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Chapter 6
Chapter 6
MAC:
• Medium Access Control Layer.
• Between DLL and Physical Layer.
• This section deals with broadcast networks and their protocols.
• The basic idea behind broadcast networks is how to determine who gets to use the channel when many users
want to transmit over it.
• The protocols used to determine who goes next on a multiaccess channel belong to a sublayer of the data link
layer called MAC.
MAC Functions:
• receive/transmit normal frames
• half-duplex retransmission and backoff functions
• append/check FCS (frame check sequence)
• Inter-frame gap enforcement
• discard malformed frames
• append(tx)/remove(rx) preamble, SFD(Start Frame Delimiter), and padding
• half-duplex compatibility: append(tx)/remove(rx) MAC address
What is the need for arbitration?
• Introduction and need for MAC layer
– Shared Channel Concept
– Collision detection and avoidance
– Channel acquisition issues
– Ad-hoc and Infrastructure modes
• When shared channel is used to communicate, issue of who will transmit arise.
• Rules to allocate each a fair chance to communicate:
– One should not dominate the communication for more than appropriate time.
– Whenever somebody is communicating, others should keep quiet.
– There must be some arbitration mechanism to allow only one from that lot of communicating parties.
• Suppose no arbitration mechanism:
– Two or more person starts communication.
– Collision realized and they stop abruptly.
– Retry after some time.
– This process continues until one of them gets the chance.
• Arbitrator:
– The one who unambiguously determine to the order speakers.
– Must have clear cut arbitration policy.
– Conscious about his role and must be unbiased.
• MAC:
– In networks, this job is performed by MAC Medium Access Control sub layer.
– This layer sits between physical and data link layer.
Q.ALOHA
• Norman Abramson at University of Hawaii, in 70‟s wanted to connect computer centers of all the islands of
Hawaii.
• Hawaii is a collection of islands and it was not possible to connect them with telephone lines.
• Joining islands with wires laid on seabed was very expensive, so they started thinking about wireless solution.
• Solution: ALOHA
– Using short range radios.
– Half duplex by nature. At a time, only can send or receiver. Switching also takes time.
– Two different frequencies, one for sending, another for receiving.
– But, problem of collision, how to solve it?
– Solution: Let the users communicate, if signals collide, not acknowledged and so, sender resends data.
– Adding randomness reduces the chance of collision.
– Algorithm is called Binary Exponential Back-off Algorithm.
– Also had problem: While transmitting, sender can not sense collision.
– In ALOHA, maximum 18 out of 100 packets pass without collision if ALOHA works with optimum
speed.
Slotted ALOHA:
• Solution: Slotted ALOHA
– Robert, in 1972 proposed a scheme.
– Packets are vulnerable to collide with only those packets which were transmitted before, but not
during the lifetime.
– He divided timeslots equal to lifetime of packets.
– Packet can be transmitted only in beginning of next slot only.
– Slotted ALOHA introduces additional delay.
– Eg : B is to be transmitted during A‟s lifetime, B will be delayed till next slot.
– Thus, reducing collision probability to half and performance is doubled.
– In slotted ALOHA, 36 out of 100 packets are delivered without collision at optimum speed.
– In slotted ALOHA time is divided into discrete intervals, each corresponding to one frame.
– A computer is not permitted to send whenever it has data to send.
– Instead it is required to wait for the next available slot.
• Well, it still needs improvement.
• See next figures that explain Slotted ALOHA.
Q.Ethernet:
• Bob Metcalfe and David Boggs are the master mind behind Ethernet design.
• All system is connected to single central bus using vampire tap and T-connector.
• Bus is made up of co-axial cable having capacity of 2.94 Mbps.
• Later intel and DEC joined and offered upto 10Mbps.
• This standard was named as DIX By Digital Equipment Co-operation, Intel and Xerox.
• Later it joined with Compaq and HP.
• This model was found far superior than design of Aloha.
• Characteristics:
– Sender can listen to every node before transmitting and so can stop if somebody is already
transmitting.
– If channel is idle, can start transmitting. If more than 1 sender started transmission, sender
immediately realize collision, stop.
– Then it follows binary exponential back-off algorithm and try after random amount of time.
– Collision occur only if the first sender‟s signal has not reached the second sender.
