SYNCHRONOUS TRANSMISSION

 With synchronous transmission, a block of bits is transmitted in a steady stream

without start and stop codes.
 The block may be many bits in length.
 To prevent timing drift between transmitter and receiver, their clocks must
somehow be synchronized.
 This technique works well over short distances, but over longer distances the
clock pulses are subject to the same impairments as the data signal, and timing
errors can occur.
 The other alternative is to embed the clocking information in the data signal. For
digital signals, this can be accomplished with Manchester or differential
Manchester encoding.
 With synchronous transmission, there is another level of synchronization
required, to allow the receiver to determine the beginning and end of a block of
data.
 For that, each block begins with a preamble bit pattern and generally ends with
a postamble bit pattern.
 The data plus preamble, postamble, and control information are called a frame..

 A typical frame format for synchronous transmission is, the frame starts with a
preamble called a flag, which is 8 bits long.
o The same flag is used as a postamble.
o The receiver looks for the occurrence of the flag pattern to signal the
start of a frame.
o This is followed by some number of control fields (containing data link
control protocol information then a data field variable length for most
protocols more control fields, and finally the flag is repeated.
 If the sender wishes to send data in separate bursts, the gaps between bursts
must be filled with a special sequence of 0s and is that means idle.
 The receiver counts the bits as they arrive and groups them in 8-bit units.
 The advantage of synchronous transmission is speed.
 With no extra bits or gaps to introduce at the sending end and remove at the
receiving end, synchronous transmission is faster than asynchronous
transmission.
 7. Link Access Procedures

 Network links can be divided into two categories those using point to-point
connections and those using broadcast channels.
 In point-to-point connection there exist a dedicated link between an individual pair
of sender and receiver. The capacity of the entire channel is reserved only for the
transmission of the packet between the sender and receiver.
 Point-to-point transmission with exactly one sender and one receiver is
sometimes called unicasting.
 Broadcast links (sometimes referred to as multiaccess channels or multipoint
channels or random access channels).
 The channel capacity is shared temporarily by every device connecting to the
link.
 The packet transmitted by the sender is received and processed by every device
on the link. But, by the address field in the packet, the receiver determines
whether the packet belongs to it or not, if not, it discards the packet, otherwise it
accepts and responds accordingly.
 It is the Media Access Control (MAC) sublayer of the Data Link layer that
determines who is allowed to access the media at any one time.
 Random-access protocols, such as ALOHA, CSMA CSMA/CD, and CSMA/CA.
 These protocols are mostly used in LANs and WANS
7.1. Random-Access Protocols
 In random-access or contention methods no station is superior to another station
and none is assigned control over another.
 At each instance, a station that has data to send uses a procedure defined by the
protocol to make a decision on whether or not to send. This decision depends on
the state of the medium (idle or busy).The 2 features of this protocol are:

o There is no scheduled time for a station to transmit Transmission is

random among the stations. That is why these methods are called
random access.
o No rules specify which station should send next. Stations compete with
one another to access the medium. That is why these methods are
also called contention methods.
 if more than one station tries to send, there is an access conflict (collision) and
the frames will be either destroyed or modified.
 To avoid access conflict or to resolve it when it happens, each station follows a
specific procedure based on the protocol in force. The following are the random
access protocols:
 1. ALOHA
2. CSMA
3. CSMA/CD
4. CSMA/CA

7.1.1. ALOНА

 ALOHA (originally stood for Additive Links On-line Hawaii Area).

 Developed in a networking system for coordinating and arbitrating access to a
shared communication networks channel.
 It was developed in the 1970s by Norman Abramson and his colleagues at the
University of Hawai.
 The original system used for ground based radio broadcasting, but the system
has been implemented in satellite communication systems.
 In the ALOHA system a node transmits whenever data is available to send.
 If another node transmits at the same time, a collision occurs, and the frames
that were transmitted are lost.
7.1.1.1. Pure ALOHA
 The original ALOHA protocol is called pure ALOHA.
 In pure ALOHA, each station sends a frame whenever it has a frame to send
(multiple access).
 Pure ALOHA does not check whether the channel is busy before transmitting.
 The pure ALOHA protocol relies on acknowledgments from the receiver.
 When a station sends a frame, it expects the receiver to send an
acknowledgment.
 If the acknowledgment does not arrive after a time-out period, the station
assumes that the frame (or the acknowledgment) has been destroyed and
resends the frame.
 Pure ALOHA dictates that when the time-out period passes, each station waits
a random amount of time, called backoff time, before resending its frame.

