Content Outline (Unit 7)

▪ Local Area Network (LAN)

▪ Ethernet frame structure
▪ Ethernet Addressing
▪ Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
▪ Hubs and Switches
▪ Virtual LAN
▪ IEEE 802.1Q
▪ VLAN Configuration

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 LAN Technologies

➢ Local Area Networks (LANs):

The use of shared transmission media or shared switching
capacity to achieve high data rates over relatively short
distances

➢ LAN Technologies:
- Topology: bus, tree, ring and star
- Transmission Medium
- Medium Access Control
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 Common LAN Standards

 LANs are dominated by four main architectures:

 Ethernet
 Token Ring
 Token Bus
 Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)

 The first three are IEEE802 standards (i.e. originated from Project 802 of IEEE),
while FDDI is an ANSI standard

 The data link layer of existing LANs in use today are based on HDLC
 each is modified slightly for the specific needs or designs

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 IEEE Project 802
 IEEE Project 802 specifies the detailed functions of layers 1 and 2 (and small parts of
layer 3)

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 IEEE802 Standards
 IEEE802.1 – Internetworking
 Devote to internetworking issues in LANs and MANs
 Ensure data can be exchanged among LANs and MANs

 IEEE802.2 – Logical link control (LLC)

 The upper sublayer of data link layer.
 Provide a single format and interface to the network layer, i.e. common to all
IEEE802 LAN and MAN protocols

 IEEE802.x – Medium access control (MAC)

 The technology-specific lower sublayer of data link layer
 Govern the operation of the access method

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 IEEE802.3 Ethernet

▪ The most common LAN technology is Ethernet

▪ Ethernet was initially developed by Xerox in 1973 and later extended by
Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox (also known as DIX
Ethernet)
▪ Ethernet is now defined by the IEEE802.3 standard
▪ Ethernet uses CSMA/CD as the access method

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 IEEE802.3 Ethernet

 Evolution of Ethernet

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 Ethernet - Length Data for Cables
and Hubs

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 Topology in Ethernet

 Traditional Ethernet features a shared-

medium bus
 All signals are broadcast to every
connected node (the links are half-duplex)
 For 10Base-T, the physical topology is a
star, but the logical topology is a bus

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Data Access in Ethernet
 NIC picks up the frames
intended for itself (based on
the physical address, which
matches its own address)

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

Preamble:
 7 bytes with pattern 10101010 followed by one byte with pattern 10101011
11  used to synchronize receiver, sender clock rates
 Ethernet Frame Structure
 Address: 6 bytes
 If adapter receives frame with matching destination address, or
with broadcast address (e.g. ARP packet), it passes data in frame
to network-layer protocol
 Otherwise, adapter discards frame
 Type: indicates the higher layer protocol (mostly IP but others may
be supported such as Novell IPX and AppleTalk)
 CRC: checked at receiver, if error is detected, the frame is simply
dropped

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 Example 1

A network using CSMA/CD has a bandwidth of 10 Mbps. If the maximum propagation time
(including the delays in the devices and ignoring the time needed to send a jamming signal,
as we see later) is 25.6 μs, what is the minimum size of the frame?

Solution

The frame transmission time is Tfr = 2 × Tp = 51.2 μs. This means, in the worst case, a
station needs to transmit for a period of 51.2 μs to detect the collision. The minimum size of
the frame is 10 Mbps × 51.2 μs = 512 bits or 64 bytes. This is actually the minimum size of
the frame for Standard Ethernet.

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 MAC Address

 MAC (or LAN / physical / Ethernet) address:

 used to get datagram from one interface to another physically-connected
interface (same network)
 48-bit MAC address (for most LANs) burned in the adapter ROM

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 MAC Address

▪ 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.

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 LAN Address
Each adapter on LAN has unique LAN address:

1A-2F-BB-76-09-AD Broadcast address =

FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF

LAN
(wired or = adapter
wireless)
71-65-F7-2B-08-53
58-23-D7-FA-20-B0

0C-C4-11-6F-E3-98

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 LAN Address

▪ MAC address allocation administered by IEEE

▪ Manufacturer buys portion of MAC address space (to assure
uniqueness)
▪ MAC flat address ➜ portability
▪ can move LAN card from one LAN to another
▪ IP hierarchical address NOT portable
▪ depend on IP subnet to which node is attached

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 ARP: Address Resolution Protocol
Question: how to determine MAC  Each IP node (Host, Router) on
address knowing IP address? LAN has ARP table

237.196.7.78  ARP Table: IP/MAC address

mappings for some LAN nodes
1A-2F-BB-76-09-AD
< IP address; MAC address;TTL>
237.196.7.23
237.196.7.14  TTL (Time To Live): time after
which address mapping will be
LAN forgotten (typically 20 min)
71-65-F7-2B-08-53
58-23-D7-FA-20-B0

