Chapter 11

Data Link Control

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

The data link layer needs to pack bits into frames

frames,, so
that each fframe
ame is distinguishable ffromom anothe
another.. Ou
another Our
postal system practices a type of framing
framing.. The simple
act off inserting
g a letter into an envelope
p separates
p one
piece of information from another
another;; the envelope serves
as the delimiter
delimiter..
Topics discussed in this section:
Fixed-Size Framing
Variable-Size Framing

11.2
 Figure 11.1 A frame in a character-oriented protocol

11.3
 Figure 11.2 Byte stuffing and unstuffing

11.4
 Note

Byte stuffing is the process of adding 1

extra
t byte
b t whenever
h there
th is
i a flag
fl or
escape character in the text.

11.5
 Figure 11.3 A frame in a bit-oriented protocol

11.6
 Note

Bit stuffing is the process of adding one

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

11.7
 Figure 11.4 Bit stuffing and unstuffing

11.8
 11--2 FLOW AND ERROR CONTROL
11

The most important responsibilities of the data link

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

Topics discussed in this section:

Flow Control
Error Control

11.9
 Note

Flow control refers to a set of procedures

used
d to
t restrict
t i t the
th amountt off data
d t
that the sender can send before
waiting for acknowledgment.

11.10
 Note

Error control in the data link layer is

b
basedd on automatic
t ti repeatt request,
t
which is the retransmission of data.

11.11
 11--3 PROTOCOLS
11

Now let us see how the data link layer can combine
framing, flow control, and error control to achieve the
delivery of data from one node to another another.. The
protocols are normally implemented in software by
using one of the common programming languages
languages.. To
make our discussions language-
language-free, we have written
in pseudocode a version of each protocol that
concentrates mostly on the procedure instead of
delving into the details of language rules
rules..

11.12
 Figure 11.5 Taxonomy of protocols discussed in this chapter

11.13
 11--4 NOISELESS CHANNELS
11

Let us first assume we have an ideal channel in which

no frames are lost, duplicated, or corrupted
corrupted.. We
introduce two protocols for this type of channel
channel..

Topics discussed in this section:

Simplest Protocol
Stop-and-Wait Protocol

11.14
 Figure 11.6 The design of the simplest protocol with no flow or error control

11.15
 Algorithm 11.1 Sender-site algorithm for the simplest protocol

11.16
 Algorithm 11.2 Receiver
Receiver-site
site algorithm for the simplest protocol

11.17
 Example 11.1

Figure 11.7 shows an example of communication using

this protocol. It is very simple. The sender sends a
sequence of frames without even thinking about the
receiver.
i To sendd three
h f
frames, three
h events occur at the
h
sender site and three events at the receiver site. Note that
the
h data
d f
frames are shown
h b tilted
by il d boxes;
b the
h height
h i h off
the box defines the transmission time difference between
the
h first
fi bit
bi andd the
h last
l bit
bi in
i the
h frame.
f

11.18
 Figure 11.7 Flow diagram for Example 11.1

11.19
 Figure 11.8 Design of Stop-and-Wait Protocol

11.20
 Algorithm 11.3 Sender-site algorithm for Stop-and-Wait Protocol

11.21
 Algorithm 11.4 Receiver-site algorithm for Stop-and-Wait Protocol

11.22
 Example 11.2

Figure 11.9 shows an example of communication using

this protocol. It is still very simple. The sender sends one
frame and waits for feedback from the receiver. When the
AC arrives,
ACK i the
h senderd sends d the
h next frame.
f Note that
h
sending two frames in the protocol involves the sender in
f
four events andd the
h receiver
i i two events.
in

11.23
 Figure 11.9 Flow diagram for Example 11.2

11.24
 11--5 NOISY CHANNELS
11

Although the Stop-

Stop-and
and--Wait Protocol gives us an idea
of how to add flow control to its predecessor, noiseless
channels are nonexistent
nonexistent.. We discuss three protocols
in this section that use error control.
control.

Topics discussed in this section:

Stop-and-Wait Automatic Repeat Request
Go-Back-N Automatic Repeat Request
Selective Repeat Automatic Repeat Request

11.25
 Note

Error correction
E ti in
i Stop-and-Wait
St d W it ARQ is
i
done by keeping a copy of the sent
frame and retransmitting of the frame
e tthe
when e ttimer
e e
expires.
p es

11.26
 Note

I Stop-and-Wait
In St d W it ARQ,
ARQ we use sequence
numbers to number the frames.
The sequence numbers are based on
odu o a
modulo-2 arithmetic.
t et c

11.27
 Note

In Stop-and-Wait ARQ,
ARQ the
acknowledgment number always
anno nces in modulo-2
announces mod lo 2 arithmetic the
sequence number of the next frame
expected.

