Unit 2: Underlying Technologies

Transmission media (Section 3.1. Read on your own)

Local Area Networks (LANs)
Ethernet (CSMA/CD - Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection ,
IEEE 802.3)
Token Ring (IEEE 802.5)

Switching
Circuit switching
Packet switching
Datagram approach
Virtual circuit approach

Wide Area Networks (WANs)

PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol)

X.25
Frame Relay
ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)- cell relay

Interconnecting devices repeaters, bridges, routers and gateways

Shared media v.s. switched LAN architecture

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IEEE 802 LAN Layers

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Ethernet LANs
Features
1) Widest Industry Use and Acceptance
a)
b)
c)
d)

Product Availability
Many Vendors
Low Cost
High Knowledge Base

2) Standardized for Multiple Media Types

a)
b)
c)
d)

Twisted Pair (10Base-T)

Optical Fiber (10Base-F, FOIRL)
Coaxial Cable (10Base2, 10Base5)
Also high-speed Ethernets

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Ethernet Problems
1) Coaxial Cable Networks Hard to Troubleshoot
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Faulty connections and electrical failures hard to find

Improper grounding can cause stray voltages
Static electricity
Non-standard hardware
Problems are often intermittent

2) Ethernet Lacks Built-In Network Monitoring

3) Ethernet Lacks Any Priority Mechanism
4) Station Transmission Time May Grow Large under High Loads

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Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)

The basic idea:
When a station has a frame to transmit:
1) Listen for Data Transmission on Cable (Carrier Sense)
2) When Medium is Quiet (no other station transmitting):
a) Transmit Frame, Listening for Collision
b) If collision is heard, stop transmitting, wait random time, and transmit again.

Frame format

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This portion must be at least 64 bytes

for the Ethernet to work correctly

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Figure 3-9

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Figure 3-11

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Figure 3-12

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Figure 3-13

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Token Ring Features

1) Predictable Performance
a)

Unlike Ethernet, there is a fixed limit on how long a station must wait to
transmit frame.
b) Eight data priority levels ensure that important data get sent first.

2)

Ring-of -Stars Topology

a) Star layout is well understood.
b) Ring is easily expanded by adding additional Multistation Access Units (MAUs)
c) Only point-to-point data connections used.

3)

Self-Monitoring and Reconfiguration Capabilities

a) Active Monitor station recovers from any token operation problems.
b) If any station goes down it will be detected and removed from the ring.
c) Any single cable can be cut or disconnected and network will reconfigure and
continue operation.

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Token Ring Features (continued.)

4)

IBM Support
a) IBM SNA data and LAN data can travel together on same token ring.
b) Token Ring is an integral part of IBM future networking.

Disadvantages of Token Ring

1)
2)

Higher price for NICs

Limited support for non-IBM products.
a) Fewer products available for Token Ring than Ethernet
b) Ethernet is still at the heart of some vendors future network plans.

Note: For this course, you do not need to know the details of Token Ring frame format

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Figure 3-14 Token Ring Operation

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Figure 3-19 Circuit Switching

Dedicated physical connections

Source and destination operate at the same speed
Data arrive in sequence

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Packet Switching
Store-and-forward
Source and destination may operate at different rates
Figure 3-20 Packet Switching- Datagram approach

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Packet Switching- Datagram approach

Connectionless
No connection setup necessary before sending data
Each packet sent independently
Each packet may take different path to destination

Each packet contains complete destination address

Packets may arrive out-of-order (transport layer must do
reordering)
Network load is completely unpredictable
Protocol Examples: IP, Novell IPX, AppleTalk

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Figure 3-21 Packet switching Virtual circuit approach

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Packet switching Virtual circuit approach

Connection-oriented
Sender sends a Setup Request packet to establish a virtual circuit before sending
data
Setup Request passes through all router/switches on path from source to
destination
Path is assigned a Virtual Circuit Identifier (VCID)
Each router/switch stores information about each VC
Any router/switch or destination may deny the setup request (like a busy signal).

When finished, Sender sends Clear Request to tear down VC.

Each data packet contains VCID, not full source and destination
addresses
All packets follow same path and arrive in order
Network load can be controlled through admissions control (denying
setup requests if busy)
Protocol Examples: X.25, Frame Relay, ATM
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WAN
PPP
commonly used for dial-up access to the internet (connect through
a phone line to the access router)
can also be used in a point-to-point link between two devices such
as routers
Figure 3-22 Point-to-point protocol (PPP) frame

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Figure 3-23 X.25 (Connection-oriented)

X.25 - An interface protocol to

access the network

Not defined by X.25

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Figure 3-25

Hop-by-hop error and flow

control in X.25 is not necessary
for newer more reliable
networks.

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Figure 3-28 ATM cells (Small fixed-size data units)

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Figure 3-29

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Internetworking Terms

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Transparent Bridge

DA: Destination Address

SA: Source Address

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Shared Media Hub

Shared-Media vs.
Switched LAN
Architecture

only one 10Mbps

connection at a
time

shared, single
10Mbps LAN
segment
10 Mbps

client workstations

servers

"10 Mbps for ALL"

Switch-Based LAN Architecture

multiple dedicated
10Mbps LAN
segments

Multiple,
simultaneous 10Mbps
connections

Switching Hub

switching matrix

All connections at 10Mbps

shared media hub

shared media hub

Workgroup with shared servers with dedicated Workgroup with shared

connection
connections
connection

Workstations with
dedicated connections

"10 Mbps for EACH"

TDC 463-98-501/502, GOLDMAN:

Summer II
2002
LAN

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