Chapter 13

Wired LANs: Ethernet

13.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 13-1 IEEE STANDARDS

In 1985, the Computer Society of the IEEE started a

project, called Project 802, to set standards to enable
intercommunication among equipment from a variety
of manufacturers. Project 802 is a way of specifying
functions of the physical layer and the data link layer
of major LAN protocols.

Topics discussed in this section:

Data Link Layer
Physical Layer

13.2
 Figure 13.1 IEEE standard for LANs
DLL further divided into two sublayers, LLC and MAC

13.3
 Logical Link Control (LLC)

 In IEEE Project 802, flow control, error control, and part of the framing
duties are collected into one sublayer called the logical link control.
Framing is handled in both the LLC sublayer and the MAC sublayer.
 one single LLC protocol serving several MAC protocols, provides
different protocols for different LANs
 Framing LLC defines a protocol data unit (PDU) that is somewhat
similar to that of HDLC (High-level Data Link Control). This field is
used for flow and error control, for upper-layer protocols that actually
demand these services.
 For example, if a LAN or several LANs are used in an isolated system,
LLC may be needed to provide flow and error control for the
application layer protocols. However the protocols such as IP do not
use the services of LLC.

13.4
 Media Access Control (MAC)

we discussed multiple access methods including random access, controlled

access, and channelization.
IEEE Project 802 has created a sublayer called media access control

(MAC) that defines the specific access method for each LAN.
For example, it defines CSMA/CD as the media access method for

Ethernet LANs and the token passing method for Token Ring and Token
Bus LANs. part of the framing function is also handled by the MAC layer.
In contrast to the LLC sublayer, the MAC sublayer contains a number of

distinct modules; each defines the access method and the framing format
specific to the corresponding LAN protocol.

13.5
 Physical Layer

 The physical layer is dependent on the implementation and

type of physical media used.
 IEEE defines detailed specifications for each LAN
implementation.
 For example, although there is only one MAC sublayer for
Standard Ethernet, there is a different physical layer
specifications for each Ethernet.

13.6
 Figure 13.2 HDLC frame compared with LLC and MAC frames

13.7
 13-2 STANDARD ETHERNET

The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox’s

Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Since then, it has
gone through four generations. We briefly discuss the
Standard (or traditional) Ethernet in this section.

Topics discussed in this section:

MAC Sublayer
Physical Layer

13.8
 Figure 13.3 Ethernet evolution through four generations

13.9
 Figure 13.4 802.3 Ethernet Frame format

13.10
 Figure 13.4 802.3 MAC frame

13.11
 802.3 MAC Frame Format
 The Ethernet frame contains seven fields: preamble, SFD, DA, SA, length
or type of protocol data unit (PDU), upper-layer data, and CRC.
 Ethernet does not provide any mechanism for acknowledging received
frames, making it what is known as an unreliable medium.
Acknowledgments must be implemented at the higher layers.

 Preamble.
 The first field of the 802.3 frame contains 7 bytes (56 bits) of alternating 0s and 1s
that alerts the receiving system to the coming frame and enables it to synchronize
its input timing.
 The 56-bit pattern allows the stations to miss some bits at the beginning of the
frame. The preamble is actually added at the physical layer and is not (formally)
part of the frame.

13.12
 802.3 MAC Frame Format
 Start frame delimiter (SFD).
 The second field (l byte: 10101011) signals the beginning of the frame.
The SFD warns the station or stations that this is the last chance for
synchronization. The last 2 bits is 11 and alerts the receiver that the
next field is the destination address.
 Destination address (DA). The DA field is 6 bytes and contains the
physical address of the destination station or stations to receive the
packet.
 Source address (SA). The SA field is also 6 bytes and contains the
physical address of the sender of the packet.

13.13
 802.3 MAC Frame Format
 Length or type. This field is defined as a type field or length field. In
the original it used as type field to define the upper-layer protocol using
the MAC frame. In the IEEE standard it used as the length field to
define the number of bytes in the data field.

 Data. This field carries data encapsulated from the upper-layer

protocols. It is a minimum of 46 and a maximum of 1500 bytes.

 CRC. The last field contains error detection information, in this case a
CRC-32 bits.

