Topic 2

Connecting LANs,
Backbone Networks,
and Virtual LANs

1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Connecting Devices

 LANs do not normally operate in isolation. They

are connected to one another or to the Internet.
 To connect LANs or segments of LANs, we used
connecting devices.
 Connecting devices operate at different layers
of the Internet model.
 There are five kinds of connecting devices:
repeaters , hubs , bridges, router and
two-and three-layer switches.

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 15-1 CONNECTING DEVICES

In this section, we divide connecting devices into five

different categories based on the layer in which they
operate in a network.
Passive Hubs
Active Hubs
Bridges
Two-Layer Switches
Routers
Three-Layer Switches
Gateways

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 The five categories contain devices which can be defined as:

1. Those which operate below the physical layer such as a passive hub.

2. Those which operate at the physical layer (a repeater or an active hub).

3. Those which operate at the physical and data link layers (a bridge or a
two-layer switch).

4. Those which operate at the physical, data link, and network layers (a
router or a three-layer switch).
5. Those which can operate at all five layers (a gateway).

1
4 Figure 15.1 Five categories of connecting devices
 Passive Hubs

•A passive hub is just a connector.

•It connects the wires coming from different branches.

•In a star-topology Ethernet LAN, a passive hub is just a

point where the signals coming from different stations collide;
the hub is the collision point.

•This type of a hub is part of the media; its location in the

Internet model is below the physical layer.

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Repeaters
 A repeater is a device that operates only in the physical
layer.
 A repeater receives a signal and before it becomes too
weak or corrupted, regenerates the original bit pattern.
 A repeater can extend the physical length of a LAN by
connecting two segments of the same LAN.
 A repeater can overcome the 10Base5 Ethernet length
restriction (500 m).
 A repeater regenerates the signal. When it receives a
weakened or corrupted signal, it creates a copy, bit for bit,
at the original strength.

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 A repeater connects segments of a LAN.
A repeater forwards every frame; it has no filtering
capability.
A repeater is a regenerator.

7 Figure 15.2 A repeater connecting two segments of a LAN

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change its meaning completely.

8 Figure 15.3 Function of a repeater

 Hubs
• A hub is a multi-port repeater.
• It is normally used to create connections between
stations in a physical star topology.
• Hub can also be used to create multiple levels of
hierarchy, which removes the length limitation of
10BaseT (100m).

9 Figure 15.4 A hierarchy of hubs

 Bridges

 A bridge operates in both the physical and data

link layers.
 As a physical layer device, the bridge
regenerates the signal it receives.
 As a data link layer device, the bridge can check
the physical (MAC) addresses (source and
destination) contained in the frame.
 The bridge has filtering capability. It can check
the destination address of a frame and decide if
the frame should be forwarded (to a specific
port) or dropped using a table that maps
addresses to ports.

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 Case1 :
• If a frame destined for station 712B13456142 arrives at port 1,
• The bridge consults its table to find the departing port.
• According to its table, frames for 7l2B13456142 leave through port 1;
• Therefore, there is no need for forwarding, and the frame is dropped.

712B13456141 712B13456142

11 Figure 15.5 A bridge connecting two LANs

 Case 2 :
•On the other hand, if a frame for 712B13456141 arrives at port 2, the
departing port is port 1 and the frame is forwarded.

712B13456141 712B13456142

12 Figure 15.5 A bridge connecting two LANs

 A bridge has a table used in filtering decisions.
A bridge does not change the physical (MAC)
addresses in a frame.

712B13456141 712B13456142

13 Figure 15.5 A bridge connecting two LANs

 Transparent Bridges
 A transparent bridge is a bridge in which the stations are
completely unaware of the bridge’s existence.
 If a bridge is added or deleted from the system,
reconfiguration of the stations is unnecessary.
 According to the IEEE 802.1d specification, a system
equipped with transparent bridges must meet three
criteria:
1. Frames must be forwarded from one station to
another.
2. The forwarding table is automatically made by
learning frame movements in the network.
3. Loops in the system must be prevented

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 Transparent Bridges

 The earliest bridges had forwarding tables that

were static. The systems administrator would
manually enter each table entry during bridge
setup.
 If a station was added or deleted or a station’s
MAC address was changed, the table had to be
modified manually

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 Transparent Bridges

 A better solution to the static table is a dynamic

table that maps addresses to ports automatically.
 To make a table dynamic, we need a bridge that
gradually learns from the frame movements.
 To do this, the bridge inspects both the
destination and the source addresses.
 The destination address is used for the forwarding
decision (table lookup) and the source address is
used for adding entries to the table and for
updating purpose.

