Asynchronous and Synchronous

Transmission
• Timing problems require a mechanism to
synchronize the transmitter and receiver
• Two solutions
—Asynchronous
Chapter 6
—Synchronous
Digital Data Communications • Transmission Errors: Detection and Correction
Techniques

Asynchronous Asynchronous (diagram)

• Data transmitted on character at a time
—5 to 8 bits
• Timing only needs maintaining within each
character
• Resynchronize with each character
• Parity check – number of ones including the
parity bit must be even (even parity) or odd
(odd parity)

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Asynchronous - Behavior Synchronous - Bit Level
• In a steady stream, interval between characters • Block of data transmitted without start or stop
is uniform (length of stop element) bits
• In idle state, receiver looks for transition 1 to 0 • Clocks must be synchronized
• Then samples next seven intervals (char length) • Can use separate clock line
• Then looks for next 1 to 0 for next char —Good over short distances
—Subject to impairments
• Simple • Embed clock signal in data
• Cheap —Manchester encoding
• Overhead of 2 or 3 bits per char (~20%) —Carrier frequency (analog)
• Good for data with large gaps (keyboard)

Synchronous - Block Level Synchronous (diagram)

• Need to indicate start and end of block
• Use preamble and postamble
—e.g. series of SYN (hex 16) characters
—e.g. block of 11111111 patterns ending in 11111110

• More efficient (lower overhead) than async

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Line Configuration Traditional Configurations
• Topology
— Physical arrangement of stations on medium
— Point to point
— Multi point
• Computer and terminals, local area network
• Half duplex
— Only one station may transmit at a time
— Requires one data path
• Full duplex
— Simultaneous transmission and reception between two stations
— Requires two data paths

Data Communications
Interfacing Interfacing
• Data processing devices (or data terminal
equipment, DTE) do not (usually) include data
transmission facilities
• Need an interface called data circuit terminating
equipment (DCE)
—e.g. modem, NIC
• DCE transmits bits on medium
• DCE communicates data and control info with
DTE
—Done over interchange circuits
—Clear interface standards required

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Characteristics of Interface ISDN Physical Interface Diagram
• Mechanical
—Connection plugs
• Electrical
—Voltage, timing, encoding
• Functional
—Data, control, timing, grounding
• Procedural
—Sequence of events

ISDN Physical Interface ISDN Electrical Specification

• Connection between terminal equipment (c.f. • Balanced transmission
DTE) and network terminating equipment (c.f. — Carried on two lines, e.g. twisted pair
— Signals as currents down one conductor and up the other
DCE)
— Differential signaling
• ISO 8877 — Value depends on direction of voltage
• Cables terminate in matching connectors with 8 — Tolerates more noise and generates less
— (Unbalanced, e.g. RS-232 uses single signal line and ground)
contacts
— Data encoding depends on data rate
• Transmit/receive carry both data and control — Basic rate 192kbps uses pseudoternary
— Primary rate uses alternative mark inversion (AMI) and B8ZS or
HDB3

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Transmission Error Error Detection Process
• An error occurs when a bit is altered between
transmission and reception
• Single bit errors
— One bit altered
— Adjacent bits not affected
— White noise
• Burst errors
— Length B
— Contiguous sequence of B bits in which first last and any
number of intermediate bits in error
— Impulse noise
— Fading in wireless
— Effect greater at higher data rates

Error Detection Cyclic Redundancy Check

• Additional bits added by transmitter for error • For a block of k bits transmitter generates n bit
detection code sequence
• Parity • Transmit k+n bits which is exactly divisible by
—Value of parity bit is such that character has even some number
(even parity) or odd (odd parity) number of ones • Receive divides frame by that number
—Even number of bit errors goes undetected —If no remainder, assume no error

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 Error Correction Process
Error Correction Diagram
• Correction of detected errors usually requires
data block to be retransmitted (see chapter 7)
• Not appropriate for wireless applications
—Bit error rate is high
• Lots of retransmissions
—Propagation delay can be long (satellite) compared
with frame transmission time
• Would result in retransmission of frame in error plus many
subsequent frames
• Need to correct errors on basis of bits received

Error Correction Process Working of Error Correction

• Each k bit block mapped to an n bit block (n>k) • Add redundancy to transmitted message
— Codeword
— Forward error correction (FEC) encoder
• Can deduce original in face of certain level of
• Codeword sent
error rate
• Received bit string similar to transmitted but may • E.g. block error correction code
contain errors —In general, add (n – k ) bits to end of block
• Received code word passed to FEC decoder • Gives n bit block (codeword)
— If no errors, original data block output • All of original k bits included in codeword
— Some error patterns can be detected and corrected —Some FEC map k bit input onto n bit codeword such
— Some error patterns can be detected but not corrected that original k bits do not appear
— Some (rare) error patterns are not detected
• Results in incorrect data output from FEC

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 Flow Control
• Ensuring the sending entity does not overwhelm
the receiving entity
—Preventing buffer overflow
• Transmission time
Chapter 7
—Time taken to emit all bits into medium
Data Link Control Protocols • 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

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Fragmentation Stop and Wait Link Utilization
• 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

