Data Link Control (DLC)

AD42 Data Communication and Networking

Framing
•Framing in the data-link layer separates a message from one
source to a destination by adding a sender address and a
destination address
◦ The destination address defines where the packet is to go
◦ The sender address helps the recipient acknowledge the receipt
•Why the whole message not packed in one frame?
◦ A frame can be very large, making flow and error control very inefficient
◦ When a message is carried in one very large frame, even a single-bit
error would require the retransmission of the whole frame
•When a message is divided into smaller frames, a single-bit
error affects only that small frame
◦ Frame Size?
◦ Fixed-Size Framing
◦ Variable-Size Framing

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Framing …
•Fixed-Size Framing
◦ no need for defining the boundaries of the frames
◦ the size itself can be used as a delimiter
◦ An example of this type of framing is the ATM WAN, which uses frames
of fixed size called cells
◦ ATM: Asynchronous Transfer Mode( connection oriented, high-speed network technology
that is used in both LAN and WAN over optical fiber and operates upto gigabit speed )

•Variable-Size Framing -
◦ need a way to define the end of one frame and the beginning of the
next
◦ Historically, two approaches were used for this purpose:
◦ a character-oriented (or byte-oriented) approach
◦ a bit-oriented approach
◦ prevalent in local-area networks

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Character-Oriented Framing
•Data to be carried are 8-bit characters from a coding
system such as ASCII
•The header (also multiples of 8 bits) normally carries
◦the source and destination addresses
◦other control information
◦the trailer, which carries error detection redundant bits
•To separate one frame from the next, an 8-bit (1-byte) flag
is added at the beginning and the end of a frame
◦The flag composed of protocol-dependent special characters

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Problem with flag
•Text communication: flag could be selected to be any
character not used for text communication
•Sending other types of information such as graphs, audio,
and video: any character used for the flag could also be
part of the information
•If flag is a part of the information, the receiver, when it
encounters this pattern in the middle of the data, thinks it
has reached the end of the frame

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Solution to Flag Problem
•Add a byte-stuffing strategy to character-oriented framing
•In byte stuffing (or character stuffing), a special byte is added
to the data section of the frame when there is a character with
the same pattern as the flag
•The data section is stuffed with an extra byte
◦ called the escape character (ESC) and has a predefined bit pattern
•Whenever the receiver encounters the ESC character, it
removes it from the data section and treats the next character
as data, not as a delimiting flag
•If the escape character is part of the text, an extra one is added
to show that the second one is part of the text

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Byte stuffing and unstuffing

•The universal coding systems in use today, such as Unicode, have

16-bit and 32-bit characters that conflict with 8-bit characters
◦ bit-oriented protocols

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Bit-Oriented Framing
•Data section of a frame is a sequence of bits to be
interpreted by the upper layer as text, graphic, audio,
video, and so on
•In addition to headers (and possible trailers), need a
delimiter to separate one frame from the other
◦Most protocols use a special 8-bit pattern flag, 01111110, as the
delimiter to define the beginning and the end of the frame

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Bit-Oriented Framing
•Bit stuffing is the process of adding one extra 0 whenever
five consecutive 1s follow a 0 in the data, so that the
receiver does not mistake the pattern 0111110 for a flag
•If the flaglike pattern 01111110 appears in the data, it will
change to 011111010 (stuffed) and is not mistaken for a
flag by the receiver
◦ The real flag 01111110 is not stuffed by the sender and is
recognized by the receiver

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Bit-Oriented Framing

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Example 1
•Byte-stuff the following frame payload in which
◦E is the escape byte
◦F is the flag byte
◦D is a data byte
◦other than an escape or a flag character.

FDEEDDEFDDEEEEDEFDF

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Example 2
•Unstuff the following frame payload in which
◦E is the escape byte
◦F is the flag byte
◦D is a data byte
◦other than an escape or a flag character.