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 • When station A sends a frame to
station D, the bridge does not
have an entry for either D or A.
• The frame goes out from all
three ports; the frame floods the
network.
• However, by looking at the
source address, the bridge
learns that station A must be
located on the LAN connected to
port 1.
• This means that frames destined
for A, in the future, must be sent
out through port 1.
• The bridge adds this entry to its
table.
• The table has its first entry now.

17 Figure 15.6 A learning bridge and the process of learning

 • When station E sends a frame to
station A,

• The bridge has an entry for A, so

it forwards the frame only to port
1.

• There is no flooding. In addition,

it uses the source address of the
frame, E, to add a second entry
to the table.

18 Figure 15.6 A learning bridge and the process of learning

 The process of learning continues as the bridge
forwards frames

• When station B sends a

frame to C,
• The bridge has no entry for
C, so once again it floods the
network and adds one more
entry to the table.

19 Figure 15.6 A learning bridge and the process of learning

 Transparent Bridges: Loop Problem
 Transparent bridges work fine as long as there
are no redundant bridges in the system.
 System administrators, however like to have
redundant bridges (more than one bridge
between a pair of LANs) to make the system
more reliable.
 If a bridge fails, another bridge takes over until
the failed one is repaired or replaced.
• Redundancy can create loops in the system,
which is very undesirable.

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 Figure 15.7 shows a very simple example of a loop created in a system
with two LANs connected by two bridges.

21 Figure 15.7 Loop problem in a learning bridge

 • Station A sends a frame to
station D.
• The tables of both bridges are
empty.
• Both forward the frame and
update their tables based on
the source address A.

22 Figure 15.7 Loop problem in a learning bridge

 Note that each frame is handled separately because bridges, as two nodes
on a network sharing the medium, use an access method such as
CSMA/CD. The tables of both bridges are updated, but still there is no
information for destination D.

• Now there are two copies of the

frame on LAN 2.
• The copy sent out by bridge 1 is
received by bridge 2, which
does not have any information
about the destination address
D; it floods the bridge.
• The copy sent out by bridge 2 is
received by bridge 1 and is sent
out for lack of information
about D

23 Figure 15.7 Loop problem in a learning bridge

 • The process continues on and on. Note that bridges are also repeaters
and regenerate frames.
• So in each iteration, there are newly generated fresh copies of the
frames.

• Now there are two copies of the

frame on LAN 1.
• Step 2 is repeated, and both
copies flood the network.

24 Figure 15.7 Loop problem in a learning bridge

Problem with redundant Link
 Ethernet frame has no TTL field
 Frame may be looping forever in the network
 Each loop, frame get multiply

Solutions?
 Block some ports to break the loop

 How to find which ports to block ?

 => Spanning tree Protocol

 Two-Layer Switches
 A two-layer switch is a bridge with many ports and a
design that allows better (faster) performance.
 A bridge with a few ports can connect a few LANs
together.
 A bridge with many ports may be able to allocate a
unique port to each station, with each station on its own
independent entity.
 This means no competing traffic (no collision, as we saw
in Ethernet).

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 Two-Layer Switches

 A two-layer switch, as a bridge does, makes a filtering

decision based on the MAC address of the frame it
received.
 However, a two-layer switch can be more sophisticated.
 It can have a buffer to hold the frames for processing.
 It can have a switching factor that forwards the frames
faster.
 Some new two-layer switches, called cut-through
switches, have been designed to forward the frame as
soon as they check the MAC addresses in the header of
the frame.

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 Routers
 A router is a three-layer device that routes packets based on their
logical addresses (host-to-host addressing).
 A router normally connects LANs and WANs in the Internet and has
a routing table that is used for making decisions about the route.
 The routing tables are normally dynamic and are updated using
routing protocols.
 Figure 15.11 shows a part of the Internet that uses routers to
connect LANs and WANs.

