Chapter 4

Wired and Wireless LANs

4.1 IEEE Standards
4.2 Standard Ethernet
4.2.1 MAC Sublayer
4.2.2 Physical layer
4.3 Fast Ethernet
4.3.1 MAC Sublayer
4.3.2 Physical layer
4.4 Gigabit Ethernet
4.4.1 MAC Sublayer
4.4.2 Physical layer
4.5 Network Interface Cards(NIC)
4.5.1 Components of NIC
4.5.2 Functions of NIC
4.5.3 Types of NIC
4.6 Wireless LAN
4.6.1 IEEE802.11 Architecture
4.6.2 MAC Sub layer
4.6.3 Frame Format
4.6.4 Frame Types
4.6.5 Addressing Mechanism
4.6.6 Bluetooth (Architecture, Piconet and Scatternet,
Applications)
 4.1 IEEE Standards
• IEEE stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers.
• IEEE 802 is a collection of networking standards
• cover the physical and data-link layer specifications for
technologies such as Ethernet and wireless.
• Applicable to Local Area Networks (LAN) and Metropolitan
Area Networks (MAN).
• IEEE 802 also aids in ensuring multi-vendor interoperability
by promoting standards for vendors to follow.
• the IEEE 802 standards help make sure internet services and
technologies follow a set of recommended practices so
network devices can all work together smoothly
• IEEE 802 is divided into 22 parts that cover the
physical and data-link aspects of networking.
• The family of standards is developed and
maintained by the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN
Standards Committee, also called the LMSC.
• The set of standards started in 1979 with a
"local network for computer interconnection"
standard, which was approved a year later.
• The LMSC has made more than 70 standards
for IEEE 802
• Some commonly used standards include those
– Ethernet
– bridging and virtual bridged LANs
– wireless LAN
– wireless PAN
– MAN
– radio access networks
– media independent handover services.
• The better-known specifications include 
– 802.3 Ethernet
– 802.11 Wireless LAN
– 802.15 Bluetooth/ZigBee
– 802.16 Wireless MAN
• IEEE 802 specifications also split the data link layer into two different
layers
– LLC layer
– MAC layer
 4.2 Standard Ethernet
• DIX standard is a popular standard for
Ethernet that was put forth in 1978.
• The name DIX is an abbreviation of the three
organizations who implemented it, namely
DEC(Digital Equipment Corporation), Intel and
Xerox.
• DIX Ethernet provides data speed of upto
10Mbps.
 4.2.1 MAC Sublayer
In MAC sublayer, the frame formats for the
Ethernet data frame are laid down.
Frame - DIX Ethernet is also known as Ethernet II
framing.
The main fields of a frame of DIX Ethernet are Shown in the fig.
bytes 8 6 6 2 0-1500 0-46 4
preamble Destination Source Type Data Pad Checksum
address Address / CRC

• Preamble: It is an 8 bytes starting field that provides alert and timing

pulse for transmission. the manchester encoding system is used .
• Destination Address: It is a 6 byte field containing physical address of
destination stations.
• Source Address: It is a 6 byte field containing the physical address of the
sending station.
• Type: It a 2 bytes field that instructs the receiver which process to give the
frame to.
• Data: This is a variable sized field carries the data from the upper layers.
The maximum size of data field is 1500 bytes.
• Padding: This is added to the data to bring its length to the minimum
requirement of 46 bytes.
• Checksum/CRC: CRC stands for cyclic redundancy check. It is a 4 byte field
that contains the error detection informations
Manchester Encoding
 Ethernet Cabling

10Base5 uses – thick coaxial cable, vampire taps, speed is 10 Mbps, baseband signal,
support segment upto 500meters,
10Base2 uses – thin coaxial cable, BNC Connector, Speed is 10 mbps, baseband signal,
support segment upto185 meter, appxoximately 30 machines can connect
10BaseT uses – central hub to solve the problem aasociated with finding cable
breakdown.
10BaseF uses -
Fig. Variation in topology, cabling as per standard
 Medium Access Control Sublayer
(MAC sublayer)
• It is responsible for flow control and
multiplexing for transmission medium.
• It controls the transmission of data packets via
remotely shared channels.
• It sends data over the network interface card.
MAC Layer and LLC Layer in the OSI Model

