CSE3155 DATA COMMUNICATION AND

COMPUTER NETWORKS

Module-2
Data Link Layer

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 Overview of Data Link Layer
The data link layer transforms the physical layer, a raw transmission facility, to
a link responsible for node-to-node (hop-to-hop) communication. Specific
responsibilities of the data link layer include framing, addressing, flow control,
error control, and media access control.

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Data Link Layer

Functions of Data Link Layer

1. Framing: It divides the stream of bits received from network layer into
manageable data units called frames.
2. Physical Addressing: It adds a header to the frame to define the sender
and receiver of the frame.
3. Flow Control: The data link layer imposes a flow control mechanism to
avoid overwhelming the receiver.
4. Error Control
• It adds reliability by adding mechanisms to detect and retransmit
damaged or lost frames.
• It also uses a mechanism to recognize duplicate frames by adding the
trailer to the end of the frame
5. Access Control
• It determines which device has control over the link at any given time
when two or more devices are connected to the same link.

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Figure: Relationship of layers and addresses in TCP/IP

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 Data Link Layer
 Sub-layers of Data Link Layer

1. Logical Link Control (LLC) Layer

• The Logical Link Control layer controls frame
synchronization, flow control and error checking.
2. Media Access Control (MAC) Layer
• The MAC layer is responsible for moving data packets to
and from one Network Interface Card (NIC) to another
across a shared channel.

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 Error Control
 Networks must be able to transfer data from one device to another with acceptable
accuracy. For most applications, a system must guarantee that the data received are
identical to the data transmitted.
 Any time data are transmitted from one node to the next, they can become corrupted
in passage. Many factors can alter one or more bits of a message.
 Some applications require a mechanism for detecting and correcting errors.
 Some applications can tolerate a small level of error. For example, random errors in
audio or video transmissions may be tolerable, but when we transfer text, we expect
a very high level of accuracy.

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Types of Errors
There are two main types of errors in transmissions:
1. Single bit error : It means only one bit of data unit is changed from 1 to 0
or from 0 to 1.

2. Burst error : It means two or more bits in data unit are changed from 1 to 0
from 0 to 1. In burst error, it is not necessary that only consecutive bits are
changed. The length of burst error is measured from first changed bit to last
changed bit

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Error Detection vs Error Correction
There are two types of attacks against errors:
Error Detecting Codes: Include enough redundancy bits to detect errors
and use ACKs and retransmissions to recover from the errors.
Error Correcting Codes: Include enough redundancy to detect and
correct errors. The use of error-correcting codes is often referred to as
forward error correction.

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Cntd…
Redundancy
The central concept in detecting or correcting errors is redundancy. To be able to detect or
correct errors, we need to send some extra bits with our data.
These redundant bits are added by the sender and removed by the receiver. Their presence
allows the receiver to detect or correct corrupted bits.
Detection versus Correction
The correction of errors is more difficult than the detection. In error detection, we are looking
only to see if any error has occurred. The answer is a simple yes or no. We are not even interested
in the number of errors. A single-bit error is the same for us as a burst error.
In error correction, we need to know the exact number of bits that are corrupted and more
importantly, their location in the message. The number of the errors and the size of the message
are important factors.

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Cntd…
Forward Error Correction versus Retransmisson

There are two main methods of error correction. Forward error correction is
the process in which the receiver tries to guess the message by using
redundant bits. This is possible, as we see later, if the number of errors is
small.
Correction by retransmission is a technique in which the receiver detects the
occurrence of an error and asks the sender to resend the message. Resending
is repeated until a message arrives that the receiver believes is error-free

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Cntd…
Coding
Redundancy is achieved through various coding schemes. The sender adds redundant bits
through a process that creates a relationship between the redundant bits and the actual data bits.
The receiver checks the relationships between the two sets of bits to detect or correct the
errors. The ratio of redundant bits to the data bits and the robustness of the process are important
factors in any coding scheme.
Figure shows the general idea of coding.

Figure: The structure of encoder and decoder

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 Block Coding
In block coding, we divide our message into blocks, each of k bits, called
datawords. We add r redundant bits to each block to make the length n = k + r. The
resulting n-bit blocks are called codewords.
How the extra r bits is chosen or calculated is something we will discuss later.
For the moment, it is important to know that we have a set of datawords, each
of size k, and a set of codewords, each of size of n.
With k bits, we can create a combination of 2k datawords; with n bits, we can create a
combination of 2n codewords. Since n > k, the number of possible codewords is larger
than the number of possible datawords.

