Data Link Layer Services

Flow Control:
pacing between senders and receivers

Error Detection:
errors are caused by signal attenuation and noise.
Receiver detects presence of errors:
it signals the sender for retransmission or just
drops the corrupted frame

Error Correction:
mechanism for the receiver to locate and correct
the error without resorting to retransmission

Flow Control
Ensuring the sending entity does not
overwhelm the receiving entity
Preventing buffer overflow

Transmission time
Time taken to emit all bits into medium

Propagation time
Time for a bit to traverse the link

Model of Frame
Transmission

Stop and Wait

Source transmits frame
Destination receives frame and
replies with acknowledgement
Source waits for ACK before sending
next frame
Destination can stop flow by not send
ACK
Works well for a few large frames

Fragmentation
Large block of data may be split into small
frames
Limited buffer size
Errors detected sooner (when whole frame received)
On error, retransmission of smaller frames is needed
Prevents one station occupying medium for long
periods

Stop and wait becomes inadequate when

data is fragmented into several small frames.

Stop and Wait Link

Utilization

Sliding Windows Flow

Control
Allow multiple frames to be in transit
Receiver has buffer, of W length.
Transmitter can send up to W frames
without ACK
Each frame is numbered
ACK includes number of next frame
expected
Sequence number bounded by size of
field (k)

Sliding Window Diagram

Example Sliding Window

Sliding Window
Enhancements
Receiver can acknowledge frames without
permitting further transmission (Receive
Not Ready)
Must send a normal acknowledge to
resume
If duplex, use piggybacking
If no data to send, use acknowledgement frame
If data is sent, but no acknowledgement to
send, send last acknowledgement number
again, or have ACK valid flag (TCP)

Error Detection
Additional bits added by transmitter for error
detection code
Parity
Value of parity bit is such that character has even
(even parity) or odd (odd parity) number of ones
Even number of bit errors goes undetected
Checksum can be a simple XOR operation of bits
to be checked

DL protocols use more sophisticated

methods, like Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

Cyclic Redundancy Check

For a block of k bits transmitter
generates n bit sequence
Transmit k+n bits which is exactly
divisible by some number
Receive divides frame by that
number
If no remainder, assume no error

Cyclic Redundancy Check

Example: 16-Bit CRC for HDLC

Performed on Address, Control, Data Fields
Detects a Variety of Error Conditions
Data Message is Represented as a Polynomial,
Mi(x) = polynomial of order i =
a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + a3 x3 + . . . + ai xi where ai = 0, 1

Data Message = ai ai-1 a3 a2 a1 a0

Start DestinationSource
Frame Address Address
Delimiter

Frame
Control

Data

CRC

CRC Generation
Given a Specific Polynomial G(x)
called the generator, and a Data
Message M(x), Calculate a Frame
Check Sequence (FCS), or Checksum
Append the FCS (Checksum) to the
Data Message for Transmission
At the Receiver, Recalculate the
Checksum, and Check with the
Transmitted Value

CRC Error Detection

All Single Bit Errors

All Double Bit Errors
Any Odd Number of Errors
Any Burst Error for Which the Length
of the Burst Error is Less Than the
Length of the Divisor Polynomial,
G(x)
Most Larger Burst Errors

Error Control

Detection and correction of errors

Lost frames
Damaged frames
Automatic repeat request
Error detection
Positive acknowledgment
Retransmission after timeout
Negative acknowledgement and
retransmission

Automatic Repeat Request

(ARQ)
Stop and wait
Go back N
Selective reject (selective
retransmission)

Stop and Wait

Source transmits single frame
Wait for ACK
If received frame damaged, discard it
Transmitter has timeout
If no ACK within timeout, retransmit

If ACK damaged,transmitter will not

recognize it
Transmitter will retransmit
Receive gets two copies of frame
Use ACK0 and ACK1

Stop and Wait - Pros and

Cons
Simple
Inefficient

Go Back N
Based on sliding window
If no error, ACK as usual with next frame
expected
Use window to control number of
outstanding frames
If error, reply with rejection
Discard that frame and all future frames until
error frame received correctly
Transmitter must go back and retransmit that
frame and all subsequent frames

Go Back N - Damaged
Frame

Receiver detects error in frame i

Receiver sends rejection-i
Transmitter gets rejection-i
Transmitter retransmits frame i and
all subsequent

Go Back N - Lost Frame

Frame i lost
Transmitter sends i+1
Receiver gets frame i+1 out of
sequence
Receiver send reject i
Transmitter goes back to frame i and
retransmits

Go Back N - Lost Frame

Frame i lost and no additional frame sent
Receiver gets nothing and returns neither
acknowledgement nor rejection
Transmitter times out and sends
acknowledgement frame with P bit set to 1
Receiver interprets this as command which
it acknowledges with the number of the
next frame it expects (frame i )
Transmitter then retransmits frame i

Go Back N - Damaged
Acknowledgement
Receiver gets frame i and send
acknowledgement (i+1) which is lost
Acknowledgements are cumulative, so
next acknowledgement (i+n) may arrive
before transmitter times out on frame i
If transmitter times out, it sends
acknowledgement with P bit set as before
This can be repeated a number of times
before a reset procedure is initiated

Go Back N - Damaged
Rejection
Same method is followed as the lost
frame.

