Chapter 7 - William Stallings, Data and Computer.pptVIP

* HDLC uses synchronous transmission. All transmissions are in the form of frames, and a single frame format suffices for all types of data and control exchanges. Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.7a depicts the structure of the HDLC frame. The flag, address, and control fields that precede the information field are known as a header. The FCS and flag fields following the data field are referred to as a trailer. * Flag fields delimit the frame at both ends with the unique pattern A single flag may be used as the closing flag for one frame and the opening flag for the next. On both sides of the user-network interface, receivers are continuously hunting for the flag sequence to synchronize on the start of a frame. While receiving a frame, a station continues to hunt for that sequence to determine the end of the frame. Because the protocol allows the presence of arbitrary bit patterns, there is no assurance that the patternwill not appear somewhere inside the frame, thus destroying synchronization. To avoid this problem, a procedure known as bit stuffing is used. For all bits between the starting and ending flags, the transmitter inserts an extra 0 bit after each occurrence of five 1s in the frame. After detecting a starting flag, the receiver monitors the bit stream. When a pattern of five 1s appears, the sixth bit is examined. If this bit is 0, it is deleted. If the sixth bit is a 1 and the seventh bit is a 0, the combination is accepted as a flag. If the sixth and seventh bits are both 1, the sender is indicating an abort condition. With the use of bit stuffing, arbitrary bit patterns can be inserted into the data field of the frame. This property is known as data transparency. Stallings DCC8e Figure 7.8 shows an example of bit stuffing. Note that in the first two cases, the extra 0 is not strictly necessary for avoiding a flag pattern but is necessary for the operation of the algorithm. * The address field identifies the secondary station that transmi