Flow Control

In a network, the sender sends the data and the receiver receives the
data. But suppose a situation where the sender is sending the data at
a speed higher than the receiver is able to receive and process it, then
the data will get lost. Flow-control methods will help in ensuring
this. The flow control method will keep a check that the senders send
the data only at a speed that the receiver is able to receive and
process. So, let's get started with the blog and learn more about flow
control.
Flow control tells the sender how much data should be sent to the
receiver so that it is not lost. This mechanism makes the sender wait
for an acknowledgment before sending the next data. There are two
ways to control the flow of data:
1. Stop and Wait Protocol
2. Sliding Window Protocol
Stop and Wait Protocol
It is the simplest flow control method. In this, the sender will send
one frame at a time to the receiver. Until then, the sender will stop
and wait for the acknowledgment from the receiver. When the
sender gets the acknowledgment then it will send the next data
packet to the receiver and wait for the acknowledgment again and
this process will continue. This can be understood by the diagram
below.
Suppose if any frame sent is not received by the receiver and is lost.
So the receiver will not send any acknowledgment as it has not
received any frame. Also, the sender will not send the next frame as it
will wait for the acknowledgment for the previous frame which it had
sent. So a deadlock situation can be created here. To avoid any such
situation there is a time-out timer. The sender will wait for this fixed
amount of time for the acknowledgment and if the acknowledgment
is not received then it will send the frame again.
There are two types of delays while sending these frames:
• Transmission Delay: Time taken by the sender to send all
the bits of the frame onto the wire is called transmission delay.
This is calculated by dividing the data size(D) which has to be
sent by the bandwidth(B) of the link.
Td = D / B
• Propagation Delay: Time taken by the last bit of the frame to
reach from one side to the other side is called propagation
delay. It is calculated by dividing the distance between the
sender and receiver by the wave propagation speed.
Tp = d / s ; where d = distance between sender and receiver, s =
wave propagation speed
The propagation delay for sending the data frame and the
acknowledgment frame is the same as distance and speed will remain
the same for both frames. Hence, the total time required to send a
frame is
Total time= Td(Transmission Delay) + Tp(Propagation Delay for
data frame) + Tp(Propagation Delay for acknowledgment frame)
The sender is doing work only for Td time and for the rest 2Tp time
the sender is waiting for the acknowledgment.
Efficiency = Useful Time/ Total Time
η=Td / (Td+2Tp)
Advantages of Stop and Wait Protocol
1. It is very simple to implement.
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.
Sliding Window Protocol
As we saw that the disadvantage of the stop and wait protocol is that
the sender waits for the acknowledgment and during that time the
sender is idle. In sliding window protocol we will utilize this time. We
will change this waiting time into transmission time.
A window is a buffer where we store the frames. Each frame in a
window is numbered. If the window size is n then the frames are
numbered from the number 0 to n-1. A sender can send n frames at a
time. When the receiver sends the acknowledgment of the frame then
we need not store that frame in our window as it has already been
received by the receiver. So, the window in the sender side slides to
the next frame and this window will now contain a new frame along
with all the previous unacknowledged frames of the window. At any
instance of time window will only contain the
unacknowledged frames. This can be understood with
the example below:
1. Suppose the size of the window is 4. So, the frames would be
numbered as 0,1,2,3,0,1,2,3,0,… so on.
2. Initially, the frames in the window are 0,1,2, 3. Now, the sender
starts transmitting the frames. The first frame is sent, then
second and so on.
3. When the receiver receives the first frame i.e. frame 0. Then it
sends an acknowledgment.
4. When the acknowledgment is received by the sender then it
knows that the first frame has been received by the receiver and
it need not keep its record. So, the window slides to the next
frame.
5. The new window contains the frame 1, 2, 3, 0. In this way, the
window slides hence the name sliding window protocol.
Using sliding window protocol, the efficiency can be made maximum
i.e. 1. In sliding window protocol we are using the propagation delay
time also for the transmission. For doing this we the sender should be
sending the data frame all the time i.e for Td+2Tp time. So, what
should be the number of packets such that the efficiency is
maximum?
We will apply a simple unitary method to find this. In Td units of
time, we can send one packet. So in one unit of time, we can send
1/Td packets. We have total time as Td+2Tp. Therefore, in Td+2Tp
time we can send (Td+2Tp)/Td packets. Let a=Tp/Td. So, if we send
1+2a packets then the efficiency is 1.
Td units of time → 1 packet transmitted
1 unit of time → (1/ Td) packet transmitted
Td + 2Tp units of time → (Td + 2Tp) / Td packets transmitted