The Open System Interconnections (OSI) model

is a layered networking framework that
conceptualizes how communications should
be done between heterogeneous systems.
The data link layer is the second lowest layer. It
is divided into two sublayers −
– The logical link control (LLC) sublayer
– The medium access control (MAC) sublayer
 Logical Link Control (LLC) Sublayer
• The logical link control (LLC) is the upper sublayer of the
data link layer of the open system interconnections
(OSI) reference model for data transmission.
• It acts act an interface between the network layer and
the medium access control (MAC) sublayer of the data
link layer.
• The LLC sublayer is mainly used for its multiplexing
property.
• It allows several network protocols to operate
simultaneously within a multipoint network over the
same network medium.
• multiplexing - In telecommunications and computer
networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing)
is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are
combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to
share a scarce resource.
• Resource scarcity is the lack of availability of supplies required
to maintain life, or a certain quality of life
Functions of LLC Sublayer
• The primary function of LLC is to multiplex
protocols over the MAC layer while transmitting
and likewise to de-multiplex the protocols while
receiving.
• LLC provides hop-to-hop flow and error control.
• It allows multipoint communication over
computer network.
• Frame Sequence Numbers are assigned by LLC.
• In case of acknowledged services, it tracks
acknowledgements
Functions of MAC Layer
• It provides an abstraction of the physical layer to the LLC and
upper layers of the OSI network.
• It is responsible for encapsulating frames so that they are
suitable for transmission via the physical medium.
• It resolves the addressing of source station as well as the
destination station, or groups of destination stations.
• It performs multiple access resolutions when more than one
data frame is to be transmitted. It determines the channel
access methods for transmission.
• It also performs collision resolution and initiating
retransmission in case of collisions. (CSMA/CD)
• It generates the frame check sequences and thus contributes
to protection against transmission errors.
MAC Addresses
• MAC address or media access control address is a unique
identifier allotted to a network interface controller (NIC) of a
device.
• It is used as a network address for data transmission within
a network segment like Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
• MAC address is assigned to a network adapter at the time of
manufacturing. It is hardwired or hard-coded in the network
interface card (NIC).
• A MAC address comprises of six groups of two hexadecimal
digits, separated by hyphens, colons, or no separators.
• An example of a MAC address is 00:0A:89:5B:F0:11.
 Fast Ethernet (802.3u)
• Fast Ethernet is a variation of Ethernet
standards that carry data traffic at 100 Mbps
(Mega bits per second) in local area networks
(LAN)
• It was launched as the IEEE 802.3u standard in
1995, and stayed the fastest network till the
introduction of Gigabit Ethernet.
Varieties of Fast Ethernet
• The common varieties of fast Ethernet are
100-Base-TX, 100-BASE-FX and 100-Base-T4.
• 100-Base-T4
– This has four pairs of UTP of Category 3, two of which are bi-directional and the
other two are unidirectional.
– In each direction, three pairs can be used simultaneously for data transmission.
– Each twisted pair is capable of transmitting a maximum of 25Mb of data. Thus the
three pairs can handle a maximum of 75Mb of data.
– It uses the encoding scheme 8B/6T (eight binary/six ternary).
• 100-Base-TX
– This has either two pairs of unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) category 5 wires or two
shielded twisted pairs (STP) type 1 wires. One pair transmits frames from hub to the
device and the other from device to hub.
– Maximum distance between hub and station is 100m.
– It has a data rate of 125 Mbps.
– It uses MLT-3 encoding scheme along with 4B/5B block coding.
• 100-BASE-FX
– This has two pairs of optical fibers. One pair transmits frames from hub to the device
and the other from device to hub.
– Maximum distance between hub and station is 2000m.
– It has a data rate of 125 Mbps.
– It uses NRZ-I encoding scheme along with 4B/5B block coding.
Frame Format 
• Preamble − It is a 7 bytes starting field that provides alert and timing
pulse for transmission.
