Chapter 4

Local Area Networks

4.1 Components & Technology
4.2 Access Technique
CSMA/CD
CSMA/CA
Token Passing
4.3 Transmission Protocol
NetBEUI
NwLink (IPX/SPX) suit
TCP/IP
4.4 Transmission Media.
There are protocols at various levels in the OSI
model. In fact, it is the protocols at a level in the OSI
model that provide the functionality of that level.

How protocols work –

A protocol is a set of basic steps that both parties (or
computers) must perform in the right order. For
instance, for one computer to send a message to
another computer, the first computer must perform
the following steps -
 How protocols work

1. Break the data into small sections called ‘Packets’

2. Add addressing information to the packets identifying the
destination computer.
3. Deliver the data to the network card for transmission over
the network.
The receiving computer must perform the same steps, but in
reverse order :
1. Accept the data from the network adapter card.
2. Remove the transmitting information that was added by the
transmitting computer.
3. Reassemble the packets of data into the original message.
 Protocol Stack
Protocols that work together to provide a layer or layers of
the OSI model are known as ‘Protocol Stack or Suit’. A
protocol stack (sometimes communications stack)
is a particular software implementation of a computer
networking protocol suite. The terms are often used
interchangeably. Strictly speaking, the suite is the
definition of the protocols, and the stack is the
software implementation of them.
The term stack also refers to the actual software that
processes the protocols. So, for example, programmers
sometimes talk about loading a stack, which means to
load the software required to use a specific set of
protocols. Another common phrase is binding a stack,
which refers to linking a set of network protocols to a
network interface card (NIC). Every NIC must have at
least one stack bound to it.
In Windows, the TCP/IP stack is implemented by the
Winsock DLL
Windows Socket, an API for
developing Windows programs that
can communicate with other
machines via the TCP/IP protocol.
Windows 95 and Windows NT comes
with Dynamic Link Library (DLL)
called winsock.dll that implements
the API and acts as the glue
between Windows programs and
TCP/IP connections.
 ISDN's connection control protocol,

H.245 is a control channel protocol used with[in] e.g. H.323

and H.324 communication sessions, and involves the line
transmission of non-telephone signals. It also offers the
possibility to be tunneled within H.225.0 call signaling
messages. This eases firewall traversing.

The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), RTP Control

Protocol (RTCP), Remote Access Services (RAS)
 Routing
The process of moving information from one LAN to
another over one or more paths between LANs is
called ‘routing’.
Protocols that support multipath LAN-to-LAN
communications are called ‘routable protocols.’
 Microsoft – Supplied Network Protocol

Microsoft networking products come with three

network transports –
 NetBEUI
 NWLink
 TCP/IP
NetBEUI is intended for small, single-server
networks.
NWLink is intended for medium-sized networks or for
networks that require access to Novell Netware file
servers.
TCP/IP is a complex transport sufficient for globe-
spanning networks such as the Internet.
NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI) is a
protocol used primarily on small Windows NT networks.

NetBEUI is a simple protocol that lacks many of the

features that enable protocol suites such as TCP/IP to
be used on networks of almost any size.

NetBEUI was developed for workgroups of 2 to 200

computers. NetBEUI cannot be routed between
networks, so it is constrained to small local area
networks consisting of Microsoft and IBM clients &
servers.
A workgroup is Microsoft's terminology
for a peer-to-peer Windows computer
network.[1]
Microsoft operating systems in the same
workgroup may allow each other access to
their files, printers, or Internet connection.
Members of different workgroups on the
same local area network and TCP/IP
network can only access resources in
workgroups to which they are joined.
Workgroups can be used only if Microsoft
Network is enabled.
NetBEUI has a number of advantages including : -
High speed on small networks
Ability to handle more than 254 sessions
Ease of implementation
Good error protection
Self-tuning features
NetBEUI has these disadvantages : -
It cannot be routed between networks
There are few tools for NetBEUI such as protocol analyzers
It offers very little cross-platform support.
NWLink is Microsoft implementation of Novell’s
IPX/SPX Protocol Stack, used in Novell Netware.
NWLink is IPX for windows NT. IPX is the protocol,
NWLink is the network component that provides the
protocol.
(Novell Netware was one of the first commercial
Network operating system. Unlike Windows & Unix,
Netware is a dedicated client/Server operating system,
meaning that Netware servers contain no client
capabilities & Netware clients communicate only with
servers not with each other.)
To Provide transport services for the Netware Operating
system, Novell created its own suit of Protocols, usually
referred to by the name of network – layer protocol :
IPX or Internetwork Packet Exchange
As a parallel to TCP/IP, the suit is also sometimes called
IPX/SPX, which adds a reference to the Sequenced
Packet Exchange (SPX).
IPX/SPX is the network protocol used by Novell
Netware clients to connect to Netware servers. If your
network contains Netware servers, you may wish to use
this protocol.
IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange)

