ARP: Address Resolution Protocol

Question: how to determine  Each IP node (Host,

MAC address of B Router) on LAN has
knowing B’s IP address? ARP table
 ARP Table: IP/MAC
237.196.7.78
address mappings for
1A-2F-BB-76-09-AD
some LAN nodes
237.196.7.23 < IP address; MAC address; TTL>
237.196.7.14
 TTL (Time To Live): time
LAN after which address
71-65-F7-2B-08-53
58-23-D7-FA-20-B0
mapping will be forgotten
(typically 20 min)

0C-C4-11-6F-E3-98
237.196.7.88

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ARP protocol: Same LAN (network)
 A wants to send datagram
to B, and B’s MAC address  A caches (saves) IP-to-
not in A’s ARP table. MAC address pair in its
 A broadcasts ARP query
ARP table until information
packet, containing B's IP becomes old (times out)
address
 soft state: information
 Dest MAC address =
FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF that times out (goes
 all machines on LAN away) unless refreshed
receive ARP query  ARP is “plug-and-play”:
 B receives ARP packet,  nodes create their ARP
replies to A with its (B's) tables without
MAC address
intervention from net
 frame sent to A’s MAC
address (unicast)
administrator

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Routing to another LAN
walkthrough: send datagram from A to B via R
assume A knows B’s IP address

R
 Two ARP tables in router R, one for each IP network (LAN)
B
 In routing table at source Host, find router 111.111.111.110
 In ARP table at source, find MAC address E6-E9-00-17-BB-4B, etc

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 A creates datagram with source A, destination B
 A uses ARP to get R’s MAC address for 111.111.111.110
 A creates link-layer frame with R's MAC address as dest,
frame contains A-to-B IP datagram
 A’s adapter sends frame
 R’s adapter receives frame
 R removes IP datagram from Ethernet frame, sees its
destined to B
 R uses ARP to get B’s MAC address
 R creates frame containing A-to-B IP datagram sends to B

R
B

4
Ethernet
“dominant” wired LAN technology:
 cheap $20 for 100Mbs!
 first widely used LAN technology
 Simpler, cheaper than token LANs and ATM
 Kept up with speed race: 10 Mbps – 10 Gbps

Metcalfe’s Ethernet
sketch

5
Star topology
 Bus topology popular through mid 90s
 Now star topology prevails
 Connection choices: hub or switch (more later)

hub or
switch

6
Ethernet Frame Structure
Sending adapter encapsulates IP datagram (or other
network layer protocol packet) in Ethernet frame

Preamble:
 7 bytes with pattern 10101010 followed by one
byte with pattern 10101011
 used to synchronize receiver, sender clock rates

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Ethernet Frame Structure
(more)
 Addresses: 6 bytes
 if adapter receives frame with matching destination
address, or with broadcast address (eg ARP packet), it
passes data in frame to net-layer protocol
 otherwise, adapter discards frame

 Type: indicates the higher layer protocol (mostly

IP but others may be supported such as Novell
IPX and AppleTalk)
 CRC: checked at receiver, if error is detected, the
frame is simply dropped

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Unreliable, connectionless service
 Connectionless: No handshaking between sending and
receiving adapter.
 Unreliable: receiving adapter doesn’t send ACKs or
NACKs to sending adapter
 stream of datagrams passed to network layer can have gaps
 gaps will be filled if app is using TCP
 otherwise, app will see the gaps

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Ethernet uses CSMA/CD
 No slots  Before attempting a
 adapter doesn’t transmit retransmission,
if it senses that some adapter waits a
other adapter is random time, that is,
transmitting, that is, random access
carrier sense
 transmitting adapter
aborts when it senses
that another adapter is
transmitting, that is,
collision detection

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 Ethernet CSMA/CD algorithm
1. Adaptor receives datagram 4. If adapter detects
from net layer & creates another transmission while
frame transmitting, aborts and
2. If adapter senses channel sends jam signal
idle, it starts to transmit
frame. If it senses channel 5. After aborting, adapter
busy, waits until channel enters exponential
idle and then transmits backoff: after the mth
3. If adapter transmits collision, adapter chooses
entire frame without a K at random from
detecting another {0,1,2,…,2m-1}. Adapter
transmission, the adapter waits K·512 bit times and
is done with frame ! returns to Step 2

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Ethernet’s CSMA/CD (more)
Jam Signal: make sure all Exponential Backoff:
other transmitters are  Goal: adapt retransmission
aware of collision; 48 bits attempts to estimated
Bit time: .1 microsec for 10 current load
Mbps Ethernet ;  heavy load: random wait
for K=1023, wait time is will be longer
about 50 msec  first collision: choose K
from {0,1}; delay is K· 512
bit transmission times
 after second collision:
choose K from {0,1,2,3}…
 after ten collisions, choose
K from {0,1,2,3,4,…,1023}