0C-C4-11-6F-E3-98

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 ARP Protocol: same LAN (network)

▪ A wants to send datagram to B, ▪ A caches (saves) IP-to-MAC

and B’s MAC address not in A’s address pair in its ARP table until
ARP table. information becomes old (times
▪ A broadcasts ARP query packet,
out)
containing B's IP address ▪ soft state: information that times
▪ Dest MAC address = FF-FF-
out (goes away) unless
FF-FF-FF-FF refreshed
▪ all machines on LAN receive ▪ ARP is “plug-and-play”:
ARP query ▪ nodes create their ARP tables
▪ B receives ARP packet, replies
without intervention from
to A with its (B's) MAC address network administrator
▪ frame sent to A’s MAC
address (unicast)
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 ARP Operation

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 Routing to another LAN
walkthrough: send datagram from A to B via R
assume A knows B’s IP address

R
B

 Two ARP tables in router R, one for each IP network (LAN)

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 Routing to another LAN
 A creates datagram with source A, destination B
 A uses ARP to get R’s MAC address for 111.111.111.110
 A creates link-layer frame with R's MAC address as destination, frame contains A-
to-B IP datagram
 A’s adapter sends frame
 R’s adapter receives frame
 R removes IP datagram from Ethernet frame, knows it is destined to B
 R uses ARP to get B’s MAC address
 R creates frame containing A-to-B IP datagram sends to B

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 Hubs

▪ Hubs are essentially physical-layer repeaters:

▪ bits coming from one link go out all other links, i.e., transmission from any
station received by all other stations; if two stations transmit at the same
time, collision occurs
▪ no CSMA/CD at hub: adapters detect collisions
▪ provides network management functionality

Physically a
twisted pair
star, logically
a bus
hub

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 Interconnecting with Hubs

▪ Backbone hub interconnects LAN segments

▪ Extend maximum distance between nodes
▪ But individual segment collision domains become one large collision
domain
▪ Cannot interconnect 10BaseT & 100BaseT

hub

hub
hub hub

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 Switch

▪ Link layer device

▪ Stores and forwards Ethernet frames
▪ Examines frame header and selectively forwards frame based on
MAC destination address
▪ When frame is to be forwarded on segment, uses CSMA/CD to
access segment
▪ Transparent
▪ Hosts are unaware of presence of switches

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 Frame Forwarding
switch
1
2 3

hub
hub hub

• How to determine onto which LAN segment to forward frame?

• Looks like a routing problem...

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 Self Learning

 A switch has a switch table

 Entry in switch table:
 (MAC Address, Interface, Time Stamp)
 stale entries in table dropped (TTL can be 60 min)

 Switch learns which hosts can be reached through which interfaces

 when frame received, switch “learns” location of sender: incoming
LAN segment
 records sender/location pair in switch table

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Example

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 Switch Example
Suppose C sends a frame to D
switch Address Interface
1 A 1
2 3
C 1
E 2
hub hub hub G 3
A
I
D F
B C G H
E
◼ Switch receives frame from C
◼ notes in switch table that C is on interface 1

◼ because D is not in the table, switch forwards frame onto interfaces 2

and 3
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◼ frame received by D EIE3333 DCC
 Switch Example
Suppose D replies back with frame to C
Address Interface
switch
A 1
C 1
D 2
hub hub hub E 2
A
I G 3

D F
B C G H
E
◼ Switch receives frame from D
◼ notes D is on interface 2, add D entry in the table

◼ because C is in the table, switch selectively forwards frame only to

interface 1
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◼ frame received by C
 Collision Domains
A collision domain is the segment where devices must compete to
communicate.
 All ports of a hub belong to the same collision domain.
 Every port of a switch is a collision domain on its own.
 A switch break the segment into smaller collision domains, easing
device competition.

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 Switch: Traffic Isolation
 Switch installation breaks subnet into LAN segments
 Switch filters packets:
 same-LAN-segment frames not usually forwarded onto other LAN
segments
 segments become separate collision domains

switch

collision
domain

hub
hub hub

collision domain collision domain

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 Switch: Dedicated Access
 Switch with many interfaces
A
 Hosts have direct connection to
switch C’ B
 More than one station transmitting at
a time, no collisions
 Full duplex switch
 Multiplying capacity of LAN

C
 Switching: A-to-A’ and B-to-B’
simultaneously, no collisions B’ A’

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 Broadcast Domain
▪ A broadcast domain is a collection of network devices that receive broadcast
traffic from each other.
• Switches will forward broadcast traffic to all interfaces, except the one where it
originated from.
• A lot of broadcast traffic might impact your network performance so reducing the
size of the broadcast domain is something to consider.
• Routers do not forward broadcast traffic, they break broadcast domains.
• VLANs on switches also allow you to break broadcast domains.

