ELEMENTARY DATA LINK
PROTOCOLS
Why protocols?
Protocols in the data link layer are designed so that
this layer can perform its basic functions:
1. framing
2. error control
3. flow control.
• Framing is the process of dividing bit - streams coming
from physical layer into data frames whose size ranges
from a few hundred to a few thousand bytes.
• Error control mechanisms deals with transmission errors
and retransmission of corrupted and lost frames.
• Flow control regulates speed of delivery and so that a
fast sender does not drown a slow receiver.
Types of protocols
• Data link protocols can be broadly divided into
two categories, depending on whether the
transmission channel is noiseless or noisy.
• Elementary Data Link protocols are classified
into three categories, as given below −
• Protocol 1 − Unrestricted simplex protocol
• Protocol 2 − Simplex stop and wait protocol
• Protocol 3 − Simplex protocol for noisy
channels.
Unrestricted Simplex Protocol
• Data transmitting is carried out in one
direction only.
• The transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) are
always ready and the processing time can be
ignored.
• In this protocol, infinite buffer space is
available, and no errors are occurring that is
no damage frames and no lost frames.
Simplex Stop and Wait protocol
• In this protocol , we assume that data is
transmitted in one direction only.
• No error occurs; i.e. the receiver can only
process the received information at finite rate.
• These assumptions imply that the transmitter
cannot send frames at rate faster than the
receiver can process them.
• The main problem here is how to prevent the sender from flooding the
receiver.
• The general solution for this problem is ---to have the receiver send
some sort of feedback to sender, the process is as follows −
• Step1 − The receiver send the acknowledgement frame back to the
sender telling the sender that the last received frame has been
processed and passed to the host.
• Step 2 − Permission to send the next frame is granted.
• Step 3 − The sender after sending the sent frame has to wait for an
acknowledge frame from the receiver before sending another frame.
• This protocol is called Simplex Stop and wait protocol, the sender sends
one frame and waits for feedback from the receiver. When the ACK
arrives, the sender sends the next frame.
Simplex Protocol for Noisy Channel
• Data transfer is only in one direction,
• consider separate sender and receiver,
• finite processing capacity and speed at the
receiver,
• since it is a noisy channel, errors in data
frames or acknowledgement frames are
expected.
• Every frame has a unique sequence number.
• After a frame has been transmitted, the timer
is started for a finite time.
• Before the timer expires, if the
acknowledgement is not received , the frame
gets retransmitted,
• when the acknowledgement gets corrupted or
sent data frames gets damaged, how long the
sender should wait to transmit the next frame
is infinite.
