UNIT II

DATA LINK LAYER

 Contents
Multiple Access Protocols
Data link Layer •ALOHA
•Design issues •CSMA,CSMA/CD,CSMA/CA
•Error detection& correction •Collision free protocols
•Elementary data link layer •Ethernet-Physical Layer
•Ethernet Mac Sub Layer
protocols •Data link layer Switching
•Sliding window protocols •Use of bridges
•Learning bridges
•Spanning tree bridges
•Repeaters
•Hubs
•Bridges
•Switches
•Routers
•Gate ways
 OVERVIEW OF DLL
• 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 addessing , framing , flow control ,
error control, media access control
For this, the data link layer takes the packets it gets from the
network layer and encapsulates them into frames for
transmission. Each frame contains a frame header, a payload
field for holding the packet, and a frame trailer
Parts of a Frame
A frame has the following parts −

• Frame Header − It contains the source and the

destination addresses of the frame.
•Payload field − It contains the message to be
delivered.
•Trailer − It contains the error detection and error
correction bits.
• Flag − It marks the beginning and end of the frame.
DLL DESIGN ISSUES

1. Providing Services to the network layer:

2. Framing

3. Error Control

4. Flow Control
1. SERVICES PROVIDED TO THE NETWORK LAYER

▪The data link layer can be designed to offer various services.

The actual services offered can vary from system to
system.
Three reasonable possibilities that are commonly provided are

1) Unacknowledged Connectionless service

2) Acknowledged Connectionless service
3) Acknowledged Connection-Oriented service
1.1 UNACKNOWLEDGED CONNECTIONLESS SERVICE

• Unacknowledged connectionless service consists of

having the source machine send independent frames to the
destination machine without having the destination
machine acknowledge them.

• 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.

• This class of service is appropriate when the error rate

is very low so that recovery is left to higher layers.

• Most LANs use unacknowledged connectionless service in

the data link layer.
1.2 ACKNOWLEDGED CONNECTIONLESS SERVICE

• When this service is offered, there are still no logical

connections used, but each frame sent is individually
acknowledged.

• In this way, the sender knows whether a frame has arrived

correctly. If it has not arrived within a specified time interval, it
can be sent again. This service is useful over unreliable
channels, such as wireless systems.

• If individual frames are acknowledged and retransmitted,

entire packets get through much faster.
1.3 ACKNOWLEDGED CONNECTION-ORIENTED SERVICE

• Here, the source and destination machines establish a

connection before any data are transferred. Each frame
sent over the connection is numbered, and the data
link layer guarantees that each frame sent is indeed
received.

• Furthermore, it guarantees that each frame is

received exactly once and that all frames are received in
the right order.
Design issues: Services

Connectionless service Connection-oriented service

Unacknowledged Acknowledged
•Independent frames •Each frame received exactly
•Error rate should be low once
•Recovery left to higher layers •All frames received in the right
•Used on LANs
order
Acknowledged •3 distinct phases:
•No connection
•Acknowledgement for each •Establishment of connection
packet •Data transfer
•Resending •Release of connection
•Ack is optimisation; also
transport layer can handle errors
2. FRAMING

• The usual approach is for the data link layer to break the bit
stream up into discrete frames and compute the checksum
for each frame (framing).

• When a frame arrives at the destination, the checksum

is recomputed. If the newly computed checksum is different
from the one contained in the frame, the data link layer knows
that an error has occurred and takes steps to deal with it

• Example., discarding the bad frame and possibly also sending

back an error report
FRAMING(contd…)

We will look at four framing methods:

1. Character count.
2. Byte stuffing.
3. Bit stuffing.
4. Physical layer coding violations.
 FRAMING – CHARACTER COUNT
• The first framing method uses a field in the header to specify
the number of characters in the frame. When the data link layer
at the destination sees the character count, it knows how many
characters follow and hence where the end of the frame is. This
technique is shown in fig a) four frames of sizes 5,5,8,8
characters respectively(without errors) fig.b) with errors
• The trouble with this algorithm is that the count can be garbled
by a transmission error.
• For example, if the character count of 5 in the second frame of
Fig. (b) becomes a 7, the destination will get out of
synchronization and will be unable to locate the start of the next
frame. Even if the checksum is incorrect so the destination knows
that the frame is bad, it still has no way of telling where the next
frame starts.
• Sending a frame back to the source asking for a retransmission
does not help either, since the destination does not know how
many characters to skip over to get to the start of the
retransmission. For this reason, the character count method is
rarely used anymore.
FRAMING – BYTE / CHARACTER STUFFING

• In the past, the starting and ending bytes were different, but in
recent years most protocols have used the same byte, called a
flag byte, as both the starting and ending delimiter, as shown in
below figure as FLAG.

• In this way, if the receiver ever loses synchronization, it can

just search for the flag byte to find the end of the current frame.
Two consecutive flag bytes indicate the end of one frame and
start of the next one.
FRAMING – BYTE / CHARACTER STUFFING

• Each frame starts and ends with a FLAG byte. Thus adjacent
frames are separated by two flag bytes.
• A serious problem occurs with this method is when binary data is
transmitted ,It is possible that FLAG is actually a part of the data.

