PART 2:

5.3: WIRED LANS

1
5.3 WIRED LANS: ETHERNET

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.

2
Ethernet evolution through four generations

The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC). Since then, it has gone through four generations.

3
802.3 MAC frame

46 to 1500 octets
7 octets 1 6 6 2 ³0 ³0 4
S P
Length/
Preamble F DA SA Type
LLC data a FCS
D d

Preamble A 7-octet pattern of 10101010 for bit synchronization

SFD [Start frame delimiter ]
DA [Destination address]
SA [Source address]
Length/Type
LLC data
Pad
FCS [Frame check sequence]
The sequence 10101011, indicating the start of the frame
Destination MAC address
Source MAC address
Length of LLC data field in octets, the maximum frame size,
excluding the Preamble and SFD, is 1518 octets
Data unit supplied by LLC
Octets added to ensure that the frame is long enough for proper
CD operation
A 32-bit cyclic redundancy check, based on all fields excepts
preamble, SFD and FCS

4
Example of an Ethernet address in hexadecimal notation

MAC address ⇒ global address assigned centrally by IEEE to ensure that

no two stations anyway in the world have the same global address

Vendor code=24 Serial number=24

5
Unicast and multicast addresses

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.

6
Note

The broadcast destination address is a special

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

7
Example 6

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. 8
Example 7

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:

9
Categories of Standard Ethernet

10
IEEE 802.3 Notations

10Base5 10Base2 10Base-T 10Base-FP

Transmission Coax Coax UTP Optical fiber
medium pair
Signaling technique Baseband Baseband Baseband Manchester/
[Manchester] [Manchester] [Manchester] on-off
Topology Bus Bus Star Star
Maximum segment 500 185 100 500
length (m)
Nodes per segment 100 30 - 33
Cable diameter 10 5 0.4 to 0.6 62.5/125µm
(mm)

11
10Base5 implementation

- Maximum segment length: 500m

- Maximum number of stations per segment: 100
- Minimum distance between 2 stations: 2.5m
- Maximum network distance between 2 stations: 2.5km (up to
5 segments)

vampire tap

12
10Base2 implementation

- Maximum segment length: 185m

- Maximum number of stations per segment: 30
- Minimum distance between 2 stations: 0.5m
- Maximum network distance between 2 stations: 925m

BNC
connector
BNC
connector

13
10Base-T implementation

- Maximum segment length: 100m

- Using star topology with center multi-port repeater (hub)
- Physical star, but logical bus (all transmissions are repeated)

14
10Base-F implementation

- Maximum segment length: 2000m

- Using a star topology to connect stations to a hub
- The stations are connected to the hub using two fiber-optic
cables

15
Summary of Standard Ethernet implementations

16
Fast Ethernet

Fast Ethernet (IEEE 802.3u): High-speed standard [100Mbps] follow-

on the IEEE 802.3 10Base-T standard (June 1995)

Use the same shared, half-duplex transmission mode as traditional
Ethernet but to obtain a 10-fold increase in operational bit rate over 10-
BaseT

Designed for star topology and not using coaxial cable

Retain the same wiring systems, MAC method (CSMA/CD) and frame
format (minimum size of 64 bytes)

If the maximum length is reduced, then the CSMA/CD access method
can be used with higher bit rates  the basis of the Fast Ethernet
standard (maximum 200m between two DTEs)

The standard also calls for just one to two hubs (1 class I repeater or 2
class II repeaters with 5m link)

17
In practice, there are three physical implementation:

Name Cable Max. segment Advantages

100Base-T4 Twisted pairs 100m Uses Cat-3 UTP
100Base-TX Twisted pairs 100m Full duplex at 100Mbps
(Cat-5 UTP)
100Base-FX Fiber optics 2000m Full duplex at 100Mbps;
long runs

The 100Base-TX runs in half-duplex mode if hub is used and in full-

duplex mode if a switch is used

No longer clock encoding schemes [Manchester, etc.], but bit
encoding scheme [4B5B for TX & FX, 8B6T for T4]

18
Gigabit Ethernet

As more organizations move to 100Base-T, putting huge traffic loads

on backbone network, there is demand for faster Ethernet

As a result, Gigabit Ethernet was ratified by IEEE in 1998 under the
name 802.3z

A set of Gbps standards have been issued, which defines a new
medium and transmission specification, while retaining the
CSMA/CD protocol and frame format of its 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps
predecessors

All configurations of gigabit Ethernet are point-to-point

19

Gigabit Ethernet supports two different modes of operation: full-
duplex and half-duplex

The normal mode is full-duplex, allowing traffic in both directions at
the same time

This mode is used when there is a central switch connected to
computers (or other switches) on the periphery

All lines are buffered so each computer and switch is free to send
frames whenever it wants to

The sender does not have to sense the channel to see if anybody else
is using it because contention is impossible

On the line between a computer and a switch, the computer is the
only possible sender on that line to the switch and the transmission
succeeds even if the switch is currently sending a frame to the
computer (because the line is full duplex)

20

Since no contention is possible, the CSMA/CD protocol is not used

The half-duplex mode is used when the computers are connected to a
hub rather than a switch.

A hub does not buffer incoming frames.

Instead, it electrically connects all the lines internally, simulating the
multidrop cable used in traditional Ethernet.

In this mode, collisions are possible, so the standard CSMA/CD
protocol is required.

a minimum (i.e., 64-byte) frame can now be transmitted 100 times
faster than in classic Ethernet, the maximum distance is 100 times
less, or 25 meters, to maintain the essential property that the sender is
still transmitting when the noise burst gets back to it,

21

The 802.3z committee considered 25 meters to be unacceptable and
added two features to the standard to increase the distance

Carrier extension
- the hardware adds its own padding after the normal MAC
frame to extend the frame to 512 bytes.
- Using 512 bytes worth of bandwidth to transmit 46 bytes of
user data (the payload of a 64-byte frame) has a line efficiency of
9%

22

Frame bursting
- A sender may transmit a concatenated sequence of multiple
frames in a single transmission
- If the total burst is less than 512 bytes, the hardware pads it
again
- If enough frames are waiting for transmission, this scheme is
highly efficient and preferred over carrier extension

These new features extend the radius of the network to 200 meters,
which is enough for most offices 23
Physical implementations of Gigabit Ethernet:

Name Cable Max. segment Remarks

1000Base-SX Fiber optics 550m Multimode fiber
1000Base-LX Fiber optics 5000m Single or multimode
1000Base-CX 2 pairs of STP 25m Shielded twisted pair
1000Base-T 2 pairs of UTP 100m Standard Cat-5 UTP

Different encoding schemes are used:

- 8B/10B for 1000Base-SX, LX and CX (collectively known as
1000Base-X)
- PAM5, Trellis and Viterbi are used for 1000Base-T

24
A typical application of Gigabit Ethernet is shown below

25