Fundamentals of movement of frames - Part I

- Frames with in a common network

Author:

Navneet Gaur

Date:

Jan 2015

Description:

This series of documents covers the movement of

frames dependent on the Ip addressing and masks

Note 1

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Index of all my documents

Important Note
The mask is the local factor that helps the given device in deciding:
If it should send the request locally or to the gateway
The device is not concerned about the mask that is configured at the destination

The Topology
*Click on the image to enlarge

Details
PC - 1
Ip address - 10.1.0.6

2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

This document is Cisco Public Information.

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Fundamentals of movement of frames - Part I - Frames with in a common network

Mask - 255.255.255.0
Mac Address - 00:00:00:00:00:01
Gateway Address - 10.1.0.5

Inference
Network ID - 10.1.0.0
Bits to match for identifying same network - 10.1.0.x - Dictated by the mask 255.255.255.0

----------------------------------------------------------------------------PC - 2

Ip address - 10.1.0.10
Mask - 255.255.255.0
Mac Address - 00:00:00:00:00:02
Gateway Address - 10.1.0.9

Inference
Network ID - 10.1.0.0
Bits to match for identifying same network - 10.1.0.x - Dictated by the mask 255.255.255.0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Situation
Ignore the gateway addresses for now. They are not called up in this situation.
Part I
What ?
PC 1 issues a ping for PC 2
How ?
Command on PC 1:
ping 10.1.0.10

Part II
What happens at PC 1 ?
PC 1 needs to build a frame that it can send out of its network interface.

This frame will require the following set of information.

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This document is Cisco Public Information.

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Fundamentals of movement of frames - Part I - Frames with in a common network

Source layer 2 address

Destination layer 2 address
Source layer 3 address
Destination layer 3 address
Part III
The details that are available with PC 1
Source Mac address - 00:00:00:00:00:01
Since this is Ethernet, it will be mac address of the device that is creating / sending the frame.
That is PC 1 in this case.

Destination layer 2 address - PC -1 does not have this right now

Analysis:

PC 1 has network id 10.1.0.0 dictated by the mask of 255.255.255.0

The destination that is to be reached 10.1.0.10
Bits of the destination that should be matched 10.1.0.x

Question Do the required bits match ?

Answer Yes they do.
Inference The destination is directly reachable.
Action Since the destination is directly reachable, ask for its layer 2 address by sending a broadcast 'layer
2' ARP query with a destination mac of ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff directly on this link.

Source IP address: PC 1 Ip address

10.1.0.6
Destination IP address We entered it while issuing the ping command
10.1.0.10

Part IV
Result

PC 1 will send the ARP request out of its network interface,which is connected to the Switch, to
resolve the layer 2 address of the destination it is trying to ping
The Switch will receive this frame. It will check the layer 2 information contained in this frame and do
the following.

2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

This document is Cisco Public Information.

Generated on 2015-04-14-07:00
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Fundamentals of movement of frames - Part I - Frames with in a common network

*Click on the image to enlarge

At the switch
The source layer 2 mac address is 0000.0000.0001
Note this address and associate it with the port on which this frame has entered the Switch.
The destination layer 2 mac address is ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
This is a broadcast layer 2 mac address. So, eject this frame out of all active ports, except the one on which
this frame entered the Switch.

This frame will reach PC 2

Part V
PC 2 will prepare the ARP reply and send it to PC 1
*Click on the image to enlarge

2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

This document is Cisco Public Information.

Generated on 2015-04-14-07:00
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Fundamentals of movement of frames - Part I - Frames with in a common network

Part VI
Now PC - 1 has all the information it requires to build and send a valid frame to PC - 2
Information that PC - 1 has at its disposal
Sr. Mac - 00:00:00:00:00:01
Dst. Mac - 00:00:00:00:00:02
Src. IP - 10.1.0.6
Dst. IP - 10.1.0.10

-----------------------------The End

2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

This document is Cisco Public Information.

Generated on 2015-04-14-07:00
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