E DFDDFEDDD

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Example 3
•Bit-stuff the following frame payload:
0001111111001111101000111111111110000111

00011111011001111100100011111011111010000111

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Example 4
•Unstuff the following frame payload:
00011111000001111101110100111011111000001111

00011111000001111101110100111011111000001111
00011111000011111111010011101111100001111

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Error Control
•At the data-link layer, corrupted frame needs to be corrected before
it continues its journey to other nodes
•Detecting errors
◦ block coding
◦ cyclic codes – CRC
◦ checksums
•Correcting errors
◦ Forward error correction
◦ Hamming distance
◦ XORing of packets
◦ interleaving chunks
◦ compounding high and low resolutions packets
◦ Automatic repeat request (ARQ)
•Most link-layer protocols simply discard the frame and let the
upper-layer protocols handle the retransmission of the frame

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Error Detection and Correction Issues
•Types of Errors
◦Single-bit and burst error
•Redundancy
◦some extra bits with our data
•Detection versus Correction
•Coding
◦block coding and convolution coding

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Types of Errors
•Single-bit errors: only 1 bit of a given data unit is
changed from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1

•Burst errors: 2 or more bits in the data unit is changed

from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1
• more likely to occur because the
duration of the noise signal is normally
longer than the duration of 1 bit
• The number of bits affected depends on
the data rate and duration of noise
• Consider a noise of 1/100 second, 1 kbps
data rate can affect 10 bits whereas 1
Mbps data rate affect 10,000 bits
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Redundancy
•To detect or correct errors, redundant bits (some extra bits)
of data must be added by sender and removed by receiver
◦allows the receiver to detect or correct corrupted bits

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Coding
•Process of adding redundancy for error detection or
correction creates a relationship between the redundant
bits and the actual data bits
•Two types:
◦Block codes
◦ Divides the data to be sent into a set of blocks
◦ Extra information attached to each block
◦ Memoryless
◦Convolutional codes
◦ Treats data as a series of bits, and computes a code over a continuous series
◦ The code computed for a set of bits depends on the current and previous
input

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Detection versus Correction
•correction of errors is more difficult than the detection
•error detection only looking to see if any error has
occurred not the number of corrupted bits
◦No difference between a single-bit error and a burst error
•error correction need to know the exact number of bits
that are corrupted with their location in the message
◦8-bit data unit
◦ to correct a single error need to consider eight possible error locations
◦ to correct two errors need to consider 28 (permutation of 8 by 2) possible error
locations
◦Receiver find difficulty to correct 10 errors in a data unit of 1000
bits

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Notes
•An error-detecting/correcting code can detect/correct only
the types of errors for which it is designed
◦Other types of errors may remain undetected.
•There is no way to detect/correct every possible error!

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XOR Operation
•Main operation for computing error detection/correction
codes
◦Simpler and faster than addition; no carry bit!
•Similar to modulo-2 addition

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Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
•A subset of cyclic codes
•Has both the linear and cyclic properties
•Used in networks such as LANs and WANs
•A CRC code with C(7, 4)

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CRC Encoder/Decoder
If the syndrome bits are all 0s, the 4 leftmost bits of the
One possible design: codeword are accepted as the dataword (interpreted as
no error); otherwise, the 4 bits are discarded (error).

k bits (4 here)

Added n − k (3 here)
0s to the right-hand
side (modulo-2 division)

divisor of size n − k + 1
(4 here), predefined
and agreed upon

remainder produced
by checker

Quotient is discarded;
remainder (r2r1r0) is
appended to dataword
to create codeword

copy of all n bits is fed

to the checker

n bits (7 here)

