While sending the data from the sender to the receiver the

flow of data needs to be controlled.

Suppose a situation where the sender is sending the data at
a rate higher than the receiver is able to receive and
process it, then the data will get lost.
The Flow-control methods will help in ensuring that the
data doesn't get lost.
The flow control method will keep a check that the senders
send the data only at a rate that the receiver is able to
receive and process.
There are mainly two ways in which this can be achieved
i.e. using Stop-and-wait protocol or sliding window
protocol.

Stop and Wait ARQ

Characteristics

 Used in Connection-oriented
communication.
 It offers error and flow control
 It is used in Data Link and Transport
Layers
 Stop and Wait ARQ mainly implements
Sliding Window Protocol concept with
Window Size 1
Useful Terms:

 Propagation Delay: Amount of time

taken by a packet to make a physical
journey from one router to another router.
Propagation Delay = (Distance between
routers) / (Velocity of propagation)
 RoundTripTime (RTT) = 2* Propagation
Delay
 TimeOut (TO) = 2* RTT
 Time To Live (TTL) = 2* TimeOut.
(Maximum TTL is 180 seconds)

Simple Stop and Wait

Sender:

Rule 1) Send one data packet at a time.

Rule 2) Send next packet only after receiving
acknowledgement for previous.

Receiver:

Rule 1) Send acknowledgement after receiving

and consuming of data packet.
Rule 2) After consuming packet
acknowledgement need to be sent (Flow
Control)
Problems :
1. Lost Data
2. Lost Acknowledgement:

3. Delayed Acknowledgement/Data: After

timeout on sender side, a long delayed
acknowledgement might be wrongly
considered as acknowledgement of some
other recent packet.

Stop and Wait ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request)

Above 3 problems are resolved by Stop and

Wait ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) that
does both error control and flow control.
1. Time Out:

2. Sequence Number (Data)

3. Delayed Acknowledgement:
This is resolved by introducing sequence
number for acknowledgement also.

Working of Stop and Wait ARQ:

1) Sender A sends a data frame or packet with

sequence number 0.
2) Receiver B, after receiving data frame,
sends and acknowledgement with sequence
number 1 (sequence number of next expected
data frame or packet)
There is only one bit sequence number that
implies that both sender and receiver have
buffer for one frame or packet only.
Characteristics of Stop and Wait ARQ:

 It uses link between sender and receiver as

half duplex link
 Throughput = 1 Data packet/frame per
RTT
 If Bandwidth*Delay product is very high,
then stop and wait protocol is not so useful.
The sender has to keep waiting for
acknowledgements before sending the
processed next packet.
 It is an example for “Closed Loop OR
connection oriented “ protocols
 It is an special category of SWP where its
window size is 1
 Irrespective of number of packets sender is

having stop and wait protocol requires

only 2 sequence numbers 0 and 1
The Stop and Wait ARQ solves main three
problems, but may cause big performance
issues as sender always waits for
acknowledgement even if it has next packet
ready to send. Consider a situation where you
have a high bandwidth connection and
propagation delay is also high (you are
connected to some server in some other
country though a high speed connection). To
solve this problem, we can send more than
one packet at a time with a larger sequence
numbers. We will be discussing these
protocols in next articles.
So Stop and Wait ARQ may work fine where
propagation delay is very less for example
LAN connections, but performs badly for
distant connections like satellite connection.

next →← prev

Stop and Wait Protocol

Before understanding the stop and Wait
protocol, we first know about the error
control mechanism. The error control
mechanism is used so that the received data
should be exactly same whatever sender
has sent the data. The error control
mechanism is divided into two categories,
i.e., Stop and Wait ARQ and sliding window.
The sliding window is further divided into
two categories, i.e., Go Back N, and
Selective Repeat. Based on the usage, the
people select the error control mechanism
whether it is stop and wait or sliding
window.
What is Stop and Wait protocol?