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 HAMMING DISTANCE

• The Hamming distance between two words is

the number of differences between
corresponding bits.

• The minimum Hamming distance is the

smallest Hamming distance between
all possible pairs in a set of words.

10.
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Find the minimum Hamming distance of the coding scheme

Solution
We first find all Hamming distances.

The dmin in this case is 2.

10.
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Find the minimum Hamming distance of the coding scheme

Solution
We first find all the Hamming distances.

The dmin in this case is 3.

10.
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Minimum Distance for
Error Detection

• In a set of codewords, the minimum Hamming distance

is the smallest Hamming distance between all possible
pairs of codewords.

• To guarantee the detection of up to s errors in all cases,

the minimum Hamming distance in a block code must be
dmin = s + 1.

10.
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Geometric concept for finding dmin in error detection

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 Example

A code scheme has a Hamming distance dmin = 4. What is

the error detection of this scheme?

Solution
This code guarantees the detection of up to three errors
(s = 3).

10.
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 Some Linear Block Codes
Let us now study some linear block codes. These codes are trivial because we can easily find
the encoding and decoding algorithms and check their performances.
Simple Parity-Check Code
Perhaps the most familiar error-detecting code is the simple parity-check
code. In this code, a k-bit dataword is changed to an n-bit codeword where n =
k + 1.
The extra bit, called the parity bit, is selected to make the total number of 1s
in the codeword even.
Although some implementations specify an odd number of 1s, we discuss
the even case.

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We can count the number of 1s in the Xoring of two words

1. The Hamming distance d(000, 011) is 2 because

2. The Hamming distance d(10101, 11110) is 3 because

10.
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 Cntd…
Our first code (Table 1) is a parity-check code with k = 2 and n =3. The code in Table 3 is also
a parity-check code with k =4 and n =5.

Table: Simple parity-check code C(5, 4)

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Cntd…
Figure below shows a possible structure of an encoder (at the sender) and a decoder (at the
receiver).

Figure: Encoder and decoder for simple parity-check code

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Cntd…
At the sender, the generator takes a copy of a 4-bit dataword (a0, a1, a2, and a3) and generates a

parity bit r0. The dataword and the parity bit create the 5-bit codeword.

The parity bit that is added makes the number of 1s in the codeword even.
This is normally done by adding the 4 bits of the dataword (modulo-2); the result is the parity
bit. In other words,
r0 = a3 + a2 + a1 + a0 (modulo-2)
If the number of 1s is even, the result is 0; if the number of 1s is odd, the result is 1. In both
cases, the total number of 1s in the codeword is even.
The sender sends the codeword which may be corrupted during transmission. The receiver
receives a 5-bit word.
The checker at the receiver does the same thing as the generator in the sender with one
exception: The addition is done over all 5 bits.

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Cntd…
The result, which is called the syndrome, is just 1 bit. The syndrome is 0 when the
number of 1s in the received codeword is even; otherwise, it is 1.

s0 = b3 + b2 + b1 + b0 + q0 (modulo-2)
The syndrome is passed to the decision logic analyzer.
If the syndrome is 0, there is no error in the received codeword; the data portion of
the received codeword is accepted as the dataword.
If the syndrome is 1, the data portion of the received codeword is discarded. The
dataword is not created.
Example
Let us look at some transmission scenarios. Assume the sender sends the dataword 1011.
The codeword created from this dataword is 10111, which is sent to the receiver. We
examine five cases:
1. No error occurs; the received codeword is 10111. The syndrome is 0. The dataword
1011 is created.
2. One single-bit error changes a1 . The received codeword is 10011. The syndrome is 1.
No dataword is created.
3. One single-bit error changes r0 . The received codeword is 10110. The syndrome is 1.
No dataword is created. Note that although none of the dataword bits are corrupted,
no dataword is created because the code is not sophisticated enough to show the
position of the corrupted bit.

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Cntd…
4. An error changes r0 and a second error changes a3 .The received codeword is 00110. The
syndrome is 0. The dataword 0011 is created at the receiver. Note that here the dataword is
wrongly created due to the syndrome value. The simple parity-check decoder cannot detect an
even number of errors.

5. Three bits—a3, a2, and a1—are changed by errors. The received codeword is 01011. The
syndrome is 1.The dataword is not created. This shows that the simple parity check, guaranteed
to detect one single error, can also find any odd number of errors.

