13-1 IEEE STANDARDS

In 1985, the Computer Society of the IEEE started a

LECTURE 3 project, called Project 802, to set standards to enable
intercommunication among equipment from a variety
of manufacturers. Project 802 is a way of specifying
functions of the physical layer and the data link layer
of major LAN protocols.
• Designed to regulate manufacturing and ensure
Chapter 13 Wired LANs: Ethernet connectivity
(Forouzan, Data Communications and Networking, 4th Edition) • Later adopted by ANSI (American National Standard
Institute) and ISO as well

1 2

Figure 13.1 IEEE standard for LANs Figure 13.2 HDLC frame compared with LLC and MAC frames

• Multiple MAC protocols are available

—Ethernet LAN uses CSMA/CD as MAC protocol

• Relationship between 802 standard and OSI model

• LLC handles flow control, error control, and framing
— Not very popular and application may not use LLC 3 4
 13-2 STANDARD ETHERNET
Figure 13.3 Ethernet evolution through four generations

The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox’s

Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Since then, it has
gone through four generations. We briefly discuss the
Standard (or traditional) Ethernet in this section.

Topics discussed in this section:

MAC Sublayer
Physical Layer

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Figure 13.4 802.3 MAC frame Figure 13.5 Minimum and maximum lengths

• MAC sublayer governs operation of the access method

• Minimum length is needed to ensure correct CSMA/CD
• Ethernet do not use acknowledgement operation
— Relying on sensing signal level for collision instead
— Padding is used if data is less than 46 bytes
• Preamble: Alert receiver to the coming frame and • Maximum length is needed to limit buffer space and
synchronize input timing ensure fair access
• Address here is called physical address
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Figure 13.6 Example of an Ethernet address in hexadecimal notation Figure 13.7 Unicast and multicast addresses

The least significant bit of the first byte defines the

• Address is pre-defined from the factory
type of address. If the bit is 0, the address is unicast;
— Tied to an individual NIC (Network Interface Card)
otherwise, it is multicast.
— 6 bytes that is written in hexadecimal notation
• Source address is always a unicast address The broadcast destination address is a special case of
• Multicast address defines a group of addresses the multicast address in which all bits are 1s.
— One sender, multiple receivers
• Broadcast address refers to everyone on the LAN

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Example 13.1 Example 13.2

Define the type of the following destination addresses: Show how the address 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE is sent out on
a. 4A:30:10:21:10:1A b. 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE line.
c. FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Solution Solution
To find the type of the address, we need to look at the The address is sent left-to-right, byte by byte; for each
second hexadecimal digit from the left. If it is even, the byte, it is sent right-to-left, bit by bit, as shown below:
address is unicast. If it is odd, the address is multicast. If
all digits are F’s, the address is broadcast. Therefore, we
have the following:
a. This is a unicast address because A in binary is 1010.
b. This is a multicast address because 7 in binary is 0111.
c. This is a broadcast address because all digits are F’s.11 12
 Figure 12.13 Collision and abortion in CSMA/CD
Access Method: CSMA/CD
• Slot time
—Round-trip time for a frame to travel across network
+ time need to send jamming sequence
—Time to transmit 512 bits (64 bytes) in Ethernet
• 51.2 µs at 10 Mbps
• Maximum network length
—Max length = Propagation speed x (Slot time / 2)
—Max length = 2 x 108 x 5.12 x 10-6 /2 = 5120 meters • Frame must last at least 2 x propagation time
—Factoring in jamming time + interface delay —Ensure that collision is detected
• Maximum network length = 2500 meters —t2 = t1 + Tp
—t4 = t2 + Tp = t1 + 2*Tp
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Figure 13.8 Categories of Standard Ethernet Figure 13.10 10Base5 implementation

• Also called Thick Ethernet from the type of cable

• Transceiver cable provides dedicated path for
sending and receiving
—Collision can only occur in Thick coaxial cable
• Implementation = putting it into real use

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Figure 13.11 10Base2 implementation