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 CRC Generator
Division in CRC encoder: •Modulo-2 binary division
•Addition and subtraction are the same use
XOR operation to do both
•Each step: a copy of the divisor is XORed
with the 4 bits of the dividend
•Result (remainder) is 3 bits (in this
case), which is used for the next step
after 1 extra bit is pulled down to make
it 4 bits long
•Note: If the leftmost bit of the dividend
(or the part used in each step) is 0, the
step cannot use the regular divisor; we
need to use an all-0s divisor
•When there are no bits left to pull
How the divisor 1011 is chosen? down, we have a result
Depends on the expectation we have from the •3-bit remainder forms the check bits (r2, r1,
code- we will discuss this in polynomials. and r0). They are appended to the dataword
to create the codeword

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 Checking CRC
Division in the CRC decoder for two cases: division process as the encoder

no error
a single error
Remainder of the division is the syndrome

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 Cyclic Code Encoder Using Polynomials
•Creation of a codeword from a dataword
Binary Division in CRC encoder CRC division using polynomials

• Process is shorter
• Dataword 1001 is represented as x 3 + 1
• Divisor 1011 is represented as x 3 + x + 1
• Augmented dataword is x 6 + x3 we have
left-shifted the dataword 3 bits (multiplying by x 3)
• Continue to divide until the degree of the remainder
is less than the degree of the divisor
In a polynomial representation, the divisor is normally referred to as the generator polynomial
The divisor in a cyclic code is normally called the generator polynomial or simply the generator
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Standard CRC Polynomials
•Some standard polynomials used by popular protocols for
CRC generation along with the corresponding bit pattern

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Advantages of Cyclic Codes
•A very good performance in detecting single-bit errors,
double errors, an odd number of errors, and burst errors.
•Easily implemented in hardware and software
•Fast when implemented in hardware
•This has made cyclic codes a good candidate for many
networks
•Other Cyclic Codes
◦ Simple cyclic codes (discussed till now) - the check bits and syndromes can be calculated
by simple algebra
◦ Reed- Solomon code - More powerful polynomials that are based on abstract algebra
involving Galois fields
◦ used today for both detection and correction

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Multiple Access Control (MAC)
▪ Problem: When two or more nodes transmit at the same time, their frames will
collide and the link bandwidth is wasted during collision
▪ how to determine who gets to use the channel when there is competition for it ?
▪ How to coordinate the access of multiple sending/receiving nodes to the shared
link???
• Solution: We need a protocol to coordinate the transmission of the active nodes
• These protocols are called Medium or Multiple Access Control (MAC) Protocols
belong to a sublayer of the data link layer called MAC (Medium Access Control)
• What is expected from Multiple Access Protocols:
◦ Main task is to minimize collisions in order to utilize the bandwidth by:
◦ Determining when a station can use the link (medium)
◦ what a station should do when the link is busy
◦ what the station should do when it is involved in collision

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Taxonomy of multiple-access
protocols

For wireless

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Random Access
•Random Access (or contention) Protocols:
◦No station is superior to another station and none is
assigned the control over another
◦A station with a frame to be transmitted can use the link
directly based on a procedure defined by the protocol to
make a decision on whether or not to send.
•Two features
◦No scheduled time for a station to transmit - Random
Transmission
◦No rules specify which station should send next
◦Stations compete with one another to access the medium
- contention methods
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Evolution of random-access methods
•ALOHA -used a very simple procedure called multiple
access (MA)
◦Pure ALOHA - each station sends a frame whenever it has a frame
to send
◦Slotted ALOHA - divide the time into slots and force the station to
send only at the beginning of the time slot
•Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) - improved ALOHA
◦forces the station to sense the medium before transmitting
◦Two parallel evolved methods
◦ carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD)
◦ tells the station what to do when a collision is detected
◦ carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)
◦ tries to avoid the collision

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CSMA
(Carrier Sense Multiple Access)
•CSMA is a contention-based protocol where multiple
stations share a common communication medium.
•Before transmitting, a station listens to the medium:
◦If the medium is idle, it transmits.
◦If the medium is busy, it waits before trying again.
•Problem: CSMA does not define what happens if two
stations transmit at the same time, leading to collisions.
•The CSMA method does not specify the procedure
following a collision

