Data Communication By

Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, PhD

Department of Computer Engineering
Inha University Tashkent.
Email: minhaz.ahmed@gmail.com
 Contents
Introduction to Data link layer
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Link layer addressing
Objective of chapter 9

 The first section introduces the data-link layer. It starts with defining the concept of links and
nodes. The section then lists and briefly describes the services provided by the data-link layer. It
next defines two categories of links: point-to-point and broadcast links. The section finally defines
two sub-layers at the data-link layer that will be elaborated on in the next few chapters.

 The second section discusses link-layer addressing. It first explains the rationale behind the
existence of an addressing mechanism at the data-link layer. It then describes three types of link-
layer addresses. The section discusses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), which maps the
addresses at the network layer to addresses at the data-link layer.
9-1 INTRODUCTION

 The Internet is a combination of networks glued together by connecting devices

(routers or switches). If a packet is to travel from a host to another host, it needs to pass
through these networks. Figure 9.1 shows the same scenario we discussed in Chapter 3,
but we are now focusing on communication at the data-link layer.
Figure 9.1: Communication at the data-link layer
9.9.1 Nodes and Links
Communication at the data-link layer is node-to-node. A data unit from one point in the
Internet needs to pass through many networks (LANs and WANs) to reach another point.
Theses LANs and WANs are connected by routers. It is customary to refer to the two end
hosts and the routers as nodes and the networks in between as links. Figure 9.2 is a simple
representation of links and nodes when the path of the data unit is only six nodes.
9.9.2 Services

 The data-link layer is located between the physical and the network layers. The data-
link layer provides services to the network layer; it receives services from the physical
layer. Let us discuss services provided by the data-link layer.
Figure 9.3: A communication with only three nodes
Figure 9.3: A communication with only three nodes
 With the contents of the above figure in mind, we can list the services provided by a data link layer as shown
below.

 Framing: The fist service provided by the data link layer is framing. The data link layer at each node needs to
encapsulate the datagram (packet received from the network layer) in a frame before sending it to the next node.
The node also needs to decapsulate the datagram from the frame received on the logical channel. ( A packet at
the data link layer is normally called the frame.)
 Flow Control: whenever we have a producer and consumer , we need flow control. If the producer produces item
that cannot be consumed , accumulation of item occurs. The sending data link layer at the end of a link is a
producer of frames; the receiving data link layer at the other end of a link is a consumer. If the rate of produced
frame is higher than the consumed frames, frames at the receving end need to be buffered while waiting to be
consumed. Definitely we can not have unlimited buffer size at the reciving end. We have two choice let the
receiving data-link layer drop the frames if its buffer is full.
The second choice is to let the receiving data-link layer send a feedback to the sending data-link layer to ask it to
stop or slow down.
Figure 9.3: A communication with only three nodes

Error Control: At the sending node, a frame in a data-link layer need to be changed to
bits, transformed to electromagnetic signals and transmitted through the transmission
media. At the reciving node electromagnetic signals are received, transformed to bits
and put together to create a frame. Since electromagnetic signals are to error, a frame
is susceptible to error. The error needs first to be detected. After detection it needs to
be either corrected at the receiver node or discarded and retransmitted by the
sending node.

Congestion control: Although a link may be congested with frames, which may resut in
frame loss, most data-link layer protocols do not directly use a congestion control to
alleviate congestion, although some wide area network do. In general, congestion
control is considered an issue in the network layeror or transport layer because of its
end to end nature.
9.9.3 Two Categories of Links
 Although two nodes are physically connected by a transmission medium such as cable
or air, we need to remember that the data-link layer controls how the medium is used.
We can have a data-link layer that uses the whole capacity of the medium; we can also
have a data-link layer that uses only part of the capacity of the link. In other words, we
can have a point-to-point link or a broadcast link.
9.9.4 Two Sublayers

To better understand the functionality of and the services provided by the link layer, we can
divide the data-link layer into two sublayers: data link control (DLC) and media access
control (MAC). This is not unusual because, as we will see in later chapters, LAN
protocols actually use the same strategy.
Figure 9.3: Dividing the data-link layer into two sublayers
5-4 LINK-LAYER ADDRESSING

 In a internetwork such as the Internet we cannot make a datagram reach its destination
using only IP addresses. The source and destination IP addresses define the two ends
but cannot define which links the packet should pass through.
Figure 9.5: IP addresses and link-layer addresses in a
small internet
9.2.1 Three Types of addresses

 Some link-layer protocols define three types of addresses: unicast, multicast, and
broadcast.
Example 9.1
 The unicast link-layer addresses in the most common LAN, Ethernet, are 48 bits (six
bytes) that are presented as 12 hexadecimal digits separated by colons; for example, the
following is a link-layer address of a computer. The second digit needs to be an odd
number.

A3:34:45:11:92:F1
Example 9.2

 The multicast link-layer addresses in the most common LAN, Ethernet, are 48 bits (six
bytes) that are presented as 12 hexadecimal digits separated by colons. The second
digit, however, needs to be an even number in hexadecimal. The following shows a
multicast address:

A2:34:45:11:92:F1
Example 9.3

 The broadcast link-layer addresses in the most common LAN, Ethernet, are 48 bits, all
1s, that are presented as 12 hexadecimal digits separated by colons. The following
shows a broadcast address:
9.2.2 ARP

Anytime a node has an IP datagram to send to another node in a link, it has the IP address
of the receiving node. However, the IP address of the next node is not helpful in moving a
frame through a link; we need the link-layer address of the next node. This is the time
when the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) becomes helpful.
Figure 9.6: Position of ARP in TCP/IP protocol suite
Figure 9.7: Address Resolution Protocol(ARP) operation
Figure 9.8: ARP packet
Example 9.4

A host with IP address N1 and MAC address L1 has a packet to send to another host with
IP address N2 and physical address L2 (which is unknown to the first host). The two hosts
are on the same network. Figure 9.9 shows the ARP request and response messages.
Figure 9.9: Example 9.4
Figure 9.10: The internet for our example
Figure 9.11: Flow of packets at Alice site
Figure 9.12: Flow of activities at router R1
Figure 9.13: Flow of activities at router R2
Figure 9.14: Activities at Bob’s site
Reference

Chapter -9
Question
Thank you