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 CYCLIC CODES

Cyclic codes are special linear block codes with one extra
property. In a cyclic code, if a codeword is cyclically shifted
(rotated), the result is another codeword.
Topics discussed in this section:
Cyclic Redundancy Check
Polynomials
Hardware Implémentation
Advantages of Cyclic Codes

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Cyclic Codes
Cyclic codes are special linear block codes with one extra property. In a cyclic code,
if a codeword is cyclically shifted (rotated), the result is another codeword.
For example, if 1011000 is a codeword and we cyclically left-shift, then 0110001 is
also a codeword.
Cyclic Redundancy Check

We can create cyclic codes to detect errors.

In this section, we simply discuss a category of cyclic codes called
the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) that is used in networks such as
LANs and WANs.

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Cntd…
Table A CRC code with C(7, 4)

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CRC encoder and decoder

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 Cntd…
In the encoder, the dataword has k bits (4 here); the codeword has n bits (7 here). The size of the
dataword is augmented by adding n - k (3 here) 0s to the right-hand side of the word.
The n-bit result is fed into the generator. The generator uses a divisor of size n - k + 1 (4 here),
predefined and agreed upon.
The generator divides the augmented dataword by the divisor (modulo-2 division).
The quotient of the division is discarded; the remainder (r2r1 r0) is appended to the dataword to create
the codeword.
The decoder receives the possibly corrupted codeword. A copy of all n bits is fed to the checker
which is a replica of the generator.
The remainder produced by the checker is a syndrome of n - k (3 here) bits, which is fed to the
decision logic analyzer.
The analyzer has a simple function. If the syndrome bits are all 0s, the 4 leftmost bits of the
codeword are accepted as the dataword (interpreted as no error); otherwise, the 4 bits are
discarded (error).
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 Encoder

Figure: Division in CRC encoder

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 Decoder

Figure: Division in the CRC decoder for two cases

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Cntd…
The codeword can change during transmission. The decoder does the same division process as
the encoder.
The remainder of the division is the syndrome. If the syndrome is all 0s, there is no error; the
dataword is separated from the received codeword and accepted.
Otherwise, everything is discarded.
Figure below shows two cases: The left hand figure shows the value of syndrome when no
error has occurred; the syndrome is 000.
The right-hand part of the figure shows the case in which there is one single error. The
syndrome is not all 0s (it is 011)

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A polynomial to represent a binary word

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 Advantages of Cyclic Codes

 We have seen that cyclic codes have a very good performance in

detecting single-bit errors, double errors, an odd number of errors, and
burst errors.
 They can easily be implemented in hardware and software. They are
especially fast when implemented in hardware.
 This has made cyclic codes a good candidate for many networks.
FLOW CONTROL
• Flow control is a set of procedures that tells the sender how much
data it can transmit before it must wait for an acknowledgement from
the receiver.
• Any receiving device has a limited speed at which it can process
incoming data and a limited amount of memory to store the incoming
data.
• Incoming data must be checked and processed before they can be
used.
• The rate of such processing is slower than the rate of transmission.
• For this reason, each receiving device has a block of memory, called a
buffer, reserved for storing incoming data until they are processed.
• If the buffer begins to fill up, the receiver must be able to tell the
sender to halt transmission until it is once again able to receive.

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FLOW CONTROL

Flow control is technique that a transmitting entity does not conquer a

receiving entity with data.
Two functional mechanisms are acknowledgment and timeouts.
• After getting each frame, the receiver will send ACK to sender.
• If the sender does not receive ACK up to reasonable amount of time,
the it retransmit the original frame; waiting for reasonable amount of
time is called timeout.
• The general strategy of using acknowledgments and timeouts to
implement reliable delivery is sometimes called automatic repeat
request (ARQ)(To be discussed in transport layer)
The two flow control mechanisms are:
Simple and Stop and Wait Flow Control
Sliding Window Flow Control(To be discussed in transport layer)

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Data Link Protocols
The protocols are normally implemented in software
by using one of the common programming languages

• A Simple Protocol
• A Stop-and-Wait Protocol

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A simple protocol
• In order to appreciate the step by step development of efficient and complex
protocols we will begin with a simple but unrealistic protocol. In this
protocol: Data are transmitted in one direction only
• The transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) hosts are always ready
• Processing time can be ignored
• Infinite buffer space is available
• No errors occur; i.e. no damaged frames and no lost frames (perfect
channel)

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 A stop-and-wait protocol
• In this protocol we assume that Data are transmitted in one direction only
• No errors occur (perfect channel)
• The receiver can only process the received information at a finite rate
• These assumptions imply that the transmitter cannot send frames at a rate
faster than the receiver can process them.
• The problem here is how to prevent the sender from flooding the receiver.
• A general solution to this problem is to have the receiver provide some sort
of feedback to the sender. The process could be as follows: The receiver
send an acknowledge frame back to the sender telling the sender that the
last received frame has been processed and passed to the host; permission
to send the next frame is granted. The sender, after having sent a frame,
must wait for the acknowledge frame from the receiver before sending
another frame.
• This protocol is known as stop-and-wait.