Here stop and wait means, whatever the

data that sender wants to send, he sends
the data to the receiver. After sending the
data, he stops and waits until he receives
the acknowledgment from the receiver. The
stop and wait protocol is a flow control
protocol where flow control is one of the
services of the data link layer.
It is a data-link layer protocol which is used
for transmitting the data over the noiseless
channels. It provides unidirectional data
transmission which means that either
sending or receiving of data will take place
at a time. It provides flow-control
mechanism but does not provide any error
control mechanism.
The idea behind the usage of this frame is
that when the sender sends the frame then
he waits for the acknowledgment before
sending the next frame.
Primitives of Stop and Wait Protocol
The primitives of stop and wait
protocol are:
Sender side
Rule 1: Sender sends one data packet at a
time.
Rule 2: Sender sends the next packet only
when it receives the acknowledgment of the
previous packet.
Therefore, the idea of stop and wait protocol
in the sender's side is very simple, i.e., send
one packet at a time, and do not send
another packet before receiving the
acknowledgment.
Receiver side
Rule 1: Receive and then consume the data
packet.
Rule 2: When the data packet is consumed,
receiver sends the acknowledgment to the
sender.
Therefore, the idea of stop and wait protocol
in the receiver's side is also very simple, i.e.,
consume the packet, and once the packet is
consumed, the acknowledgment is sent. This
is known as a flow control mechanism.
Working of Stop and Wait protocol
The above figure shows the working of the
stop and wait protocol. If there is a sender
and receiver, then sender sends the packet
and that packet is known as a data packet.
The sender will not send the second packet
without receiving the acknowledgment of
the first packet. The receiver sends the
acknowledgment for the data packet that it
has received. Once the acknowledgment is
received, the sender sends the next packet.
This process continues until all the packet
are not sent.
The main advantage of this protocol is its
simplicity but it has some disadvantages
also. For example, if there are 1000 data
packets to be sent, then all the 1000
packets cannot be sent at a time as in Stop
and Wait protocol, one packet is sent at a
time.
Disadvantages of Stop and Wait protocol
The following are the problems
associated with a stop and wait
protocol:
1. Problems occur due to lost data
Suppose the sender sends the data and the
data is lost. The receiver is waiting for the
data for a long time. Since the data is not
received by the receiver, so it does not send
any acknowledgment. Since the sender does
not receive any acknowledgment so it will
not send the next packet. This problem
occurs due to the lost data.
In this case, two problems occur:
o Sender waits for an infinite amount of
time for an acknowledgment.
o Receiver waits for an infinite amount of
time for a data.
2. Problems occur due to lost
acknowledgment
Suppose the sender sends the data and it
has also been received by the receiver. On
receiving the packet, the receiver sends the
acknowledgment. In this case, the
acknowledgment is lost in a network, so
there is no chance for the sender to receive
the acknowledgment. There is also no
chance for the sender to send the next
packet as in stop and wait protocol, the next
packet cannot be sent until the
acknowledgment of the previous packet is
received.
In this case, one problem occurs:
 o Sender waits for an infinite amount of
time for an acknowledgment.
3. Problem due to the delayed data or
acknowledgment

Suppose the sender sends the data and it has

also been received by the receiver. The
receiver then sends the acknowledgment but
the acknowledgment is received after the
timeout period on the sender's side. As the
acknowledgment is received late, so
acknowledgment can be wrongly considered
as the acknowledgment of some other data
packet.
Advantages of Stop and Wait Protocol
1. It is very simple to implement.
2. The main advantage of this protocol is
the accuracy. The next frame is sent only
when the first frame is acknowledged. So,
there is no chance of any frame being
lost.

Disadvantages of Stop and Wait Protocol

1. We can send only one packet at a
time.
2. If the distance between the sender
and the receiver is large then the
propagation delay would be more than
the transmission delay. Hence, efficiency
would become very low.
3. After every transmission, the sender
has to wait for the acknowledgment and
this time will increase the total
transmission time. This makes the
transmission process slow.
This is how the flow of data is controlled
using the stop-and-wait protocol
Flow Control in Computer Networks-

In computer networks, flow control is defined as-

A set of procedures which are used for restricting the

amount of data that a sender can send to the receiver.

Flow Control Protocols-

There are various flow control protocols which are

classified as-
 Stop and Wait Protocol-

Stop and Wait Protocol is the simplest flow control

protocol.

It works under the following assumptions-

 Communication channel is perfect.
 No error occurs during transmission.
 Working-

The working of a stop and wait protocol may be

explained as-
 Sender sends a data packet to the receiver.
 Sender stops and waits for the acknowledgement
for the sent packet from the receiver.
 Receiver receives and processes the data packet.
 Receiver sends an acknowledgement to the
sender.
 After receiving the acknowledgement, sender
sends the next data packet to the receiver.

