COMPSCI 311 – Computer Network Architecture

Reliable Transmission
Reliable transmission
• How to guarantee packets are delivered correctly?
• Frames may be corrupted or lost, error correction may be impossible
Reliable transmission
• How to guarantee packets are delivered correctly?
• Frames may be corrupted or lost, error correction may be impossible

• General approach: retransmit frames on failures

• An ACK (acknowledgement) confirms that a frame was received
• Frames are retransmitted if no ACK is received before a timeout
Reliable transmission
• How to guarantee packets are delivered correctly?
• Frames may be corrupted or lost, error correction may be impossible

• General approach: retransmit frames on failures

• An ACK (acknowledgement) confirms that a frame was received
• Frames are retransmitted if no ACK is received before a timeout

• Receiver detects error by checking an error-detecting code like CRC

• The sender detects the error by the absence of an ACK before the timeout
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
Loop:
1. Send next frame
2. Wait for the ACK
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop:
1. Send next frame
2. Wait for the ACK
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

2. Wait for the ACK
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK Fram
e

ACK
Fram
e

ACK
Fram
e

ACK
Fram
e
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission Timeout

Loop:
1. Send next frame
2. Wait for the ACK
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission Timeout

ACK
Loop:
1. Send next frame
2. Wait for the ACK
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Timeout
Fram
e

1. Send next frame

2. Wait for the ACK
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Timeout
Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK Fram
e
Timeout
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK Fram
e
Timeout
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK Fram
e
Timeout
3. If ACK times out:
a. Continue with the same frame
Fram
e
4. If ACK arrives: Timeout

a. Continue with the next frame

Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK Fram
e

3. If ACK times out:

a. Continue with the same frame
Fram
e
4. If ACK arrives: Timeout

a. Continue with the next frame ACK

Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
Loop: Fram
e

1. Send next frame

ACK
2. Wait for the ACK Fram
e

3. If ACK times out:

a. Continue with the same frame
Fram
e
4. If ACK arrives:
a. Continue with the next frame ACK
Fram
e

ACK
Fram
e
Stop-and-wait Sender
Fram
e
Receiver

transmission
ACK
• We want a tight timeout Fram
e

• Not too long

ACK
• Waiting wastes bandwidth Fram
e
Timeout
• Not too short
• Spurious retransmission wastes
bandwidth Fram
e
Timeout
Stop-and-wait transmission
• Challenges with retransmissions

Early
No errors Retransmission Retransmission

Sender Receiver Sender Receiver Sender Receiver

Fram Fram Fram
e e e
Timeout Timeout
ACK
ACK ACK
Fram Fram
e Fram e
e
ACK
ACK
ACK
Stop-and-wait transmission
• Challenges with retransmissions

Early
No errors Retransmission Retransmission

Sender Receiver Sender Receiver Sender Receiver

Fram Fram Fram
e 1 e 1 e 1
Timeout Timeout
ACK
ACK ACK Fram
Fram e 1
e2 Fram
e 1
ACK
ACK
ACK
Sequence numbers
• Number each frame so we can identify each
• For stop-and-wait, a single bit (two frame identifiers) is enough
• ACKs must carry sequence number too
Early
No errors Retransmission Retransmission

Sender Receiver Sender Receiver Sender Receiver

Fram Fram Fram
e 1 e 1 e 1
Timeout Timeout
1
1 1 ACK
ACK ACK Fram
Fram e 1
e2 Fram
e 1
1
2 ACK
ACK 1
ACK
Stop-and-wait vs bandwidth-delay product
• Fast, long links can carry a lot of data
• Sending one frame at a time and waiting for ACK wastes bandwidth

(100ms each way)

Stop-and-wait vs bandwidth-delay product
• Fast, long links can carry a lot of data
• Sending one frame at a time and waiting for ACK wastes bandwidth
• Need to keep sending while waiting for ACKs

(100ms each way)

 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Continuous Transmission
time

transmission Propagation
delay

• Stop-and-wait is inefficient on
long high-bandwidth links

Time
 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Continuous Transmission
time

transmission Propagation
delay

• Stop-and-wait is inefficient on
long high-bandwidth links

Time
 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Continuous Transmission
time

transmission Propagation
delay

• Stop-and-wait is inefficient on
long high-bandwidth links
• Link is transmitting a small
fraction of the time

Time
 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Continuous 1

transmission
2
3
4
• Stop-and-wait is inefficient on 5

long high-bandwidth links 6

7
• Link is transmitting a small 8
fraction of the time 9
10
• Need to send multiple frames
while waiting for ACKs

Time
 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Continuous 1

transmission
2
3
4
• Stop-and-wait is inefficient on 5

long high-bandwidth links 6

7
• Link is transmitting a small 8
fraction of the time 9
10
• Need to send multiple frames
while waiting for ACKs
• In this example, need to send 10
frames without receiving an ACK

Time
Sliding window algorithm: sender
LAR LFS

• Send window size (SWS)

… …
• Last ACK received (LAR) ACK’d In flight Not yet sent
• Last frame sent (LFS) SWS = 7
Sliding window algorithm: sender
LAR LFS

• Send window size (SWS)

… …
• Last ACK received (LAR) ACK’d In flight Not yet sent
• Last frame sent (LFS) SWS = 7

Sliding window algorithm: receiver

LFR LFA

• Receive window size (RWS)

… …
• Largest frame acceptable (LFA) ACK’d Acceptable Not acceptable
• Last frame received (LFR) RWS = 7
Sliding window algorithm: sender
LAR LFS

• When ACK received:

• Move window forward
… …
ACK’d In flight Not yet sent
• Update LAR and LFS
SWS = 7
• Send next frames

