Shared Media LANs Using FDDI Backbones

FDDI has gained wide acceptance as a high-speed 100Mbps shared

media backbone. Fiber-optic cabling is immune to noise and is light
weight. Architecturally FDDI also has excellent redundancy
characteristics. It is also well suited for building-to-building campus
and high rise cable plants.

Description

Figure 7.6: LANs using FDDI backbone

Figure 7.6 shows FDDI as a shared media 100Mbps backbone.

Benefits

The basic benefits of FDDI are redundancy, 100-Mb/s data rate, and the
durability of the fiber itself. Since FDDI is a mature technology, FDDI
interfaces are very common today. This allows for a great deal of
flexibility in connectivity. Many vendors support FDDI for the interfaces
on their network devices. Often it is the backbone of choice in a
heterogeneous collection of server and client platforms.
Segmentation between various workgroups is done with the local top-
of-stack switches.

Rules of Thumb

If you are using FDDI to connect switched 10-Mb/s workgroups, and

have no global servers on the ring, then you will want to follow the
80/20 rule. Through the FDDI ring (inter-workgroup) traffic should be
designed to be a minimum. 80 percent traffic is client to local
workgroup server (intra-workgroup), and 20 percent is traffic out to
other workgroup servers (inter-workgroup).

Considerations

The biggest potentially negative factor in an FDDI design may simply

be cost. The costs for network adapters for servers in the server farm,
and fiber installation costs can be high. Admittedly these costs have
dropped in recent years, but it may still be high in your area.
Fast Ethernet is traditional CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access/collision
detection) access control at 100 Mbits/sec over twisted-pair wire. The original
Ethernet data rate was 10 Mbits/sec.

During the early development of Fast Ethernet, two different groups worked out
standards proposals-and both were finally approved, but under different IEEE
committees. One standard became IEEE 802.3u Fast Ethernet and the other became
100VG-AnyLAN, which is now governed by the IEEE 802.12 committee. The latter
uses the "demand priority" medium access method instead of CSMA/CD.

There are four Fast Ethernet schemes:

• 100Base-TX Runs on two pairs of Category 5 data-grade twisted-pair wire

with a maximum distance of 100 meters between hub and workstation.

• 100Base-T4 Runs on four pairs of cable, including Category 3 cable, with a

maximum distance of 100 meters between hub and workstation.

• 100Base-FX Runs on optical cable at distances up to 2 kilometers, and is

used to connect hubs over long distances in a backbone configuration (e.g., a
building in a campus environment).

• 100Base-SX Called Short Wavelength Fast Ethernet, this is a proposed

standard (as of this writing) for a Fast Ethernet over fiber-optic cable using
850 nm wavelength optics. Refer to FOLS (Fiber Optics LAN Section) of the
TIA at http://www.fols.org/.

The higher frequency used in the Fast Ethernet standard is prone to attenuation, so
cable distance is more limited than in the Ethernet 10Base-T specification. If the
encoding scheme of traditional Ethernet were used with Fast Ethernet, the high-end
frequency would be above 200 Mhz. That is double the maximum frequency rating of
Category 5 cable.
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/bholt/chap08/img057.GIF
Ssss
SHARED MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
The next several slides “review” a variety of media with more specifics about each.

Shared Media Technologies

Fast Ethernet

100Base-X Ethernet (IEEE 802.13)

100BaseVG (IEEE 802.12)

100Base-VG (IEEE 802.12)

100Base-VG (IEEE 802.12)

Gigabit Ethernet (IEEE802.3z)

Gigabit Ethernet (IEEE802.3z)

Iso-ENET (IEEE 802.9A)

PPT Slide

Fast Token Ring

Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)

Topology

Topology
Topology

Media Access Control

Types of FDDI

Review Questions

SWITCHED MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

Switched Media Technologies

Switched Ethernet

Switched Ethernet

Switched Ethernet

Full Duplex Ethernet

Switched Ethernet

Switched Token Ring

Switched FDDI

Review Questions

ATM(Asynchronous Transfer Mode)

Click here to go to ATM FORUM website

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

Addressing & Forwarding with ATM Virtual Circuits

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

ATM and Traditional LANs

PPT Slide

ATM Disadvantages

Fiber Channel
More about Fiber Channel

Fiber Channel Topologies

Uses of Fiber Channel

Review Questions