13.14
 Figure 13.5 Minimum and maximum lengths

13.15
 Note

Frame length:
Minimum: 64 bytes (512 bits)
Maximum: 1518 bytes (12,144 bits)

13.16
 Figure 13.6 Example of an Ethernet address in hexadecimal notation

13.17
 Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast Addresses
 A source address is always a unicast address - the frame
comes from only one station.

 The destination address, however, can be unicast,

multicast, or broadcast If the least significant bit of the first
byte in a destination address is 0, the address is unicast;
otherwise, it is multicast.

 The broadcast address is a special case of the multicast

address; the recipients are all the stations on the LAN. A
broadcast destination address is forty-eight 1s.

13.18
 Figure 13.7 Unicast and multicast addresses

13.19
 Note

The least significant bit of the first byte

defines the type of address.
If the bit is 0, the address is unicast;
otherwise, it is multicast.

13.20
 Note

The broadcast destination address is a

special case of the multicast address in
which all bits are 1s.

13.21
 Example 13.1

Define the type of the following destination addresses:

a. 4A:30:10:21:10:1A b. 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE
c. FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Solution
To find the type of the address, we need to look at the
second hexadecimal digit from the left. If it is even, the
address is unicast. If it is odd, the address is multicast. If
all digits are F’s, the address is broadcast. Therefore, we
have the following:
a. This is a unicast address because A in binary is 1010.
b. This is a multicast address because 7 in binary is 0111.
c. This is a broadcast address because all digits are F’s.
13.22
 Example 13.2

Show how the address 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE is sent out on

line.

Solution
The address is sent left-to-right, byte by byte; for each
byte, it is sent right-to-left, bit by bit, as shown below:

13.23
 Physical Layer
 The Standard Ethernet defines several physical layer implementations; four of
the most common are discussed further
 Encoding and Decoding
 All standard implementations use digital signaling (baseband) at 10 Mbps.
 At the sender, data are converted to a digital signal using the Manchester
scheme; at the receiver, the received signal is interpreted as Manchester and
decoded into data.
 As we saw earlier Manchester encoding is self-synchronous, providing a
transition at each bit interval.
 Figure 13.9 shows the encoding scheme for Standard Ethernet.

13.24
 Figure 13.9 Encoding in a Standard Ethernet implementation

13.25
 Figure 13.8 Categories of Standard Ethernet

13.26
 lOBase5: Thick Ethernet
 The first implementation is called 10BaseS, thick Ethernet, or Thicknet.
 The nickname derives from the size of the cable, which is roughly the size
of a garden hose and too stiff to bend with your hands. See Figure 13.10
 Uses a bus topology with an external transceiver (transmitter/receiver)
connected via a tap to a thick coaxial cable.
 Transceiver is responsible for transmitting, receiving, and detecting
collisions.
 The transceiver is connected to the station via a transceiver cable that
provides separate paths for sending and receiving, means that collision
can only happen in the coaxial cable.
 The maximum length of the coaxial cable must not exceed 500 m,
otherwise, there is excessive degradation of the signal. If a length of more
than 500 m is needed it can be connected using repeaters.

13.27
 Figure 13.10 10Base5 implementation

13.28
 10Base2: Thin Ethernet
 The second implementation is called lOBase2, thin Ethernet, or Cheapernet.
IOBase2 also uses a bus topology, but the cable is much thinner and more
flexible.
 The cable can be bent to pass very close to the stations, transceiver is normally
part of NIC card, which is installed inside the station. See Figure 13.11
 shows the schematic diagram of a IOBase2 implementation.
 Note that the collision here occurs in the thin coaxial cable. This
implementation is more cost effective than 10BaseS because thin coaxial cable
is less expensive than thick coaxial and the tee connections are much cheaper
than taps.
 Installation is simpler because the thin coaxial cable is very flexible. However,
the length of each segment cannot exceed 185 m (close to 200 m) due to the
high level of attenuation in thin coaxial cable.

13.29
 Figure 13.11 10Base2 implementation

13.30
 lOBase-T: Twisted-Pair Ethernet

 The third implementation is called lOBase-T or twisted-pair Ethernet. 1OBase-

T uses a physical star topology. The stations are connected to a hub via two
pairs of twisted cableseeFigure 13.12.
 Two pairs of twisted cable create two paths (one for sending and one for
 receiving) between the station and the hub. Any collision here happens in the
hub.
 Compared to lOBaseS or lOBase2, we can see that the hub actually replaces the
coaxial cable as far as a collision is concerned.
 The maximum length of the twisted cable here is defined as 100 m, to minimize
the effect of attenuation in the twisted cable.

