Ethernet

Subtopic Chapter 2
 Ethernet
• While there have been many types of LAN
transports, Ethernet became the favorite of
businesses starting in the early 1990s.
• Since its introduction, Ethernet bandwidth has
scaled from the original shared-media 10 Mb/s to
100 Gb/s in Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches for
the data center.
• The success of Ethernet is due to its simplicity
and ease of maintenance, as well as its ability to
incorporate new technologies, reliability, and low
cost of installation and upgrade.
 Ethernet & IEEE 802.3
• The first Ethernet standard was published in 1980 by a
consortium of Digital Equipment Company, Intel, and Xerox
(DIX). (10Mbps)
• In 1985, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) standards starts with the number 802.
• The standard for Ethernet is 802.3.The IEEE ensured that its
standards were compatible with the International Standards
Organization (ISO)/OSI model. Therefore, the IEEE 802.3
standard had to address the needs of Layer 1 and the lower
portion of Layer 2 of the OSI model. As a result, some small
modifications to the original Ethernet standard were made in
802.3.
 IEEE Standard
• Divided OSI Layer 2 into two sublayers
– Media Access Control (MAC) – Traditional Layer 2 features
• Transitions down to media
– Logical link control (LLC) – New Layer 2 features
• Transitions up to the network layer
Layer 1 vs Layer 2
 MAC Address
• Ethernet uses MAC addresses (to uniquely identifying computers
and interfaces) that are 48 bits in length and expressed as 12
hexadecimal digits: “0000.0c12.3456 or 00-00-0c-12-34-56”.
• MAC Addresses are burned into read-only memory (ROM) and
are copied into random-access memory (RAM) when the NIC
initializes.
• The first 6 hexadecimal digits, which are administered by the
IEEE, identify the manufacturer or vendor and thus comprise the
organizational unique identifier (OUI).
• The remaining 6 hexadecimal digits represent the interface serial
number, or another value administered by the specific
equipment manufacturer.
Ethernet Frame Format
 Ethernet Frame Fields
Ethernet frames 64B – 1518B
• Some of the fields permitted or
required in an 802.3 Ethernet
frame are as follows:
– Preamble
Header 14B
– Start Frame Delimiter
– Destination Address
– Source Address
– Length/Type
– Data and Pad
– Frame Check Sequence (FCS)
– Extension
 IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Frames
• Preamble
– Alert the receiving system to the coming frame and enable it to synchronize its
input timing.

• Start Frame Delimiter

– Tell the stations that they have the last chance for synchronization. The last 2
bit (11) alert the receiver that the next field is the destination address.

• Destination Address
– Contains the physical address of the destination or stations to receive the
packet.

• Source Address
– Contains the physical address of the sender of the packet
 IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Frames
• Length/Type
– If value of the field is less than 600H, it is a length field and defines the
length of the data field that follows. If it is greater than 600H, it
defines the type of the PDU packet that is encapsulated in the frame.
– Eg. 05DCH = length of data 1500 Bytes
 IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Frames
• Data
– This field carries data encapsulated from the upper layer protocols.
Minimum 46 bytes and maximum 1500 bytes