• Solution: At the sender an escape byte (ESC) character is

inserted just before the FLAG byte present in the data. The data
link layer at the receiver end removes the ESC is from the data
before sending it to the network layer. This technique is called as
byte stuffing or character stuffing.
• Thus , a framing flag bye can be distinguished from one in the
data by absence or presence of an escape byte before it.
• Now if an ESC is present in the data then an extra ESC is
inserted before it in the data. This extra ESC is removed at the
receiver.
The major disadvantage of using this framing method is
that it is closely tied to the use of 8-bit characters.
FRAMING – BIT STUFFING

• Whenever the sender's data link layer encounters five

consecutive 1s in the data, it automatically stuffs a 0 bit into the
outgoing bit stream.
• This bit stuffing is analogous to byte stuffing , in which an
escape bye is stuffed into the outgoing character stream before a
flag byte in the data.
• When the receiver sees five consecutive incoming 1 bits,
followed by a 0 bit, it automatically de- stuffs (i.e., deletes)
the 0 bit. Just as byte stuffing is completely transparent to
the network layer in both computers, so is bit stuffing.
FRAMING – BIT STUFFING
 Types of Errors
Single bit error-

Multiple bits error- more than one bits in corrupted state.

Burst error-Frame contains more than1 consecutive bits corrupted.

3. ERROR CONTROL

Error control mechanism may involve two possible ways:

• Error Detection

• Error Correction

Error Detection

• Error detection means to decide whether the received data is

correct or not without having a copy of the original message.
1.22
1.23
Error Detecting Techniques:

The most popular Error Detecting Techniques are:

•Single parity check

•Two-dimensional parity check

•Checksum

•Cyclic redundancy check

1.26
 Single Parity Check
•Single Parity checking is the simple mechanism and inexpensive
to detect the errors.
•In this technique, a redundant bit is also known as a parity bit
which is appended at the end of the data unit so that the
number of 1s becomes even.
•If the number of 1s bits is odd, then parity bit 1 is appended and
if the number of 1s bits is even, then parity bit 0 is appended at
the end of the data unit.
•At the receiving end, the parity bit is calculated from the
received data bits and compared with the received parity bit.
•This technique generates the total number of 1s even, so it is
known as even-parity checking.
PARITY CHECK

• One extra bit is sent along with the original bits to make
number of 1s either even in case of even parity, or odd in case
of odd parity.
• The sender while creating a frame counts the number of 1s in
it. For example, if even parity is used and number of 1s is
even then one bit with value 0 is added.
• This way number of 1s remains even.If the number of 1s is
odd, to make it even a bit with value 1 is added.
1.30
1.31
1.32
Drawbacks Of Single Parity Checking
•It can only detect single-bit errors which are very rare.
•If two bits are interchanged, then it cannot detect the
errors.

Two-Dimensional Parity Check:

Performance can be improved by using Two-Dimensional Parity
Check which organizes the data in the form of a table.
1.34
Drawbacks Of 2D Parity Check:
•If two bits in one data unit are corrupted and two bits
exactly the same position in another data unit are also
corrupted, then 2D Parity checker will not be able to detect
the error.
•This technique cannot be used to detect the 4-bit errors or
more in some cases.
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

• CRC is a different approach to detect if the received frame

contains valid data. This technique involves binary division of
the data bits being sent.

• The divisor is generated using polynomials. The sender

performs a division operation on the bits being sent and
calculates the remainder.

• Before sending the actual bits, the sender adds the remainder at
the end of the actual bits. Actual data bits plus the remainder is
called a code word. The sender transmits data bits as
codewords.
CRC is a redundancy error technique used to determine the error.
Following are the steps used in CRC for error detection:
•In CRC technique, a string of n 0s is appended to the data unit, and this n
number is less than the number of bits in a predetermined number, known
as division which is n+1 bits.
•Secondly, the newly extended data is divided by a divisor using a process is
known as binary division. The remainder generated from this division is
known as CRC remainder.
•Thirdly, the CRC remainder replaces the appended 0s at the end of the
original data. This newly generated unit is sent to the receiver.
•The receiver receives the data followed by the CRC remainder. The receiver
will treat this whole unit as a single unit, and it is divided by the same divisor
that was used to find the CRC remainder.
•If the resultant of this division is zero which means that it has no error, and
the data is accepted.
•If the resultant of this division is not zero which means that the data
consists of an error. Therefore, the data is discarded.
 Example1

• A bit stream 1001 is transmitted using the standard CRC

method. The generator polynomial is x3+x+1.
• The generator polynomial G(x) = x3 + x+1 is encoded as
1011 - divisor

• Clearly, the generator polynomial consists of 4 bits.

• So, a string of 3 zeroes is appended to the bit stream to be

transmitted.

• The resulting bit stream is 1001000 - dividend

Division in CRC encoder
 Division in the CRC decoder for two cases

10.40
 Example 2:
Suppose the original data is 11100 and divisor is 1001.
CRC Generator
•A CRC generator uses a modulo-2 division. Firstly, three zeroes are
appended at the end of the data as the length of the divisor is 4 and we
know that the length of the string 0s to be appended is always one less than
the length of the divisor.
•Now, the string becomes 11100000, and the resultant string is divided by
the divisor 1001.
•The remainder generated from the binary division is known as CRC
remainder. The generated value of the CRC remainder is 111.
•CRC remainder replaces the appended string of 0s at the end of the data
unit, and the final string would be 11100111 which is sent across the
network.
CRC Checker
•The functionality of the CRC checker is similar to the CRC generator.
•When the string 11100111 is received at the receiving end, then CRC
checker performs the modulo-2 division.
•A string is divided by the same divisor, i.e., 1001.
•In this case, CRC checker generates the remainder of zero. Therefore, the
data is accepted.
 CHECKSUM

• In checksum error detection scheme, the data is divided into k

segments each of m bits.

• In the sender’s end the segments are added using 1’s complement
arithmetic to get the sum. The sum is complemented to get the
checksum.

• The checksum segment is sent along with the data segments.

