Question

Consider a reliable data transfer protocol that uses only negative acknowledgements. Suppose the sender sends data only infrequently. Would a NAKonly protocol be preferable to a protocol that uses ACKs?

Answer 1

Refer to explaination

Step-by-step explanation:

A NAK only protocol is not preferable to a protocol that uses ACKs especially when the sender sends data frequently.

This is because NAK only protocol will be able to detect that a packet has been lost already when the receiver receives the subsequent packet. Also, as the sender only sends data infrequently, NAK only protocol takes a longer time to realize that a packet has been lost.

On the other hand, NAK only protocol is preferred to a protocol that uses ACKs, when the sender sends data out frequently, here the data loss rate is low.