– If collision occurred, start with min 64 bytes pkt size and less than 2500meters distance covering
limit. This limits loss and bandwidth wastage.
– To inform others that collision has occurred, sender sends JAM Signals.
• Poor design for heavy traffic.
• The design was corrected by evolving Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) and Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps, i.e 1Gbps)
and now 10G (10 Gbps).
Ethernet First Version with Bus Topology:
Star Topology:
• Better solution for maintenance if used with hub or switch.
• Hub broadcast data to all other nodes.
• Switch is selective in receiver.
• Disadvantage of hub:
– It is more prone to collision when multiple senders are transmitting.
– Also, broadcast consume bandwidth.
• Solution Switch.
• See next figure depicting logical and physical view.
Multiplexing at Ethernet:
Q.CSMA:
TYPES:
1. Persistent CSMA
2. Non Persistent CSMA
3. P Persistent CSMA
4. CSMA/CD
B. Fast Ethernet
100 Mb version of Ethernet (802.3u).
The frame structure is same.
Only change is bit length. 10bits are sent now which were sent only 1 before. Data speed increased to 100
Mbps from 10 Mbps.
Permits only star topology.
Hubs or switches are a must.
The bus topology and coaxial cables are not used now.
FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) and Frame relay were very complex to maintain and was used for
Fibre Channel.
Fiber Channel restricted its use to SNA (Storage Network Architecture).
Length
Name Type Advantage
(Max)
100 Base T4 UTP (cat-3) 100 m Existing setup can be used. 100 Mbps outgoing 33.3 Mbps
incoming or viceversa
100 Base TX UTP (cat-5) 100 m 100 Mbps to and fro is possible.
100 Base FX Fiber optics 2 km Best option for interconnection. Best noise immunity.
100Base-T4:
• Category 3 UTP scheme, easily available, backward compatibility, increased carrying capacity.
• Uses a signalling speed of 25 MHz, only 25 percent faster than standard Ethernet's 20 MHz Manchester
Encoding.
• Requires four twisted pairs.
– one is always to the hub,
– one is always from the hub, and
– the other two are switchable to the current transmission direction.
• Ternary signals are sent, so that during a single clock period the wire can contain a 0, a 1, or a 2.
• 33 =27 possible symbols can be transmitted.
Asst. Prof. Riddhi Joshi
Page 12
Chapter 6: Book 2 : Medium Access Sublayer
• 8B/6T (8 bits map to 6 traits) works well.
100Base-TX:
• category 5 wiring.
• can handle clock rates of 125 MHz.
• Two twisted pairs per station are used,
– one to the hub and
– one from it.
• A scheme used is called 4B/5Bis (2 for sending 2 for receiving and 1 extra may be used for controlling).
• It is taken from FDDI and compatible with it.
• Five clock periods, each containing one of two signal values, yields 32 combinations.
• Clock synchronization is taken care by selecting proper combination of available 32 combinations.
• The 100Base-TX system is full duplex.
• 100Base-TX and 100Base-T4 are collectively referred to as 100Base-T.
100Base-FX:
• Uses two strands of multimode fiber.
• One for each direction.
• Is full duplex with 100 Mbps in each direction.
• In addition, the distance between a station and the hub can be up to 2 km.
• Limited to be used for SNA (Storage Network Architecture).
• Survived for 40 years and competed with developing and transiting technology.
100Base-T2:
• 100Base-T2 is allowing fast Ethernet to run over two pairs of existing category 3 wiring.
• However, a sophisticated digital signal processor is needed to handle the encoding scheme required.
• This option is fairly expensive.
• Rarely used due to its complexity, cost, and the fact that many office buildings have already been rewired with
category 5 UTP.
• Solution: EFM (Ethernet First Mile), Deployed as large networking solution, interconnecting continents. All
Ethernet connection from sender to receiver for first mile, use only Ethernet and then may opt for other option
for long distance coverage.
The DC Component of a signal:
DC component is the positive energy in signal.
DC Component can not pass through devices like transformers and thus avoided in transmission.
Reduction of DC component is an important aspect for data Communication.
A signal central around a positive value is equal to a signal centered at zero plus a positive continuous voltage signal
(DC Component).