11.28
 Figure 11.10 Design of the Stop-and-Wait ARQ Protocol

11.29
 Algorithm
g 11.5 Sender-site algorithm for Stop-and-Wait ARQ

(
(continued)
ti d)

11.30
 Algorithm 11.5 Sender-site algorithm for Stop-and-Wait ARQ (continued)

11.31
 Algorithm 11.6 Receiver-site algorithm for Stop-and-Wait ARQ Protocol

11.32
 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
k l d d andd the
h timer
i stops. Frame 0 is
i sent andd
acknowledged, but the acknowledgment is lost. The
sender
d hash no ideaid if the
h frame
f or the
h acknowledgment
k l d
is lost, so after the time-out, it resends frame 0, which is
acknowledged.
k l d d

11.33
 Figure 11.11 Flow diagram for Example 11.3

11.34
 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?
Iff the
h system data
d f
frames are 1000 bits
bi in
i length,
l h what
h is
i
the utilization percentage of the link?

Solution
The bandwidth-delay
bandwidth delay product is

11.35
 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
h theh link
li k utilization
ili i is i only
l 1000/20,000, or 5
percent. For this reason, for a link with a high bandwidth
or long
l d l
delay, the
h use off Stop-and-Wait
S d i ARQ
A Q wastes theh
capacity of the link.

11.36
 Example 11.5

What is the utilization percentage of the link in

Example 11.4
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 because frames have
to be resent.
11.37
 Note

In the Go-Back-N Protocol, the sequence

numbers are modulo 2m,
where m is the size of the sequence
number field in bits
bits.

11.38
 Figure 11.12 Send window for Go-Back-N ARQ

11.39
 Note

The send window is an abstract concept

d fi i an imaginary
defining i i box
b off size
i 2m − 1
with three variables: Sf, Sn, and Ssize.

11.40
 Note

The send window can slide one

or more slots
l t when
h a valid
lid
acknowledgment arrives.

11.41
 Figure 11.13 Receive window for Go-Back-N ARQ

11.42
 Note

The receive window is an abstract

concept defining an imaginary box
of size 1 with one single variable Rn.
The window slides
when
h a correctt frame
f has
h arrived;
i d
sliding occurs one slot at a time.

11.43
 Figure 11.14 Design of Go-Back-N ARQ

11.44
 Figure 11.15 Window size for Go-Back-N ARQ

11.45
 Note

I Go-Back-N
In G B k N ARQARQ, ththe size
i off th
the send
d
window must be less than 2m;
the size of the receiver window
sa
is always
ays 1.

11.46
 Algorithm 11.7 Go-Back-N sender algorithm

(continued)
11.47
 Algorithm 11.7 Go-Back-N sender algorithm (continued)

11.48
 Algorithm 11.8 Go-Back-N receiver algorithm

11.49
 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.
11.50
 Figure 11.16 Flow diagram for Example 11.6

11.51
 Example 11.7

Figure 11.17 shows what happens when a frame is lost.

Frames 0,0 1,
1 2,2 and 3 are sent.
sent However,
However frame 1 is lost.
lost
The receiver receives frames 2 and 3, but they are
discarded because they are received out of order. order The
sender receives no acknowledgment about frames 1, 2, or
3 Its timer finally expires.
3. expires The sender sends all
outstanding frames (1, 2, and 3) because it does not know
what is wrong.
wrong Note that the resending of frames 1, 1 2,
2 and
3 is the response to one single event. When the sender is
responding to this event,
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.
3
11.52
 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
i h ACK
AC 3; butb whenh ACKAC 3 arrives,
i the
h
sender is busy responding to ACK 2. It happens again
when
h ACK
AC 4 arrives.
i Note that
h before
b f the
h secondd timer
i
expires, all outstanding frames have been sent and the
timer
i i stopped.
is d

11.53
 Figure 11.17 Flow diagram for Example 11.7

11.54
 Note

Stop-and-Wait ARQ is a special case of

G B k N ARQ iin which
Go-Back-N hi h th
the size
i off the
th
send window is 1.