• At the receiver’s end, all received segments are added using 1’s
complement arithmetic to get the sum. The sum is complemented.
 At Sender At Receiver
The Sender follows the given steps: The Receiver follows the given steps:
• The block unit is divided into k secti • The block unit is divided into k secti
ons, and each of n bits. ons and each of n bits.
• All the k sections are added togethe • All the k sections are added togethe
r by using one's complement to get th r by using one's complement algorith
e sum. m to get the sum.
• The sum is complemented and it be • The sum is complemented.
comes the checksum field. • If the result of the sum is zero, then
• The original data and checksum fiel the data is accepted otherwise the da
d are sent across the network. ta is discarded.
Example
•Suppose that the sender wants to send 4 frames each of 8 bits,
where the frames are 11001100, 10101010, 11110000 and
11000011.
•The sender adds the bits using 1s complement arithmetic. While
adding two numbers using 1s complement arithmetic, if there is a
carry over, it is added to the sum.
•After adding all the 4 frames, the sender complements the sum to
get the checksum, 11010011, and sends it along with the data
frames.
•The receiver performs 1s complement arithmetic sum of all the
frames including the checksum. The result is complemented and
found to be 0. Hence, the receiver assumes that no error has
occurred.
HAMMING CODE ERROR DETECTION & CORRECTION

• The hamming code technique, which is an error-

detection and error-correction technique, was proposed
by R.W. Hamming.

• Whenever a data packet is transmitted over a network,

there are possibilities that the data bits may get lost or
damaged during transmission.

• Hamming codes make use of multiple parity bits to

enable single bit correction and two-bit error detection

Hamming Code = Data Bits + Parity Bits

 Hamming Code
Hamming code is used to detect and correct the error in the
transmitted data. So, it is an error detection and correction code.
It was originally invented by Richard W. Hamming in the year
1950. Hamming codes detect 1-bit and 2-bit errors.

Parity bits: The bit which is appended to the original data of

binary bits so that the total number of 1s is even or odd.

Even parity: To check for even parity, if the total number of 1s is

even, then the value of the parity bit is 0. If the total number of
1s occurrences is odd, then the value of the parity bit is 1.

Odd Parity: To check for odd parity, if the total number of 1s is

even, then the value of parity bit is 1. If the total number of 1s is
odd, then the value of parity bit is 0.
•While transmitting the message, it is encoded with the
redundant bits. The redundant bits are the extra bits that are
placed at certain locations of the data bits to detect the error. At
the receiver end, the code is decoded to detect errors and the
original message is received.

•So before transmitting, the sender has to encode the message

with the redundant bits. It involves three steps, as described
below.
Encoding the message with hamming code
1. Selecting the number of redundant bits
•The hamming code uses the number of redundant bits depending on the
number of information bits in the message.
•Let n be the number of information or data bits, then the number of
redundant bits P is determined from the following formula,

So the number of redundant bits is determined by the trial and error

method.
2. Choosing the location of redundant bits
For example, the number of data bits n=4, and the number of redundant bits
P=3. So the message consists of 7 bits in total that are to be coded. Let the
rightmost bit be designated as bit 1, the next successive bit as bit 2 and so on.
The seven bits are bit 7, bit 6, bit 5, bit 4, bit 3, bit 2, bit 1.
In this, the redundant bits are placed at the positions that are numbered
corresponding to the power of 2, i.e., 1, 2, 4, 8,… Thus the locations of data bit
and redundant bit are D4, D3, D2, P3, D1, P2, P1.
3. Assigning the values to redundant bits
•Now it is time to assign bit value to the redundant bits in the formed
hamming code group. The assigned bits are called a parity bit.
• parity bit will check certain other bits in the total code group. It is one
with the bit location table, as shown below.
•Parity bit P1 covers all data bits in positions whose binary representation
has 1 in the least significant position(001, 011, 101, 111, etc.). Thus P1
checks the bit in locations 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, etc..

•Parity bit P2 covers all data bits in positions whose binary representation
has 1 in the second least significant position(010, 011, 110, 111, etc.). Thus
P2 checks the bit in locations 2, 3, 6, 7, etc.

•Parity bit P3 covers all data bits in positions whose binary representation
has 1 in the third least significant position(100, 101, 110, 111, etc.). Thus P3
checks the bit in locations 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.

•Each parity bit checks the corresponding bit locations and assign the bit
value as 1 or 0, so as to make the number of 1s as even for even parity and
odd for odd parity.
Example problem 1
Encode a binary word 11001 into the even parity hamming code.
Given, number of data bits, n =5.
To find the number of redundant bits,
Let us try P=4.

The equation is satisfied and so 4 redundant bits are selected.

So, total code bit = n+P = 9
The redundant bits are placed at bit positions 1, 2, 4 and 8.
Construct the bit location table.
To determine the parity bits
•For P1: Bit locations 3, 5, 7 and 9 have three 1s. To have even parity, P1 must
be 1.

•For P2: Bit locations 3, 6, 7 have two 1s. To have even parity, P2 must be 0.

•For P3: Bit locations 5, 6, 7 have one 1s. To have even parity, P3 must be 1.

•For P4: Bit locations 8, 9 have one 1s. To have even parity, P2 must be 1.

•Thus the encoded 9-bit hamming code is 111001101.

How to detect and correct the error in the hamming code?
•After receiving the encoded message, each parity bit along with its
corresponding group of bits are checked for proper parity. While checking, the
correct result of individual parity is marked as 0 and the wrong result is
marked as 1.

•After checking all the parity bits, a binary word is formed taking the result bits
for P1 as LSB. So formed binary word gives the bit location, where there is an
error.