• Start of Frame Delimiter (SOF) − It is a 1 byte field that contains an
alternating pattern of ones and zeros ending with two ones.
• Destination Address − It is a 6 byte field containing physical address of
destination stations.
• Source Address − It is a 6 byte field containing the physical address of
the sending station.
• Length − It a 2 bytes field that stores the number of bytes in the data
field.
• Data − This is a variable sized field carries the data from the upper
layers. The maximum size of data field is 1500 bytes.
• Padding − This is added to the data to bring its length to the minimum
requirement of 46 bytes.
• CRC − CRC stands for cyclic redundancy check. It contains the error
detection information.
 4.4 Gigabit Ethernet
• In computer networks, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)
is the family of Ethernet technologies that
achieve theoretical data rates of 1 gigabit per
second (1 Gbps).
• It was introduced in 1999 and was defined by
the IEEE 802.3ab standard.
Varieties of Gigabit Ethernet
The popular varieties of fast Ethernet are 1000Base-SX,
1000Base-LX, 1000BASE-T and 1000Base-CX.
• 1000BASE-CX
– Defined by IEEE 802.3z standard
– The initial standard for Gigabit Ethernet
– Uses shielded twisted pair cables with DE-9 or 8P8C connector
– Maximum segment length is 25 metres
– Uses NRZ line encoding and 8B/6B block encoding
• 1000BASE-SX
– Defined by IEEE 802.3z standard
– Uses a pair of fibre optic cables of a shorter wavelength having
770 – 860 nm diameter
– The maximum segment length varies from 220 – 550 metres
depending upon the fiber properties.
– Uses NRZ line encoding and 8B/10B block encoding
• 1000BASE-LX
– Defined by IEEE 802.3z standard
– Uses a pair of fibre optic cables of a longer wavelength
having 1270 – 1355 nm diameter
– Maximum segment length is 500 metres
– Can cover distances up to 5 km
– Uses NRZ line encoding and 8B/10B block encoding
• 1000BASE-T
– Defined by IEEE 802.3ab standard
– Uses a pair four lanes of twisted-pair cables (Cat-5, Cat-5e,
Cat-6, Cat‑7)
– Maximum segment length is 100 metres
– Uses trellis code modulation technique
 Network Interface Card
• A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware
component without which a computer cannot
be connected over a network.
• It is a circuit board installed in a computer
that provides a dedicated network connection
to the computer.
• It is also called network interface controller,
network adapter or LAN adapter
Components of Network Interface Card
1. Memory - Memory is one of the most important
components of the NIC. It is used to store the data during
communication.
2. Connectors - connectors are used to connect the cables to
the Ethernet port.
3. Processor - Processor is used for converting the data
message into a suitable form of communication.
4. Jumpers - Jumpers are the small device that is used to
control the communication operations without the need of
any software. It is also used to determine settings for the
interrupt request line, I/O address, upper memory block, and
type of transceiver.
• 5. Routers - To provide wireless connectivity,
routers are used.
• 6. MAC address - MAC address is also referred
to as a physical network address. It is a
unique address that is present to the network
interface card where ethernet packets are
communicated with the computer.
Purpose
• NIC allows both wired and wireless
communications.
• NIC allows communications between computers
connected via local area network (LAN) as well
as communications over large-scale network
through Internet Protocol (IP).
• NIC is both a physical layer and a data link layer
device, i.e. it provides the necessary hardware
circuitry so that the physical layer processes and
some data link layer processes can run on it.
Types of NIC Cards
Internal Network Cards
• In internal networks cards, motherboard has a slot for the
network card where it can be inserted.
• It requires network cables to provide network access.
Internal network cards are of two types.
– Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) connection,
– Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) connection.
External Network Cards
• In desktops and laptops that do not have an internal NIC, external NICs are used.
• External network cards are of two types:
– Wireless - Wireless network card needs to be inserted into the motherboard, however no
network cable is required to connect to the network. They are useful while traveling or
accessing a wireless signal.
– USB based.