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Carrier sense multiple access with
collision detection (CSMA/CD)
CSMA/CD augments the algorithm to handle the collision
◦A station monitors the medium after it sends a frame to see if the
transmission was successful
◦If so, the station is finished
◦If there is a collision, the frame is sent again

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How CSMA/CD Handles Collisions:
• Transmission Monitoring:
◦ After sending a frame, the station monitors the medium to check whether
the transmission was successful.
• Successful Transmission Case:
◦ If the transmission succeeds (no collision detected), the station finishes and
waits for further data to send.
• Collision Detection Case:
◦ If two stations transmit at the same time, their signals collide.
◦ Each station detects the collision by noticing garbled or distorted signals on
the medium.
• Collision Handling (Backoff & Retransmission):
◦ When a collision is detected, the stations immediately stop transmitting.
◦ A jamming signal is sent to inform all stations of the collision.
◦ Each station waits for a random backoff time before attempting to
retransmit the frame.
◦ This backoff time increases exponentially with each collision (called Binary
Exponential Backoff-random wait time before attempting retransmission) to
reduce repeated collisions.

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CSMA/CD ...
•Look at the first bits transmitted by the two stations
involved in the collision
◦each station continues to send bits in the frame until it detects the
collision

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CSMA/CD ...
• At time t1, station A has executed its persistence procedure and starts
sending the bits of its frame
• At time t2, station C has not yet sensed the first bit sent by A
• Station C executes its persistence procedure and starts sending the bits in
its frame, which propagate both to the left and to the right
• The collision occurs sometime after time t2
• Station C detects a collision at time t3 when it receives the first bit of A’s
frame
• Station C immediately (or after a short time, but we assume immediately)
aborts transmission
• Station A detects collision at time t4 when it receives the first bit of C’s
frame - immediately aborts transmission
• A transmits for the duration t4 − t1; C transmits for the duration t3 − t2

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CSMA/CD - Collision and abortion

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CSMA/CD -Minimum Frame Size
•Need a restriction on the frame size
The minimum frame size ensures that a station remains
transmitting long enough to detect a collision before it
completes transmission. This prevents silent data loss and
ensures reliable communication in Ethernet networks using
CSMA/CD
•Before sending the last bit of the frame, the sending station
must detect a collision, if any, and abort the transmission
◦ because the station, once the entire frame is sent, does not keep a copy
of the frame and does not monitor the line for collision detection
◦ The frame transmission time Tfr must be at least two times the maximum
propagation time Tp
◦ Worst-case scenario. If the two stations involved in a collision are the
maximum distance apart, the signal from the first takes time Tp to reach
the second, and the effect of the collision takes another time TP to reach
the first
◦ So the requirement is that the first station must still be transmitting after
2Tp

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Worst-Case Scenario Explanation
• Two Farthest Stations in the Network:
◦ Consider two stations at opposite ends of the Ethernet cable.
◦ One station (A) starts transmitting a frame.
◦ The signal takes Tp to reach the farthest station (B).
• Collision Occurs at the Last Moment:
◦ If station B also starts transmitting just before receiving A’s signal, a collision
occurs.
◦ The collision signal must then travel back to station A, taking another Tp.
• Collision Detection Condition:
◦ If station A finishes sending before the collision signal arrives, it will not
detect the collision and will wrongly assume successful transmission.
◦ Therefore, station A must still be transmitting when the collision signal
arrives, which happens after 2Tp.
• Ensuring Collision Detection:
◦ To guarantee that station A is still transmitting, the frame transmission time
must be at least 2Tp.
◦ This ensures that even in the worst-case scenario, the sender will detect the
collision and take corrective action (stop, backoff, retransmit).

