College of Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Data Communication and Computer Networks

(ECEG-4191)

Chapter V

Local Area networks

 Outline
Local Area networks:
o Introduction
o LAN protocol architecture, MAC & LLC
o LAN components
o LAN technologies

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 Introduction
Local Area Network(LAN): is a computer network which connect
different types of networking devices and provides a communication
between those devices.
is a network that connects computers and devices in a limited
geographical area such as home, school, computer laboratory,
office building, or closely positioned group of buildings.
Each computer or device on the network is a node. Current wired
LANs are most likely to be based on Ethernet technology and
using existing home wired LAN devices (coaxial cables, phone
lines and power lines).
LANs provide high speed bandwidth to internal end devices and
intermediary devices.

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Cont.….
 LAN is owned, used, and operated by a single organization.
 LANs do not normally operate in isolation.
 They are connected to one another or to the Internet.
 To connect LANs, or segments of LANs, we use connecting devices.
 Connecting devices can operate in different layers of the Internet
model.
 LANS use Repeater, Hub, Bridge and Switch as a connection device.

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 LAN Protocol Architecture
 Protocols defined specifically for LAN and MAN transmission address
issues relating to the transmission of blocks of data over the network.
 In OSI terms, higher layer protocols (layer 3 or 4 and above) are
independent of network architecture and are applicable to LANs,
MANs, and WANs.
 A discussion of LAN protocols is concerned principally with lower layers
of the OSI model.
 The IEEE 802 LAN is a shared medium peer-to-peer communications
network that broadcasts information for all stations to receive.
 The figure on the next slide relates the LAN protocols (IEEE 802 protocol
layers) to the OSI architecture.
 The lowest layer of the IEEE 802 reference model corresponds to the
physical layer used for: Encoding/decoding of signals, Preamble
generation/removal (for synchronization) and bit
transmission/reception.

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 Cont’d…

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 Cont’d…
 Above the physical layer are the functions associated with providing service to LAN
users. These include
 On transmission, assemble data into a frame with address and error-detection fields.
 Govern access to the LAN transmission medium.
 On reception, disassemble frame, perform address recognition and error detection.
 The set of functions it provides an interface to higher layers and perform flow and
error control.
 These are functions typically associated with OSI layer 2.
 The last bulleted item are grouped into a logical link control (LLC) layer.
 the first three bullet items are treated as a separate layer, called medium access control
(MAC).
 The separation is done for the following reasons:
 The logic required to manage access to a shared-access medium is not found in traditional
layer-2 data link control.
 For the same LLC, several MAC options may be provided.

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 LAN components

Repeaters
A repeater receives a signal, regenerates it, and passes it on.
It can regenerate signals at the bit level to allow them to travel a longer
distance on the media.
It operates at Physical Layer of OSI
The Four Repeater Rule for 10-Mbps Ethernet should be used as a standard
when extending LAN segments.
This rule states that no more than four repeaters can be used between hosts
on a LAN.
This rule is used to limit latency added to frame travel by each repeater.
A repeater does not actually connect two LANs; it connects two segments
of the same LAN. The segments connected are still part of one single LAN.
A repeater is not a device that can connect two LANs of different protocols.
A repeater is used to lengthen Ethernet network distance limitation by
creating network segments
A repeater forwards every frame; it has no filtering capability.
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Repeater in Action

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 Hub
Hubs are used to connect multiple
nodes to a single physical device,
which connects to the network.

Hubs are actually multiport

repeaters.

Using a hub changes the network

topology from a linear bus, to a
star.

With hubs, data arriving over the

cables to a hub port is electrically
repeated on all the other ports
connected to the same network
10 segment.
 Contd.

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 Types of Hubs
1. Passive hubs do not amplify the electrical signal of incoming packets before

broadcasting them out to the network. It is just a connector. It connects the

wires coming from different branches. In a star-topology Ethernet LAN, a
passive hub is just a point where the signals coming from different stations
collide; the hub is the collision point. This type of a hub is part of the media; its
location in the Internet model is below the physical layer.
2. Active hubs, a type of hub that can perform amplification, as does a repeater.

Some people use the terms concentrator when referring to a passive hub and
multiport repeater when referring to an active hub.
3. Intelligent hubs add extra features to an active hub that are of particular

importance to businesses. An intelligent hub typically is stackable (built in such

a way that multiple units can be placed one on top of the other to conserve
space). It also typically includes remote management capabilities via SNMP and
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virtual LAN (VLAN) support.
 Bridges
Bridges are used to logically separate network segments within the same
network.

They operate at the OSI physical and data link layer and are independent of
higher-layer protocols.

As a data link layer device, the bridge can check the physical (MAC)
addresses (source and destination) contained in the frame.

The function of the bridge is to make intelligent decisions about whether or

When
not a bridge
to pass receives
signals a frame
on to the on the network,
next segment of a network.
the destination MAC address is looked up in the
bridge table to determine whether to filter,
flood, or copy the frame onto another segment

13 Broadcast Packets are forwarded to all

 Filtering in Bridges
A bridge has filtering capability. It can check the destination address of a
frame and decide if the frame should be forwarded or dropped. If the frame
is to be forwarded, the decision must specify the port. A bridge has a table
that maps addresses to ports.