Example: Intel 3160 Dual-Band Wireless Adapter

 Functions of the NIC
• NIC is used to convert data into a digital signal.
• In the OSI model, NIC uses the physical layer to
transmit signals and the network layer to transmit data
packets.
• NIC offers both wired (using cables) and wireless (using
Wi-Fi) data communication techniques.
• NIC is a middleware between a computer/server and a
data network.
• NIC operates on both physical as well as the data link
layer of the OSI model.
Advantages of NIC
• As compared to the wireless network card, NIC provides a
secure, faster, and more reliable connection.
• NIC allows us to share bulk data among many users.
• It helps us to connect peripheral devices using many ports of
NIC.
• Communication speed is high.
• Network Interface cards are not expensive.
• NICs are easy to troubleshoot.

Disadvantages of NIC
• NIC is inconvenient as compared to the wireless card.
• For wired NIC, a hard-wired connection is required.
• NIC needs a proper configuration to work efficiently.
• NIC cards are not secure, so the data inside NIC is not safe.
 Wireless LANs
• Wireless LANs (WLANs) are wireless computer
networks
• Uses high-frequency radio waves for connecting the
devices within a limited area forming LAN (Local Area
Network).
• Users connected by wireless LANs can move around
within this limited area such as home, school, campus,
office building, railway platform, etc.
• Most WLANs are based upon the standard IEEE 802.11
standard or WiFi.
 Components of WLANs
The components of WLAN architecture as laid down in IEEE 802.11 are
• Stations (STA) − Stations comprises of all devices and equipment
that are connected to the wireless LAN. Each station has a wireless
network interface controller. A station can be of two types −
– Wireless Access Point (WAP or AP)
– Client
• Basic Service Set (BSS) − A basic service set is a group of stations
communicating at the physical layer level. BSS can be of two
categories −
– Infrastructure BSS
– Independent BSS
• Extended Service Set (ESS) − It is a set of all connected BSS.
• Distribution System (DS) − It connects access points in ESS.
 Types of WLANS
WLANs, as standardized by IEEE 802.11, operates in
two basic modes
• Infrastructure Mode − Mobile devices or clients
connect to an access point (AP) that in turn
connects via a bridge to the LAN or Internet. The
client transmits frames to other clients via the AP.
• Ad Hoc Mode − Clients transmit frames directly to
each other in a peer-to-peer fashion.
 MAC Sublayer Frame Structure of IEEE
802.11
• WLAN or WiFi uses high frequency radio waves
• The 802.11 MAC sublayer provides an abstraction of
the physical layer to the logical link control sublayer
and upper layers of the OSI network.
• It is responsible for encapsulating frames
• describing frame formats.
The main fields of a frame in WLANs as laid down by
IEEE 802.11 are as depicted in the following diagram
• Frame Control −It is a 2 bytes starting field composed
of 11 subfields. It contains control information of the
frame. The 11 subfields are −
• Protocol version − The first sub-field is a two – bit
field set to 00. It has been included to allow future
versions of IEE 802.11 to operate simultaneously.
• Type − It is a two-bit subfield that specifies whether
the frame is a data frame, control frame or a
management frame.
• Subtype − it is a four – bit subfield states whether the
field is a Request to Send (RTS) or a Clear to Send
(CTS) control frame. For a regular data frame, the
value is set to 0000.
• To DS − A single bit subfield indicating whether the
frame is going to the access point (AP), which
coordinates the communications in centralised
wireless systems.
• From DS − A single bit subfield indicating whether
the frame is coming from the AP.
• More Fragments − A single bit subfield which when
set to 1 indicates that more fragments would follow.
• Retry − A single bit subfield which when set to 1
specifies a retransmission of a previous frame.
• Power Management − A single bit subfield indicating
that the sender is adopting power-save mode.
• More Data − A single bit subfield showing that sender has further
data frames for the receiver.
• Protected Frame − A single bit subfield indicating that this is an
encrypted frame.
• Order − The last subfield, of one – bit, informs the receiver that
to the higher layers the frames should be in an ordered
sequence.
• Duration − It is a 2-byte field that specifies the time period for
which the frame and its acknowledgement occupy the channel.
• Address fields - There are three 6-byte address fields containing
addresses of source, immediate destination and final endpoint