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CSMA/CD Example
•A network using CSMA/CD has a bandwidth of 10 Mbps
•If the maximum propagation time (including the delays in
the devices and ignoring the time needed to send a
jamming signal is 25.6 μs, what is the minimum size of the
frame?
•Solution
◦The minimum frame transmission time is Tfr = 2 × Tp = 51.2 μs
◦The worst case, a station needs to transmit for a period of 51.2 μs
to detect the collision
◦The minimum size of the frame is 10 Mbps × 51.2 μs = 512 bits or
64 bytes
◦ This is actually the minimum size of the frame for Standard Ethernet

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Flow diagram for CSMA/CD

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Flow diagram for CSMA/CD
•Similar to the one for the ALOHA protocol with 3-differences
◦ addition of the persistence process - sense the channel before start
sending the frame by using one of the persistence processes
(nonpersistent, 1-persistent, or p-persistent)
◦ frame transmission
◦ In ALOHA, first transmit the entire frame and then wait for an acknowledgment
◦ In CSMA/CD, transmission and collision detection are continuous processes ( shown as a loop)
◦ constantly monitor in order to detect one of two conditions to stop transmission
◦ either transmission is finished or
◦ a collision is detected
◦ On loop exit, if a collision has not been detected, it means that transmission is complete;
the entire frame is transmitted. Otherwise, a collision has occurred
◦ Sending of a short jamming signal to make sure that all other stations
become aware of the collision

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CSMA/CD - Energy Level
•The level of energy in a channel can have three values:
◦Zero - the channel is idle
◦Normal - station has successfully captured the channel and is
sending its frame
◦Abnormal –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 idle, busy, or in collision mode

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CSMA/CD - Throughput
•greater than that of pure or slotted ALOHA
•The maximum throughput occurs at a different value of G
and is based on the persistence method and the value of p
in the p-persistent approach
◦For the 1-persistent method, the maximum throughput is around
50 percent when G = 1
◦For the nonpersistent method, the maximum throughput can go up
to 90 percent when G is between 3 and 8
•Traditional Ethernet is a broadcast LAN that used the
1-persistence method to control access to the common
media with the data rate of 10 Mbps

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 CSMA/CD - Throughput

Average number of transmission attempts per frame time(G)

G=1 Moderate traffic
G=3-8 Heavy Traffic

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Carrier sense multiple access with
collision avoidance - CSMA/CA
•Invented for wireless
networks
•Collisions are avoided
through the use of
CSMA/CA’s three
strategies:
◦the interframe space
◦the contention window
◦acknowledgments

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CSMA/CA- Interframe Space (IFS)
•Avoids collisions by deferring transmission even if the channel is
found idle
•When an idle channel is found, the station waits for a period of
IFS time
•IFS time allows the front of the transmitted signal by the distant
station to reach this station
•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

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CSMA/CA - Contention Window
• 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 backoff strategy
◦ 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
◦ Very similar to the p-persistent method except that a random outcome defines the
number of slots taken by the waiting station
• The station needs to sense the channel after each time slot
• However, if the station finds the channel busy, it does not restart the
process; it just stops the timer and restarts it when the channel is sensed as
idle
• This gives priority to the station with the longest waiting time

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CSMA/CA - Timing

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CSMA/CA - Acknowledgment
•With all these precautions, there still may be a collision
resulting in destroyed data
•In addition, 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

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Step-by-Step Explanation
1⃣ Sense the Channel (Carrier Sensing)
• The station listens to check if the channel is busy or idle.
2⃣ Wait for the Interframe Space (IFS)
• If the channel is idle, the station waits for IFS .
• IFS ensures signals from distant stations have time to arrive before another station
transmits.
3⃣ Wait for a Random Backoff Time (Contention Window)
• Even after waiting for IFS, the station cannot transmit immediately.
• It must pick a random time (in slots) from the Contention Window (CW).
• This backoff time reduces the chance of multiple stations transmitting at the same
time.
4⃣ Countdown and Transmission
• The station counts down the backoff timer while the channel is idle.
• If another station starts transmitting, the countdown pauses until the channel is
idle again.
• Once the backoff timer reaches zero, the station sends its data.