7.1.1.2. Slotted ALOHA

 Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency of pure ALOHA as

chances of collision in pure ALOHA are very high.
 In slotted ALOHA, the time of the shared channel is divided into discrete
intervals called slots.
 The stations can send a frame only at the beginning of the slot and only one
frame is sent in each slot.
 Because a station is allowed to send only at the beginning of the synchronized
time slot, if a station misses this moment, it must wait until the beginning of the
next time slot.
 This means that the station which started at the beginning of this slot has already
finished sending its frame.
CSMA
 It is known as Carrier Sense Multiple Access.
 CSMA verifies the absence of other traffic before transmitting on a shared
transmission medium.
 A transmitter attempts to determine whether another transmission is in progress
before initiating a transmission using a carrier-sense mechanism.
 That is, it tries to detect the presence of a carrier signal from another node before
attempting to transmit.
 If a carrier is sensed, the node waits for the transmission in progress to end
before initiating its own transmission.
 CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot eliminate it due to
propagation delay .
 When a station sends a frame, it still takes time (although very short) for the first
bit to reach every station and for every station to sense it.
 Variations of CSMA use different algorithms to determine when to initiate
transmission onto the shared medium.
 A key distinguishing feature of these algorithms is how aggressive or persistent
they are in initiating transmission.
 A more aggressive algorithm may begin transmission more quickly and utilize
a greater percentage of available bandwidth of the medium.

1-persistent:

 1-persistent CSMA is an aggressive transmission algorithm.

 When the transmitting node is ready to transmit, it senses the
transmission medium for idle or busy.
 If idle, then it transmits immediately.
 If busy, then it senses the transmission medium continuously until it
becomes idle, then transmits the frame unconditionally (i.e. with
probability = 1).
 In case of a collision, the sender waits for a random period of time and
attempts the same procedure again.
Non-persistent:

 Non persistent CSMA is a non-aggressive transmission algorithm.

 When the transmitting node is ready to transmit data, it senses the
transmission medium for idle or busy.
 If idle, then it transmits immediately. If busy, then it waits for a random
period of time before repeating the whole logic cycle (which started with
sensing the transmission medium for idle or busy) again.
 This approach reduces collision, results in overall higher medium
throughput but with a penalty of longer initial delay compared to 1-
persistent.

P-persistent:

 This is an approach between 1-persistent and non- persistent CSMA

access modes.
 When the transmitting node is ready to transmit data, it senses the
transmission medium for idle or busy. If idle, then it transmits immediately.
 If busy, then it senses the transmission medium continuously until it
becomes idle, then transmits with probability p.
 If the node does not transmit (the probability of this event is 1-p), it waits
until the next available time slot.
 If the transmission medium is not busy, it transmits again with the same
probability p.
 p-persistent CSMA is used in CSMA/CA systems including Wi-Fi and
other packet radio systems.

O-persistent:

 Each node is assigned a transmission order by a supervisory node.

 When the transmission medium goes idle, nodes wait for their time slot in
accordance with their assigned transmission order.
 The node assigned to transmit first transmits immediately.
 The node assigned to transmit second waits one time slot.
 Nodes monitor the medium for transmissions from other nodes and
update their assigned order with each detected transmission.
 Variations on basic CSMA include addition of collision-avoidance.
collision-detection and collision-resolution techniques
 7.1.3. CSMA/CD

 Persistent and non-persistent CSMA protocols are definitely an improvement

over ALOHA because they ensure that no station begins to transmit while the
channel is busy.
 An improvement over CSMA is for the stations to quickly detect the collision and
abruptly stop transmitting. This strategy saves time and bandwidth.
 Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) extends
the CSMA algorithm to handle the collision In this method.
 A station monitors the medium after it sends a frame to see if the transmission
was successful. If so, the station is finished.
 If, however, there is a collision, the frame is sent again.
 CSMA/CD improves performance by terminating transmission as soon as a
collision is detected.
 CSMA/CD is used by Ethernet
 The collision detection is an analogue process.
 A station can sense a collision by checking the level of energy in a channel,
which can have three values: zero, normal, and abnormal .
o At the zero level, the channel is idle.
o At the normal level, a station has successfully captured the channel
and is sending its frame.
o At the abnormal level, there is a collision and the level of the energy is
twice the normal level.
 A station that has a frame to send or is sending a frame needs to monitor the
energy level to determine if the channel is in idle or collision mode.

7.1.4. CSMA/CA

 In Carrier-sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA),

collision avoidance is used to improve the performance of CSMA.
 If the transmission medium is sensed busy before transmission, then the
transmission is deferred for a random interval.
 This random interval reduces the likelihood that two or more nodes waiting to
transmat will simultaneously begin transmission upon termination of the
detected transmission, thus reducing the incidence of collision.
 CSMA/CA is used by Wi-Fi.
 CSMA/CA uses the following three strategies to avoid collisions: the inter-frame
space, the contention window, and acknowledgments.

Interframe Space (IFS).

 First, collisions are avoided by delaying transmission even if the channel is
found idle.
 When an idle channel is found, the station does not send immediately. It waits
for a period of time called the inter-frame space or IFS
 Even though the channel may appear idle when it is sensed, a distant station
may have already started transmitting.
 After waiting an IFS time if the channel is still idle, the station can send, but it
still needs to wait a time equal to the contention window.
 The IFS variable can also be used to prioritize stations or frame types.
 For example, a station that is assigned a shorter IFS has a higher priority.

Contention Window.

 The contention window is an amount of time divided into slots.

