Types of Data Link Protocols

 Data Link Protocols are divided into two

categories:

 Asynchronous Protocols

 Synchronous Protocols
 Asynchronous Protocols
 Asynchronous protocols treat each character in a
bit stream independently.
 These protocols are used in modems.

 They use start and stop bits, and variable gaps

between characters.
 They are slower than synchronous protocols in
transmitting data.
 Asynchronous Protocols
 The different asynchronous protocols are:

 XMODEM

 YMODEM

 ZMODEM

 Block Asynchronous Transmission (BLAST)

 Kermit
 XMODEM
 It is a half duplex stop & wait protocol.

 It is used for telephone line communication

between PCs.
 The sender sends a frame to receiver & waits for
ACK frame.
 The receiver can send one cancel signal (CAN) to
abort the transmission.
 The frame format of XMODEM is:
SOH Header Data CRC
1 Byte 2 Bytes 128 Bytes
 XMODEM
 The various fields of frame are:

 SOH: It is start of header. It is 1 byte field.

 Header: It contains the sequence number. It is 2

bytes in length.
 Data: This field holds 128 bytes of data.

 CRC: It is Cyclic Redundancy Check. This field

checks the errors in data field.
 YMODEM
 This protocol is similar to XMODEM with the
following major differences:
 Two cancel signals (CAN) are used to abort the
transmission.
 The data field is 1024 bytes long.

 ITU-T CRC-16 is used for error checking.

 ZMODEM
It is a combination of XMODEM and YMODEM.
 BLAST
 BLAST is more powerful than XMODEM.

 It is a full duplex protocol.

 It uses sliding window flow control.

 Kermit
 It is a terminal program as well as file transfer
protocol.
 It is similar in operation to XMODEM, except that
sender has to wait for a negative
acknowledgement (NAK) before it starts
transmission.
 Synchronous Protocols
 Synchronous Protocols take the whole bit stream
and divide it into characters of equal size.
 These protocols have high speed and are used
for LAN, WAN and MAN.
 Synchronous protocols are categorized into two
groups:
 Character-Oriented Protocol

 Bit-Oriented Protocol
 Character-Oriented Protocol
 It interprets frame as a series of characters.

 These are also known as Byte-Oriented

Protocols.
 Control information is inserted as separate control
frames or as addition to existing data frame.
 The example of character-oriented protocol is
Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC)
developed by IBM.
 Bit-Oriented Protocol
 It interprets frame as a series of bits.

 Control information can be inserted as bits

depending on the information to be contained in
the frame
 Bit-oriented protocol can pack more information
into shorter frames.
 The examples of bit-oriented protocol are:

 Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC)

 High Level Data Link Control (HDLC)

 Synchronous Data Link Control
(SDLC) Protocol
 SDLC protocol was developed by IBM in 1975.

 After developing SDLC, IBM submitted it to

American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and
to International Standard Organization (ISO) for
acceptance.
 ANSI modified it to ADCCP (Advanced Data
Communication Control Procedure.
 ISO modified it to HDLC (High Level Data Link
Control).
 Synchronous Data Link Control
(SDLC) Protocol
 The frame format of SDLC is:
01111110 01111110
Flag Address Control User Data ECF Flag
8-Bit 8-Bit 16-Bit

 The flag sequence of 8-bits 01111110 marks the

beginning and ending of the frame.
 Address field contains the address of the
receiver.
 Control field carries the sequence number,
acknowledgement, requests and responses.
 Synchronous Data Link Control
(SDLC) Protocol
 The frame format of SDLC is:
01111110 01111110
Flag Address Control User Data ECF Flag
8-Bit 8-Bit 16-Bit

 The user data field carries the data and is of

variable length.
 ECF stands for Error Checking Field and is of 16-
bits. It is used for error control.
 High Level Data Link Control
(HDLC) Protocol
 HDLC came into existence after ISO modified the
SDLC protocol.
 It is a bit-oriented protocol that supports both half
and full duplex communication.
 Systems using HDLC are characterized by:

 Station Types

 Configuration.