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CSMA/CA -Frame Exchange Time Line

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SIFS (Short Interframe Space)
• Shortest waiting time in Wi-Fi networks.
• Used for high-priority, immediate responses (e.g.,
acknowledgments).
Purpose of SIFS
• Ensures quick responses between communicating devices.
• Prevents unnecessary delays in critical communications.
DIFS (Distributed Interframe Space)
• Longer waiting time than SIFS
• Used in regular data transmissions in a contention-based
network (DCF - Distributed Coordination Function).
Purpose of DIFS
• Ensures fairness by allowing multiple devices to access the
channel.
• Prevents a single device from dominating transmissions.

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CSMA/CA -Frame Exchange Time Line
•Exchange of data and control frames in time.
1. Before sending a frame, the source station senses the medium by checking
the energy level at the carrier frequency
a. The channel uses a persistence strategy with backoff until the channel is idle
b. After the station is found to be idle, the station waits for a period of time
called the DCF interframe space (DIFS); then the station sends a control frame
called the request to send (RTS).
2. After receiving the RTS and waiting a period of time called the short
interframe space (SIFS), the destination station sends a control frame, called
the clear to send (CTS), to the source station. This control frame indicates that
the destination station is ready to receive data.
3. The source station sends data after waiting an amount of time equal to SIFS.
4. The destination station, after waiting an amount of time equal to SIFS, sends
an acknowledgment to show that the frame has been received.
Acknowledgment is needed in this protocol because the station does not have
any means to check for the successful arrival of its data at the destination. On
the other hand, the lack of collision is a kind of indication to the source that
data have arrived.
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CSMA/CA - Network Allocation Vector
•How do other stations defer sending their data if one station
acquires access?
•how is the collision avoidance aspect of this protocol
accomplished?
•Use key feature Network Allocation Vector (NAV):
◦ When a station sends an RTS frame, it includes the duration of time that
it needs to occupy the channel
◦ The stations that are affected by this transmission create a timer called
a network allocation vector (NAV) that shows how much time must
pass before these stations are allowed to check the channel for idleness
◦ Each time a station accesses the system and sends an RTS frame, other
stations start their NAV

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CSMA/CA -Collision During Handshaking
•handshaking period - time when RTS or CTS control frames
are in transition
•What happens if there is a collision during handshaking
period ?
•Indicates two or more stations may try to send RTS frames
at the same time which may collides
•No mechanism for collision detection, the sender assumes
there has been a collision if it has not received a CTS frame
from the receiver
•The backoff strategy is employed, and the sender tries again

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CSMA/CA - Hidden-Station Problem
•Use of the handshake frames (RTS and CTS)
•The RTS message from B reaches A, but not C.
•However, because both B and C are within the range of A, the
CTS message, which contains the duration of data transmission
from B to A, reaches C
•Station C knows that some hidden station is using the channel
and refrains from transmitting until that duration is over

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Step-by-Step Explanation
1⃣ Station A wants to send data to Station B.
• It first listens to check if the channel is idle.
2⃣ Station A sends an RTS (Request to Send) frame to Station B.
• The RTS frame includes a "Duration Field" specifying how long
Station A needs the channel.
• Let’s say the duration is 5 milliseconds (ms).
3⃣ Station B responds with a CTS (Clear to Send) frame.
• The CTS frame also includes the same duration (5 ms).
4⃣ Nearby stations (like Station C) hear either RTS or CTS and set
their NAV timer.
• NAV (Network Allocation Vector) is set for 5 ms based on the
RTS/CTS duration.
• This means Station C won’t try to transmit for the next 5 ms.
5⃣ Station A transmits its data to Station B.
• Since Station C is following the NAV timer, it stays silent.
6⃣ After the NAV timer expires, Station C is allowed to check the
channel for idleness again. 60