 A station that is ready to send chooses a random number of slots as its wait
time.
 The number of slots in the window changes according to the binary exponential
back off strategy.
 Thus means that it is set to one slot the first time and then doubles each time
the station cannot detect an idle channel after the IFS time.

Acknowledgment

 The data may be corrupted during the transmission.

 The positive acknowledgment and the time-out timer can help guarantee that
the receiver has received the frame.

7.2. Controlled-Access Protocols

 In controlled access, the stations consult one another to find which station has
the right to send.
 A station cannot send unless it has been authorized by other stations.
 Controlled-access protocols include:

o Reservation

o Polling

o Token Ring Passing

 7.2.1 Reservation

 In the reservation method, a station needs to make a reservation before sending

data.
 Time is divided into intervals.
 In each interval, a reservation frame precedes the data frames sent in that
interval. I
 f there are N stations in the system, there are exactly N reservation mini-slots in
the reservation frame.
 Each mini-slot belongs to a station. When a station needs to send a data frame,
it makes a reservation in its own mini-slot.
 The stations that have made reservations can send their data frames after the
reservation frame.

7.2.2 Polling

 Polling works with topologies in which one device is designated as a primary

station and the other devices are secondary stations.
 All data exchanges must be made through the primary device even when the
ultimate destination is a secondary device.
 The primary device controls the link; the secondary devices follow its
instructions.
 It is up to the primary device to determine which device is allowed to use the
channel at a given time.
 primary device, therefore, is always the initiator of a session
 This method uses poll and select functions to prevent collisions.
 The select function is used whenever the primary device has something to send.
o If the primary is neither sending nor receiving data, it knows the link is
available. If it has something to send, the primary device sends it.

o So the primary must alert the secondary to the upcoming transmission

and wait for an acknowledgment of the secondary's ready status.
 o Before sending data, the primary creates and transmits a select (SEL)
frame, one field of which includes the address of the intended
secondary.
 The poll function is used by the primary device to solicit transmissions from the
secondary devices
o When the primary is ready to receive data, it must ask (poll) each
device in turn if it has anything to send.

o When the first secondary is approached, it responds either with a NAK

frame if it has nothing to send or with data.

o When the response is positive (a data frame), the primary reads the
frame and returns an acknowledgment (ACK frame), verifying its
receipt.
 The drawback is that if the primary device fails, entire system fails.

7.2.3 Token Passing Protocol

 In the token-passing protocol ,the stations in a network are organized in a logical

ring.
 In other words, for each station, there is a predecessor and a successor.
o The predecessor is the station which is logically before the
station in the ring:
o the successor is the station which is after the station in the ring.
o The current station is the one that is accessing the channel now.
 The right to this access has been passed from the predecessor to the current
station.
 The right will be passed to the successor when the current station has no more
data to send.
 In this method, a special packet called a token circulates through the ring.
 When a station has some data to send, it waits until it receives the token from
its predecessor. It then holds the token and sends its data.
 When the station has no more data to send, it releases the token, passing it to
the next logical station in the ring.
 The station cannot send data until it receives the token again in the next round.
In this process, when a station receives the token and has no data to send, it
just passes the data to the next station
 Token management is needed for this access method.
 Stations must be limited in the time they can have possession of the token.
 The token must be monitored to ensure it has not been lost or destroyed.
 8. Wired LAN

 A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers

within a limited area such as a residence. school, laboratory, university campus
or office building.
 A LAN may be wired, wireless, or a combination of the two.
 "Wired" is the term that refers to any physical medium consisting of cables.
 The cables can be copper wire, twisted pair or fibre optic.
 A wired LAN uses cables to connect devices, such as laptop or desktop
computers, to the Internet or another network.
 The LAN market has seen several technologies such as Ethernet, Token Ring.
Token Bus, FDDI (Fibre Distribution Data Interface), and ATM (Asynchronous
Transfer Mode) LAN.

8.1. IEEE Standards(22 sub parts)

 In 1985, the Computer Society of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers) started a project, called Project 802, to set standards to enable
intercommunication among equipment from a variety of manufacturers.
 The objectives of the Project 802 was to provide a way for specifying functions
of the physical layer and the data link layer of major LAN protocols.
 This standards are restricted to networks carrying variable-size packets.

 The IEEE 802 standard splits the OSI Data Link Layer into two sub layers named
Logical Link Control (LLC) and Media Acces Control (MAC).

 The LLC provides a single link-layer control protocol for all IEEE LANs.
 This means LLC protocol can provide interconnectivity between
different LANs because it makes the MAC sublayer transparent.
 The LLC layer performs flow control, error control, and part of the
framing duties.
 The Media Access Control that defines the specific access method for each
LAN.
 The MAC layer varies for different network types and is defined by different
standards.
 A part of the framing function is also handled by the MAC layer.
 The better known specifications include 802.3 Ethernet, 802.11 Wi-Fi (wireless
LAN), 802.15 Bluetooth (wireless Personal Area Network), and 802.16 Wireless
Metropolitan Area Networks.