These steps are illustrated below-

 Analysis-

Now, let us analyze in depth how the transmission is

actually carried out-

 Sender puts the data packet on the transmission

link.
 Data packet propagates towards the receiver’s
end.
 Data packet reaches the receiver and waits in its
buffer.
 Receiver processes the data packet.
 Receiver puts the acknowledgement on the
transmission link.
 Acknowledgement propagates towards the
sender’s end.
 Acknowledgement reaches the sender and waits in
its buffer.
 Sender processes the acknowledgement.

These steps are illustrated below-

 Advantages-

The advantages of stop and wait protocol are-

 It is very simple to implement.
 The incoming packet from receiver is always an
acknowledgement.
 Limitations-

The limitations of stop and wait protocol are-

Point-01:

It is extremely inefficient because-

 It makes the transmission process extremely slow.
 It does not use the bandwidth entirely as each
single packet and acknowledgement uses the
entire time to traverse the link.

Point-02:

If the data packet sent by the sender gets lost, then-

 Sender will keep waiting for the
acknowledgement for infinite time.
 Receiver will keep waiting for the data packet for
infinite time.

Point-03:
 If acknowledgement sent by the receiver gets lost,
then-
 Sender will keep waiting for the
acknowledgement for infinite time.
 Receiver will keep waiting for another data packet
for infinite time.

Important Notes-

Note-01:

Efficiency may also be referred by the following

names-
 Line Utilization
 Link Utilization
 Sender Utilization
 Utilization of Sender

Note-02:

Throughput may also be referred by the following

names-
 Bandwidth Utilization
 Effective Bandwidth
 Maximum data rate possible
 Maximum achievable throughput

Note-03:

Stop and Wait protocol performs better for LANs

than WANs.
This is because-
 Efficiency of the protocol is inversely proportional to
the distance between sender and receiver.
 So, the protocol performs better where the distance
between sender and receiver is less.
 The distance is less in LANs as compared to
WANs.

Stop and Wait Protocol-

In stop and wait protocol,

 Sender sends one data packet and then waits for
its acknowledgement.
 Sender sends the next packet only after it receives
the acknowledgement for the previous packet.
The main problem faced by the Stop and Wait
protocol is the occurrence of deadlock due to-
1.Loss of data packet
2.Loss of acknowledgement

Stop and Wait ARQ-

Stop and Wait ARQ is an improved and modified version

of Stop and Wait protocol.
 Stop and Wait ARQ assumes-
 The communication channel is noisy.
 Errors may get introduced in the data during the
transmission.

Working-

 Stop and wait ARQ works similar to stop and wait

protocol.
 It provides a solution to all the limitations of stop
and wait protocol.
 Stop and wait ARQ includes the following three
extra elements.

Thus, we can say-

Stop and Wait ARQ

 = Stop and Wait Protocol + Time Out Timer + Sequence
Numbers for Data Packets and Acknowledgements

Number of Sequence Numbers Required-

NOTE
For any sliding window protocol to work without any
problem,
the following condition must be satisfied-
Available Sequence Numbers >= Sender Window
Size + Receiver Window Size

Stop and wait ARQ is a one bit sliding window

protocol where-
 Sender window size = 1
 Receiver window size = 1

Thus, in stop and wait ARQ,

Minimum number of sequence numbers required
= Sender Window Size + Receiver Window Size
=1+1
 =2

Thus,
 Minimum number of sequence numbers required in
Stop and Wait ARQ = 2.
 The two sequence numbers used are 0 and 1.

How Stop and Wait ARQ Solves All Problems?

1. Problem of Lost Data Packet-

 Time out timer helps to solve the problem of lost

data packet.
 After sending a data packet to the receiver, sender
starts the time out timer.
 If the data packet gets acknowledged before the
timer expires, sender stops the time out timer.
 If the timer goes off before receiving the
acknowledgement, sender retransmits the same
data packet.
 After retransmission, sender resets the timer.
 This prevents the occurrence of deadlock.
 2. Problem of Lost Acknowledgement-

 Sequence number on data packets help to solve

the problem of delayed acknowledgement.
 Consider the acknowledgement sent by the
receiver gets lost.
 Then, sender retransmits the same data packet
after its timer goes off.
 This prevents the occurrence of deadlock.
 The sequence number on the data packet helps
the receiver to identify the duplicate data packet.
 Receiver discards the duplicate packet and re-
sends the same acknowledgement.
 Role of Sequence Number on Data Packets

Consider the above example-

Step-01:

 Sender sends a data packet with sequence number-

0 to the receiver.
 Step-02:

 Receiver receives the data packet correctly.

