What is the Difference Between Flow Control and Error Control?
🆚 Go to Comparative Table 🆚Flow control and error control are two distinct mechanisms used in data transmission to ensure proper and reliable communication between devices. Here are the key differences between them:
- Purpose: Flow control is designed to maintain the proper transmission of data from sender to receiver, preventing data loss and overflowing of receive buffers. Error control, on the other hand, focuses on ensuring error-free data transmission from sender to receiver.
- Approaches: Flow control has two approaches: feedback-based flow control and rate-based flow control. Error control uses methods such as checksum, cyclic redundancy check, and parity checking to detect errors in data.
- Examples: Examples of flow control techniques include Stop and Wait Protocol and Sliding Window Protocol. Examples of error control techniques include Stop and Wait ARQ and Sliding Window ARQ.
- Functionality: Flow control monitors the transmission of data frames from sender to receiver, making the sender wait until an acknowledgment is received from the receiver's end. Error control is used to detect erroneous transmissions in data frames and retransmit them until they are received correctly.
In summary, flow control mechanisms regulate the rate and sequence of data transmission, while error control methods detect and correct errors in the transmitted data to ensure reliable and error-free communication between devices.
Comparative Table: Flow Control vs Error Control
Flow control and error control are two important mechanisms in data communication that serve different purposes. Here is a table highlighting the differences between them:
| Feature | Flow Control | Error Control |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Regulates the data flow from sender to receiver to prevent data loss and buffer overflow. | Provides error-free data transfer from sender to receiver by detecting and correcting errors in the code. |
| Methods | Feedback-based flow control and rate-based flow control. | Checksum, cyclic redundancy check, and parity checking for error detection; Hamming code, binary convolution codes, Reed-Solomon code, and low-density parity-check codes for error correction. |
| Examples | Stop & Wait Protocol and Sliding Window Protocol. | Stop & Wait ARQ and Sliding Window ARQ. |
Flow control is implemented in the Data Link Layer of the OSI model or the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to manage the data rate being sent by the transmitting machine. Error control, on the other hand, focuses on detecting and rectifying errors in the code to ensure reliable and error-free data transmission.
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