Three-Layer Switches
•A three-layer switch is a router, but a faster and more
sophisticated.
•The switching fabric in a three-layer switch allows faster table
28 lookupFigure 15.11 Routers connecting independent LANs and WANs
and forwarding
 Gateway Computer
• A gateway computer operates in all five layers of the Internet
or seven layers of OSI model.
• It joins dissimilar systems.
• This means that it can be used as a connecting device
between two internetworks that use different models.
• For example, a network designed to use the OSI /SNA model
can be connected to another network using the Internet-
TCP/IP model.
• The gateway computer connecting the two systems can take
a frame as it arrives from the first system, move it up to the
OSI application layer, and remove the message.
• It can provide security.

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 15-2 Backbone Networks

A backbone network allows several LANs to be

connected.
In a backbone network, no station is directly
connected to the backbone; the stations are
part of a LAN and the backbone connects the
LANs.
The backbone itself is a LAN that uses a LAN
protocol such as Ethernet; each connection to
the backbone is itself another LAN

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 Backbone Networks

 Each building can comprise either a single LAN

or another backbone (normally a star
backbone).
 In a star backbone, the topology of the
backbone is a star. In this configuration the
backbone is just one switch that connects the
LANs.
 Star backbones are normally used as a
distribution backbone inside a building.

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 Figure 15.12 Bus backbone

Bus backbones are normally used as a

distribution backbone to connect different
buildings in an organization.
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 Figure 15.13 Star backbone

In a star backbone, the topology of the backbone is a star. In this

configuration the backbone is just one switch that connects the
LANs.
Star backbones are normally used as a distribution backbone inside
a building.

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 15-3 VIRTUAL 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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 • Figure 15.15 shows a switched LAN
in an engineering firm in which 10
stations are grouped into three LANs
that are connected by a switch.
• The first four engineers work
together as the first group,

• the next three engineers work

together as the second group, and
• the last three engineers work
together as the third group.

• The LAN is configured to allow this

arrangement

37 Figure 15.15 A switch connecting three LANs

 • But what would happen if the
administrators needed to move two
engineers from the first group to the
third group, to speed up the project
being done by the third group?
• The LAN configuration would need to
be changed.
• The network technician must rewire.
• The problem is repeated if, in
another week, the two engineers
move back to
• their previous group.
• In a switched LAN, changes in the
work group mean physical changes
in the network configuration

38 Figure 15.15 A switch connecting three LANs

 • Figure 15.16 shows the same switched LAN divided into VLANs.
• VLANs divide a LAN into logical, instead of physical segments.
• Each VLAN is a workgroup in the organization.
• If a person moves from one group to another, there is no need to change the
physical configuration.
• All members of a VLAN can receive broadcast messages sent to that particular
VLAN.

39 Figure 15.16 A switch using VLAN software

 Virtual Lans
 VLAN technology even allows the grouping of
stations connected to different switches in a
VLAN (Fig. 15.17).
 This is a good configuration for a company with
two separate buildings. Each building can have
its own switched LAN connected by a backbone.
 People in the first building and people in the
second building can be in the same workgroup
even though they are connected to different
physical LANs.

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 Figure 15.17 Two switches in a backbone using VLAN software

41 VLANs create broadcast domains.

 Membership
• What characteristic can be used to group stations in
a VLAN?
• Vendors use different characteristics such as port
numbers, MAC addresses, IP addresses, IP multicast
addresses, or a combination of two or more of these.

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 VLANS Advantages

Cost and Time Reduction :

•VLANs can reduce the migration cost of stations going from one group to
another.
•Physical reconfiguration takes time and is costly.
•Instead of physically moving one station to another segment or even to
another switch, it is much easier and quicker to move it by using software.
Creating Virtual Work Groups
•VLANs can be used to create virtual work groups.
•For example, in a campus environment, professors working on the same
project can send broadcast messages to one another without the necessity of
belonging to the same department.
•This can reduce traffic if the multicasting capability of IP was previously used.
Security
•VLANs provide an extra measure of security.
•People belonging to the same group can send broadcast messages with the
guaranteed assurance that users in other groups will not receive these
messages.

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