 Receiver now expects data packet with sequence
number-1.
 Receiver sends the acknowledgement ACK-1.

Step-03:

 Acknowledgement ACK-1 sent by the receiver gets

lost on the way.

Step-04:

 Sender receives no acknowledgement and time out

occurs.
 Sender retransmits the same data packet with
sequence number-0.
 This will be a duplicate packet for the receiver.

Step-05:

 Receiver receives the data packet and discovers it is

 the duplicate packet.
 It expects the data packet with sequence number-1
but receiving the data packet with sequence
number-0.
 It discards the duplicate data packet and re-sends
acknowledgement ACK-1.
 ACK-1 requests the sender to send a data packet
with sequence number-1.
 This avoids the inconsistency of data.

Conclusion-

 Had the sequence numbers not been allotted to the

data packets, receiver would have accepted the
duplicate data packet thinking of it as the new data
packet.
 This is how sequence numbers allotted to the data
packets prove to be useful for identifying the
duplicate data packets and discarding them.

3. Problem of Delayed Acknowledgement-

 Sequence number on acknowledgements help to

solve the problem of delayed acknowledgement.
Role of Sequence Number on Acknowledgements

Consider the above example-

Step-01:
 Sender sends a data packet with sequence number-
0 to the receiver.

Step-02:

 Receiver receives the data packet correctly.

 Receiver now expects data packet with sequence
number-1.
 Receiver sends the acknowledgement ACK-1.

Step-03:

 Acknowledgement ACK-1 sent by the receiver gets

delayed in reaching the sender.

Step-04:

 Sender receives no acknowledgement and time out

occurs.
 Sender retransmits the same data packet with
sequence number-0.
 This will be a duplicate packet for the receiver.
 Step-05:

 Receiver receives the data packet and discovers it is

the duplicate packet.
 It expects the data packet with sequence number-1
but receiving the data packet with sequence
number-0.
 It discards the duplicate data packet and re-sends
acknowledgement ACK-1.
 ACK-1 requests the sender to send a data packet
with sequence number-1.

Step-06:

 Two acknowledgements ACK1 reaches the sender.

 When first acknowledgement ACK1 reaches the
sender, sender sends the next data packet with
sequence number 1.
 When second acknowledgement ACK1 reaches the
sender, sender rejects the duplicate
acknowledgement.
 This is because it has already sent the data packet
with sequence number-1 and now sender expects
the acknowledgement with sequence number 0 from
the receiver.
 Conclusion-

 Had the sequence numbers not been allotted to the

acknowledgements, sender would have accepted
the duplicate acknowledgement thinking of it as the
new acknowledgement for the latest data packet
sent by it.
 This is how sequence numbers allotted to the
acknowledgements prove to be useful for identifying
duplicate acknowledgements and discarding them.

4. Problem of Damaged Packet-

 If receiver receives a corrupted data packet from

the sender, it sends a negative acknowledgement
(NAK) to the sender.
 NAK requests the sender to send the data packet
again.
Stop and Wait Protocol Vs Stop and Wait ARQ-

The following comparison table states the

differences between the two protocols-

Stop and Wait Protocol Stop and Wait ARQ

It assumes that the It assumes that the

communication channel is communication channel is
perfect and noise free. imperfect and noisy.

Data packet sent by the Data packet sent by the

sender can never get sender may get corrupt.
corrupt.

A negative
There is no concept of acknowledgement is sent
negative by the receiver if the data
acknowledgements. packet is found to be
corrupt.

Sender starts the time out

There is no concept of time
timer after sending the data
out timer.
packet.

Data packets and

There is no concept of acknowledgements are
sequence numbers. numbered using sequence
numbers.

Limitation of Stop and Wait ARQ-

The major limitation of Stop and Wait ARQ is its very

less efficiency.
 To increase the efficiency, protocols like Go back
N and Selective Repeat are used.

Explanation-

In stop and wait ARQ,

 Sender window size is 1.
 This allows the sender to keep only one frame
unacknowledged.
 So, sender sends one frame and then waits until
the sent frame gets acknowledged.
 After receiving the acknowledgement from the
receiver, sender sends the next frame.