13.31
 Figure 13.12 10Base-T implementation

13.32
 lOBase-F: Fiber Ethernet
 Although there are several types of optical fiber lO-Mbps Ethernet, the
most common is called 10Base-F.

 lOBase-F uses a star topology to connect stations to a hub.

 The stations are connected to the hub using two fiber-optic cables, see
Figure 13.13.

13.33
 Figure 13.13 10Base-F implementation

13.34
 Table 13.1 Summary of Standard Ethernet implementations

13.35
 PDU Formats

McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

Wireless LANs

 Refer Chapet 14
 14-1IEEE 802.11
IEEE has defined the specifications for a wireless LAN,
called IEEE 802.11, which covers the physical and data
link layers..

Topics discussed in this section:

Architecture MAC Sublayer
Physical Layer

14.
43
 Figure 14.1 Basic service sets (BSSs)

14.
44
 Figure 14.2 Extended service sets (ESSs)

14.
45
 Figure 14.3 MAC layers in IEEE 802.11 standard

LLC- logic link control

14.
46
 Figure 14.4 CSMA/CA flowchart

14.
47
Table 14.2 Values of subfields in control frames

network allocation vector (NAV)

distributed interframe space (DIFS)
short interframe space
(SIFS)
 Figure 14.5 CSMA/CA and NAV

14.
49
Table 14.3 Addresses
Figure 14.9 Addressing mechanisms
Table 14.4 Physical layers
Figure 14.14 Industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band
Refer chapter
 Bluetooth Networks
(pending)
Refer chapter 16
Wireless WANs:
Cellular Telephone
and Satellite Networks
 16-1 CELLULAR
TELEPHONY
Cellular telephony is designed
communications between two moving
to
units,
provide

mobile stations (MSs), orbetweencalled

one mobile unit and one stationary
unit, often called a land unit.

16.
56
 Figure 16.1 Cellular system

16.
57
 Figure 16.2 Frequency reuse patterns

16.
58
 Note

AMPS(Advanced Mobile Phone System) is

an analog cellular phone
system using FDMA.

16.
59
 Generations
 First Generation
 Cellular teleph!Jny is now in its second generation with
the third on the horizon. The
 first generation was designed for voice communication
using analog signals.
 AMPS

 AMPS
 Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) is one of the
leading analog cellular systems
 in North America. It uses FDMA
 Generations
 Second Generation
 To provide higher-quality (less noise-prone) mobile
voice communications, the second generation of the
cellular phone network was developed. Mainly designed
 for digitized voice.

 D-AMPS
 The product of the evolution of the analog AMPS into a
digital system is digital AMPS
 (D-AMPS).
 Generations
 GSM
 The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)
is a European standard that was developed to provide
a common second-generation technology for all
Europe. The aim was to replace a number of
incompatible first-generation technologies.

 Third Generation
 The third generation of cellular telephony refers to a
combination of technologies that
 provide a variety of services.
 Generations
 Third Generation
 Using a small portable device, a person
 should be able to talk to anyone else in the world with a
voice quality similar to that of the existing fixed
telephone network. A person can download and watch a
movie, can download and listen to music, can surf the
Internet or play games, can have a video
 conference, and can do much more.
 One of the interesting characteristics of a third
generation
 system is that the portable device is always connected;
you do not need to dial a number to connect to the
Internet.
 The third-generation concept started 1992
 SATELLITE NETWORKS
 A satellite network is a combination of nodes, some of
which are satellites, that provides communication from
one point on the Earth to another. A node in the network
can be a satellite, an Earth station, or an end-user
terminal or telephone.
 Although a natural satellite, such as the Moon, can be
used as a relaying node in the network, the use of
artificial satellites is preferred because we can install
electronic equipment on the satellite to regenerate
 the signal that has lost its energy during travel.
 SATELLITE NETWORKS
 Another restriction on using natural satellites is their
distances from the Earth, which create a long delay in
communication.
 Satellite networks are like cellular networks in that they
divide the planet into cells.
 Satellites can provide transmission capability to and from
any location on Earth, no matter how remote.
 This advantage makes high-quality communication available
to undeveloped parts of the world without requiring a huge
investment in ground-based infrastructure.
Unit – I End