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Stop & Wait Protocol
The sender sends one frame and waits for feedback from the
receiver. When the ACK arrives, the sender sends the next
frame

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STOP AND WAIT PROTOCOL
Imagine a situation where the receiver has just sent an ACK frame back to the sender
saying that it correctly received and already passed a frame to its host. However, the ACK
frame gets lost completely, the sender times out and retransmits the frame. There is no
way for the receiver to tell whether this frame is a retransmitted frame or a new frame, so
the receiver accepts this duplicate happily and transfers it to the host. The protocol thus
fails in this aspect.
STOP-AND-WAIT, LOST FRAME Stop-and-Wait, lost ACK frame

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STOP AND WAIT PROTOCOL

To overcome this problem it is required that the receiver be able to distinguish a

frame that it is seeing for the first time from a retransmission. One way to achieve
this is to have the sender put a sequence number in the header of each frame it
sends. The receiver then can check the sequence number of each arriving frame to
see if it is a new frame or a duplicate to be discarded.

The receiver needs to distinguish only 2 possibilities: a new frame or a duplicate; a

1-bit sequence number is sufficient. At any instant the receiver expects a
particular sequence number. Any wrong sequence numbered frame arriving at the
receiver is rejected as a duplicate. A correctly numbered frame arriving at the
receiver is accepted, passed to the host, and the expected sequence number is
incremented by 1 (modulo 2).

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Flow Diagram of a Stop & Wait Protocol

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MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOL
• The medium access control (MAC) is a sublayer of the data link layer.
• The MAC sublayer emulates a full-duplex logical communication channel in
a multipoint network.
• This channel may provide unicast, multicast, or broadcast communication
service.
• The MAC sublayer uses MAC protocols to ensure that signals sent from
different stations across the same channel don't collide. Eg: two people speak
• A multiple-access protocol to coordinate access to the link (multipoint or
broadcast link).
• Many protocols have been devised to handle access to a shared link.

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Taxonomy of Multiple-access protocols

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Random Access Protocols

• Also called contention-based access

• No station is superior to another station and No station is assigned to control
another.
• A station that has data to send uses a procedure defined by the protocol to
make a decision on whether or not to send.
• Decision depends on the state of the medium (idle or busy).
• Two features of RAP:
• No scheduled time for a station to transmit
• No rules specify which station should send next
• Stations compete with one another to access the medium

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 ALOHA
• Aloha is the type of Random access protocol
• ALOHA, was developed at the University of Hawaii in early 1970.
• It was designed for a radio (wireless) LAN, but it can be used on any
shared medium.
• It has two types :one is Pure Aloha and another is Slotted Aloha.
• There is a potential of collisions
• The medium is shared between the stations.
• When a station sends data, another station may attempt to do so at
the same time.
• The data from the two stations collide and become garbled.

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 Pure ALOHA
• The original ALOHA protocol is called pure ALOHA.

• This is a simple but elegant protocol.

• The idea is that each station sends a frame whenever it has a

frame to send (multiple access).

• However, since there is only one channel to share, there is the

possibility of collision between frames from different stations.
Frames in Pure ALOHA

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Procedure for pure ALOHA protocol

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 Slotted ALOHA
• Slotted Aloha divides the time of shared channel into discrete intervals
called as time slots.
• Any station can transmit its data in any time slot.
• The only condition is that station must start its transmission from the
beginning of the time slot.
• If the beginning of the slot is missed, then station has to wait until the
beginning of the next time slot.
• A collision may occur if two or more stations try to transmit data at the
beginning of the same time slot.
• Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency of pure
ALOHA.

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Slotted ALOHA

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CSMA(Carrier Sense Multiple Access)
• To minimize the chance of collision and to increase the
performance
• Principle of CSMA: “sense before transmit” or “listen before talk”

• Carrier busy= No transmission currently taking place

• Carrier idle= Transmission is taking place
• CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot
eliminate it.

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 Collision in CSMA

At time t1, station B senses the

medium and finds it idle, so it
sends a frame.
At time t2 (t2 > t1), station C
senses the medium and finds it
idle because, at this time, the first
bits from station B have not
reached station C.
B
Station C also sends a frame.

The two signals collide and both

frames are destroyed.

