What is Half-Duplex Flow Control?
Half-duplex flow control is a mechanism used in networking to regulate the flow of data between two devices that are communicating in half-duplex mode.
In half-duplex mode, each device can either transmit or receive data, but not both simultaneously. Flow control helps to prevent data loss and congestion on the network by regulating the amount of data that is transmitted between the two devices. When one device sends data to the other device, it includes a flow control message in the data packet. The flow control message indicates how much data the receiving device can buffer before it needs to stop receiving data and send a message back to the sender to pause transmission. In half-duplex flow control, the sender must wait for a message from the receiver indicating that it is ready to receive more data before sending additional data packets. This helps to prevent data loss and ensures that the network operates efficiently. Half-duplex flow control is typically used in Ethernet networks and is governed by the IEEE 802.3x standard.