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CSMA/CD efficiency
 T
prop = max prop between 2 nodes in LAN
 t
trans = time to transmit max-size frame

 Efficiency goes to 1 as t
prop goes to 0
 Goes to 1 as t
trans goes to infinity
 Much better than ALOHA, but still decentralized, simple, and cheap

1
efficiency 
1  5t prop / ttrans

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10BaseT and 100BaseT
 10/100 Mbps rate; latter called “fast ethernet”
 T stands for Twisted Pair
 Nodes connect to a hub: “star topology”; 100 m
max distance between nodes and hub

twisted pair

hub

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Hubs
Hubs are essentially physical-layer repeaters:
 bits coming from one link go out all other links
 at the same rate
 no frame buffering
 no CSMA/CD at hub: adapters detect collisions
 provides net management functionality

twisted pair

hub

15
Manchester encoding

 Used in 10BaseT
 Each bit has a transition
 Allows clocks in sending and receiving nodes to synchronize
to each other
 no need for a centralized, global clock among nodes!
 Hey, this is physical-layer stuff!

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Gbit Ethernet
 uses standard Ethernet frame format
 allows for point-to-point links and shared
broadcast channels
 in shared mode, CSMA/CD is used; short distances
between nodes required for efficiency
 uses hubs, called here “Buffered Distributors”
 Full-Duplex at 1 Gbps for point-to-point links
 10 Gbps now !

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 Interconnecting with hubs
 Backbone hub interconnects LAN segments
 Extends max distance between nodes
 But individual segment collision domains become one large
collision domain
 Can’t interconnect 10BaseT & 100BaseT

hub

hub
hub hub

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Switch
 Link layer device
 stores and forwards Ethernet frames
 examines frame header and selectively forwards frame
based on MAC dest address
 when frame is to be forwarded on segment, uses
CSMA/CD to access segment
 transparent
 hosts are unaware of presence of switches
 plug-and-play, self-learning
 switches do not need to be configured

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Forwarding
switch
1
2 3

hub
hub hub

• How do determine onto which LAN segment to

forward frame?
• Looks like a routing problem...
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Self learning
 A switch has a switch table
 entry in switch table:
 (MAC Address, Interface, Time Stamp)
 stale entries in table dropped (TTL can be 60 min)
 switch learns which hosts can be reached through
which interfaces
 when frame received, switch “learns” location of
sender: incoming LAN segment
 records sender/location pair in switch table

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Filtering/Forwarding
When switch receives a frame:

index switch table using MAC dest address

if entry found for destination
then{
if dest on segment from which frame arrived
then drop the frame
else forward the frame on interface indicated
}
else flood

forward on all but the interface

on which the frame arrived

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Switch example
Suppose C sends frame to D

switch address interface

1 A 1
2 3
B 1
E 2
hub hub hub G 3
A
I
D F
B C G H
E

Switch receives frame from C

notes in bridge table that C is on interface 1
because D is not in table, switch forwards frame into
interfaces 2 and 3
frame received by D 23
Switch example
Suppose D replies back with frame to C.

address interface
switch
A 1
B 1
E 2
hub hub hub G 3
A
I C 1

D F
B C G H
E

Switch receives frame from D

notes in bridge table that D is on interface 2
because C is in table, switch forwards frame only to
interface 1
frame received by C 24
Switch: traffic isolation
 switch installation breaks subnet into LAN
segments
 switch filters packets:
 same-LAN-segment frames not usually
forwarded onto other LAN segments
 segments become separate collision domains

switch

collision
domain

hub
hub hub

collision domain collision domain 25

Switches: dedicated access
 Switch with many A
interfaces
C’ B
 Hosts have direct
connection to switch
 No collisions; full duplex switch

Switching: A-to-A’ and B-to-B’ C

simultaneously, no collisions
B’ A’

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More on Switches
 cut-through switching: frame forwarded
from input to output port without first
collecting entire frame
 slight reduction in latency
 combinations of shared/dedicated,
10/100/1000 Mbps interfaces

27
Institutional network

mail server
to external
network
router web server

switch
IP subnet

hub
hub hub

28
Switches vs. Routers
 both store-and-forward devices
 routers: network layer devices (examine network layer headers)
 switches are link layer devices

 routers maintain routing tables, implement routing algorithms

 switches maintain switch tables, implement filtering, learning
algorithms

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Summary comparison

hubs routers switches

traffic no yes yes

isolation
plug & play yes no yes

optimal no yes no
routing
cut yes no yes
through
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