11.55
 Figure 11.18 Send window for Selective Repeat ARQ

11.56
 Figure 11.19 Receive window for Selective Repeat ARQ

11.57
 Figure 11.20 Design of Selective Repeat ARQ

11.58
 Figure 11.21 Selective Repeat ARQ, window size

11.59
 Note

In Selective Repeat ARQ, the size of the

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

11.60
 Algorithm 11.9 Sender-site Selective Repeat algorithm

(continued)

11.61
 Algorithm 11.9 Sender-site Selective Repeat algorithm (continued)

11.62 (continued)
 Algorithm 11.9 Sender-site Selective Repeat algorithm (continued)

11.63
 Algorithm 11.10 Receiver-site Selective Repeat algorithm

11.64
 Algorithm 11.10 Receiver-site Selective Repeat algorithm

11.65
 Figure 11.22 Delivery of data in Selective Repeat ARQ

11.66
 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
diff
difference i the
is h number b off timers.
i Here, eachh frame
f sent
or resent needs a timer, which means that the timers need
to be
b numberedb d (0,(0 1,
1 2,
2 andd 3). 3) The
h timer
i f frame
for f 0
starts at the first request, but stops when the ACK for this
f
frame arrives.
i Th timer
The i f frame
for f 1 starts at the
h secondd
request, restarts when a NAK arrives, and finally stops
when
h the h last
l ACK arrives.
i Th other
The h two timers
i start
when the corresponding frames are sent and stop at the
l arrival
last i l event.
11.67
 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
andd marked,
k d but
b it i cannot be
b delivered
d li d because
b f
frame 1 is
i
missing. At the next arrival, frame 3 arrives and is
marked
k d andd stored,d but
b still
ill none off the
h frames
f can beb
delivered. Only at the last arrival, when finally a copy of
f
frame 1 arrives,
i can frames
f 1 2,
1, 2 andd 3 be
b delivered
d li d to the
h
network layer. There are two conditions for the delivery of
f
frames to the
h networkk layer:
l Fi
First, a set off consecutive
i
frames must have arrived. Second, the set starts from the
b i i off the
beginning h window.
i d
11.68
 Example 11.8 (continued)

Another important point is that a NAK is sent after the

secondd arrival,
i l but
b t nott after
ft the
th third,
thi d although
lth h both
b th
situations look the same. The reason is that the protocol
d
does nott wantt to
t crowdd the
th network
t k with
ith 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.
window

11.69
 Example 11.8 (continued)

The next point is about the ACKs. Notice that only two
ACK are sentt here.
ACKs h Th first
The fi t one acknowledges
k l d only
l the
th
first frame; the second one acknowledges three frames. In
S l ti Repeat,
Selective R t ACKs
ACK are sentt when
h data
d t are delivered
d li d to
t
the network layer. If the data belonging to n frames are
delivered in one shot,
shot only one ACK is sent for all of them.
them

11.70
 Figure 11.23 Flow diagram for Example 11.8

11.71
 Figure 11.24 Design of piggybacking in Go-Back-N ARQ

11.72
 11--6 HDLC
11

High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) is a bit

High- bit--oriented
protocol for communication over point-
point-to
to--point and
multipoint links
links.. It implements the ARQ mechanisms
we discussed in this chapter
chapter..

Topics discussed in this section:

Configurations and Transfer Modes
Frames
Control Field

11.73
 Figure 11.25 Normal response mode

11.74
 Figure 11.26 Asynchronous balanced mode

11.75
 Figure 11.27 HDLC frames

11.76
 Figure 11.28 Control field format for the different frame types

11.77
 T bl 11.1
Table 11 1 U-frame
f controll commandd andd response

11.78
 Example 11.9

Figure 11.29 shows how U-frames can be used for

connection establishment and connection release. Node A
asks for a connection with a set asynchronous balanced
mode
d (SABM)
(SA ) frame;
f node
d B gives
i a positive
i i response
with an unnumbered acknowledgment (UA) frame. After
these
h two exchanges,
h d
data can be
b transferred
f d between
b the
h
two nodes (not shown in the figure). After data transfer,
node
d A sendsd a DISC (disconnect)
(di ) frame
f to release
l the
h
connection; it is confirmed by node B responding with a
UA (unnumbered
( b d acknowledgment).
k l d )

11.79
 Figure 11.29 Example of connection and disconnection

11.80
 Example 11.10

Figure 11.30 shows an exchange using piggybacking.

