Introduction to Computer

Networking

Ethernet Primer
Mark Clements

IPv6.org
What

did you find ?

Was it useful ?
Which parts were understandable ?
Which parts were not ?

09/11/16

ITCN

Last week . . .
OSI

is purely a MODEL
Shows steps to be followed
Real stacks exist e.g. WAP, TCP/ IP
Layers provide for flexibility
Each layer adds a little control information for
corresponding layers

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This week . . .
Ethernet

and its origins

Ethernet - shared and switched
Medium Access method - CSMA/ CD
Reception of frames
Frame formats

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Origin of Ethernet
Xerox

Palo Alto Research Centre developed

Ethernet in the mid 1970s
Designed for office use
1980 DEC, Intel & Xerox joined forces
1983 IEEE 802.3 specification was launched
Named after Michelson and Morleys
disproving of a luminiferous ether
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Shared Ethernet Bus Topology

One cable formed the network

Cable was coaxial, 10 BASE 5
Nodes attached anywhere along cable/ bus

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Broadcast and Unicast Messages

All

messages had to be broadcast regardless

whether they were intended for one or all nodes
Broadcasts included ARP
ARP requests translation of IP to MAC address
Sent using the last available address on the
network
Essential for Ethernet operation
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Shared Medium Network

Coaxial cable has one conductor

Can only carry one message at a time
Bandwidth was 10 Mbit/ second
Many nodes share the cables bandwidth
Each computer has ALL of the bandwidth
SOME of the time
Each machine has a 48 bit LOCAL address
known as MAC address
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Control over Transmission

Many stations sharing one cable

Not possible to predict when any node will
need to transmit
Not desirable to use polling or round-robin

time & reliability issues

Need a set of rules to govern transmission

What are rules called in general?
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Protocol = Rules
A set

of rules that is applied to a given

situation
Communication works if all nodes operate
with the same set of rules or protocol

E.g. we all drive on the left

Protocols

are implemented in Ethernet as

software e.g. firmware for a network card etc.
Write a protocol for making a cup of tea
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CSMA/ CD Protocol

11

Carrier Sense, Multiple Access with Collision

Detection is used in Ethernet
Protocol is implemented in every node
Allows a node to fail without affecting the
entire network
Does not require a Master machine
Nodes act independently of each other
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CSMA/ CD Algorithm
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

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Listen to network cabling

Transmit if quiet else goto 1
When transmitting, listen to the network
If no other transmission is heard during your
own transmission, goto 7
Wait pseudo random period
Goto 1
Success
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Switched Ethernet

13

Implemented today - shared Ethernet only

found in legacy installations
The popularity of Ethernet led to massive
take up in 1980s and 1990s to dominate the
LAN market
Networks became overloaded with traffic
Nodes had all of the bandwidth for even less
of the time
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Bridges - a solution to Congestion

14

Cutting network into segments helps

Segments are connected by the bridge
Layer 2 device ( Data Link Layer )
Filters messages ( frames )
Only allows those to pass that have business
on other segments
Temporary solution to traffic chaos
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ITCN

The Switch superseded the Bridge

15

Collapses network backbone into a box

Has RJ45 sockets for cable connections
Has many ports to connect PCs
Uses twisted pair cabling, Cat 3, 5, 5e, etc.
Cost of switches fell rapidly after 2000
Switches act on layer 2 MAC addresses
Switch makes a direct connection between
end points involved in communication
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Ethernet Topology Evolves

Now

is a STAR rather than a bus topology

Long cables join nodes to switches
Makes CSMA/ CD unnecessary
Still implemented to keep compatibility with
older implementations
Switches to be dealt with more fully later in
the course
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Medium Access Method

1. Node wishes to transmit
2. Node listens to network
3. If network busy return to 2 else 4
4. Transmit message
5. Node listens as it transmits - if other node transmits,
stop transmitting
6. Wait pseudo-random time
7. Goto 2
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Transmitting using CSMA/ CD

Node A wishes to send a frame to Node B
A

A listens to cable :
Quiet, so A transmits B
Ethernet Cabling

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CS works fine but . .

What

if both nodes sense a quiet cable ?

Legally the rule says they can transmit

therefore they do

Frames

propagate along cabling

Both frames collide and ruin each other
After a short period both nodes realise a
collision has occurred and stop transmitting
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A collision and its aftermath

A now knows a
collision has occurred
A

B can stop
transmitting
B

Ethernet Cabling

Collision!!

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Post collision actions

After

a short time A & B stop transmission

Time to stop depends on the relative positions
of A and B and when they transmitted
Both A and B wait a pseudo-random time
After timer elapses, attempt to re-transmit
If collision occurs again, wait longer random
time and try again
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Algorithm lowers performance

Too

many nodes slow shared Ethernet

Network spends too long waiting after
collisions for a quiet period
Switched Ethernet is the solution
Implemented as Fast and Gigabit Ethernet
No collisions in switched segments so long
as microsegmentation is used
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Switched Ethernet
Only

frames for control e.g. ARP are broadcast

Unicast frames are switched to their destination
All nodes examine arriving frames for their own
MAC address
Nodes will only buffer frames with their own or
the all-stations (broadcast) address
Valid frames are passed up the protocol stack
Any others will be ignored
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Naming of Ethernets
First

part is speed
Second refers to signalling (baseband)
Third part relates to a physical layer property

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Ethernet versus IEEE 802.3

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Frame sections
Preamble

for synchronisation
SOF is delimiter
DA & SA are addressing ( MAC )
Type relates to upper protocols
Length refers to data length
FCS is Cyclic Redundancy Check

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Conclusion
Shared Ethernet needed rules to avoid
collisions on the network - CSMA/ CD
Switched Ethernet does not allow for
collisions so CSMA/ CD not needed
Implemented for backward compatibility
Very little difference between Ethernet and
IEEE 802.3 or their respective frames
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