LANACKTMR and LANACKFRQ

Your SNA controller description includes the LAN acknowledgment timer (LANACKTMR) and the LAN acknowledgment frequency (LANACKFRQ) parameters. They work together to determine how often to send an acknowledgment to the remote station.

LANACKTMR specifies how long the system waits before sending an acknowledgment for the frames that it received. LANACKFRQ specifies the maximum number of frames that your system receives before sending an acknowledgment to the remote station (independent of timers or having data to send). Your system has a greater chance of sending the acknowledgment in a data frame (rather than the acknowledgment by itself) if the LANACKFRQ value is large.

The default *CALC value for LANACKTMR is 0.1 second. The default *CALC value for LANACKFRQ is 1.

Performance issues

Large values for LANACKTMR and LANACKFRQ might be desirable because smaller values can cause unnecessary acknowledgments and contribute to heavier LAN traffic. If you are connected to a network with traffic problems, you can increase the values of either parameters or both parameters.

However, in most cases where LAN traffic is not a problem and data tends to flow one way, large parameter values can cause this to happen:
  • Introduce unnecessary delays when sending acknowledgments.
  • Slow response times.

LANACKTMR considerations

You should choose values for the LANACKTMR parameter by carefully considering the remote station's response timer (LANRSPTMR) and maximum outstanding frame count (LANMAXOUT).

For example, assume that your system cannot send an acknowledgment before the remote station's response timer expires. The remote station will retransmit its frame because it did not receive your acknowledgment. To solve this problem, you must either shorten your system's timer or lengthen the remote system's timer.

LANACKFRQ considerations

Similarly, you should choose values for LANACKFRQ by carefully considering the remote station's maximum outstanding frame count (LANMAXOUT). If you do not correctly adjust the counters, your system will wait for more frames. However, the remote station will not transmit them because it is waiting for an acknowledgment from your system.

Related tasks
Changing timing parameters
Related reference
LANCNNTMR and LANCNNRTY
LANRSPTMR and LANFRMRTY
LANINACTMR
LANMAXOUT
LANWDWSTP
LANACCPTY