• CRC
– Contains error detection information
 Unicast, Multicast & Broadcast
• Unicast • Multicast
• Unicast is a type • It enables a single device to
of transmission in which communicate with a specific set
information is sent from only one of hosts.
sender to only one receiver. In • Example – Conference call –
another words, where anyone from anywhere
Unicast transmission is between can join the conference, and
one-to-one nodes (involving two everyone at the conference hears
nodes only). what the speaker has to say. The
• Example – http, smtp, telnet, ssh, speaker's message isn't
pop3 where the request for broadcasted everywhere, but
information is directed from one only to those in the conference
sender to only one receiver at the call itself.
other end.
 Unicast, Multicast & Broadcast
• Broadcast
• Use whatsapp as
• Is when a single device is
transmitting a message to all example
other devices in a given address
range. This broadcast could reach • Unicast – send 1 to 1
all hosts on the subnet, all message
subnets, or all hosts on all
subnets. • Multicast – send 1 to
• Example - ARP (Address
Resolution Protocol) which will a group
broadcast the address resolution
request to all other computers on • Broadcast – send to
the network. (TV and radio all (in contacts)
broadcasting)
 Simplex, Half-duplex
• Simplex • Half-duplex (HDX)
communication system provides
refers to communication in
communication that both directions, but
occurs in one only one direction at
direction only. a time (not
• Eg. TV and radio simultaneously).
broadcasting • Eg. Walkite-talkie
 Full-Duplex
• Full-duplex Ethernet connections work by
• A full-duplex (FDX)
making simultaneous use of two physical
system, or sometimes
pairs of twisted cable (which are inside the
called double-duplex,
jacket), where one pair is used for
allows communication
receiving packets and one pair is used for
in both directions, and,
sending packets (two pairs per direction
unlike half-duplex,
for some types of Ethernet), to a directly
allows this to happen
connected device. This effectively makes
simultaneously.
the cable itself a collision-free
environment and doubles the maximum
data capacity that can be supported by the
connection.
 Collisions
• A data collision is the simultaneous
presence of signals from two nodes on the
network. A collision can occur when two
nodes each think the network is idle and both
start transmitting at the same time. Both
packets involved in a collision are broken into
fragments and must be retransmitted again.
 Shared cable
• The original versions of Ethernet were 10Base5 and
10Base2
• They used a physical bus topology with all hosts on a
shared coaxial cable.
 Collisions
• 10BASE5 and 10BASE2 provide only one wire
for all the hosts to put the signals on
• If two hosts transmit at the same time, there
will be a collision.
• The signals will interfere with each other and
become unreadable
Adding gives:
 Dealing with collisions
• You could try to prevent collisions
• Or you could let collisions happen, let the
collided signals be destroyed, then send the
signals again
• Ethernet lets the collisions happen and then
deals with them
• Too many collisions will affect the network’s
performance
 CSMA/CD
• Carrier Sense: ‘Listen’ to see if there are
signals on the cable
• Multiple Access: Hosts share the same cable
and all have access to it
• Collision Detection: Detect any collisions of
signals when they occur
• This is the ‘first come, first served’ method of
letting hosts put signals on the medium
 CSMA/CD

Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection

Listen for signals

Are there signals on

the cable?
Yes.
Wait if there are signals

Wait until there are

no more signals
Listen for signals

Are there signals on

the cable now?
No.
Put signals on cable

Put my signals on the

cable.
Listen for collisions: no

No collision.
All is well.
My message was
sent.
Listen for collisions: yes

There is a collision.
Stop sending signals.
Send jamming signal.
My message is lost.
Listen again

No signals now.
Wait for a random
length of time.
Send message again.
 Types of Collisions
• Three types of
collisions are:
– Local
– Remote
– Late
• Local Collision
A local collision will be on the local
segment. Collisions on a network are
considered normal, especially in the
• Late Collision
CSMA/CD access method. Stations
are supposed to collide, and when More often this indicates that the
transmissions collide, they are station's NIC transmitting the
supposed to listen and wait to collision cannot hear properly to stop
retransmit. its transmission and will continue to
broadcast high collision rates on the
network. This also may be captured
• Remote Collision as a form of excessive jamming. This
These are packets that have filtered usually is a problem with a network
over from another segment. This interface card, and the card should
may indicate that a specific node's be replaced and the network re-
NIC or transceiver on another side of analyzed.
a repeater has a problem.
 Collision domain

• The shared medium where

collisions can occur
• Repeaters and hubs pass signals on
through all ports except the input
port so devices connected by
repeaters or hubs are in the same
collision domain
 Splitting collision domains
• Bridges and switches inspect messages and send
them only where they need to go
• They split networks into separate collision domains
and improve performance
 Segmenting with a switch
• A switch breaks up collision domains
Collision
domains
 Fully switched
• A fully switched
network with full
duplex transmission will
have no collisions
• Hosts do not share the
medium
• They have exclusive use
of their section
• This is
microsegmentation
End of Chapter 2