Chapter 3

The Data Link Layer

Functions of the Data Link Layer

Provide service interface to the network layer

Dealing with transmission errors
Regulating data flow

Slow receivers not swamped by fast senders

Functions of the Data Link Layer (2)

Relationship between packets and frames.

Data Link Layer Design Issues

Services Provided to the Network Layer

Framing
Error Control
Flow Control

Services Provided to the Network Layer

a)

Principal Service Function of the data link layer is to

transfer the data from the network layer on the source
machine to the network layer on the destination machine.

Services Provided to Network Layer

(a) Virtual communication.

(b) Actual communication.

Possible Services Offered

Data link layer provides three types of services:
Unacknowledged connectionless service.
Acknowledged connectionless service.
Acknowledged connection-oriented service.

Unacknowledged Connectionless Service

a)

b)

No logical connection is established and if a frame is lost

due to noise on the line, no attempt is made to detect the
loss or recover from it in the data link layer.
Example: Ethernet, Voice over IP, etc. in all the
communication channel were real time operation is more
important that quality of transmission.

Acknowledged Connection less Service

No logical connection used but each frame sent is

individually acknowledged.
This service is useful over unreliable channels such as
wireless systems.
Frames usually have a strict maximum length, imposed by
the hardware and network layer does not.

Acknowledged Connection Oriented Service

a)
b)

Source and Destination establish a connection first.

Each frame sent is numbered
Data link layer guarantees that each frame sent is
indeed received.
It guarantees that each frame is received only once
and that all frames are received in the correct
order.
c) Examples:
Satellite channel communication,
Long-distance telephone communication, etc.

Acknowledged Connection Oriented Service

Three distinct phases:
1. Connection is established by having both side initialize
variables and counters needed to keep track of which
frames have been received and which ones have not.
2. One or more frames are transmitted.
3. Finally, the connection is released freeing up the
variables, buffers, and other resources used to maintain
the connection.

Services Provided to Network Layer

(2)

Placement of the data link protocol.

FRAMING

The data link layer needs to pack bits into frames, so that each
frame is distinguishable from another.
Ex: Our postal system practices a type of framing. The simple
act of inserting a letter into an envelope separates one piece of
information from another; the envelope serves as the delimiter. In
addition each envelope defines the sender and receiver addresses
since the postal system is a many-to-many carrier facility.
Fixed-Size Framing
Variable-Size Framing : Define the end of the frame and the
beginning of the next.Two approaches
1.Character oriented protocols
2.Bit oriented protocols

Four Methods:
a) Character count
b) Flag bytes with byte stuffing
c) Starting and ending flags, with bit stuffing.
d) Physical layer coding violations

A frame in a character-oriented protocol

Source and
destination
information

Error detection and

correction, 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,signlas the start/end of a frame

Byte stuffing and unstuffing

Byte stuffing is the process of adding 1 extra byte

whenever there is a flag or escape character in the text.

A frame in a bit-oriented protocol

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.

Bit stuffing and unstuffing

Framing

A character stream. (a) Without errors. (b) With one error.

Framing (2)

(a) A frame delimited by flag bytes.

(b) Four examples of byte sequences before and after stuffing.

Framing (3)

Bit stuffing
(a) The original data.
(b) The data as they appear on the line.
(c) The data as they are stored in receivers memory after destuffing.

Error Control:
1. How to make sure all frames are eventually delivered to the
network layer at the destination and in the upper layer.
2. Receiver has to send positive or negative acknowledgements.
3. If the sender receives a positive acknowledgements about a
frame, it knows the frame has arrived safely.
4. Negative acknowledgements means that something has gone
wrong, and the frame must be transmitted again.
5. If a frame vanishes completely, then the receiver will not react
at all, since it has no reason to react & sender transmits a frame
and then waits for an ACK.
6. To overcome this we use TIMER.
7. If timer expires, then the sender sends the frame again.
8. If sender sends same frames multiple times then also problem,
so we assign sequence numbers to outgoing frames.

4.Flow Control :
1. Another design occurs in the data link layer (and higher layers
as well) is what to do with a sender that systematically wants
to transmit frames faster than the receiver can accept
them.
2. This situation can usually occur when the sender is running on
a fast (or light loaded) computer and the receiver is running
on a slow (or heavily loaded) machine.
3. The sender keeps pumping the frames out at a high rate until
the receiver is completely swamped.
4. Even if the transmission is error free, at certain point the
receiver will simply be unable to handle the frames as they
arrive and will start to lose some.

Two approaches are commonly used to avoid this situation:

a) Feedback based flow control:
The receiver sends back information to the sender giving it
permission to send more data or at least telling the sender how
the receiver is doing.
b) Rate-based flow control:
The protocol has built-in mechanism that limits the rate at
which senders may transmit data, without using feedback from
the receiver.

Error Detection and Correction

Error-Correcting Codes
Error-Detecting Codes

Error-Correcting Codes

Use of a Hamming code to correct burst errors.

Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRC

Cyclic Redundancy Check

a)

b)

Given a k-bit frame or message, the transmitter

generates an n-bit sequence, known as a frame
check sequence (FCS), so that the resulting
frame, consisting of (k+n) bits, is exactly divisible by
some predetermined number.
The receiver then divides the incoming frame by the
same number and, if there is no remainder, assumes that
there was no error.

Polynomial

Polynomial and Divisor

Standard Polynomials

Error-Detecting Codes

Calculation of the polynomial code checksum.

Elementary Data Link Protocols :

1.These protocols deals with communication errors, but not the
problems caused by computers crashing and rebooting.
2.When the data link layer accepts a packet, it
encapsulates(captures) the packet in a frame by adding a data link
header and trailer to it.
3.Frame consists of an embedded packet, some control information
(in the header) and a checksum(in the trailer).
4.There exist suitable library procedures to-physical-layer to send a
frame and from-physical-layer to receive a frame.
5.When a frame arrives at the receiver ,the hardware computes the
checksum. If the checksum is incorrect, the data link layer is so
informed (event= cksum_err).
6.If the inbound frame arrived undamaged, the data link layer is
also informed(event= frame_arrival) so that it can acquire the
frame for inspection using from_physical_layer.

7.The receiving data link layer has acquired an undamaged frame, it

checks the control information in the header, and if everything is all
right ,passes the packet portion to the network layer.
7. Frame consists of 4 fields: Kind,seq,ack & info
control info
data
these control fields collectively called Frame Header
8. To-n/w-layer and from-n/w-layer deal with the interface between
layers 2&3.
9. Where as ,from-physical-layer and to-physical-layer deal with the
interface between layers 1&2
10.Start timer,Stop-timer,turn the timer on&off.

Protocol Definitions

Some definitions needed in the protocols to follow.

These are located in the file protocol.h.

Protocol
Definitions
(ctd.)

Some definitions
needed in the
protocols to follow.
These are located in
the file protocol.h.

Elementary Data Link Protocols

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

An Unrestricted Simplex Protocol :

Data are transmitted in one direction only .both the transmitting
and receiving layers are always ready.
Processing time can be ignored. Infinite buffer space is available
and communication channel never loses or damages.
The sender runs in the data link layer of the source machine.
The receiver runs in the data link layer of the destination
machine.
No sequence numbers or acknowledgement's are used here.


1.
2.
3.

4.

A simple stop-and-wait Protocol:

Sender inserts delay into Protocol1.
Receiver provides feedback / ack /dummy frames to sender
Protocols in which the sender sends one frame and then waits for
an acknowledgement before processing are called Stop-andWait.
Bi directional channel is needed.


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

A simplex protocol for a noisy channel:

Adding a timer to protocol2.
If acknowledgement gets lost then duplicate frame arrives at
network layer.
The sender puts a sequence number in the header of each frame.
A 1-bit sequence number(0 or 1) is therefore sufficient.
At each instant of time ,the receiver expects a particular
sequence number next.
Protocols in which the sender waits for positive
acknowledgement before advancing to the next data item are
often called PAR(Positive acknowledgement with
retransmission) or ARQ(Automatic Repeat Request).

A Simplex Protocol for a Noisy Channel

A Simplex Protocol for a Noisy Channel (ctd.)

A positive acknowledgement with retransmission protocol.

a)

Sliding Window Protocols: At any instant of time, the

sender maintains a set of sequence numbers corresponding
to frames it is permitted to send. These frames are said to
fall within the sending window. Similarly, the receiver also
maintain a receiving window corresponding to the set of
frames it is permitted to accept.

Sliding Windows
a)
b)

Each outbound frame contain a sequence number ranging from 0 to 2n-1

Sending window

c)

Maintained by the sender

A set of sequence numbers corresponding to frames the sender is permitted to send

Receiving window

Maintained by the receiver

Corresponds the set of frames the receiver is permitted to accept

Maintain Sliding Windows

a)

Sending window
When a frame is sent, the upper edge of the window is advanced
by one
When an acknowledgement is received, the lower edge of the
window is advanced by one
b) Receiving window
Any received frame the sequence number outside the window is
discarded
When a frame whose sequence number is equal to lower edge of
the window is received, the window is rotated by one

Sliding Window Protocols (2)

A sliding window of size 1, with a 3-bit sequence number.

(a) Initially.
(b) After the first frame has been sent.
(c) After the first frame has been received.
(d) After the first acknowledgement has been received.

Sliding Window Protocols

a)
b)
c)

One bit sliding window protocol ( Stop-and-Wait)

Go-back-N Protocol
Selective Repeat Protocol

One Bit Sliding Window Protocol

a)

Stop and-Wait
A protocol in which the sender sends one frame and then waits
for an acknowledgement before proceeding.
b) a sliding window protocol with maximum window size = 1
Sequence number {0, 1} is sufficient
c) Frame header fields
Seq : the sequence number of this frame
Ack : the number of the last frame is received

A One-Bit Sliding Window Protocol (2)

Two scenarios for protocol 4. (a) Normal case. (b) Abnormal

case. The notation is (seq, ack, packet number). An asterisk
indicates where a network layer accepts a packet.