Sliding Windows Flow Control Sliding Window Diagram

• Allow multiple frames to be in transit
• Receiver has buffer W long
• 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)
—Frames are numbered modulo 2k

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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 but no acknowledgement to send, send last
acknowledgement number again, or have ACK valid
flag (TCP)

Error Detection Cyclic Redundancy Check

• Additional bits added by transmitter for error • For a block of k bits transmitter generates n bit
detection code sequence
• Parity • Transmit k+n bits which is exactly divisible by
—Value of parity bit is such that character has even some number
(even parity) or odd (odd parity) number of ones • Receive divides frame by that number
—Even number of bit errors goes undetected —If no remainder, assume no error
• CRC types: CRC-16, CRC—CCITT, CRC-32

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 Automatic Repeat Request
Error Control (ARQ)
• Detection and correction of errors • Stop and wait
• Lost frames • Go back N
• Damaged frames • Selective reject (selective retransmission)
• Automatic repeat request
—Error detection
—Positive acknowledgment
—Retransmission after timeout
—Negative acknowledgement and retransmission

Stop and Wait -

Stop and Wait Diagram
• 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

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Stop and Wait - Pros and Cons Go Back N (1)
• Simple • Based on sliding window
• Inefficient • 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 Go Back N - Lost Frame (1)

• Receiver detects error in frame i • Frame i lost
• Receiver sends rejection-i • Transmitter sends i+1
• Transmitter gets rejection-i • Receiver gets frame i+1 out of sequence
• Transmitter retransmits frame i and all • Receiver send reject i
subsequent • Transmitter goes back to frame i and
retransmits

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 Go Back N - Damaged
Go Back N - Lost Frame (2) Acknowledgement
• Frame i lost and no additional frame sent • Receiver gets frame i and send
• Receiver gets nothing and returns neither acknowledgement (i+1) which is lost
acknowledgement nor rejection • Acknowledgements are cumulative, so next
• Transmitter times out and sends acknowledgement (i+n) may arrive before
acknowledgement frame with P bit set to 1 transmitter times out on frame i
• Receiver interprets this as command which it • If transmitter times out, it sends
acknowledges with the number of the next acknowledgement with P bit set as before
frame it expects (frame i ) • This can be repeated a number of times before
• Transmitter then retransmits frame i a reset procedure is initiated

Go Back N -
Go Back N - Damaged Rejection Diagram
• As for lost frame (2)

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 Selective Reject -
Selective Reject Diagram
• 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 in order to
insert the rejected frame in the right place

High Level Data Link Control HDLC Station Types

• HDLC • Primary station
• ISO 33009, ISO 4335 —Controls operation of link
• Widely used —Frames issued are called commands
—Maintains separate logical link to each secondary
• Basis for many other data link control protocols station
• Secondary station
—Under control of primary station
—Frames issued called responses
• Combined station
—May issue commands and responses

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HDLC Link Configurations HDLC Transfer Modes (1)
• Unbalanced • Normal Response Mode (NRM)
—One primary and one or more secondary stations —Unbalanced configuration
—Supports full duplex and half duplex —Primary initiates transfer to secondary
• Balanced —Secondary may only transmit data in response to
—Two combined stations command from primary
—Supports full duplex and half duplex —Used on multi-drop lines
—Host computer as primary
—Terminals as secondary

HDLC Transfer Modes (2) HDLC Transfer Modes (3)

• Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM) • Asynchronous Response Mode (ARM)
—Balanced configuration —Unbalanced configuration
—Either station may initiate transmission without —Secondary may initiate transmission without
receiving permission permission form primary
—Most widely used —Primary responsible for line
—No polling overhead —rarely used

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

Flag Fields Bit Stuffing

• Delimit frame at both ends • Example with
• 01111110 possible errors
• May close one frame and open another
• Receiver hunts for flag sequence to synchronize
• 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

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Address Field Control Field
• Identifies secondary station that sent or will receive • Different for different frame type
frame —Information - data to be transmitted to user (next
• Usually 8 bits long layer up)
• May be extended to multiples of 7 bits • Flow and error control piggybacked on information frames
— LSB of each octet indicates that it is the last octet (1) or not (0) —Supervisory - ARQ when piggyback not used
• All ones (11111111) is broadcast —Unnumbered - supplementary link control
• First one or two bits of control filed identify
frame type
• Remaining bits explained later

Control Field Diagram Poll/Final Bit

• Use depends on context
• Command frame
—P bit
—1 to solicit (poll) response from peer
• Response frame
—F bit
—1 indicates response to soliciting command

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Information Field Frame Check Sequence Field
• Only in information and some unnumbered • FCS
frames • Error detection
• Must contain integral number of octets • 16 bit CRC
• Variable length • Optional 32 bit CRC

HDLC Operation Examples of Operation (1)

• Exchange of information, supervisory and
unnumbered frames
• Three phases
—Initialization
—Data transfer
—Disconnect

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Examples of Operation (2) Summary Data Link Control
• Converts bitstream received from physical layer
to frames passed to network layer
• Error control and flow control
• Apply the best method and protocol in order to
optimize the transfer rate and the transfer
medium

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