C. Gigabit Ethernet:
Even faster Ethernet 1000 MHz (802.3z)
Full and Half Duplex operations.
Full duplex mode avoid collision and channel sensing. Use switch and support frame storage in switch buffers
to avoid collision.
If Half Duplex, hubs are used and have issues of collision.
Prefer switches with little additional cost.
Speed of 1 Gbps.
Only use UTP and Fiber Optics. Doesn‟t use co-ax as it uses dedicated cables for upstream and downstream
which is not supported by co-ax.
The 1000Base-CX option uses short shielded copper cables.
The 1000Base-T is bundles of four category 5 UTP wires working together.
New encoding scheme, called 8B/10B, was chosen, based on fibre channel. Each 8-bit byte is encoded on the
fiber as 10 bits, hence the name 8B/10B.
But rules are:
No codeword may have more than four identical bits in a row.
No codeword may have more than six 0s or six 1s.
A speed of 1 Gbps is quite fast.
Ethernet, buffer overruns are very likely.
Max
Name Cable Advantage
dist
1000Base-T Cat-5 or cat-5e or cat-6 100 m Cheapest solution.
1000Base-CX Balanced copper cabling 25 m More reliable than UTP.
Good choice for
1000Base-SX Multimode fiber 220 to 550 m connecting nearby
buildings or networks.
Good for connecting
1000Base-LX Multimode fiber 550 m
nearby buildings.
Good for long-haul
communication or
1000Base-LX Single-mode fiber 5 to 10 km
connecting larger set of
networks.
1000Base-BX10 Single strand having two
Single-mode single-strand fiber: communications in either
over 10 km
(Non-standard) 1490 –1310 nm upstream direction over a large
distance.
Preamble SOF Dest. Src. Add. Lngth Data Pad Checksum Extension
Add.
Classic Ethernet, Fast and Gigabit Ethernet working together has issue of speed miss match.
Performance miss match issue. Flow control possible only in full duplex.
Pause Frame: sent by receiver to sender to pause for time specified so that process Data, clean buffers and
get ready for next frame receiving cycle.
2 bits for pause op and 2 bits for indicating time to wait multiplied with 512.
D. 10Gb
Much faster Ethernet having variations 802.ae, ak, ap, an etc
Standard and non standard variants available which are not listed on table.
Backplane Ethernet:
Copper cable with short range not suitable for networking but used by bridges and switches
802.3ap.
Using 10G Base TX4 and 10G Base-KR.
Not standardized.
PAM-8, PAM-10, PAM-12 and PAM-16 work with 10Gbps. (PAM-5 excluded as it is working with Gigabit
Ethernet).
Explicit support for WAN: PAM-16 using 10BaseW (10GBase-SW, 10GBase-LW, 10GBase-EW and
10GBase-ZW).
10Gb connections
Name Cable Maximum Advantage Name
Distance
10G Base-SR Multi-mode 26–82 m Low cost and low power 10G Base-SR
10G Base-LR Single-mode fiber 10–25 km Expensive better distance 10G Base-LR
coverage
10G Base-ER Single-mode fiber 40 km Long reach 10G Base-ER
10G Base-T IEEE UTP or STP cat-6 or 55 m with cat-6 Auto negotiation with 10G Base-T IEEE
802.3an cat-6a and 100 m with 1000 Base-T possible 802.3an
cat-6a
Auto Negotiation:
10 Mbps when realize that other end is capable of working at 100 Mbps, it automatically start operating at 100
Mbps.
Even Gigabit Cards can work upon all 3 speeds, 10/100/1000.
This is process of capability negotiation which is done without user‟s intervention.
User can upgrade without worry of compatibility with communicating networks.
Can boost speed and performance is used with switch.
LLC Layer:
Content of frame is not determined by MAC header, so it is provided by LLC (Logical Link Layer).
LLC Jobs:
o Hides MAC address from Network Layer.
Asst. Prof. Riddhi Joshi
Page 17
Chapter 6: Book 2 : Medium Access Sublayer
NAV:
• The neighbours are also involved.
• They observe the duration value and remain silent for that time.
• Similarly neighbours of the receiver also learn that the receiver is about to receive a frame, so they too enter
into silent mode fro time till receiver sends back an acknowledgement.