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 Contd.
In the previous figure, if a frame destined for station 712B13456142

arrives at port 1, the bridge consults its table to find the departing port.

According to its table, frames for 712B13456142 leave through port 1;

therefore, there is no need for forwarding, and the frame is dropped.

On the other hand, if a frame for 712B13456141 arrives at port 2, the

departing port is port 1 and the frame is forwarded. In the first case,

LAN 2 remains free of traffic; in the second case, both LANs have

15 traffic.
 MAC Address Learning
 Bridges MAC table can be static or dynamic.

 To make a table dynamic, we need a bridge that gradually learns from

the frame movements.

 To do this, the bridge inspects both the destination and the source

addresses.

 The destination address is used for the forwarding decision (table

lookup); the source address is used for adding entries to the table and

16 for updating purposes.

 MAC Learning Process Example

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 Contd.
1. When station A sends a frame to station D, the bridge does not have an entry
for either D or A. The frame goes out from all three ports; the frame floods
the network. However, by looking at the source address, the bridge learns that
station A must be located on the LAN connected to port 1. This means that
frames destined for A, in the future, must be sent out through port 1. The
bridge adds this entry to its table. The table has its first entry now.

2. When station E sends a frame to station A, the bridge has an entry for A, so it
forwards the frame only to port 1. There is no flooding. In addition, it uses the
source address of the frame, E, to add a second entry to the table.

3. When station B sends a frame to C, the bridge has no entry for C, so once
again it floods the network and adds one more entry to the table.

4. The process of learning continues as the bridge forwards frames.

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 Exercise; in the following diagram, if the following series of data
transmission occurs, show how the Bridge table is built and tell if filtering or
flooding is done in every step. Use A,B,C.. As MAC addresses and 1,2,3 as
port numbers:
A-G; G-D; C-D; F-G

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 Looping Problem in bridges
A transparent bridge works fine as far as no redundant bridge
in the network

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 Cont.….
1. Station A sends a frame to station D. The tables of both bridges are
empty. Both forward the frame and update their tables based on the
source address A.
2. Now there are two copies of the frame on LAN 2. The copy sent out by
bridge 1 is received by bridge 2, which does not have any information
about the destination address D; it floods the bridge. The copy sent out
by bridge 2 is received by bridge 1 and is sent out for lack of
information about D. Note that each frame is handled separately
because bridges, as two nodes on a network sharing the medium, use an
access method such as CSMA/CD. The tables of both bridges are
updated, but still there is no information for destination D.
3. Now there are two copies of the frame on LAN 1. Step 2 is repeated,
and both copies flood the network.
4. The process continues on and on. Note that bridges are also repeaters
and regenerate frames. So in each iteration, there are newly generated
fresh copies
Reading of theToframes.
Assignment: solve the looping problem, the IEEE specification
requires that bridges use the spanning tree algorithm to create a loop less
topology. Read About spanning tree algorithm

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 Switch
 Switches are Multiport Bridges.
 Switches provide a unique network segment on each port,
thereby separating collision domains.
 Today, network designers are replacing hubs in their wiring
closets with switches to increase their network performance and
bandwidth while protecting their existing wiring investments.
 Like bridges, switches learn certain information about the data
packets that are received from various computers on the network.
 Switches use this information to build forwarding tables to
determine the destination of data being sent by one computer to
another computer on the network.

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Switches: Dedicated Access

 Hosts have direct connection to switch

 Full Duplex: No collisions
 Switching: A-to-A’ and B-to-B’ simultaneously, no collisions
 Switches can be cascaded to expand the network

B’ A’

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Repeater, Hub, Bridge & Switch

Two/three-layer switches
 When we use the term switch, we must be careful because a switch
can mean two different things. We must clarify the term by adding
the level at which the device operates.
 We can have a two-layer switch or a three-layer switch. A three-
layer switch is used at the network layer; it is a kind of router.
 The two-layer switch performs at the physical and data link layers.
 A two-layer switch is a bridge, a bridge with many ports and a
design that allows better (faster) performance. A bridge with a few
ports can connect a few LANs together.
 A bridge with many ports may be able to allocate a unique port to
each station, with each station on its own independent entity. This
means no competing traffic (no Collision)

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Types of Switches
1.Cut-through switch
 Cut-through switch is a packet switch wherein the switch starts forwarding
that frame (or packet) before the whole frame has been received, normally as
soon as the destination address is processed.
 A cut-through switch can achieve the lowest forwarding delays, but it
propagates errors from one LAN to another, because errors can only be
detected at the end of each frame.
 In other words, this technique reduces latency through the switch, but
decreases reliability.
2. Store and Forward Switch
 A switching device that stores a complete incoming data packet before it is
sent out.
 Such switches are used when incoming and outgoing speeds differ.