•If the formed binary word has 0 bits, then there is no error in the message.
Example problem 2
Let us assume the even parity hamming code from the above
example (111001101) is transmitted and the received code is
(110001101). Now from the received code, let us detect and
correct the error.
To detect the error, let us construct the bit location table.
Checking the parity bits
•For P1 : Check the locations 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. There is three 1s in this
group, which is wrong for even parity. Hence the bit value for P1 is
1.
•For P2 : Check the locations 2, 3, 6, 7. There is one 1 in this group,
which is wrong for even parity. Hence the bit value for P2 is 1.
•For P3 : Check the locations 3, 5, 6, 7. There is one 1 in this group,
which is wrong for even parity. Hence the bit value for P3 is 1.
•For P4 : Check the locations 8, 9. There are two 1s in this group,
which is correct for even parity. Hence the bit value for P4 is 0.
•The resultant binary word is 0111. It corresponds to the bit
location 7 in the above table. The error is detected in the data bit
D4. The error is 0 and it should be changed to 1. Thus the corrected
code is 111001101.
 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK LAYER PROTOCOLS

•Protocols in the data link layer are designed so that this layer
can perform its basic functions: framing, error control and flow
control.
•Framing is the process of dividing bit - streams 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 Data Link Protocols
Data link protocols can be broadly divided into two categories,
depending on whether the transmission channel is noiseless or
noisy.
 Simplest Protocol
• The Simplex protocol is hypothetical protocol designed for
unidirectional data transmission(i.e from sender to receiver)
over an ideal channel, i.e. a channel through which
transmission can never go wrong.

• 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 sequence number or acknowledgements are used here.
• No errors occur; i.e. no damaged frames and no lost
Frames
Simplest Protocol
Example : Simplest Protocol
• This is unrealistic protocol ,because it
does not handle either flow control or
error correction
 STOP & W AIT PROTOCOL
• The problem here is how to prevent the sender from flooding the
receiver.
• Stop – and – Wait protocol is for noiseless channel too. It provides
unidirectional data transmission without any error control
facilities. However, it provides for flow control so that a fast sender
does not drown a slow receiver
• 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 protocol
Design of Stop and wait Protocol
 Flow control for stop and wait

Drawbacks:
1.Only one frame can be in transmission at a time.
2.This leads to inefficiency if propagation delay is much longer than
transmission delay.
Stop & Wait ARQ(Automatic Repeat Request)

• Stop & Wait ARQ is a sliding window protocol for flow control
and it overcomes the limitations of Stop & Wait, we can say that
it is the improved or modified version of Stop & Wait protocol.

• Working of Stop & Wait ARQ is almost like Stop & Wait
protocol, the only difference is that it includes some additional
components, which are:

1. Time out timer

2. Sequence numbers for data packets
3. Sequence numbers for feedbacks
• When the frame arrives at the receiver site, it is checked and if
it is corrupted, it is silently discarded.
• Lost frames are more difficult to handle than corrupted
ones. In our previous protocols, there was no way to identify a
frame.
• When the receiver receives a data frame that is out of order, this
means that frames were either lost or duplicated
• The received frame could be the correct one, or a duplicate, or a
frame out of order. The solution is to number the frames.
• The lost frames need to be resent in this protocol. If the receiver
does not respond when there is an error, how can the sender
know which frame to resend?
• To remedy this problem, the sender keeps a copy of the sent
frame. At the same time, it starts a timer. If the timer expires and
there is no ACK for the sent frame, the frame is resent, the
copy is held, and the timer is restarted.
• Error correction in Stop-and-Wait ARQ is done by keeping a
copy of the sent frame and retransmitting of the frame when the
timer expires.
Operation:
• The sender transmits the frame, when frame arrives at the
receiver it checks for damage and acknowledges to the sender
accordingly. while transmitting a frame there can be 4 situations.
1. Normal operation
2. The frame is lost
3. The acknowledgement is lost
4. The acknowledgement is delayed
Limitation of Stop and Wait ARQ:

• The major limitation of Stop and Wait ARQ is its very

less efficiency. To increase the efficiency, protocols
like Go back N and Selective Repeat are used.
 Stop and Wait Protocol Vs Stop and Wait ARQ

Stop and Wait Protocol Stop and Wait ARQ

It assumes that the communication It assumes that the communication

channel is perfect and noise free. channel is imperfect and noisy.

Data packet sent by the sender can Data packet sent by the sender may
never get corrupt. get corrupt.
A negative acknowledgement is sent
There is no concept of negative
by the receiver if the data packet is
acknowledgements.
found to be corrupt.

Sender starts the time out timer after

There is no concept of time out timer.
sending the data packet.

Data packets and acknowledgements

There is no concept of sequence
are numbered using sequence
numbers.
numbers.
Go-Back-N ARQ
Go-Back-N ARQ (Go-Back-N automatic repeat request) is a
flow control protocol where the sender continues to send several
frames specified by a window size even without receiving
feedback from the receiver node.
Let's take an example
Consider a sender has to send data packets indexing from p1 to
p5, it sends all the data packets in order (from p1 to p5), but the
receiver has only received p1 and the data packet p2 is lost
somewhere in the network, then the receiver declines all the
data packets after p2 ( i.e. p3, p4, p5 ) because the receiver is
waiting for packet p2 and will not accept any other data packet
than that. So, now as the time out time index of p2 expires, the
sender goes back 3 packets and starts sending all the data
packets from p2 to p5 again.
Timer:
• Although there can be a timer for each frame that is sent, in
our protocol we use only one.
Acknowledgment
• The receiver sends a positive acknowledgment if a frame has
arrived safe .If a frame is damaged or is received out of order,
the receiver is silent and will discard all subsequent frames
until it receives the one it is expecting.