Go Back N
Diagram

Selective Reject
Also called selective retransmission
Only rejected frames are
retransmitted
Subsequent frames are accepted by
the receiver and buffered
Minimizes retransmission
Receiver must maintain large enough
buffer
More complex logic in transmitter

Selective
Reject Diagram

High Level Data Link Control

HDLC Station Types

Primary station
Controls operation of link
Frames issued are called commands
Maintains separate logical link to each
secondary station

Secondary station
Under control of primary station
Frames issued called responses

Combined station
May issue commands and responses

HDLC Link Configurations

Unbalanced
One primary and one or more secondary
stations
Supports full duplex and half duplex

Balanced
Two combined stations
Supports full duplex and half duplex

HDLC Transfer Modes

Normal Response Mode (NRM)
Unbalanced configuration
Primary initiates transfer to secondary
Secondary may only transmit data in
response to command from primary
Used on multi-drop lines
Host computer as primary
Terminals as secondary

 Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM)

Balanced configuration
Either station may initiate transmission
without receiving permission
Most widely used
No polling overhead

 Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM)

Unbalanced configuration
Secondary may initiate transmission
without permission form primary
Primary responsible for line
rarely used

Frame Structure
Synchronous transmission
All transmissions in frames
Single frame format for all data and
control exchanges

Frame Structure

Flag Fields
Delimit frame at both ends with a
unique pattern - 01111110
A single frame can be used as closing
flag (for one frame) and an opening
flag (for another frame).
On the both sides of the user-network
interface, Receiver hunts for flag
sequence to synchronize on the start
of the frame.

 While receiving a frame, a station

continues to hunt for the sequence to
determine the end of the sequence.
There is no assurance that the
sequence might not appear in the
actual data itself.

 Bit stuffing used to avoid confusion

with data containing 01111110
0 inserted after every sequence of five
1s
If receiver detects five 1s it checks next
bit
If 0, it is deleted
If 1 and seventh bit is 0, accept as flag
If sixth and seventh bits 1, sender is
indicating abort

Bit
Stuffing

Example with
possible
errors

Address Field
Identifies the secondary station that
sent or will receive frame.
Not required in point-to-point link.
Usually 8 bits long.
May be extended to multiples of 7
bits
LSB of each octet indicates that it is the
last octet (1) or not (0)

All ones (11111111) is broadcast

Control Field
Different for different frame type
Information frames (I-frames): data
to be transmitted to user.
Flow and error control are piggybacked on
information frames

Supervisory frames (S-frames): ARQ

is used when piggyback not used.
Unnumbered frames (U- frames):
supplementary link control

 First one or two bits of control field

identifies the frame type.
Control field formats contains,
poll/final (P/F) bit.

Poll/Final Bit
Usage depends on context
Command frame
P bit
Set to 1 to solicit (poll) response from
peer

Response frame
F bit
Set to 1 indicates response to soliciting
command

Control Field Diagram

Information Field
Only in information (I-frames) and
some unnumbered frames (U-frames)
Must contain integral number of
octets, any sequence.
Variable length

Frame Check Sequence

Field
Error detection code calculated from
the remaining bits of the frame,
exclusive of flags.
Normal code is 16 bit CRC
Optional 32 bit CRC can also be used.

HDLC Operation
Exchange of information, supervisory
and unnumbered frames
Three phases
Initialization
Data transfer
Disconnect

 Initialization:
It signals the other side that initialization is
requested.
It specifies the modes that is requested.
It specifies whether 3 or 7 bit sequence
numbers are to be used.

If the other side accepts the request

then, the HDLC module transmits a UA
(unnumbered acknowledgement) or else
DM (disconnected mode) frame is sent.

 Data transfer:
After the establishment of logical connections,
both sides may begin sending user data in Iframe, starting with a sequence number, 0.
N(S) and N(r) fields of the I-frame contains
sequence number that support flow and error
control.
N(R) is the acknowledgement of the frame
that is received and it will also mention the
expected frame.

 The receiver ready (RR) frame.

The receiver not ready (RNR) frame.
The rejection (REJ) frame.
Initiate go-back-n or selective reject.

 Disconnect:
HDLC module can initiate disconnect, if
there is any fault or at the request of the
higher layer user.
A DISC frame is issued.
A UA is sent after the acceptance, by the
entity.
Any outstanding I-frames will be lost.

Example

Example