Chapter 17

Connecting
Devices
And
Virtual
LANs
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Chapter 17: Outline

17.1 CONNECTING DEVICES

17.2 VIRTUAL LANS

 Chapter 17: Objective

 The first section discusses connecting devices. It first describes

hubs and their features. The section then discusses link-layer
switches (or simply switches, as they are called), and shows how
they can create loops if they connect LANs with broadcast
domains.

 The second section discusses virtual LANs or VLANs. The

section first shows how membership in a VLAN can be defined.
The section then discusses the VLAN configuration. It next
shows how switches can communicate in a VLAN. Finally, the
section mentions the advantages of a VLAN..
 17-1 CONNECTING DEVICES

Hosts and networks do not normally operate in

isolation.
We use connecting devices to connect hosts
together to make a network or to connect
networks together to make an internet.
Connecting devices can operate in different
layers of the Internet model.
We discuss three kinds of connecting devices:
hubs, link-layer switches, and routers.

17.4
 Figure 17.1: Three categories of connecting devices

17.5
 Connecting Devices

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 17.1 Hubs

A hub is a device that operates only in the physical

layer.
Signals that carry information within a network can
travel a fixed distance before attenuation endangers
the integrity of the data.
A repeater receives a signal and, before it becomes
too weak or corrupted, regenerates and retimes the
original bit pattern.

17.7
 Figure 17.2: Hub

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 Repeaters
 Operate only in physical layer
 Connects two segments of the same LAN
 Both segments must be of the same
protocol
 Only forwards frames; does not filter

15.9
 Figure 15.2 A repeater connecting two segments of a LAN

15.10
 Figure 15.3 Function of a repeater

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 Active Hub
 Actually a multiport repeater, works in layer 1
 Connects stations in a physical star topology
 Also may create multiple levels of hierarchy to
remove length limitation of 10Base-T

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 17.2 Link-Layer Switches

A link-layer switch (or switch) operates in both the

physical and the data-link layers.

As a physical-layer device, it regenerates the signal it

receives.

As a link-layer device, the link-layer switch can

check the MAC addresses (source and destination)
contained in the frame.

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 Transparent Bridges &
Learning Bridges
 Stations are completely unaware of Bridge’s
presence
 Builds table by examining destination and source
address of each packet it receives
 Learning bridges
 If address not recognized, packet is relayed to all
stations; called Flooding
 Stations respond and bridge updates routing table
with segment and station ID info
 Changes on the network are updated as they occur

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 Figure 17.3: Link-Layer Switch

17.15
 Figure 17.4: Learning switch

17.16
 Figure 17.5: Loop problem in a learning switch (Part a)

17.17
 Figure 17.5: Loop problem in a learning switch (Part b)

17.18
 Figure 17.5: Loop problem in a learning switch (Part c)

17.19
 Figure 17.5: Loop problem in a learning switch (part d)

17.20
 Spanning Tree
 Spanning Tree is a graph in which there is
no loop
 In Bridged LAN, it creates a topology in
which each LAN can be reached from any
other LAN through one path only (no loop
 Process involves Three steps:
 Selection of root bridge
 Mark one port of each bridge as root port
 Choose a designated bridge for each LAN

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 Spanning Tree
Process involves Three steps:
 Selection of root bridge, one with the smallest ID
selected as root, as every bridge has a unique ID
 Mark one port of each bridge (except for the root
bridge) as root port. A root port is the port with the
least cost path from the bridge to the root bridge.
Least cost criteria can be minimum number of hops or
may be minimum delay and maximum bandwidth.
 Choose a designated bridge for each LAN. A
designated bridge has the least cost path between
the LAN and root bridge, called as designated port
 Root port and designated port as forwarding ports
and other as blocking ports. A forwarding port
forwards the frame it receives, blocking does not.

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 Figure 17.6: A system of connected LANs and its graph (Part a)

17.23
 Figure 17.6: A system of connected LANs and its graph (Part b)

17.24
 Figure 17.7: Finding the shortest path and the spanning tree for a
switch.

17.25
 Figure 17.8: Forwarding and blocking ports after using spanning
tree algorithm

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 17.17.3 Routers

In this section, we mention routers to compare them

with a two-layer switch and a hub.

A router is a three-layer device; it operates in the

physical, data-link, and network layers.

As a physical layer, it regenerates the signal; as a

link layer, it check the physical address contained in
the packet; as a network layer, a router checks the
network layer addresses.

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 Figure 17.9: Routing example

17.29
 17-2 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 need a virtual connection

between two stations belonging to two
different physical LANs?

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

 Divides a LAN into logical, instead of physical,

segments
 No need to change a physical configuration if
changes in workgroups are necessary
 Even allows grouping of stations connected to
different switches in a VLAN
 Supports broadcast domains, just as if stations
belong to the same physical segment

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 Figure 17.10: A switch connecting three LANs

17.32
 Figure 17.11: A switch using VLAN software

17.33
 Figure 17.12: Two switches in a backbone using VLAN software

17.34
 17.2.1 Membership

What characteristic can be used to group stations in

a VLAN?
Vendors use different characteristics such as
interface numbers, port numbers, MAC addresses,
IP addresses, IP multicast addresses, or a
combination of two or more of these.

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 17.2.2 Configuration

How are the stations grouped into different VLANs?

Stations are configured in one of three ways:

manually, semi-automatically, and automatically.

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 VLAN Configuration

 Manual – network admin manually assigns

stations to VLANs at setup and in
migration
 Automatic – stations are automatically
connected and disconnected based on
criteria defined by admin
 Semiautomatic – initialization may be done
manually, with migrations automatically

15.37
 17.2.3 Communication between Switches

In a multi-switched backbone, each switch must

know not only which station belongs to which
VLAN, but also the membership of stations
connected to other switches.
For example, in Figure 17.12, switch A must know
the membership status of stations connected to
switch B, and switch B must know the same about
switch A.
Three methods have been devised for this purpose:
table maintenance, frame tagging, and time-division
multiplexing.

17.38
 Advantages of VLANs

 Cost and time reduction in moving stations

from one group to another
 Creation of virtual workgroups
 Security

15.39
 Gateway

 A gateway normally operates in Application Layer

 A gateway takes an application message, reads it and interprets it
 A gateway may be thought as a connecting device between two
independent networks that use different network model
 Gateways provide security

15.40
 Routers

 Router is a layer-3, Network Layer Device

 Routes IP packets based on their logical address
and routing tables, that every connected router
maintains and updates according to the routing
protocols, to be discussed later
 Connects independent LANs and WANs
 THREE-LAYER SWITCH, is a router – allows a
faster table lookup and forwarding

15.41
 Routers

A typical
internet with
routers

15.42
 Quiz #03 07/12/2017

 Q1: What are the question to be

answered to avoid the issue of collision?
 Q.2: Draw the flow chart for the
procedure of pure ALOHA protocol.

 Q1: Calculate the maximum throughput

of the Pure ALOHA and slotted ALOHA.
 Q.2: Draw the flow chart for the CSMA/CD
protocol?
17.43