• The receiver does not have to acknowledge each frame

received. It can send one cumulative acknowledgment for
several frames.
Resending a Frame
• When the timer expires, the sender resends all outstanding
frames.
• In Go-Back-N ARQ, The receiver keeps track of only one
variable, and there is no need to buffer out-of- order frames;
they are simply discarded. However, this protocol is very
inefficient for a noisy link.

• In a noisy link a frame has a higher probability of damage,

which means the resending of multiple frames. This resending
uses up the bandwidth and slows down the transmission

• For noisy links, there is another mechanism that does not

resend N frames when just one frame is damaged; only the
damaged frame is resent. This mechanism is called Selective
Repeat ARQ.
Selective Repeat Protocol (SRP) :

• This protocol(SRP) is mostly identical to GBN protocol, except

that buffers are used and the receiver, and the sender, each
maintain a window of size.

• SRP works better when the link is very unreliable.

• Because in this case, retransmission tends to happen more

frequently, selectively retransmitting frames is more efficient
than retransmitting all of them.

• SRP also requires full duplex link. backward acknowledgements

are also in progress.
 UNIT II

MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS

MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS

• We can consider the data link layer as two sub layers. The upper
sub layer is responsible for data link control, and the lower sub
layer is responsible for resolving access to the shared media
MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS

• The upper sub layer that is responsible for flow and error
control is called the logical link control (LLC) layer; the lower
sub layer that is mostly responsible for multiple access
resolution is called the media access control (MAC) layer.

• When nodes or stations are connected and use a common

link, called a multipoint or broadcast link, we need a multiple-
access protocol to coordinate access to the link.
MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS
 RANDOM ACCESS PROTOCOLS
• In random access or contention methods, no station is
superior to another station and none is assigned the control over
another.

• Two features give this method its name.

• First, there is no scheduled time for a station to transmit.

Transmission is random among the stations. That is why these
methods are called random access.

• Second, no rules specify which station should send next. Stations

compete with one another to access the medium. That is why
these methods are also called contention methods.
ALOHA

1. 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. However, since there is only one channel to
share, there is the possibility of collision between frames
from different stations.

• Below Figure shows an example of frame collisions in pure

ALOHA.
Frames in a pure ALOHA network
• In pure ALOHA, whenever any station transmits a frame, it
expects the acknowledgement from the receiver. If
acknowledgement is not received within specified time, the
station assumes that the frame (or acknowledgement) has been
destroyed.
• If the frame is destroyed because of collision the station waits
for a random amount of time and sends it again.
• This waiting time must be random otherwise same frames will
collide again and again. This randomness will help avoid more
collisions.
Vulnerable time
• Let us find the length of time, the vulnerable time, in which
there is a possibility of collision.
We assume that the stations send fixed- length frames with each
frame taking Tfr S to send. Below Figure shows the vulnerable
time for station A.

The throughput for pure ALOHA is S = G × e −2G . The

maximum throughput Smax = 0.184 when G= (1/2).
• Station A sends a frame at time t. Now imagine station B has
already sent a frame between t - Tfr and t. This leads to a
collision between the frames from station A and station B.
• The end of B's frame collides with the beginning of A's frame.
On the other hand, suppose that station C sends a frame
between t and t + Tfr .
• Here, there is a collision between frames from station A and
station C. The beginning of C's frame collides with the end of
A's frame
• Looking at Figure, we see that the vulnerable time, during
which a collision may occur in pure ALOHA, is 2 times the
frame transmission time. Pure ALOHA vulnerable time = 2 x Tfr
2.Slotted ALOHA

•Pure ALOHA has a vulnerable time of 2 x Tfr . This is so

because there is no rule that defines when the station can send.
A station may send soon after another station has started or
soon before another station has finished. Slotted ALOHA was
invented to improve the efficiency of pure ALOHA.

•In slotted ALOHA we divide the time into slots of Tfr s and
force the station to send only at the beginning of the time slot.
Figure 3 shows an example of frame collisions in slotted
ALOHA
Collisions in slotted ALOHA
• Because a station is allowed to send only at the beginning of
the synchronized time slot, if a station misses this moment, it
must wait until the beginning of the next time slot.

• This means that the station which started at the beginning of

this slot has already finished sending its frame. Of course,
there is still the possibility of collision if two stations try to
send at the beginning of the same time slot.

• However, the vulnerable time is now reduced to one-half,

equal to Tfr . Below figure shows the situation
• Below fig shows that the vulnerable time for slotted ALOHA is
one-half that of pure ALOHA. Slotted ALOHA vulnerable time =
Tfr

The throughput for slotted ALOHA is S = G × e−G . The

maximum throughput Smax = 0.368 when G = 1.
Comparison between Pure Aloha & Slotted Aloha
CarrierSenseMultipleAccess(CSMA)
• To minimize the chance of collision and, therefore,
increase the performance, the CSMA method was
developed.

• The chance of collision can be reduced if a station senses

the medium before trying to use it.

• Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) requires that each

station first listen to the medium (or check the state of the
medium) before sending.

• In other words, CSMA is based on the principle "sense

before transmit" or "listen before talk."
• CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot
eliminate it. The reason for this is shown in below Figure.

• The possibility of collision still exists because of propagation

delay; station may sense the medium and find it idle, only
because the first bit sent by another station has not yet been
received.

• At time tI' station B senses the medium and finds it idle, so

it sends a frame. At time t2 (t2> tI)' station C senses the
medium and finds it idle because, at this time, the first bits
from station B have not reached station C. Station C also
sends a frame. The two signals collide and both frames are
destroyed.
Space/time model of the collision in CSMA
Vulnerable Time
•The vulnerable time for CSMA is the propagation time Tp.
This is the time needed for a signal to propagate from one
end of the medium to the other.
 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
• non-persistent method
• p-persistent method
• 1-Persistent: 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.