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 Hub and Layer 2 Switch

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 Switch vs Router
 Both store-and-forward devices
 Routers: network layer devices (examine network layer headers)
 Switches are link layer devices
 Routers maintain routing tables, implement routing algorithms
 Switches maintain switch tables, implement filtering, learning algorithms

switch
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 Virtual LANs
 A station is considered part of a LAN if it physically belongs to that LAN.
 The criterion of membership is geographic.

 What happens if we want to communicate between stations in two different

geographical locations?
 We can roughly define a virtual local area network (VLAN) as a local area
network configured by software, not by physical wiring.

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 Virtual LANs
 A virtual LAN, based on the VLAN 802.1Q standard, consists of a logical group
of stations, independent of their actual physical locations.
 This switched network is logically segmented in such a way that stations can be
grouped within an organization to provide an accounting VLAN, a marketing
VLAN, etc.
 With VLAN, people can form networks without the restriction on physical
locations

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 Virtual LANs
 The information used to identify a packet as part of a specific VLAN is
inserted by a switch, and preserved through switch and router
connections.
 One result of the logical segmentation is that one broadcast will reach
every station belonging to the same VLAN, but not any other hosts.
 In addition, this switched network can be dynamically reconfigured
without rewiring the wired connections between the switch and the
various stations—a process that can save manpower for any organization
that needs restructuring.

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 Virtual LANs
 Two switches in a backbone using VLAN software

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 Virtual LANs
 Example of VLANs in a company

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 Access Mode or Trunk Mode

 A switch port runs in either the access mode or the trunk mode.
 In the access mode the interface belongs to one and only one VLAN, and in this mode
a switch port is normally attached to an end user device or a server.
 In contrast, the trunk mode multiplexes traffic for multiple VLANs over the same
physical link.
 The trunk links usually interconnect switches.
 In order to multiplex VLAN traffic, special protocols exist that encapsulate or tag,
i.e., mark, the frames so that the receiving device knows to which VLAN the frame
belongs.
 Trunk protocols are either proprietary, e.g., Cisco proprietary Inter-Switch Link
(ISL), or based upon IEEE 802.1Q.

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 The Access Mode or Trunk Mode

 Trunk mode ports used with VLAN switches

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 Tagging Ethernet Frames for
VLAN Identification

 Frame tagging is the process of adding a VLAN identification header to the

frame.
 It is used to properly transmit multiple VLAN frames through a trunk link.
 Switches tag frames to identify the VLAN to that they belong. Different
tagging protocols exist; IEEE 802.1Q is a very popular example.
 The protocol defines the structure of the tagging header added to the frame.
 Switches add VLAN tags to the frames before placing them into trunk links
and remove the tags before forwarding frames through non trunk ports.
 When properly tagged, the frames can transverse any number of switches
via trunk links and still be forwarded within the correct VLAN at the
destination.
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 The VLAN Tag

 Tagging a frame by inserting an 802.1Q header

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 The VLAN Tag

 The 802.1Q Tag Control Information Format

 User Priority (3 bits): It stores the priority level of the frame and can be used to
give voice and video traffic higher priority than email or web traffic
 Canonical Format Indicator (CFI) (1 bit): It is set to zero for Ethernet switches,
and used for compatibility between Ethernet and Token Ring networks. Note that
802.3 uses the canonical format for all MAC address information while 802.5 uses
the non-canonical format.
 VLAN ID (12 bits): The VID is a 12-bit field that identifies the VLAN ID to which
the frame belongs. The VLAN ID allows VLAN switches and routers to selectively
forward packets to ports with the same VLAN ID.
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 VLAN Configuration
 There are typically four VLAN configuration options specified by either
 port group
 source MAC address
 network layer information, i.e., protocol or network address
 IP multicast group
 The port group configuration option has one main disadvantage: the network administrator
must reconfigure VLAN membership when a user moves from one port to another.
 The source MAC address configuration allows an administrator to add a host or drop a host
without physically reconnecting it.
 The network layer protocol or IP address configuration provides the flexibility of
dynamically adding a host when a protocol such as VoIP is used.
 The multicast group is also flexible in adding or dropping hosts, based upon a multicast
group

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 Reading

 B. A. Forouzan, “Data Communications and Networking,” 4th Edition,

McGraw-Hill 2012 (Chapters 13 and 15)

 William Stallings, “Data and Computer Communications,” 9th Edition,

Prentice Hall 2012 (Chapters 15, 16 and 17)

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