Sliding window algorithm: receiver

LFR LFA

• When next frame received:

• Move window forward
… …
ACK’d Acceptable Not acceptable
• Update LFR and LFA
RWS = 7
• Send ACKs
Sliding window algorithm: sender
LAR LFS

• When timeout occurs:

• Retransmit whole window
… …
ACK’d In flight Not yet sent

SWS = 7

Sliding window algorithm: receiver

LFR LFA

• When next frame received:

• Move window forward
… …
ACK’d Acceptable Not acceptable
• Update LFR and LFA
RWS = 7
• Send ACKs
Transmission errors: Go-back-N
• Sender: retransmits whole window on timeout
• Receiver: ACKs whenever the next frame arrives
• Simple, but slow when errors occur
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … • Packets 6-12 in flight

ACK’d In flight Not yet sent

LFR LFA

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
ACK’d Acceptable Not acceptable
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)

LFR LFA

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)

LFR LFA

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)

LFR LFA

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)
• Receiver gets frame(9), sends ack(7)
LFR • Frame 8 missing, window stuck
LFA

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)
• Receiver gets frame(9), sends ack(7)
LFR • Frame 8 missing, window stuck
LFA
• Sender gets ack(7), sends frame(14)

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: duplicate ACKs
• Sender: Retransmit a frame whenever a duplicate ACK is received
• Retransmit whole window on timeout
• Receiver: Send ACK for LFR whenever a frame arrives out of order
LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)
• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)
• Receiver gets frame(9), sends ack(7)
LFR • Frame 8 missing, window stuck
LFA
• Sender gets ack(7), sends frame(14)

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … • Sender gets dupack(7), sends frame(8)

• Early retransmission may speed
up recovery from loss of frame(8)
 Transmission errors: selective ACKs
• Sender: Retransmits missing frames
• Receiver: Send cumulative ACKs when possible, selective ACKs otherwise

LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)

• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)
• Receiver gets frame(9), send sack(9)
LFR • Frame 8 missing, window stuck
LFA

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: selective ACKs
• Sender: Retransmits missing frames
• Receiver: Send cumulative ACKs when possible, selective ACKs otherwise

LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)

• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)
• Receiver gets frame(9), send sack(9)
LFR • Frame 8 missing, window stuck
LFA
• Sender gets ack(7), sends frame(14)

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 …
 Transmission errors: selective ACKs
• Sender: Retransmits missing frames
• Receiver: Send cumulative ACKs when possible, selective ACKs otherwise

LAR LFS • Receiver gets frame(5), sends ack(5)

• Sender gets ack(5)

Sender …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … •
•
Packets 6-12 in flight
Receiver gets frame(6), sends ack(6)
• Receiver gets frame(7), sends ack(7)
• Sender gets ack(6), sends frame(13)
• Receiver gets frame(9), send sack(9)
LFR • Frame 8 missing, window stuck
LFA
• Sender gets ack(7), sends frame(14)

Receiver …3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 … • Sender gets sack(9), sends frame(8)

• Sender knows exactly what
needs to be retransmitted
Sliding window and performance
• Goal: 100% link utilization
• How many packets should the sliding window have?
• We want to transmit 100% of the time until ACKs start arriving
 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Sliding window and performance

1
2
3
4
• Goal: 100% link utilization 5
6
• How many packets should the sliding window have? 7
• We want to transmit 100% of the time until ACKs start arriving 8
9
10

Time
 Endpoint 1 Endpoint 2

Sliding window and performance

1
2
3
4
• Goal: 100% link utilization 5
6
• How many packets should the sliding window have? 7
• We want to transmit 100% of the time until ACKs start arriving 8
9
• TransmissionTime = FrameSize / Bandwidth 10
• TimeToFirstACK = TransmissionTime + RoundTripTime
• NumberOfPackets = ⌈ TimeToFirstACK / TransmissionTime ⌉

Time
How many frame identifiers?
• Frame identifiers are stored in the frame header
• Overhead
• The smaller the better

• Number of distinct identifiers must be at least SWS + RWS

 How many frame identifiers?
0
Window Data
1
0123456 0
2
1234567 0 1
3
2345670 0 1 2
4
3456701 0 1 2 3
5
4567012 0 1 2 3 4
ACKs 6
received 5670123 0 1 2 3 4 5
7
6701234 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0
Second window 2
transmitted 7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1
3
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2
4
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3
5
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4
6
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5
 How many frame identifiers?
0
Window Data
1
0123456 0
2
1234567 0 1
3
2345670 0 1 2
4
3456701 0 1 2 3
5
4567012 0 1 2 3 4
All ACKs 6 Wrong
lost! 5670123 0 1 2 3 4 5 receptions!
7
6701234 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1
First window 7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0
retransmitted 2
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1
3
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2
4
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3
5
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4
6
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5
7012345 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5
How many frame identifiers?
• Frame identifiers are stored in the frame header
• Overhead
• The smaller the better

• Number of distinct identifiers must be at least SWS + RWS

• Need to prevent overlap of sequence numbers between SWS and RWS
Alternative: Multiple channels
• An alternative to sliding windows is using multiple (slow) channels
• Frames are sent on one of many channels
• Each channel uses stop-and-wait
• We can generate many channels to fully utilize bandwidth
Alternative: Multiple channels
• An alternative to sliding windows is using multiple (slow) channels
• Frames are sent on one of many channels
• Each channel uses stop-and-wait
• We can generate many channels to fully utilize bandwidth

• Need to allocate channel to applications or flows

• Allocation may be challenging depending on application or flow properties