Novell’s main network layer protocol is IPX. IPX

protocol is similar to IP. Both protocol use a
connectionless (Unreliable protocol at N/W layer)
services.
Like IP,IPX is responsible for addressing
datagrams & routing them to their destination on
other N/W.
IPX provides basic connectionless transport between
systems on an internetwork, it either broadcast or
unicast transmission. Most of the standard traffic
between Netware Servers & between Clients & servers
is carried with IPX datagram.
The header on an IPX datagram is 30 bytes.
 SPX (Sequenced Packet Exchange)

SPX operates at the transport layer & provides a

connection-oriented, reliable service with flow control &
packet sequencing, much like TCP in the TCP/IP protocol
suit.
This protocol is concerned with addressing segment
development (division & combination), & connection
service (segment sequencing, error control & end-
to-end flow control.)
SPX provides connection-oriented packet delivery & is
used when IPX datagram packet delivery is not reliable
enough. Packet that arrive at their destination correctly
are acknowledged. If the receiving system does no
acknowledge the packet, that packet must be
retransmitted.
TCP/IP is the Transmission Control Protocol &
Internet Protocol, as well as a suite of related
protocols developed by the department of Defenses
Advanced Projects Research Agency.
TCP/IP is by far the most widely used protocol for
interconnecting computers & it is the protocol of the
Internet.
Advantages of TCP/IP include the following –
Broad connectivity among all types of computers &
servers.
Direct access to global Internet
Strong support for routing
 Simple Network Management Protocol Support
(SNMP).
Support for most other Internet Protocol, such
as POP, HTTP, & so on.

If you have a network that spans more than one

metropolitan area, you will probably need to use
TCP/IP. It is routable over wide, complex networks
& provides more error correction than any other
protocol.
TCP/IP has some disadvantage –
Difficult to setup
Relatively high overhead to support seamless
connectivity & routing
Slower speed than IPX & NetBEUI
TCP/IP is the slowest of all the protocol included
with windows NT.
Media Access Control : -
The media access control (MAC) mechanism is one of
the protocol’s primary defining elements.
IEEE 802.11 defines the use of a MAC mechanism
called ‘Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)’
The difference in CSMA/CD is that systems
attempt to avoid collisions in the first place by
reserving bandwidth in advance.
This is done by specifying a value in the Duration/ID
field or using specialized control messages called
‘request-to-send (RTS)’ & ‘Clear-to-send (CTS)’.
The carrier sense part of the transmission process
occurs on two levels, the physical & the virtual.
The Physical carrier sense mechanism is specific to the
physical – layer medium the network is using & is
equivalent to the carrier sense performed by Ethernet
systems.
The virtual carrier sense mechanism, called a ‘network
allocation vector’ (NAV) involves the transmission of an
RTS frame by the system with data to transmit, & a
response from the intended recipient in the form of a
CTS frame.
Both of these frames have a value in Duration/ID field
that specifies the amount of time needed for the
sender to transmit the forthcoming data frame and
receive an acknowledgement (ACK) frame in return.
This message exchange essentially reserves the
network medium for the life of this particular
transaction, which is where the collision avoidance
part of the mechanism comes in.
Since both the RTS & CTS(Request to Send / Clear
to Send) messages contain the Duration/ID field
value, any other system on the network receiving
either one of the two observes the reservation and
refrains from trying to transmit its own data during
that time interval.
In addition, the RTS/CTS exchange also enables a
station to more easily determine if communication
with the intended recipient is possible. If the sender of
an RTS frame fails to receive a CTS frame form the
recipient in return, it retransmits the RTS frame
repeatedly, until a pre-established timeout is reached.
Retransmitting the brief RTS message is much quicker
than retransmitting large data frames, which shortens
the entire process.
Token Ring is the traditional alternative to the Ethernet
protocol at the data-link layer. Token ring was originally
developed by IBM.
The biggest difference between Token Ring and Ethernet
is the Media Access Control mechanism. To transmit its
data, a workstation must be the holder of the ‘token’, a
special packet circulated to each node on the network in
turn. Only the system in possession of the token can
transmit, after which it passes the token to the next
system.
This eliminates all possibility of collisions in a properly
functioning network, as well as the need for a collision –
detection mechanism.
The nodes on a Token Ring network are connected in a
ring topology. Access to the network medium on a
token ring network is through the use of a 3byte packet
known as the ‘token’.
When the network is idle, the workstations are said to
be in ‘bit repeat mode’, awaiting an incoming
transmission. The token circulates continuously around
the ring, from node to node, until it reaches a
workstation that has data to transmit.
To transmit its data, the workstation modifies a single
‘monitor setting bit’ in the token to reflect that the
network is busy and sends it to the next workstation,
followed immediately by its data packet.
The packet also circulates around the ring. Each node
reads the destination address in the packet’s frame
header and either writes the packet to its memory buffer
for processing before transmitting it to the next node or
just transmits it without processing.
In this way, the packet reaches every node on the
network until it arrives back at the workstation that
originally sent it.
On the receipt of the packet after it has traversed the
ring, the sending node compares the incoming data with
the data it originally transmitted, to see if any errors have
occurred during transmission.
If error have occurred, the computer retransmits the
packet. If no errors have occurred, the computer
removes the packet from the network & discard it, &
then changes monitor setting bit back to its free
state & transmits it.
The process is then repeated with each system
having an equal chance to transmit.