• Non-persistent: 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. This approach reduces the chance of collision
However, this method reduces the efficiency of the network
because the medium remains idle when there may be stations
with frames to send.
p-Persistent: This is used 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.
In this method, after the station finds the line idle it follows
these steps:
1. With probability p, the station sends its frame.
2.With probability q = 1-p, the station waits for the beginning
of the next time slot and checks the line again.
a.If the line is idle, it goes to step 1.
b.If the line is busy, it acts as though a collision has occurred
and uses the backoff procedure.
 Carrier Sense MultipleAccess with Collision
Detection (CSMA/CD)

• The CSMA method does not specify the procedure following

a collision. CSMA/CD augments the algorithm to handle the
collision.
• In this method, a station monitors the medium after it sends a
frame to see if the transmission was successful. If successful,
the station is finished, if not, the frame is sent again.

• To better understand CSMA/CD, let us look at the first bits

transmitted by the two stations involved in the collision.
Although each station continues to send bits in the frame until
it detects the collision, we show what happens as the first bits
collide. In below Figure, stations A and C are involved in
the collision.
Collision of the first bit in CSMA/CD
How CSMA/CD works?

• Step 1: Check if the sender is ready for transmitting data

packets.

• Step 2: Check if the transmission link is idle?

Sender has to keep on checking if the transmission
link/medium is idle. For this it continuously senses
transmissions from other nodes. Sender sends dummy data
on the link. If it does not receive any collision signal, this
means the link is idle at the moment. If it senses that the
carrier is free and there are no collisions, it sends the data.
Otherwise it refrains from sending data.
• Step 3: Transmit the data & check for collisions.
Sender transmits its data on the link. CSMA/CD does not use
‘acknowledgement’ system.

•It checks for the successful and unsuccessful transmissions

through collision signals. During transmission, if collision signal
is received by the node, transmission is stopped.

•The station then transmits a jam signal onto the link and waits for
random time interval before it resends the frame. After some
random time, it again attempts to transfer the data and repeats
above process.

• Step 4: If no collision was detected in propagation, the sender

completes its frame transmission and resets the counters.
 Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision
Avoidance (CSMA/CA)

• We need to avoid collisions on wireless networks because

they cannot be detected. Carrier sense multiple access with
collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) was invented for wirelesss
network. Collisions are avoided through the use of
CSMA/CA's three strategies:

• the inter frame space(IFS),

• the contention window, and
• acknowledgments, as shown in Below Figure
• Interframe space: in this case, assume that your station waits
for the channel to become idle and found that the channel is
idle, then it will not send the data-frame immediately (in order
to avoid collision due to propagation delay) it rather waits for
some time called interframe space or IFS, and after this time
the station again checks the medium for being idle. But it
should be kept in mind that the IFS duration depends on the
priority of the station.

• Contention Window: here, the time is divided into slots. Say,

if the sender is ready for transmission of the data, it then
chooses a random number of slots as waiting time which
doubles every time whenever the channel is busy. But, if the
channel is not idle at that moment, then it does not restart the
entire process but restarts the timer when the channel is found
idle again.
 • Acknowledgment: as we discussed
above that the sender station will re-
transmits the data if acknowledgment is
not received before the timer expires.

1.32
 Collision-Free Protocols

• Bit-map Protocol
• Binary Countdown
• The Adaptive Tree Walk Protocol
1. Bit-map Protocol:

• Bit map protocol is collision free Protocol . In bitmap protocol

method, each contention period consists of exactly N slots.

• where N is the total number of stations sharing the channel. If

a station has a frame to send, , then it transmits a 1 bit in the
respective slot.

• For example if station 2 has a frame to send, it transmits a 1

bit during the second slot.
2. Binary Countdown:
• In binary countdown, binary station addresses are used. A
station wanting to use the channel broadcast its address as
binary bit string starting with the high order bit.
• All addresses are assumed of the same length. Here, we will
see the example to illustrate the working of the binary
countdown.
• For example, if there are 6 stations, they may be assigned the
binary addresses 001, 010, 011, 100, 101 and 110. All stations
wanting to communicate broadcast their addresses. The
station with higher address gets the higher priority for
transmitting.
• In this method, different station addresses are ORed together
who decide the priority of transmitting. If these stations 0001,
1001, 1100, 1011 all are trying to seize the channel for
transmission.
• All the station at first broadcast their most significant address
bit that is 0, 1, 1, 1 respectively. The most significant bits are
ORed together. Station 0001 see the 1MSB in another station
addresses and knows that a higher numbered station is
competing for the channel, so it gives up for the current
round.
• Other three stations 1001, 1100, 1011 continue. The next bit
is 1 at station 1100, swiss station 1011 and 1001 give up. Then
station 110 starts transmitting a frame, after which another
bidding cycle starts.
 Adaptive Tree Walk Protocol

• In adaptive tree walk protocol, the stations or nodes

are arranged in the form of a binary tree as follows -
• Initially all nodes (A, B ……. G, H) are permitted to compete for
the channel.
• If a node is successful in acquiring the channel, it transmits its
frame.
• In case of collision, the nodes are divided into two groups (A,
B, C, D in one group and E, F, G, H in another group).
• Nodes belonging to only one of them is permitted for
competing. This process continues until successful
transmission occurs.
Wired LANs: Ethernet
IEEE STANDARDS

• In 1985, the Computer Society of the IEEE started a project,

called Project 802, to set standards to enable
intercommunication among equipment from a variety of
manufacturers.

• Project 802 is a way of specifying functions of the physical

layer and the data link layer of major LAN protocols.