Efficiency of Stop-and-Wait
Stop-and-Wait

50 kbps data rate

500 msec round-trip delay
1000 bits per frame

time (msec)
t=0
start sending
t=20 completely sent
t=250 frame arrival
t=270 completely received
t=270 acknowledge without delay
t=520 acknowledgement arrival

26000 bits could be transmitted in 520 msec.

Efficiency: 1000/26000=20/520 < 4% used

Efficiency of Stop-and-Wait

Pipelining
time (msec)
t=0
start sending the first frame
t=20 the first completely sent
t=250 frame arrival
t=270 the first completely received
t=270 acknowledge without delay
t=520 acknowledgement arrival

50 kbps data rate

500 msec round-trip delay
1000 bits per frame

To pipeline frames without waiting for acknowledgements.

pipelining

piggybacking
Temporarily delaying outgoing acknowledgements so
that they can be hooked onto the next outgoing data
frame is Piggybacking

Line of Utilization for Stop-and-Wait

a)

Capacity : b bits/sec, frame size : l bits, round-trip delay : R

seconds
Transmission time : l/b
Total duration : R + l/b
Utilization : (l/b) / (R + l/b) = l / (l+bR)

Go-back-N
a)

Senders window size is n (n >1)

At most n outstanding frames can be sent
b) After receiving a damaged frame
Receiver discards all subsequent frames
Sender retransmits the damaged frame and all its successors after
the times out

Go-back-N : An Example

Selective Repeat
a)

Receivers window size is n ( n >1 )

At most n frames can be buffered
b) Receiver stores all the correct frames following the bad one
c) The sender retransmits only the bad frame not all its successors

Selective Repeat : An Example

Retransmission with Sliding Window

Protocols
a)

ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest): When an error is detected, the

receiver requests that the frame be retransmitted.
Stop-and-wait ARQ
Go-back-N continuous ARQ
Selective-repeat continuous ARQ
b) All of them belong to the sliding window protocols.
c) Both Go-back-N and Selective-repeat ARQs uses the pipelining
technique.

Sliding Window Protocol Using Go Back N

Continued

Sliding Window Protocol Using Go Back N

Sliding Window Protocol Using Go Back N (2)

Simulation of multiple timers in software.

A Sliding Window Protocol Using Selective Repeat

Continued

A Sliding Window Protocol Using Selective Repeat (2)

Continued

A Sliding Window Protocol Using Selective Repeat (3)

Continued

A Sliding Window Protocol Using Selective Repeat (4)

A Sliding Window Protocol Using Selective Repeat (5)

(a) Initial situation with a window size seven.

(b) After seven frames sent and received, but not acknowledged.
(c) Initial situation with a window size of four.
(d) After four frames sent and received, but not acknowledged.

Example Data Link Protocols

HDLC High-Level Data Link Control
The Data Link Layer in the Internet

HDLC :
1. They all are derived from the data link protocol first used in the
IBM mainframe word:SDLC (synchronous data link control )
protocol.
2. After developing SDLC,IBM submitted it to ANSI and ISO
for acceptance as U.S and international standards respectively.
3. ANSI modified it to become ADCCP(Advanced Data
Communication Control Procedure) and ISO modified it to
HDLC.
4. CCITT then adopted and modified HDLC for its LAP(Link
Access Protocol) as part of the X.25 network interface standard
but latter modified it again to LAPB ,to make it more compatible
with a later version of HDLC,

Example Data Link Protocols

a)

HDLC
bit oriented
bit stuffing
b) SLIP
c) PPP
character oriented
character stuffing
multiprotocol framing

HDLC Frame Format

a) A frame is delimited with the flag sequence
01111110. On idle point-to-point lines, flag
sequences are transmitted continuously.
b) Address
to identify one of multiple terminals for pointto-multipoint lines
to distinguish commands from responses for
point-to-point lines

PtP: examples
a)

HDLC: High Level Data Link Control

Frame structure:

Address
for multi-point line
distinguish responses from redirected frames

Control field

Information frame
Supervisory frames
Unnumbered frames
76

PtP: examples
a)

HDLC

Kind of frames:

Information frame

Supervisory frames:

Reject = nack

Receive ready = ack

Receive not ready = ack + stop sending

Selective reject = resend 1 frame

Unnumbered frames

Initialisation

Polling

Status reporting

77

PtP: examples
a)

Data Link layer in the Internet

Context:

Dial-up
Leased lines between routers

PtP: examples
a)

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

PPP provides

Framing + error detection

Link control protocol (LCP) for bringing up lines, test lines,
negotiate options, bringing down lines

Network control Protocol (NCP) to negotiate options

independent of the network protocol used

Scenario

PC calls router of provider via modem

Routers modem answers phone physical connection
Series of LCP packets to select PPP parameters
Series of NCP packets to e.g. get IP address
PC = Internet host!

The Data Link Layer in the Internet

A home personal computer acting as an internet host.

PPP Point to Point Protocol

The PPP full frame format for unnumbered mode operation.

PPP Point to Point Protocol (2)

A simplified phase diagram for bring a line up and down.

PPP Point to Point Protocol (3)

The LCP frame types.