FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
By: Aziz Ur Rehman
FDDI Position in the OSI Reference
Model
FDDI is defined as the two bottom layers of the
seven-layer OSI reference model
It provides a transport facility for higher-level
protocols such as TCP/IP
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FDDI Position in the OSI Reference
Model
Physical layer is subdivided into:
physical-medium-dependent (PMD)
sublayer defines the details of the fiber-optic
cable used
the physical (PHY) layer specifies
encoding/decoding and clocking
operation
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Fiber Distributed Data
Interface
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
100 Mbps token passing ring
ANSI X3I9.5 not IEEE
networks interconnecting computer systems and
network
FDDI applications include directly connecting
workstations and servers in workgroups, and serving as
a high-speed backbone to connect other networks in a
building, in a campus environment, or in a city.
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FDDI
FDDI networks are not used for wide area
FDDI networks are not used for wide area
networks where network radii typically
exceed 100 km
FDDI was very popular in networks that
required 100 Mbps capability prior to 1996.
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FDDI
Since 1996, 100 Mbps Ethernet/802.3 (
Fast Ethernet) and 1000 Mbps
Ethernet/802.3( Gigabit Ethernet) technologies
have displaced new FDDI installations.
100Mbps
LAN and MAN applications
Token Ring
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FDDI MAC Frame Format
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IEEE 802.3 Frame Format
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Token Ring MAC Frame
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Operation
Station seizes token by aborting token
transmission
Once token captured, one or more data
frames transmitted
New token released as soon as transmission
finished (early token release in 802.5)
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FDDI Physical Layer
Medium Optical Fiber Twisted Pair
Data rate 100 100
Signaling 4B/5B/NRZI MLT-3
Max repeaters 100 100
Between repeaters 2km 100m
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FDDI’s physical layer
Specifications
FDDI’s physical layer is based on fiber-optic cable.
Fiber runs cannot be longer than 2 km between nodes
for multimode fiber and there is a total allowable
distance of 100 km per FDDI ring ( two rings are
allowed). Each ring consists of two fibers. Thus, two
rings use four fibers.
FDDI also supports copper cable via a related
technology called CDDI, which stands for Copper
Distributed Data Interface. CDDI supports both
unshielded twisted-pair ( UTP) and shielded twisted-pair
(STP).
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FDDI’s physical layer
Specifications
FDDI’s physical layer does not use
Manchester encoding, which is used in
Ethernet/802.3 and 802.5 LANs.
FDDI uses a “group” encoding scheme
known as the 4B/5B method, which stands
for four bits in five baud, or four-bit to five-bit.
The 4B/5B encoding method takes data in
four-bit codes and maps them to
corresponding five-bit codes.
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FDDI’s physical layer
Specifications
These five-bit codes are then transmitted
using a technique called NRZI, which stands
for non-return to zero, invert on ones.
FDDI Signaling
Uses an encoding scheme called 4B/5B
Every four bits of data are sent as a 5 bit code
Signal sources are LEDs or lasers
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FDDI Rings
FDDI specifies dual rings for physical
connections
Traffic on each ring travels in opposite directions
Rings consist of two or more point-to-point
connections between adjacent stations
Primary ring is for data transmission
Secondary ring is for back up
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Single-Attachment Stations
SAS
Class B
Attach to one ring ( primary) Attached
through a concentrator.
Provides connection for multiple SASs .
Ensures that no one SAS can interrupt the
ring
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Single-Attachment Stations
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Dual Attachment Stations
DAS
Class A
Attach to both rings
Has two ports to connect to the dual ring
Both ports connect to both the rings
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Dual Attachment Stations
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Advantages to FDDI
100 Mbps
long cables are supported (up to 200 Km)
built-in network management
fair access through negotiation
increased reliability of fiber optic, resistant to
eavesdropping
non-electric, maintains ground isolation
between buildings
cable cost comparable to UTP
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Disadvantages to FDDI
concentrators and boards are expensive
substantial expertise needed to install and
maintain
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Differences: FDDI B/W 802.5
FDDI 802.5
Fiber, STP, UTP STP, UTP
100 Mbps 4/16 Mbps
MTU 4500 Bytes MTU 4500-18K Bytes
Fault Tolerant Dual No fault tolerance
Ring built into spec
Distributed Clock Centralized Clock
Early Release Release after receive
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Support frames
To accommodate a mixture of stream and
bursty traffic, FDDI is designed to handle two
types of traffic:
Synchronous frames that typically have tighter
delay requirements (e.g., voice and video)
Asynchronous frames have greater delay
tolerances (e.g., data traffic)
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Applications
Mission critical requirements for fault
tolerance
LAN needs connectivity to MAN
Need for high bandwidth
Voice and video
used where distance between stations are
excess of 100 meter
Locations where EMI and RFI
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Product and service providers
Cabletron systems
DSI
BayNetworks
3COM
Madge
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