Assignment No.

Title: Implementation of sliding window protocol(Go back N and Selective Repeat)

Objectives:To demonstrate Go back N and Selective Repeat Modes of Sliding Window

Protocol in peer to peer mode .

Problem Statement:

Write a program to simulate Go back N and Selective Repeat Modes of Sliding Window
Protocol in peer to peer mode and demonstrate the packets captured traces using
Wireshark Packet Analyzer Tool for peer to peer mode.

Outcomes:

Demonstrate Go back N and Selective Repeat Modes and also captured packets using
Wireshark Packet Analyzer Tool for peer to peer mode.

Tools Required:

Hardwar: PC-2

Software: jdk compiler and wireshark.

Theory:

The basic idea of sliding window protocol is that both sender and receiver
keep a ``window'' of acknowledgment. The sender keeps the value of
expected acknowledgment; while the receiver keeps the value of expected
receiving frame. When it receives an acknowledgment from the receiver, the
sender advances the window. When it receives the expected frame, the
receiver advances the window.

In transmit flow control, sliding window is a variable-duration window that

allows a sender to transmit a specified number of data units before an
acknowledgement is received or before a specified event occurs.

Flow Control is a set of procedures that tells the sender how much data it can transmit
before it must wait for an acknowledgment from the receiver. The flow of data should
not be allowed to overwhelm the receiver. Receiver should also be able to inform the
transmitter before its limits (this limit may be amount of memory used to store the
incoming data or the processing power at the receiver end) are reached and the sender
must send fewer frames. Hence, Flow control refers to the set of procedures used to
restrict the amount of data the transmitter can send before waiting for acknowledgment.
There are two methods developed for flow control namely Stop-and-wait and Sliding-
window Sliding window algorithms, used by TCP, permit multiple data packets to be in
simultaneous transit, making more efficient use of network bandwidth.

Sliding Window Protocol:

With the use of multiple frames for a single message, the stop-and-wait protocol does
not perform well. Only one frame at a time can be in transit. Efficiency can be greatly
improved by allowing multiple frames to be in transit at the same time. Efficiency can
also be improved by making use of the full-duplex line. To keep track of the frames,
sender station sends sequentially numbered frames. Since the sequence number to be
used occupies a field in the frame, it should be of limited size. If the header of the frame
allows k bits, the sequence numbers range from 0 to 2k – 1. Sender maintains a list of
sequence numbers that it is allowed to send (sender window).

The size of the sender’s window is at most 2k – 1. The sender is provided with a buffer
equal to the window size. Receiver also maintains a window of size 2k – 1. The receiver
acknowledges a frame by sending an ACK frame that includes the sequence number of
the next frame expected. This also explicitly announces that it is prepared to receive the
next N frames, beginning with the number specified. This scheme can be used to
acknowledge multiple frames. It could receive frames 2, 3, 4 but withhold ACK until
frame 4 has arrived. By returning an ACK with sequence number 5, it acknowledges
frames 2, 3, 4 in one go. The receiver needs a buffer of size 1.

Sliding window algorithm is a method of flow control for network data transfers. TCP,
the Internet's stream transfer protocol, uses a sliding window algorithm.

A sliding window algorithm places a buffer between the application program and the
network data flow. For TCP, the buffer is typically in the operating system kernel, but
this is more of an implementation detail than a hard-and-fast requirement.

Data received from the network is stored in the buffer, from where the application can
read at its own pace. As the application reads data, buffer space is freed up to accept
more input from the network. The window is the amount of data that can be "read
ahead" - the size of the buffer, less the amount of valid data stored in it. Window
announcements are used to inform the remote host of the current window size.
An example of a sliding window in packet transmission is one in which, after
the sender fails to receive an acknowledgement for the first transmitted
packet, the sender "slides" the window, i.e. resets the window, and sends a
second packet. This process is repeated for the specified number of times
before the sender interrupts transmission. Sliding window is sometimes
(loosely) called acknowledgement delay period.

Receive packet 3
Send ACK3

Go-Back-N Protocol and “Selective Repeat Protocol” are the sliding window
protocols. The sliding window protocol is primarily an error control protocol,
i.e. it is a method of error detection and error correction. The basic difference
between go back-n protocol and selective repeat protocol is that the “go-back-
n protocol” retransmits all the frames that lie after the frame which is damaged
or lost. The “selective repeat protocol” retransmits only that frame which is
damaged or lost.

Go back N ARQ

In the Go-Back-N Protocol, the sequence numbers are modulo

1!", where m is the size of the sequence number field in bits.

Selective Repeat ARQ

Go-Back-N ARQ simplifies the process at the receiver site. The receiver keeps track of
only one variable, and there is no need to buffer out-of-order frames; they are simply
discarded. However, this protocol is very inefficient for a noisy link. In a noisy link a
frame has a higher probability of damage, which means the resending of multiple
frames. This resending uses up the bandwidth and slows down the transmission. For
noisy links, there is another mechanism that does not resend N frames when just one
frame is damaged;only the damaged frame is resent. This mechanism is called
Selective RepeatARQ.

Key Differences Between Go-Back-N and Selective Repeat

1. Go-Back-N protocol is design to retransmit all the frames that are arrived after
the damaged or a lost frame. On the other hand, Selective Repeat protocol
retransmits only that frame that is damaged or lost.

2. If the error rate is high i.e. more frames are being damaged and then
retransmitting all the frames that arrived after a damaged frame waste the lots of
bandwidth. On the other hand, selective repeat protocol re-transmits only
damaged frame hence, minimum bandwidth is wasted.

3. All the frames after the damaged frame are discarded and the retransmitted
frames arrive in a sequence from a damaged frame onwards, so, there is less
headache of sorting the frames hence it is less complex. On the other hand only
damaged or suspected frame is retransmitted so, extra logic has to be applied for
sorting hence, it is more complicated.
4. Go-Back-N has a window size of N-1 and selective repeat have a
window size <=(N+1)/2.

5. Neither sender nor receiver need the sorting algorithm in Go-Back-N whereas,
 receiver must be able to sort the as it has to maintain the sequence.

6. In Go-Back-N receiver discards all the frames after the damaged frame hence,
it don’t need to store any frames. Selective repeat protocol does not discard
the frames arrived after the damaged frame instead it stores those frames till
the damaged frame arrives successfully and is sorted in a proper sequence.

7. In selective repeat NAK frame refers to the damaged frame number and in Go-
Back-N, NAK frame refers to the next frame expected.

8. Generally the Go-Back-N is more is use due to its less complex nature
instead of Selective Repeat protocol.

Conclusion: Hence we have implemented of sliding window protocol(Go

back N and Selective Repeat).