• The relationship of the 802 Standard to the traditional OSI

model is shown in below Figure.

• The IEEE has subdivided the data link layer into two sub
layers: logical link control (LLC) and media access
control(MAC).
Figure 13.1 IEEE standard for LANs
IEEE has also created several physical layer standards for
different LAN protocols
STANDARD ETHERNET

• The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox’s Palo Alto

Research Center (PARC). Since then, it has gone through four
generations. We briefly discuss the Standard (or traditional)
Ethernet in this section.

Figure Ethernet evolution through four generations

MAC Sublayer
• In Standard Ethernet, the MAC sublayer governs the operation of
the access method. It also frames data received from the upper
layer and passes them to the physical layer.

Frame Format
• The Ethernet frame contains seven fields: preamble, SFD,
DA, SA, length or type of protocol data unit (PDU), upper-
layer data, and the CRC.

• Ethernet does not provide any mechanism for acknowledging

received frames, making it what is known as an unreliable
medium. Acknowledgments must be implemented at the higher
layers. The format of the MAC frame is shown in below figure
Figure 802.3 MAC frame
Preamble. Alerts the receiving system to the coming frame and
enables it to synchronize its input timing. The preamble is
actually added at the physical layer and is not (formally) part of the
frame.

Start frame delimiter (SFD). The second field (l byte: 10101011)

signals the beginning of the frame. The SFD warns the station or
stations that this is the last chance for synchronization. The last
2 bits is 11 and alerts the receiver that the next field is the
destination address.

Destination address (DA). The DA field is 6 bytes and contains

the physical address of the destination station or stations to
receive the packet.
Source address (SA). The SA field is also 6 bytes and contains
the physical address of the sender of the packet.

Length or type. The IEEE standard used it as the length field to

define the number of bytes in the data field. Both uses are
common today.

Data. This field carries data encapsulated from the upper-layer

protocols. It is a minimum of 46 and a maximum of 1500 bytes.

CRC. The last field contains error detection information, in this

case a CRC-32
Frame Length
• Ethernet has imposed restrictions on both the minimum and
maximum lengths of a frame, as shown in below Figure

Figure Minimum and maximum lengths

Addressing
• The Ethernet address is 6 bytes (48 bits), normally written
in hexadecimal notation, with a colon between the bytes.

Figure Example of an Ethernet address in hexadecimal notation

Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast Addresses A source address
is always a unicast address-the frame comes from only one
station.The destination address, however, can be unicast,
multicast, or broadcast. Below Figure shows how to distinguish
a unicast address from a multicast address.
If the least significant bit of the first byte in a destination
address is 0, the address is unicast; otherwise, it is multicast.

Unicast and multicast addresses

Physical Layer
The Standard Ethernet defines several physical layer
implementations; four of the most common, are shown in Figure

Figure Categories of Standard Ethernet

Encoding and Decoding

• All standard implementations use digital signalling (baseband)

at 10 Mbps.

• At the sender, data are converted to a digital signal using the

Manchester scheme;

• At the receiver,the received signal is interpreted as Manchester

and decoded into data.
• Manchester encoding is self-synchronous, providing a
transition at each bit interval. Figure shows the encoding
scheme for Standard Ethernet

Figure Encoding in a Standard Ethernet implementation

lOBase5:Thick Ethernet

lOBase5 was the first Ethernet specification to use a bus

topology with an external transceiver (transmitter/receiver)
connected via a tap to a thick coaxial cable. Figure shows a
schematic diagram of a lOBase5 implementation

Figure 10Base5 implementation

10Base2: Thin Ethernet
The second implementation is called 10 Base2, thin Ethernet, or
Cheapernet.10Base2 also uses a bus topology, but the cable is much
thinner and more flexible. Figure shows the schematic diagram of a
10Base2 implementation.

Figure 10Base2 implementation

1OBase-T: Twisted-Pair Ethernet
• It uses a physical star topology. The stations are connected
to a hub via two pairs of twisted cable, as shown in Figure
• The maximum length of the twisted cable here is defined as
100 m, to minimize the effect of attenuation in the twisted
cable

Figure 10Base-T implementation

• Although there are several types of optical fiber 10-Mbps
Ethernet, the most common is called 10Base-F.
• 10Base-F uses a star topology to connect stations to a hub.
The stations are connected to the hub using two fiber-optic
cables, as shown in Figure

Figure 10Base-F implementation

• Although there are several types of optical fiber 10-Mbps
Ethernet, the most common is called 10Base-F.
• 10Base-F uses a star topology to connect stations to a hub.
The stations are connected to the hub using two fiber-optic
cables, as shown in Figure

Figure 10Base-F implementation

Table 13.1 Summary of Standard Ethernet implementations
FAST ETHERNET

Fast Ethernet was designed to compete with LAN

protocols such as FDDI or Fiber Channel. IEEE
created Fast Ethernet under the name 802.3u. Fast
Ethernet is backward-compatible with Standard
Ethernet, but it can transmit data 10 times faster at a
rate of 100 Mbps.
Figure Fast Ethernet topology
Figure Fast Ethernet implementations
 GIGABIT ETHERNET

The need for an even higher data rate resulted in the

design of the Gigabit Ethernet protocol (1000 Mbps).
The IEEE committee calls the standard 802.3z.
Figure Topologies of Gigabit Ethernet
Figure Gigabit Ethernet implementations
Summary of Gigabit Ethernet implementations
Summary of Ten-Gigabit Ethernet implementations
Datalink Layer Switching

• Network switching is the process of forwarding data frames or

packets from one port to another leading to data transmission
from source to destination.