• Silent mode is referred as NAV (Network Allocation Vector) mode.
Fragments in 802.11:
Transmission across
Disassociation,
Distribution various networks, Data transmission
integration, relocation
either wired or wireless
Transmission across an
Integration Ethernet network Distribution Disassociation, relocation
Disassociation,
Sender moves from one
Relocation Association distribution, integration,
AP area to another
relocation
Sender logs out from
De- Authenticated Disassociate
its authenticated
authentication
account
Node going out of
Disassociate range or AP going Association Associate
down for maintenance
802.11Frame:
Frame Control:
• Two bytes (16 bits) length
• Protocol version, current 0.
• Type of Frame: 1st Control, 2nd Management and 3rd Data.
• Subtypes:
– Control types : RTS, CTS, ACK.
– Management types: beacon, authentication, de-authentication, association, dis association, re
association, etc.
– Data: Data.
• To AP and From AP: where the frame is coming and going. Used for inter and intra cell communication.
• More flag: indicates More Fragments expected in DCF mode.
• Retry: To eliminate duplication, frame indicates that this frame is sent again.
• Power Management: wireless transmission handles battery low situation. After completion of transmission,
device enters into power save or sleep mode.
• More Data: indicates if current transmission is over or not.
• W: whether WEP (Wired Equivalence Privacy) is implemented or not.
• O: indicates whether frames are to be processed in ORDER or not.
• Duration: RTS, CTS an NAV process based on this duration observation.
• DSS BSS and 4 Address Fields:
– Wireless area having 1 access point is called cell or BSS (Basic Service Set).
– There is a need of interconnection between two cells (AP) for forwarding packets if not in range.
– This network becomes distributed and denotes DSS (Distributed Service Set).
– We need 4 addresses here to manage inter-cell and intra-cell transmission.
– Issue here: conversion of wired to wireless and wireless to wired frames.
• Sequence: Sq no. Is allocated to individual frame and fragment.
• Payload: carries network layer data like IP datagram, max size is 2312 but usually kept 1500 for compatibility
with ethernet.
• CRC: most important in wireless medium as error rate is very high, same method as Ethernet.
Q.Wireless Broadband(802.16):
• WiMax(Wireless for Microwave Access) is slang(informal word). It is a name of alliance(group) of vendors,
IEEE name is 802.16
• 802.16d for Fixed Wireless
• 802.16e included mobility (latest standard)
• Proved useful in case of calamities
Wireless Broadband Protocol Sub-layers:
• Two capabilities, fixed WiMax and Mobile WiMax.
• Better bandwidth and long distance support.
• OFDMA are used as physical layer in wireless broadband.
• Channel continuously examine noise level and decides which modulation scheme should be used, QAM-64,
QPSK, BPSK(Binary PSK).
• Fixed broadband uses LOC service provides maximum bandwidth.
• MIMO(multiple input multiple output), uses multiple antennas for multi stream transmission in parallel to get
better bandwidth.
802.16 sub-layer Functionality Layer
There is a device called layer-2 switch which is more popular today which functions in similar fashion as a bridge
but having many to many connections rather than one to one in the bridge.
Both of them use MAC Layer as the connecting points.
Why we need a connecting devices as the data link layer.
o When organization has multiple LANs, administrator needs to join them for information sharing.
o If two nodes are apart by more than 2500m in an Ethernet, then they cannot become a part of single
network. For such requirement we need to connect LANs.
o One may want to abolish all the networks and have a single network where all can share data with anyone.
o Employees are scared of viruses and want their machines maintained well.
o When two networks are of different types, eg. Wired and Wireless, we need a communicating device as a
mediator between the two networks.
o Bridges can even detect malicious traffic and stop them.
o A Virus on one network can be confined to that network only using a bridge.
o One can use TCPDUMP to spoof the entire network.
o We can have different policies like „nobody can access accounts data except his or her own salary
accounts.
o Some networks consume more load than others. Eg. R&D (Research and Development) Department. They
may starve other users for bandwidth as they eat away 80% of bandwidth.
o Broadcasting is used by lot of application layer protocols. This is not limited to single network, it will
create serious traffic overflow in network.
Two options are available: 1) Bridge (Physical Connectivity) and 2) VLAN (Logical Connectivity).
