I had some old code in my conputer. It's not exactly what you want, but I think it could be an starting point.
First the final result:
I also had to draw some link control protocol examples and decided to create some commands
to draw frames (from A to B in previos figure)
\newcommand{\tramaok}[2]{%
\draw[trama,->] #2 --++(1.5,-2) node[above right,near start] {#1};
}
lost frames
\newcommand{\tramaperduda}[2]{%
\path #2 coordinate (a)--++(1.5,-2) coordinate (b) coordinate[midway] (c);
\draw[trama,-] (a) --(c) node[below] {#1};
\draw[trama,->] (c) -- ++(30:.5);
}
and acknowledgments (from bottom to top)
\newcommand{\ackok}[2]{%
\draw[ack,->] {#2}--++(1.5,2) node[below right,near start] {#1};
}
\newcommand{\ackperdut}[2]{%
\path #2 coordinate (a)--++(1.5,2) coordinate (b) coordinate[midway] (c);
\draw[ack,-] (a) --(c) node[above] {#1};
\draw[ack,->] (c) -- ++(-30:.5);
}
All these commands have two parameters, some label, if necessary, and its starting point.
Slope and distance are fixed. With these commands was easy to draw previous figure:
\tramaok{Tr0}{(0,2)}
\tramaok{Tr0}{(2.5,2)}
\tramaperduda{Tr1}{(5,2)}
\tramaok{Tr0}{(7.5,2)}
\ackok{Ack}{(1.5,0)}
\ackok{Ack}{(4,0)}
\ackok{Ack}{(9,0)}
\timeout{(0,2)}{(2.5,2)}
The complete code is:
\documentclass[tikz,border=2mm]{standalone}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usetikzlibrary{calc,arrows,positioning}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{
host/.style={rectangle,rounded corners,
thick,draw=#1!60,fill=#1!15},
host/.default=blue,
trama/.style={thick,draw=#1!60,fill=#1!60},
trama/.default=purple,
ack/.style={trama=teal},
}
\newcommand{\tramaok}[2]{%
\draw[trama,->] #2 --++(1.5,-2) node[above right,near start] {#1};
}
\newcommand{\tramaperduda}[2]{%
\path #2 coordinate (a)--++(1.5,-2) coordinate (b) coordinate[midway] (c);
\draw[trama,-] (a) --(c) node[below] {#1};
\draw[trama,->] (c) -- ++(30:.5);
}
\newcommand{\ackok}[2]{%
\draw[ack,->] {#2}--++(1.5,2) node[below right,near start] {#1};
}
\newcommand{\ackperdut}[2]{%
\path #2 coordinate (a)--++(1.5,2) coordinate (b) coordinate[midway] (c);
\draw[ack,-] (a) --(c) node[above] {#1};
\draw[ack,->] (c) -- ++(-30:.5);
}
\newcommand{\timeout}[2]{%
\draw #1 --++(0,5mm);
\draw #2 --++(0,5mm);
\begin{scope}[yshift=2.5mm]
\draw[<->] #1 -- #2 node[above,midway]{\emph{Time-out}};
\end{scope}
}
\begin{tikzpicture}[>=stealth',
font=\small\sffamily]
% S&W amb etiquetes a trames
% Tout curt. Repetició trames.
% No detecta pèrdues de trames
\draw[help lines,->] (-0.2,0) node[host,left] {B}--(11.5,0);
\draw[help lines,->] (-0.2,2) node[host,left] {A}--(11.5,2);
\tramaok{Tr0}{(0,2)}
\tramaok{Tr0}{(2.5,2)}
\tramaperduda{Tr1}{(5,2)}
\tramaok{Tr0}{(7.5,2)}
\ackok{Ack}{(1.5,0)}
\ackok{Ack}{(4,0)}
\ackok{Ack}{(9,0)}
\timeout{(0,2)}{(2.5,2)}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
You can complete your diagram without leaving pgf-umlsd:
To do so, you only need to know some things about pgf-umlsd:
Macro \postlevel increases a "unit of time" the timing of the next message, so it serves to leave a gap between "RRC Connection Setup" and "Synchronizacion indication", to insert your rectangle.
pgf-umlsd defines a pair of named nodes for each message, which you can use later to draw things relative to those nodes. They are called (<message label> from) and (<message label> to), where <message label> is the text written above the message.
You can use those named nodes to specify the corners of the shaded rectangle. I used calc library to do so.
So, in your case, to draw the rectangle at the desired point, you have to find which messages are near the corners of the rectangle. We find that the top left corner is near the ending of message "RRC Connection Setup", and the bottom right corner is near the starting of message "Synchronization Indication", so the corners of the rectangle are:
(RRC Connection Setup to) rectangle (Synchronization Indication from)
But those would produce a rectangle too close to the messages, so we have displace a bit the y coordinate to separate it from each message. I used the following expression to separate it 0.3 units of each:
($(RRC Connection Setup to)+(0,-.3)$) rectangle ($(Synchronization Indication from) +(0,.3)$)
If you want the rectangle spanning other columns, you have to find which message endings are nearby to the desired rectangle corners. For example, for having the rectangle from "Node B" to "RNC", yo may use:
($(RR Connection Setup from)+(0,-.3)$) rectangle ($(Synchronization Indication from) +(0,.5)$)
and so on
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=12mm]{geometry}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage[underline=true]{pgf-umlsd}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\begin{document}
\begin{sequencediagram}
\newinst{ue}{UE}
\newinst[3]{nodeb}{Node B}
\newinst[3]{rnc}{RNC}
\mess{ue}{RRC Connection Request}{rnc}
\mess{rnc}{Radio Link Setup Request}{nodeb}
\mess{nodeb}{Radio Link Setup Response}{rnc}
\mess{rnc}{Establish Request}{nodeb}
\mess{nodeb}{Establish Confirm}{rnc}
\mess{rnc}{RRC Connection Setup}{ue}
\postlevel
\mess{nodeb}{Synchronization Indication}{rnc}
\filldraw[fill=black!30] ($(RRC Connection Setup to)+(0,-.3)$) rectangle ($(Synchronization Indication from) +(0,.3)$)
node[midway] {L1 Synchronization};
\mess{ue}{RRC Connection Setup Complete}{rnc}
\end{sequencediagram}
\end{document}
Best Answer
\messcommand has an optional parameter which represent adelay(vertical separation) between tranmission and reception. You just need to use it:An example using it and explanations about inserting comments and some other style changes can be found in Add bars and annotations when using pgf-umlsd
EDIT
Although John Kormylo has been faster than me. I also think that sometimes i'is easier to draw it by hand instead of using
pgf-umlsd.