• Data link layer is the second layer of the Open System

Interconnections (OSI) model whose function is to divide the
stream of bits from physical layer into data frames and transmit
the frames according to switching requirements.

• Switching in data link layer is done by network devices

called bridges.
Datalink Layer Switching

- Uses of bridges
- Learning bridges
- Spanning Tree bridges
-Repeaters, hubs, bridges, switches, routers,
and gateways
Uses of bridges
• A bridge is a network device that connects multiple LANs (local
area networks) together to form a larger LAN.

• The process of aggregating networks is called network bridging.

A bridge connects the different components so that they appear
as parts of a single network.
• By joining multiple LANs, bridges help in multiplying the
network capacity of a single LAN.

• Since they operate at data link layer, they transmit data as

data frames. On receiving a data frame, the bridge consults a
database to decide whether to pass, transmit or discard the
frame.

✓ If the frame has a destination MAC (media access control)

address in the same network, the bridge passes the frame
to that node and then discards it.

✓ If the frame has a destination MAC address in a connected

network, it will forward the frame toward it.
 Learning Bridges
• Bridge is a device that joins networks to create a much larger
network. ... A learning bridge, also called an adaptive bridge,
"learns" which network addresses are on one side of
the bridge and which are on the other so it knows how to
forward packets it receives.
The Learning Algorithm

The Learning Algorithm can be written in Pseudocode as follows:

If the address is in the tables then

Forward the packet onto the necessary port.

If the address is not in the tables, then

Forward the packet onto every port except for
the port that the packet was received on,
just to make sure the destination gets the
message.

Add an entry in your internal tables linking

the Source Address of the packet to whatever
port the packet was received from.
Spanning Tree Bridges

• Redundant links are used to provide back up path when one

link goes down but Redundant link can sometime cause
switching loops.

• The main purpose of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is to

ensure that you do not create loops when you have redundant
paths in your network.

• The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol that

builds a loop-free logical topology for Ethernet networks.
Means it was created to prevent loops
Lets understand what is loop ?
 Disadvantage of the loop
• This process can saturate all bandwidth of the network by
creating and forwarding the multiple copies of the same
frame. It also significantly decreases the performance of the
end devices by forcing them to process duplicate copies of
the same frame.

Then how to identify loop?

• Switches send probes into the network to discover loops. These
probes are called as BPDU(Bridge Priority Data Unit)

• Switch multicasts BPDU probes and if it receives its own

BPDU back , it means there is a loop in the network
How to avoid loops?

All switches will find the best way to elect a root bridge and
the redundant links will be blocked

Bridge Priority Data Unit (BPDU) – It contains the Sender’s

Bridge I’d, Cost to the Root Bridge. The switch with the lowest
Bridge I’d will become the root bridge.
Bridge I’d – It is a 8-byte field which is a combination of
bridge priority (2 bytes) and Base Mac address (6 bytes) of a
device. If there is a tie on bridge priority then the Base Mac
address is considered.
Bridge Priority – It is priority, which is assigned to every
switch, 32768 by default.
Root Bridge – The root bridge is the bridge with lowest
Bridge I’d. All the decisions like which ports are the root ports
(the port with best path to the root bridge) are made from the
perspective of root bridge.

Path cost – A switch may encounter one or more switch in the

path to the root bridge. All the paths are analysed and the path
with the lowest cost will be selected.

SPEED LINK COST

10 Mbps 100
100 Mbps 19
1 Gbps 4
10 Gbps 2
Example -

Here is a small topology with three switches switch A (mac

address-0000.0ACA7.A603), switch B(0030.F222.2794)
and switch C(000A.41D5.7937) with all having default priority
(32768).
Root Bridge election –

As all the switches have default priority therefore there is a tie

on the basis of priority. Now, the switch with the lowest Mac
address will become a root bridge. Here, switch A will become
the root bridge as it has the lowest Mac address. Therefore, the
ports of switch A will be in forwarding state i.e designated port.
Root Ports Election –

If switch C choose the path through switch B then the cost will
be (4+4=8) but if it chooses the directly connected path to
switch A then the cost will be 4 therefore both switch B and
switch C will choose the ports connected to switch A as their
root ports.
Now as the link between switch B and switch C as the same cost
to the root bridge therefore the switch with lowest bridge I’d will
be in forwarding mode therefore switch C port will be in
forwarding mode and switch B port will be in block mode.
Repeaters, Hubs, Bridges, Switches,
Routers, and Gateways
1. Repeater
• A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to
regenerate the signal over the same network before the signal
becomes too weak or corrupted.
• An important point to be noted about repeaters is that they do
not amplify the signal. When the signal becomes weak, they
copy the signal bit by bit and regenerate it at the original
strength. It is a 2 port device.
2. Hub
• A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub connects
multiple wires coming from different branches, for example,
the connector in star topology which connects different
stations.
• Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are sent to all
connected devices.
3. Bridge
• A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with
add on the functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC
addresses of source and destination.
• It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working on the
same protocol. It has a single input and single output port, thus
making it a 2 port device.
4. Switch
• A switch is a device that connects other devices together. Multiple
data cables are plugged into a switch to enable communication
between different networked devices. A switch is a data link layer
device.
• The switch can perform error checking before forwarding data, that
makes it very efficient as it does not forward packets that have
errors and forward good packets selectively to correct port only.
5.Routers A router is a device like a switch that routes data
packets based on their IP addresses. Router is mainly a Network
Layer device. Routers normally connect LANs and WANs
together and have a dynamically updating routing table based on
which they make decisions on routing the data packets.
A gateway is a hardware device that acts as a "gate" between
two networks. It may be a router, firewall, server, or
other device that enables traffic to flow in and out of the
network.