Working of Piggybacking
As we can see in the figure, we can see with piggybacking, a single message (ACK + DATA) over the wire in place of two separate messages. Piggybacking improves the efficiency of the bidirectional protocols.
- If Host A has both acknowledgment and data, which it wants to send, then the data frame will be sent with the ack field which contains the sequence number of the frame.
- If Host A contains only one acknowledgment, then it will wait for some time, then in the case, if it finds any data frame, it piggybacks the acknowledgment, otherwise, it will send the ACK frame.
- If Host A left with only a data frame, then it will add the last acknowledgment to it. Host A can send a data frame with an ack field containing no acknowledgment bit.
Piggybacking in Computer Networks
Pre-Requisite: Transmission Mode in Computer Networks
Piggybacking is the technique of delaying outgoing acknowledgment and attaching it to the next data packet.
When a data frame arrives, the receiver waits and does not send the control frame (acknowledgment) back immediately. The receiver waits until its network layer moves to the next data packet. Acknowledgment is associated with this outgoing data frame. Thus the acknowledgment travels along with the next data frame. This technique in which the outgoing acknowledgment is delayed temporarily is called Piggybacking.
In this article, we will cover the overview of networking communication and mainly focus on the concept of piggybacking in networks. And we will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using piggybacking in networks. Finally, we will see the conclusion. Let’s discuss them one by one.