Ethernet Frame Types

• There are three Ethernet frame types that TCP/IP can use:

– Ethernet II

– Ethernet 802.2 Logical Link Control (LLC)

– Ethernet 802.2 Sub-Network Access Protocol (SNAP)

 Ethernet II Frame Structure
• The Ethernet II frame type consists of the following values, fields,
and structure:

– Preamble

– Destination Address field

– Source Address field

– Type field

– Data field

– Frame Check Sequence field

Ethernet II Frame Structure
Ethernet II Frame Structure
Preamble
• The preamble is eight bytes long and consists of alternating ones and zeroes

• This special string of bits precedes the actual Ethernet frame itself, and is not counted
as part of the overall frame length

Destination Address Field

• The Destination Address field is six bytes long and indicates the data link address (also
referred to as the hardware address or MAC address) of the destination IP host

• The destination address may be broadcast, multicast, or unicast

 Ethernet II Frame Structure
Source Address Field

• The Source Address field is six bytes long and indicates the
sender’s hardware address

• This field can only contain a unicast address—it cannot contain a

broadcast or multicast address

Type Field
• The Type field is two bytes long and identifies the protocol that is
using this frame type
Assigned Protocol Types (by Number)
 Ethernet II Frame Structure
Frame Check Sequence Field

• The Frame Check Sequence field is four bytes long and includes
the result of the CRC calculation

• Upon receipt of an Ethernet II frame, an IP host checks the validity

of the contents by performing a CRC check on its contents, and
comparing the result to the value contained in the Frame Check
Sequence field

• At the Data Link layer, the frame is examined to determine the

actual destination address (broadcast, multicast, or unicast)
Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure
• Figure 3-2 depicts the format of an Ethernet 802.2 Logical Link
Control (LLC) frame
• The Ethernet 802.2 LLC frame type consists of the following fields:
– Preamble
– Start Frame Delimiter (SFD) field
– Destination Address field
– Source Address field
– Length field
– Destination Service Access Point (DSAP) field
– Source Service Access Point (SSAP) field
– Control field
– Data field
– Frame Check Sequence (FCS) field
 Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure
Preamble

• This preamble does not end in consecutive ones

Start Frame Delimiter (SFD) Field

• The 1-byte SFD field consists of the pattern 10101011 and indicates the
start of the Destination Address field

Length Field

• The 2-byte Length field indicates the number of bytes in the data portion of
the frame
• This frame does not use a Type field in this location—it uses a Service
Access Point (SAP) field to indicate the upcoming protocol
 Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure
Destination Service Access Point (DSAP) Field

• This 1-byte field indicates the destination protocol

• Table 3-2 lists some of the assigned SAP numbers (defined by the
IEEE)
Source Service Access Point (SSAP) Field

• This 1-byte field indicates the source protocol (typically the same as
the destination protocol)
Assigned SAP Numbers
Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure

Control Field

• This 1-byte field indicates whether this frame is unnumbered

format (connections) or informational/supervisory format (for
connection-oriented and management purposes)

Ethernet SNAP Frame Structure

• RFC 1042, “A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams

over IEEE 802 Networks,” specifies how IP traffic should be
encapsulated to 802.2 LLC frames that include the Sub-Network
Access Protocol (SNAP) portion
 Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure

Ethernet SNAP Frame Structure

• Although Windows 2000 defaults to transmitting IP and ARP

communications over the Ethernet II frame type, you can edit the
Registry to support transmission of IP and ARP over the Ethernet
802.2 SNAP frame structure by adding the ArpUseEtherSNAP
Registry setting, as listed in Table 3-3.
ArpUseEtherSNAP Registry Setting
 Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure
Ethernet SNAP Frame
Structure
• The Registry entry
ArpUseEtherSNAP
must be set to 1 to
enable use of the
Ethernet 802.2 SNAP
frame format for IP
and ARP traffic over
Ethernet
• Figure 3-3 depicts the
format of an Ethernet
SNAP frame
 Ethernet 802.2 LLC Frame Structure
Organization Code Field

• This 3-byte field identifies the organization that assigned the

Ethernet type number used in the Ether Type field that follows

Ether Type Field

• The 2-byte Ether Type field indicates the network protocol that is
using this Ethernet SNAP frame format