Why would software flow control be used instead of hardware flow control?
The principal advantage of software flow control is the reduction in the number of electrical conductors between sender and receiver. Given a common ground, only two signals are needed, one to send and the other to receive. Hardware flow control requires additional wires between the two devices.
What is hardware flow control?
Flow control is to prevent too fast of a flow of bytes from overrunning a terminal, computer, modem or other device. Hardware flow control uses a dedicated signal wire while software flow control signals by sending Xon or Xoff control bytes in the normal data wire.
What is RTS CTS flow control?
With hardware flow control (also called RTS/CTS flow control), two extra wires are needed in addition to the data lines. They are called RTS (Request to Send) and CTS (Clear to Send). These wires are cross-coupled between the two devices, so RTS on one device is connected to CTS on the remote device and vice versa.
What is RTS CTS threshold in WIFI?
CTS/RTS Threshold: CTS means “clear to send” and RTS means “request to send.” These ask devices on a network for permission to send the next data packet. Lower CTS thresholds or RTS thresholds make for more stable Wi-Fi networks.
What is the best CTS RTS threshold?
The recommended standard of the RTS threshold is around 500. A low threshold implies RTS packets are transferred more frequently and the throughput of the packet is on the lower side.
Why is flow control important in a network?
In computer networking, flow control is the process of managing the rate of data transmission between two nodes to prevent a fast sender from over running a slow receiver. Flow control is important because it is possible for a sender to transmit information at a faster rate than the destination can receive and process it.
Which is better flow control or hardware flow control?
Using hardware flow control implies, that more lines must be present between the sender and the receiver, leading to a thicker and more expensive cable. Therefore, software flow control is a good alternative if it is not needed to gain maximum performance in communications.
Why do you need flow control on an asynchronous interface?
The need for flow control on an asynchronous serial interface is fully dependent on the application needs. Sometimes a slower baud rate can lower the effective data rate to alleviate the need for flow control but that is again application dependent.
What kind of flow control is needed for handshaking?
Extra lines are necessary in the communication cable to carry the handshaking information. Hardware flow control is sometimes referred to as RTS / CTS flow control. This term mentions the extra input and outputs used on the serial device to perform this type of handshaking.