Chapter 9:

Data Link Control

Business Data Communications, 4e

Flow Control
Necessary when data is being sent faster than
it can be processed by receiver
Computer to printer is typical setting
Can also be from computer to computer,
when a processing program is limited in
capacity

Stop-and-Wait Flow Control

Simplest form
Source may not send new frame until receiver
acknowledges the frame already sent
Very inefficient, especially when a single
message is broken into separate frames, or when
the data link is long enough for significant delays
to be introduced

Sliding-Window Flow Control

Allows multiple frames to be in transit
Receiver sends acknowledgement with sequence number
of anticipated frame
Sender maintains list of sequence numbers it can send,
receiver maintains list of sequence numbers it can receive
ACK (acknowledgement) supplemented with RNR
(receiver not ready)

Error Control Process

All transmission media have potential for
introduction of errors
All data link layer protocols must provide method
for controlling errors
Error control process has two components
Error detection
Error correction

Error Detection: Parity Bits

Bit added to each character to make all bits
add up to an even number (even parity) or
odd number (odd parity)
Good for detecting single-bit errors only
High overhead (one extra bit per 7-bit
character=12.5%)

Error Detection: Cyclic

Redundancy Check (CRC)
Data in frame treated as a single binary number,
divided by a unique prime binary, and remainder is
attached to frame
17-bit divisor leaves 16-bit remainder, 33-bit
divisor leaves 32-bit remainder
For a CRC of length N, errors undetected are 2 -N
Overhead is low (1-3%)

Error Correction
Two types of errors
Lost frame
Damaged frame

Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ)

Error detection
Positive acknowledgment
Retransmission after time-out
Negative acknowledgment and retransmission

Stop-and-Wait ARQ
One frame received and handled at a time
If frame is damaged, receiver discards it and sends no
acknowledgment
Sender uses timer to determine whether or not to retransmit
Sender must keep a copy of transmitted frame until
acknowledgment is received

If acknowledgment is damaged, sender will know it

because of numbering

Go-Back-N ARQ
Uses sliding-window flow control
When receiver detects error, it sends negative
acknowledgment (REJ)
Sender must begin transmitting again from
rejected frame
Transmitter must keep a copy of all transmitted
frames

Data Link Control

Specified flow and error control for
synchronous communication
Data link module arranges data into frames,
supplemented by control bits
Receiver checks control bits, if data is intact,
it strips them

High-Level Data Link Control

On transmitting side, HDLC receives data from
an application, and delivers it to the receiver on
the other side of the link
On the receiving side, HDLC accepts the data and
delivers it to the higher level application layer
Both modules exchange control information,
encoded into a frame

HDLC Frame Structure

Flag: 01111110, at start and
end
Address: secondary station
(for multidrop
configurations)
Information: the data to be
transmitted
Frame check sequence: 16or 32-bit CRC

Control: purpose or function

of frame
Information frames: contain
user data
Supervisory frames:
flow/error control
(ACK/ARQ)
Unnumbered frames: variety
of control functions (see
p.131)

HDLC Operation
Initialization: S-frames specify mode and
sequence numbers, U-frames acknowledge
Data Transfer: I-frames exchange user data, Sframes acknowledge and provide flow/error
control
Disconnect: U-frames initiate and acknowledge