the frame.
• This service is useful for commutation when an unreliable channel is being utilized (e.g., 802.11 WiFi).
• Network layer does not know frame size of the packets and other restriction of the data link layer.
Hence it becomes necessary for data link layer to have some mechanism to optimize the transmission.
Acknowledged Connection Oriented Service:
• Source and Destination establish a connection first.
• Each frame sent is numbered
– Data link layer guarantees that each frame sent is indeed received.
– It guarantees that each frame is received only once and that all frames are received in the
correct order.
Examples:
– Satellite channel communication,
– Long-distance telephone communication, etc.
Three distinct phases:
– Connection is established by having both side initialize variables and counters needed to keep
track of which frames have been received and which ones have not.
– One or more frames are transmitted.
– Finally, the connection is released – freeing up the variables, buffers, and other resources
used to maintain the connection.
Framing:
• To provide service to the network layer the data link layer must use the service provided to it by
physical layer.
• Stream of data bits provided to data link layer is not guaranteed to be without errors.
• Errors could be:
– Number of received bits does not match number of transmitted bits (deletion or insertion)
– Bit Value
• It is up to data link layer to correct the errors if necessary.
• Transmission of the data link layer starts with breaking up the bit stream
– into discrete frames
– Computation of a checksum for each frame, and
– Include the checksum into the frame before it is transmitted.
• Receiver computes its checksum error for a receiving frame and if it is different from the checksum that
is being transmitted will have to deal with the error.
• Framing is more difficult than one could think!
Framing Methods:
1. Byte count.
2. Flag bytes with byte stuffing.
3. Flag bits with bit stuffing.
4. Physical layer coding violations.
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 how
to correct it.

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

Flag Bytes with Byte Staffing Framing Method:

• This methods gets around the boundary detection of the frame by having each appended by the
frame start and frame end special bytes.
• If they are the same (beginning and ending byte in the frame) they are called flag byte.
• If the actual data contains a byte that is identical to the FLAG byte (e.g., picture, data stream, etc.) the
convention that can be used is to have escape character inserted just before the “FLAG” character.

a) A frame delimited by flag bytes.

b) Four examples of byte sequences before and after byte stuffing.

Flag Bits with Bit Stuffing Framing Method:

• This methods achieves the same thing as Byte Stuffing method by using Bits (1) instead of Bytes (8
Bits).
• It was developed for High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocol.
• Each frames begins and ends with a special bit patter:
– 01111110 or 0x7E <- Flag Byte
– Whenever the sender’s data link layer encounters five consecutive 1s in the data it
automatically stuffs a 0 bit into the outgoing bit stream.
– USB uses bit stuffing.
Bit stuffing. (a) The original data. (b) The data as they appear on the line.

(c) The data as they are stored in the receiver’s memory after destuffing.

• Many data link protocols use a combination of presented methods for safety. For example in Ethernet
and 802.11 each frame begin with a well-defined pattern called a preamble.

• Preamble is typically 72 bits long.

• It is then followed by a length fileld.

Error Control:

• After solving the marking of the frame with start and end the data link layer has to handle eventual
errors in transmission or detection.
– Ensuring that all frames are delivered to the network layer at the destination and in proper
order.
• Unacknowledged connectionless service: it is OK for the sender to output frames regardless of its
reception.
• Reliable connection-oriented service: it is NOT OK.
• Reliable connection-oriented service usually will provide a sender with some feedback about what is
happening at the other end of the line.
– Receiver Sends Back Special Control Frames.
– If the Sender Receives positive Acknowledgment it will know that the frame has arrived
safely.
• Timer and Frame Sequence Number for the Sender is Necessary to handle the case when there is no
response (positive or negative) from the Receiver .

Flow Control:
• Important Design issue for the cases when the sender is running on a fast powerful computer and
receiver is running on a slow low-end machine.
• Two approaches:
1. Feedback-based flow control
2. Rate-based flow control
Feedback-based Flow Control:

• Receiver sends back information to the sender giving it permission to send more data, or
• Telling sender how receiver is doing.
Rate-based Flow Control:

• Built in mechanism that limits the rate at which sender may transmit data, without the need for
feedback from the receiver.

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