The Data Link Layer

Data Link Layer Design Issues

• Network layer services

• Framing
• Error control
• Flow control
 Data Link Layer

• Algorithms for achieving:

– Reliable, +
– Efficient,
communication of a whole units – frames (as opposed to bits –
Physical Layer) between two machines.
• Two machines are connected by a communication channel
that acts conceptually like a wire (e.g., telephone line, coaxial
cable, or wireless channel).
• Essential property of a channel that makes it “wire-like”
connection is that the bits are delivered in exactly the same
order in which they are sent.
 Data Link Layer

• For ideal channel (no distortion, unlimited bandwidth and no

delay) the job of data link layer would be trivial.
• However, limited bandwidth, distortions and delay makes this
job very difficult.
 Data Link Layer Design Issues

• Physical layer delivers bits of information to and from data link

layer. The functions of Data Link Layer are:
1. Providing a well-defined service interface to the network
layer.
2. Dealing with transmission errors.
3. Regulating the flow of data so that slow receivers are not
swamped by fast senders.
• Data Link layer
– Takes the packets from Physical layer, and
– Encapsulates them into frames
 Data Link Layer Design Issues

• Each frame has a

– frame header – a field for holding the packet, and
– frame trailer.
• Frame Management is what Data Link Layer does.

• See figure in the next slide:

 Packets and Frames

Relationship between packets and frames.

Services Provided to the Network Layer

• Principal Service Function of the data link layer is to transfer

the data from the network layer on the source machine to the
network layer on the destination machine.
– Process in the network layer that hands some bits to the data
link layer for transmission.
– Job of data link layer is to transmit the bits to the destination
machine so they can be handed over to the network layer there
(see figure in the next slide).
Network Layer Services

(a) Virtual communication. (b) Actual

communication.
 Possible Services Offered

1.Unacknowledged connectionless service.

2.Acknowledged connectionless service.
3.Acknowledged connection-oriented service.
Unacknowledged Connectionless
Service
• It consists of having the source machine send independent
frames to the destination machine without having the
destination machine acknowledge them.
• Example: Ethernet, Voice over IP, etc. in all the
communication channel were real time operation is more
important that quality of transmission.
Acknowledged Connectionless Service

• Each frame send by the Data Link layer is acknowledged and

the sender knows if a specific frame has been received or lost.
• Typically the protocol uses a specific time period that if has
passed without getting acknowledgment it will re-send the
frame.
• This service is useful for commutation when an unreliable
channel is being utilized (e.g., 802.11 WiFi).

• Network layer does not know frame size of the packets and
other restriction of the data link layer. Hence it becomes
necessary for data link layer to have some mechanism to
optimize the transmission.
Acknowledged Connection Oriented
Service
• Source and Destination establish a connection first.
• Each frame sent is numbered
– Data link layer guarantees that each frame sent is indeed
received.
– It guarantees that each frame is received only once and that all
frames are received in the correct order.
• Examples:
– Satellite channel communication,
– Long-distance telephone communication, etc.
Acknowledged Connection Oriented
Service
• Three distinct phases:
1. Connection is established by having both side initialize
variables and counters needed to keep track of which frames
have been received and which ones have not.
2. One or more frames are transmitted.
3. Finally, the connection is released – freeing up the variables,
buffers, and other resources used to maintain the connection.
 Framing

• To provide service to the network layer the data link layer must
use the service provided to it by physical layer.
• Stream of data bits provided to data link layer is not
guaranteed to be without errors.
• Errors could be:
– Number of received bits does not match number of transmitted
bits (deletion or insertion)
– Bit Value
• It is up to data link layer to correct the errors if necessary.
 Framing

• Transmission of the data link layer starts with breaking up the

bit stream
– into discrete frames
– Computation of a checksum for each frame, and
– Include the checksum into the frame before it is transmitted.
• Receiver computes its checksum error for a receiving frame
and if it is different from the checksum that is being
transmitted will have to deal with the error.

• Framing is more difficult than one could think!

 Framing Methods

1.Byte count.
2.Flag bytes with byte stuffing.
3.Flag bits with bit stuffing.
 Byte Count Framing Method

• It uses a field in the header to specify the number of bytes in

the frame.
• Once the header information is being received it will be used
to determine end of the frame.
• See figure in the next slide:
• Trouble with this algorithm is that when the count is incorrectly
received the destination will get out of synch with
transmission.
– Destination may be able to detect that the frame is in error but
it does not have a means (in this algorithm) how to correct it.
 Framing (1)

A byte stream. (a) Without errors. (b) With one

error.
Flag Bytes with Byte Staffing Framing
Method
• This methods gets around the boundary detection of the frame
by having each appended by the frame start and frame end
special bytes.
• If they are the same (beginning and ending byte in the frame)
they are called flag byte.
• In the next slide figure this byte is shown as FLAG.
• If the actual data contains a byte that is identical to the FLAG
byte (e.g., picture, data stream, etc.) the convention that can
be used is to have escape character inserted just before the
“FLAG” character.
 Framing (2)

• A frame delimited by flag bytes.

• Four examples of byte sequences before and after byte stuffing.
Flag Bits with Bit Stuffing Framing
Method
• This methods achieves the same thing as Byte Stuffing
method by using Bits (1) instead of Bytes (8 Bits).
• It was developed for High-level Data Link Control (HDLC)
protocol.
• Each frames begins and ends with a special bit patter:
– 01111110 or 0x7E <- Flag Byte
– 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.
– USB uses bit stuffing.
 Framing (3)

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