• Also called Thin Ethernet from the type of cable

• Transceiver can be part of NIC installed inside a station
• Cheaper and easier to install than Thick Ethernet
— But can only cover a small distance
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Figure 13.12 10Base-T implementation Figure 13.13 10Base-F implementation

• Two pairs of cable create two paths between station and

hub (for sending and receiving)
• Hub replaces the coaxial cable
— Collision occurs inside the hub
• Maximum length is 100 meters
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 13-3 CHANGES IN THE STANDARD

The 10-Mbps Standard Ethernet has gone through

Table 13.1 Summary of Standard Ethernet implementations several changes before moving to the higher data
rates. These changes actually opened the road to the
evolution of the Ethernet to become compatible with
other high-data-rate LANs.

Topics discussed in this section:

Bridged Ethernet
Switched Ethernet
Full-Duplex Ethernet

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Figure 13.14 Sharing bandwidth Figure 13.15 A network with and without a bridge

• Both stations send each frame at 10 Mbps

• But they have to share bandwidth
— Sending one frame and let the other station send another frame
— Average transmission speed reduces to 5 Mbps per station
• Bridge raises bandwidth and separate collision domains
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• Bridge divides network into two or more networks
— Each network has 10 Mbps of bandwidth
• Throughput per station increases from 10/12 (0.83
Mbps) to 10/6 (1.67 Mbps)
— Assuming that traffic does not go through the bridge
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Figure 13.16 Collision domains in an unbridged network and a bridged network Figure 13.17 Switched Ethernet

• Bridge with only one station per network

• Each station has full 10 Mbps capacity
• Collision domain becomes smaller
— Reduce probability of collision
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13-4 FAST ETHERNET

Figure 13.18 Full-duplex switched Ethernet

Fast Ethernet was designed to compete with LAN

protocols such as FDDI or Fiber Channel. IEEE
created Fast Ethernet under the name 802.3u. Fast
Ethernet is backward-compatible with Standard
Ethernet, but it can transmit data 10 times faster at a
rate of 100 Mbps.

Topics discussed in this section:

• 10Base2 and 10Base5 are always half-duplex MAC Sublayer
— Cannot send and receive at the same time Physical Layer
• One station can transmit at 10 Mbps and receive at 10 Mbps
— Increase domain capacity to 20 Mbps
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— No longer use CSMA/CD
Figure 13.19 Fast Ethernet topology Figure 13.20 Fast Ethernet implementations

• Two stations can connect directly with each other

• Backward compatibility
— Use the same 48-bit address, frame format, and
minimum/maximum frame length
— Bus topology is no longer supported
— Auto-negotiation can reduce transmission speed from 100 Mbps
to 10 Mbps
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Figure 13.21 Encoding for Fast Ethernet implementation

Provide bit
synchronization Table 13.2 Summary of Fast Ethernet implementations

Fiber optic
allows simpler
encoding
scheme

Used for
telephone 31 32
 Figure 13.22 Topologies of Gigabit Ethernet
13-5 GIGABIT ETHERNET
The need for an even higher data rate resulted in the
design of the Gigabit Ethernet protocol (1000 Mbps).
The IEEE committee calls the standard 802.3z.
• Backward compatibility
— Still use the same 48-bit address, frame format, and
minimum/maximum frame length
— Auto-negotiation can reduce speed to 100 Mbps or 10 Mbps
— Not much change in full duplex mode because CSMA/CD is not used
— Some changes in half duplex mode
• Minimum frame length increases to 512 bytes
• Multiple small frames can be combined in one transmission

In the full-duplex mode of Gigabit Ethernet, there is no

collision; the maximum length of the cable is
determined by the signal attenuation in the cable. 33 34

Figure 13.23 Gigabit Ethernet implementations Figure 13.24 Encoding in Gigabit Ethernet implementations

• STP = Shielded Twisted Pair

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 Table 13.4 Summary of Ten-Gigabit Ethernet implementations

Table 13.3 Summary of Gigabit Ethernet implementations

• Backward compatibility
— Still use the same 48-bit address, frame format, and
minimum/maximum frame length
— Auto-negotiation can reduce speed to 10/100/1000 Mbps
— Only operate in full-duplex mode
• Common in WAN

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