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LAN Technologies

LAN Technology Options

 Ethernet
 Fast Ethernet
 Gigabit Ethernet
 10 Gig Ethernet

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 Ethernet
Developed by Xerox in 1976
Eventually became an IEEE standard (IEEE 802.3)
Has been modified for wireless applications (IEEE 802.11)
And for higher speeds (IEEE 802.3ae for 10 Gigabit
Ethernet)
Ethernet is based on the Datagram and functions at the
physical and data link layer

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 Ethernet Datagram Structure

6 bytes 46 to 1500
8 bytes
bytes
Source
Preamble
Address Data

4 bytes
6 bytes
2 bytes
Frame
Destination
Type Field Check
Address
Sequence

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 Ethernet Datagram Structure

 Preamble: Repeating Flag that ID’s the sequence as an Ethernet

datagram
 Destination Address: Unique identifier found nowhere else but on

the Network Interface Card to whom the datagram is being sent

 Source Address: Who originated the datagram

 Type Field: Tells the recipient what kind of datagram is being

received (IP, UDP, etc)

 Data: What is it that you are trying to send (text, JEPG, MP3, etc)

 Frame Check Sequence: Detects and corrects errors

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LAN Technologies

Ethernet Tidbits
 If a message has less than 46 bytes of data, “padding” is
added
 Ethernet is often referred to as like this 100 Base T
First digit is the speed of the system in Mbps
Base refers to a cable or wire system
T refers to the system is UTP: Unshielded Twisted Pair
 10 Base 5 stands for 10 Mbps on a cable that can go 500
m (multiply the last number by 100 meters)
 10 Base 2 stands for 10 Mbps for 2 hundred meters
 10 Base 5 and 10 Base 2 identifies Ethernet LANs using
thick net and thin net coax cables, respectively

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LAN Technologies
Ethernet Address
 End nodes are identified by their Ethernet Addresses (MAC Address or
Hardware Address) which is a unique 6 Byte address.
 MAC Address is represented in Hexa Decimal format e.g.
00:05:5D:FE:10:0A (48 bits)
 The first 3 bytes identify a vendor (also called prefix) and the last 3 bytes
are unique for every host or device
 The least significant bit of the first byte defines the type of address. If the bit
is 0, the address is unicast; otherwise, it is multicast.
 The broadcast destination address is a special case of the multicast address
in which all bits are 1s.

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 Define the type of the following destination addresses:
a.4A:30:10:21:10:1A
b. 47:20:1B:2E:08:E7
c. FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF

Solution
To find the type of the address, we need to look at the second
hexadecimal digit from the left. If it is even, the address is uni
cast. 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.
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LAN Technologies

Standard Ethernet
 10 Base 5 (Thick net) (Bus Topology)
 10 Base 2 (Thin net) (Bus Topology)
 10 Base T (UTP) (Star/Tree Topology)
 10 Base FL (Fiber) (Star/Tree Topology)

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LAN Technologies

Ethernet
 Physical Media :-
 10 Base5 - Thick Co-axial Cable with Bus Topology
 10 Base2 - Thin Co-axial Cable with Bus Topology
 10 Base T - UTP Cat 3/5 with Tree Topology
 10 Base FL - Multimode/Single mode Fiber with Tree
Topology
 Maximum Segment Length
 10 Base5 - 500 m with at most 4 repeaters (Use Bridge to extend
the network)
 10 Base2 - 185 m with at most 4 repeaters (Use Bridge to extend
the network)
 10 Base T - 100 m with at most 4 hubs (Use Switch to extend the
network)

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LAN Technologies

Fast Ethernet
 100 Mbps bandwidth
 Uses same CSMA/CD media access protocol and packet
format as in Ethernet.
 100BaseTX (UTP) and 100BaseFX (Fiber) standards
 Physical media :-
 100 Base TX - UTP Cat 5e
 100 Base FX - Multimode / Single mode Fiber

 Full Duplex/Half Duplex operations.

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LAN Technologies

Fast Ethernet
 Provision for Auto-Negotiation of media speed:
10 Mbps or 100Mbps (popularly available for copper
media only).
 Maximum Segment Length
 100 Base TX - 100 m
 100 Base FX - 2 Km (Multimode Fiber)
 100 Base FX - 20 km (Single mode Fiber)

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LAN Technologies

Gigabit Ethernet
 1 Gbps bandwidth.
 Uses same CSMA/CD media access protocol as in
Ethernet and is backward compatible (10/100/100
modules are available).
 1000BaseT (UTP), 1000BaseSX (Multimode Fiber) and
1000BaseLX (Multimode/Single mode Fiber) standards.
 Maximum Segment Length
 1000 Base T - 100m (Cat 5e/6)
 1000 Base SX - 275 m (Multimode Fiber)
 1000 Base LX - 512 m (Multimode Fiber)
 1000 Base LX - 20 Km (Single mode Fiber)
 1000 Base LH - 80 Km (Single mode Fiber)

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LAN Technologies

10 Gig Ethernet
 10 Gbps bandwidth.

 Uses same CSMA/CD media access protocol as in

Ethernet.
 Maximum Segment Length
 10GBase-T - Not available
 10GBase-LR - 10 Km (Single mode Fiber)
 10GBase-ER - 40 Km (Single mode Fiber)

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