Thursday 1 December 2016

DATA LINK CONTROL

 For  effective  digital  data communications,  much  more  is  needed  to  control  and manage  the  exchange.  In  this  chapter,  we  shift  our  emphasis  to  that  of  sending  data over  a  data  communications  link.  To  achieve  the  necessary  control,  a  layer  of  logic  is added  above  the  physical  transmission  layer;  this  logic  is  referred  to  as  data  link control  or  a  data  link  control  protocol.  When  a  data  link  control  protocol  is  used,
the transmission medium between systems is referred to as a data link. To  see  the  need  for  data  link  control,  we  list  some  of  the  requirements  and objectives  for  effective  data  communication  between  two  directly  connected transmitting-receiving stations
 •  Frame  synchronization.  Data  are  sent  in  blocks  called  frames.  The  beginning  and end of  each frame must  be  recognizable.
   •  Flow  control.  The  sending  station  must  not  send  frames  at  a  rate  faster  than  the receiving  station can absorb them.
•Error  control.  Any  bit  errors  introduced  by  the  transmission  system  must  be corrected.
•  Addressing.  On  a  multipoint  line,  such  as  a  local  area  network  (LAN),  the  identity of  the two stations involved in a  transmission must be specified.
•  Control  and  data  on  same  link.  It  is  usually  not  desirable  to  have  a  physically separate  communications  path  for  control  information.  Accordingly,  the  receiver  must be  able to distinguish control information from the  data being  transmitted.
•  Link  management.  The  initiation,  maintenance,  and  termination  of  a  sustained  data exchange  requires  a  fair  amount  of  coordination  and  cooperation  among  stations. Procedures  for  the management of this exchange  are  required.  
A  data  link  protocol  that  satisfies  these  requirements  is  a  rather  complex  affair.  First we  look  into  the  various  techniques  used  to  implement  the  error  control  and  flow control  mechanism.  Then  we  look  at  the  most  important  example  of  a  data  link control  protocol:  HDLC  (High-level  Data  Link  Control).  This  protocol  is  important for  two  reasons:  First,  it  is  a  widely  used  standardized  data  link  control  protocol.  And secondly,  HDLC  serves  as  a  baseline  from  which  virtually  all  other  important  data link control protocols are derived. 

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