Node A begins the exchange of information with an
I-frame numbered 0 followed by another I-frame
numbered 1. Node B piggybacks its acknowledgment of
both frames onto an I-frame of its own. Node B’s first
II-frame
frame is also numbered 0 [N(S) field] and contains a 2
in its N(R) field, acknowledging the receipt of A’s frames
1 and 0 and indicating that it expects frame 2 to arrive
next. Node B transmits its second and third I-frames
(numbered 1 and 2) before accepting further frames from
node A.

11.81
 Example 11.10 (continued)

Its N(R) information, therefore, has not changed: B

frames 1 and 2 indicate that node B is still expecting A’s
frame 2 to arrive next. Node A has sent all its data.
Therefore,
h f i cannot piggyback
it i b k an acknowledgment
k l d onto
an I-frame and sends an S-frame instead. The RR code
i di
indicates that
h A is i still
ill ready
d to receive.
i Theh numberb 3 ini
the N(R) field tells B that frames 0, 1, and 2 have all been
acceptedd andd that
h A isi now expecting
i frame
f number
b 3.3

11.82
 Figure 11.30 Example of piggybacking without error

11.83
 Example 11.11

Figure 11.31 shows an exchange in which a frame is lost.

Node B sends three data frames (0, 1, and 2), but frame 1
is lost. When node A receives frame 2, it discards it and
sends
d a REJ frame
f f frame
for f 1. Note that
h theh protocoll
being used is Go-Back-N with the special use of an REJ
f
frame as a NAK
A frame.
f The
h NAK
A frame
f d
does two things
hi
here: It confirms the receipt of frame 0 and declares that
f
frame 1 andd any following
f ll i frames
f must be
b resent. Node
N d
B, after receiving the REJ frame, resends frames 1 and 2.
N d A acknowledges
Node k l d the
h receipt
i by
b sending
di an RR frame
f
(ACK) with acknowledgment number 3.

11.84
 Figure 11.31 Example of piggybacking with error

11.85
 11--7 POINT
11 POINT--TO-
TO-POINT PROTOCOL

Although HDLC is a general protocol that can be used

for both point
point--to-
to-point and multipoint configurations,
one of the most common protocols for point point--to
to--point
access is the Point
Point--to
to--Point Protocol (PPP).
(PPP). PPP is a
byte--oriented protocol
byte protocol..

Topics discussed in this section:

Framing
Transition Phases
Multiplexing
Multilink PPP

11.86
 Figure 11.32 PPP frame format

11.87
 Note

PPP is a byte-oriented protocol using

b t stuffing
byte t ffi with
ith the
th escape byte
b t
01111101.

11.88
 Figure 11.33 Transition phases

11.89
 Figure 11.34 Multiplexing in PPP

11.90
 Figure 11.35 LCP packet encapsulated in a frame

11.91
 Table 11.2 LCP packets

11.92
 Table 11.3 Common options

11.93
 Figure 11.36 PAP packets encapsulated in a PPP frame

11.94
 Figure 11.37 CHAP packets encapsulated in a PPP frame

11.95
 Figure 11.38 IPCP packet encapsulated in PPP frame

11.96
 Table 11.4 Code value for IPCP packets

11.97
 Figure 11.39 IP datagram encapsulated in a PPP frame

11.98
 Figure 11.40 Multilink PPP

11.99
 Example 11.12

Let us go through the phases followed by a network layer

packet as it is transmitted through a PPP connection.
Figure 11.41 shows the steps. For simplicity, we assume
unidirectional
idi i l movement off data
d f
from the
h user site
i to the
h
system site (such as sending an e-mail through an ISP).

The first two frames show link establishment. We have

chosen
h two options
i (
(not shown
h i the
in h figure):
fi ) using
i PAP
for authentication and suppressing the address control
fi ld Frames
fields. F 3 andd 4 are for
f authentication.
h i i F
Frames 5
and 6 establish the network layer connection using IPCP.

11.100
 Example 11.12 (continued)

The next several frames show that some IP packets are

encapsulated in the PPP frame. The system (receiver)
may have been running several network layer protocols,
b it
but i knows
k that
h the
h incoming
i i data
d must be
b delivered
d li d to
the IP protocol because the NCP protocol used before the
d
data transfer
f was IPCP.
C

After data
Af d transfer,
f theh user then
h terminates
i the
h data
d li k
link
connection, which is acknowledged by the system. Of
course the
h user or theh system could ld have
h chosen
h to
terminate the network layer IPCP and keep the data link
l
layer running
i if it
i wantedd to run another
h NCP protocol.l
11.101
 Figure 11.41 An example

11.102
 Figure 11.41 An example (continued)

11.103