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Persistence Methods

• What should a station do if the channel is busy?

• What should a station do if the channel is idle?
• Three methods have been devised to answer these
questions:
• 1-persistent method
• nonpersistent method
• p-persistent method

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1-Persistent

• The 1-persistent method is simple and straightforward.

• In this method, after the station finds the line idle, it sends its frame
immediately (with probability 1).
• This method has the highest chance of collision because two or more
stations may find the line idle and send their frames immediately.

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 Non-persistent

• In the non-persistent method, a station that has a frame to send senses the line
• If the line is idle, it sends immediately.
• If the line is not idle, it waits a random amount of time and then senses the
line again.
• The nonpersistent approach reduces the chance of collision

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 p-Persistent

• If the channel has time slots with a slot duration equal to or greater than the
maximum propagation time.
• The p-persistent approach combines the advantages of the other two strategies.
• It reduces the chance of collision and improves efficiency.

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 CSMA/CD

• Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection

• Station monitors channel while sending a frame

• If, however, there is a collision, the frame is sent again.

• Eg. Collision of the first bit in CSMA/CD,stations A and C are

involved in the collision.

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Collision and abortion in CSMA/CD

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 At time t1, station A has executed its persistence procedure and starts sending the bits of its frame.
 At time t2, station C has not yet sensed the first bit sent by A.
 Station C executes its persistence procedure and starts sending the bits in its frame, which
propagate both to the left and to the right.
 The collision occurs sometime after time t2.
 Station C detects a collision at time t3 when it receives the first bit of A’s frame.
 Station C immediately aborts transmission.
 Station A detects collision at time t4 when it receives the first bit of C’s frame; it also
immediately aborts transmission.
 Looking at the figure, we see that A transmits for the duration t4 − t1; C transmits for the duration
t3 − t2.

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CSMA/CD: Flow Diagram

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 CSMA/CA

• Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance was

invented for wireless networks
• Used in a network where collision cannot be detected
• Collisions are avoided through the use of CSMA/CA’s three
strategies:
• Interframe space (IFS)
• Contention window
• Acknowledgments

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 CSMA/CA
Interframe space (IFS)
• When an idle channel is found, the station does not send immediately.
• It waits for a period of time called the interframe space or IFS.
Contention Window
• The contention window is an amount of time divided into slots.
• if station determine that the channel is free, they wait a random amount of time before
they start sending.
• This time window doubles with each collision and corresponds to the binary
exponential backoff (BEB) that is familiar from CSMA/CD.
Acknowledgment:
• The positive acknowledgment and the time-out timer can help guarantee that the
receiver has received the frame.

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67
 CSMA/ CA and NAV

DIFS: DCF interframe space

RTS: Request to Send
SIFS: Short interframe space (SIFS)
NAV: Network Allocation Vector

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 CONTROLLED ACCESS

• In controlled access, the stations consult one another to find which station
has the right to send.

• A station cannot send unless it has been authorized by other stations.

• Three common methods:

• Reservation
• Polling
• Token passing

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Reservation
• A station needs to make a reservation before sending data.
• Time is divided into intervals.
• In each interval, a reservation frame precedes the data frames sent in
that interval.
• If there are N stations in the system, there are exactly N reservation
minislots in the reservation frame.

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Polling

• Polling works with topologies in which one device is designated as a

primary station and the other devices are secondary stations.

• Primary device is the initiator of a session.

• All data exchanges must be made through the primary device.

• Primary device controls the link; the secondary devices follow its
instructions.

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Select and poll functions in polling-access method

Select
The select function is used whenever the primary device has something to send.
Poll
The poll function is used by the primary device to solicit transmissions from the secondary
devices.

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 Token Passing
• The stations in a network are organized in a logical ring.
• For each station, there is a predecessor and a successor.
• The right to this access has been passed from the predecessor to the current station.
• The right will be passed to the successor when the current station has no more data
to send.
• The RIGHT passed from by means of special packet called “TOKEN”.

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3
Channelization

• Channelization is a multiple-access method in which the available bandwidth

of a link is shared in time, frequency, or through code, among different
stations.

• Similar to multiplexing

• Three schemes
• Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
• Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

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 Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Available bandwidth is divided into frequency bands.

• Each band is reserved for a specific station.
• Each station also uses a bandpass filter to confine the transmitter frequencies.

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 Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Stations share the bandwidth of the channel in time.
• Each station is allocated a time slot during which it can send data.

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 Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

• One channel carries all transmissions at the same time

• Each channel is separated by code

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END OF MODULE 2

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