Networks can also be connected in a logical way which is simpler and easier for a user, but cumbersome for an
administrator to manage.
Solution is called Virtual LAN.
In Virtual LAN, irrespective of where a node is situated, it can be a part of the network it wants to be.
A student with his laptop can get connected to the campus network from any place.
Virtual LAN is useful for two important purpose:
o Irrespective of the physical location, a user can be a part of any of his network.
o User receives anything that is broadcasted in his own network.
A Virtual LAN is a LAN where the machines, without physical proximity, can be a member of a LAN.
The machine that changes its network just needs to change its membership status which is indicated by different
color and size and VLAN tags in actual sense.
In a VLAN, a node can decide the network it belongs to and inform the switch accordingly.
An accountant of some department may go and sit in accounts department of the company in the month of March
and come back in middle of April.
This is done by having switches which are capable of understanding both, physical connections and logical
network they belong to.
Thus, VLAN aware switch remembers that port 1 belongs to network A, port 2 belongs to network B and so on.
These switches are configurable such that, a sure can indicate that earlier port-1 belongs to Network B and now it
belongs to Network A.
Manageable switches are the ones which are locally or remotely configurable.
A user will remotely login to a switch and change the port and other information from his machine.
Manageable switches are usually VLAN aware.
Virtual LAN. The switches are VLAN-aware. If node ‘b’ wants to join network A, it can do so without
relocating. The node informs the switch which does the needful by changing a table resident in its memory.
Standard: 802.1Q
VLAN protocol ID: Fixed. 0x8100.
VLAN tag: Also provides additional information about VLAN
Only 2 extra fields are added to VLAN enabled Headers. Others are same as Ethernet.
The cards that understands this new Header is known as VLAN-Aware Cards.
Usually switches contain such cards.
Priority: Indicates that it contains priority value which is not concerned with VLAN
CFI: Canonical Format Indicator, expecting fixed format.
VLAN Identifier: It identifies VLAN uniquely.
See figure on next page.
VLAN Operations:
A VLAN operation starts when frame arrives at the first VLAN aware switches or bridge.
Fames add VLAN PID and also tag information in the frame.
If machine do not have VLAN aware card, then switch should attach that information before forwarding.
First way to keep the information of configuration table using MAC address.
MSTP: Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol in 802.1Q can work like spanning tree in normal LAN. This protocol
can block alternate path between any two VLANs, keeping only one path open to avoid loops. This protocol is
backward compatible fully and can work with legacy Ethernet Bridges and Switches.
Maximum frame size is extended to 1522
All machines belong to a unique virtual LAN
Otherwise the switch should add VLAN tag
VLAN aware switches
MAC, IP Address or Port number can be used as a separator
Not good from purist point of view
MSTP to avoid loops
1. Give specifications of various Ethernet Cabling. Discuss about Fast Ethernet in brief.[7]
2. What is the importance of RTS and CTS in the wireless transmission?[3]
3. Explain Carrier Sense Multiple Access protocol with persistent and non-persistent scenarios.[4]
4. Differentiate between half duplex and full duplex channel.[1]
5. What is the major difference between a hub and a switch?[1]
6. Differentiate between wireless and mobile systems with example[5]
7. Explain a) Hidden Station Problem b) Exposed Station Problem with respect to wireless networks.[4]
8. Differentiate between non persistent, 1 persistent and p persistent CSMA/CA.[4]
9. Write a note on: Binary Exponential Back-off Algorithm[4]
10. What is the use of Network Allocation Vector in CSMA/CA?[3]
11. Four service classes in 802.16[4]
12. Dividing MAC networking stack in sub layers[4]
13. Manchester Encoding[1]
14. Frequency division multiplexing[2]
15. Give two important differences between QPSK and QAM 64[3]
16. Why sliding window protocols are called so?[3]
17. Why was slotted Aloha through put was double than normal Aloha?[3]
18. List two types of frames needed by 802.16[2]
19. What is the need for security sub layer in 802.11?[3]
20. List what services Integration and Distribution does for 802.11[3]
21. Why was Manchester Encoding chosen for first version of Ethernet?[3]
22. Explain how fragmentations are managed in 802.11[3]
23. Write any two reasons for introducing 802.16 even when 802.11 was around and successful[3]