 Response Modes
 Station Types
 To make HDLC protocol applicable to various
network configurations, three types of stations
have been defined:
 Primary Station

 Secondary Station

 Combined Station
 Primary Station
 It has complete control over the link at any time.

 It has the responsibility of connecting &

disconnecting the link.
 The frames sent by primary station are called
commands.
 Secondary Station
 All the secondary stations work under the control
of primary station.
 The frames sent by secondary station are called
responses.
 Combined Station
 A combined station can behave either as primary
or as secondary station.
 It can send commands as well as responses.
 Configuration
 Configuration defines how the various stations
are connected to a link.
 There are three possible configurations:

 Unbalanced Configuration

 Symmetrical Configuration

 Balanced Configuration
 Unbalanced Configuration
This type of configuration exists if one station is
primary and other is secondary.
 Unbalanced Configuration
 It can further be of two types:

 Point-to-Point Unbalanced Configuration:

 If there is one primary and one secondary station.

 Multipoint Unbalanced Configuration:

 If there is one primary and many secondary stations.

 Symmetrical Configuration
 In this configuration, both sites contain two
stations: one primary and one secondary.
 Primary station of one site is linked with
secondary station of the other and vice versa.
Primary Primary
Command

Response

Secondary Secondary
Command
Response

SiteA Site B
 Balanced Configuration
 In this configuration, both sites have combined
stations.
 These combined stations are connected with
single link.
 This single link can be controlled by either station.
 Response Modes
 HDLC supports three modes of communication
between stations:
 Normal Response Mode (NRM)

 Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM)

 Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM)

Normal Response Mode (NRM)
 In this mode, primary station controls the link.

 Secondary station seeks permission from primary

before transmitting the data.
 Asynchronous Response Mode
(ARM)
 In this mode, if channel is idle, secondary station
may initiate the transmission without seeking
permission from the primary.
 If any secondary station wants to communicate
with other secondary station, the transmission is
done via primary station only.
 Asynchronous Balanced Mode
(ABM)
 This type of mode involves combined stations.

 There is no primary-secondary relationship, all

stations are equal.
 Therefore, either of the combined station can
initiate the transmission without seeking
permission from the other.
 Frame Structure in HDLC
 Frame in HDLC can have six fields:
01111110 01111110
Flag Address Control Information FCS Flag
8-Bit 8-Bit 8/16-Bit Variable 16-Bit 8-Bit

 Flag Field: It is the 8-bit field that contains

01111110. It marks the beginning and end of a
frame.
 Address Field: This field contains the address of
the receiver. It is 8-bit long.
 Frame Structure in HDLC
 Frame in HDLC can have six fields:
01111110 01111110
Flag Address Control Information FCS Flag
8-Bit 8-Bit 8/16-Bit Variable 16-Bit 8-Bit

 Control Field: It carries the sequence number,

acknowledgements, requests and responses. It
can be of 8-bit or 16-bit.
 Information Field: It contains user data. Its
length is different for different networks.
 Frame Structure in HDLC
 Frame in HDLC can have six fields:
01111110 01111110
Flag Address Control Information FCS Flag
8-Bit 8-Bit 8/16-Bit Variable 16-Bit 8-Bit

 FCS Field: FCS stands for Frame Check

Sequence. It is the error detection field and is 16-
bit long. It contains either 16-bit CRC or 32-bit
CRC.
 Types of Frames in HDLC
 HDLC defines three types of frames:

 Information Frame (I-Frame):

 I-Frames carry user data, and control information about user’s

data.

 Supervisory Frame (S-Frame):

 S-Frames carry flow & error control information.

 Unnumbered Frame (U-Frame):

 U-Frames are reserved for system management.

 They are used to exchange session management & control

information between the two connected devices.