Short Notes on Protocols, Multiple

Access Protocols, and Error Detection

and Correction
Protocols

Stop and Wait Protocol

The Stop and Wait protocol is a flow control protocol where the sender sends one frame at a
time and waits for an acknowledgment before sending the next frame. This ensures that the
receiver has received the frame and is ready for the next one. It's simple but inefficient for
long-distance communication or high-speed networks because the sender remains idle
while waiting for an acknowledgment.

Go-back-N ARQ Protocol

The Go-back-N ARQ protocol allows the sender to send several frames before needing an
acknowledgment for the first one, using a sliding window approach. If an error is detected
in a frame, all subsequent frames are retransmitted. This improves efficiency compared to
Stop and Wait but can result in unnecessary retransmissions.

Selective Repeat ARQ Protocol

The Selective Repeat ARQ protocol also uses a sliding window but only retransmits frames
that are detected as erroneous. This protocol is more efficient than Go-back-N because it
avoids unnecessary retransmissions, though it requires more complex logic for keeping
track of individual frame acknowledgments.

Sliding Window Protocol

The Sliding Window protocol is a method of flow control for network data transfer. It allows
multiple frames to be sent before needing an acknowledgment for the first one, with the
'window' representing the number of frames that can be sent without acknowledgment.
This enhances efficiency and throughput compared to simpler protocols like Stop and Wait.

Multiple Access Protocols

Pure ALOHA
Pure ALOHA is a simple communication protocol in which each source in a network sends
data whenever there is data to send. If two packets collide, they are both destroyed. The
sender then waits for a random amount of time before resending the data. This method can
lead to a high rate of collisions and inefficiency.
Slotted ALOHA
Slotted ALOHA is an improvement over Pure ALOHA that divides time into slots and
requires each node to send data only at the beginning of a time slot. This reduces the chance
of collisions and increases the efficiency of the network, but collisions can still occur.

CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection)

CSMA/CD is a network protocol that listens for a carrier signal before trying to transmit
data. If a collision is detected, the transmission is aborted and each device waits a random
amount of time before retrying. It is commonly used in wired networks like Ethernet.

CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance)

CSMA/CA is similar to CSMA/CD but is used in wireless networks to avoid collisions before
they happen. Devices listen for a clear channel before transmitting and use
acknowledgments to confirm that data has been successfully received. It is commonly used
in Wi-Fi networks.

Error Detection and Correction

Fundamentals
Error detection and correction techniques are used to ensure that data is transmitted
accurately across a network. Errors can occur due to noise, interference, or other issues.
These techniques help detect and correct errors to maintain data integrity.

Block Coding
Block coding involves dividing data into blocks and adding redundant bits to each block.
These redundant bits are used to detect and correct errors in the transmitted data. Common
block codes include Hamming codes and Reed-Solomon codes.

CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check)

CRC is a method of detecting errors in transmitted messages. It involves treating the
message as a polynomial and dividing it by a fixed generator polynomial. The remainder of
this division is appended to the message as a CRC value. The receiver performs the same
division and checks the remainder to detect errors.

Hamming Code
Hamming Code is an error-correcting code that can detect and correct single-bit errors. It
uses a set of parity bits that are positioned at specific locations within the data block. The
parity bits are calculated such that if a single-bit error occurs, the erroneous bit can be
identified and corrected.