respectively.
• Sequence − It a 2 bytes field that stores the frame numbers. It
detects duplicate frames and determines the order of frames for
higher layers. Among the 16 bits, the first 4 bits provides
identification to the fragment and the rest 12 bits contain the
sequence number that increments with each transmission.
• Data − This is a variable sized field that carries
the payload from the upper layers. The
maximum size of data field is 2312 bytes.
• Frame Check Sequence (FCS) − It is a 4-byte
field containing error detection information.
 Wireless Frame Types
• Management frames: Used for joining and
leaving a wireless cell. Management frame
types include association request, association
response, and reassociation request, just to
name a few.
• Control frames: Used to acknowledge when
data frames are received.
• Data frames: Frames that contain data.
 Bluetooth
• Bluetooth technology allows devices to communicate
with each other without cables or wires.
• Bluetooth relies on short-range radio frequency
• any device that incorporates the technology can
communicate as long as it is within the required
distance.
For example
1. you may be able to operate your computer with a
wireless keyboard
2. use a wireless headset to talk on your mobile phone.
 Architecture
• Bluetooth network technology connects mobile
devices wirelessly over a short-range to form a
personal area network (PAN).
• The Bluetooth architecture has its own independent
model with a stack of protocols, instead of following
the standard OSI model or TCP/IP model.
• The protocols in the Bluetooth standard can be loosely
grouped into the physical layer, data link layer,
middleware layer, and application layer as shown in
the following diagram
Protocols in the Bluetooth Architecture
• Physical Layer − This includes Bluetooth radio
and Baseband (also in the data link layer.)
– Radio − This is a physical layer equivalent protocol
that lays down the physical structure and
specifications for transmission of radio waves. It
defines air interface, frequency bands, frequency
hopping specifications, and modulation techniques.
– Baseband − This protocol takes the services of radio
protocol. It defines the addressing scheme, packet
frame format, timing, and power control algorithms.
• Data Link Layer − This includes Baseband, Link Manager
Protocol (LMP), and Logical Link Control and Adaptation
Protocol (L2CAP).
– Link Manager Protocol (LMP) − LMP establishes logical links
between Bluetooth devices and maintains the links for enabling
communications. The other main functions of LMP are device
authentication, message encryption, and negotiation of packet
sizes.
– Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) − L2CAP
provides adaption between upper layer frame and baseband
layer frame format. L2CAP provides support for both
connection-oriented as well as connectionless services.
• Middleware Layer − This includes Radio Frequency
Communications (RFComm) protocol, adopted protocols, SDP,
and AT commands.
– RFComm − It is short for Radio Frontend Component. It provides a
serial interface with WAP.
– Adopted Protocols − These are the protocols that are adopted from
standard models. The commonly adopted protocols used in Bluetooth
are Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), Internet Protocol (IP), User
Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
– Service Discovery Protocol (SDP)− SDP takes care of service-related
queries like device information so as to establish a connection
between contending Bluetooth devices.
– AT Commands − ATtention command set.

• Applications Layer − This includes the application profiles that

allow the user to interact with the Bluetooth applications.
 Bluetooth Piconet
• It is a basic unit of bluetooth networking. Devices function as master and
slave in piconet. There are two configurations viz. one master and one
slave or one master and multiple slaves. Master will determine channel
and phase. Figure-1 depicts bluetooth piconet structure.
• As piconet will have 3 bits. This means piconet can have maximum 8
devices. This includes 1 master and 7 slave bluetooth devices
 Bluetooth Scatternet
• The bluetooth network consisting of one or more piconets is known as
scatternet. The devices in one piconet type may function as master or slave
in another piconet type of the same scatternet. This bluetooth network type
allows many devices to share the same network area. This will allow efficient
use of the bandwidth. Figure-2 depicts bluetooth scatternet structure.
• As scatternet is interconnection of multiple piconets, it can accommodate
more than 8 devices.