WIRED LANs

1. IEEE Project 802

 In 1985, the Computer Society of the IEEE started a project, called Project 802, to set
standards to enable intercommunication among equipment from a variety of
manufacturers.
 The IEEE has subdivided the data-link layer into two sublayers: logical link control
(LLC) and media access control (MAC). IEEE has also created several physical-layer
standards for different LAN protocols.

Logical Link Control (LLC)

 In IEEE Project 802, flow control, error control, and part of the framing duties are
collected into one sublayer called the logical link control(LLC).
 Framing is handled in both the LLC sublayer and the MAC sublayer.
 The LLC provides a single link-layer control protocol for all IEEE LANs.
Media Access Control (MAC)
IEEE Project 802 has created a sublayer called media access control that defines the specific
access method for each LAN. For example, it defines CSMA/CD as the media access method for
Ethernet LANs and defines the token-passing method for Token Ring and Token Bus LANs.

Ethernet Evolution

2. STANDARD ETHERNET

 We refer to the original Ethernet technology with the data rate of 10 Mbps as the
Standard Ethernet.
 Characteristics:
◦ Connectionless and Unreliable Service

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 ◦ Frame Format
◦ Frame Length
Connectionless
 Ethernet provides a connectionless service, which means each frame sent is independent
of the previous or next frame.
 The sender sends a frame whenever it has it; the receiver may or may not be ready for it.
The sender may overwhelm the receiver with frames, which may result in dropping
frames.
 If a frame drops, the sender will not know about it. Since IP, which is using the service of
Ethernet, is also connectionless, it will not know about it either.
Unreliable service
 Ethernet is also unreliable like IP and UDP.
 If a frame is corrupted during trans- mission and the receiver finds out about the
corruption, which has a high level of probability of happening because of the CRC-32,
the receiver drops the frame silently. It is the duty of high-level protocols to find out
about it.

Frame Format

 Preamble. This field contains 7 bytes (56 bits) of alternating 0s and 1s that alert the
receiving system to the coming frame and enable it to synchronize its clock if it’s out of
synchronization. The pattern provides only an alert and a timing pulse. The preamble is
actually added at the physical layer and is not (formally) part of the frame.
 Start frame delimiter (SFD). This field (1 byte: 10101011) signals the beginning of the
frame. The SFD warns the station or stations that this is the last chance for
synchronization. The last 2 bits are (11) 2 and alert the receiver that the next field is the
destination address.
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  Destination address (DA). This field is six bytes (48 bits) and contains the link layer
address of the destination station or stations to receive the packet
 Source address (SA). This field is also six bytes and contains the link-layer address of the
sender of the packet.
 Type. This field defines the upper-layer protocol whose packet is encapsulated in the
frame. This protocol can be IP, ARP, OSPF, and so on.
 Data. This field carries data encapsulated from the upper-layer protocols. It is a minimum
of 46 and a maximum of 1500 bytes. If the data coming from the upper layer is more than
1500 bytes, it should be fragmented and encapsulated in more than one frame. If it is less
than 46 bytes, it needs to be padded with extra 0s.
 CRC. The last field contains error detection information, in this case a CRC-32. The CRC
is calculated over the addresses, types, and data field. If the receiver calculates the CRC
and finds that it is not zero (corruption in transmission), it discards the frame.

Frame Length
An Ethernet frame needs to have a minimum length of 512 bits or 64 bytes. Part of this length is
the header and the trailer. If we count 18 bytes of header and trailer (6 bytes of source address, 6
bytes of destination address, 2 bytes of length or type, and 4 bytes of CRC), then the minimum
length of data from the upper layer is 64 − 18 = 46 bytes. If the upper-layer packet is less than 46
bytes, padding is added to make up the difference.

ADDRESSING
Each station on an Ethernet network (such as a PC, workstation, or printer) has its own network
interface card (NIC). The NIC fits inside the station and provides the station with a link-layer
address.
For example, the following shows an Ethernet MAC address:
4A:30:10:21:10:1A

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  The efficiency of the Ethernet is defined as the ratio of the time used by a station to send
data to the time the medium is occupied by this station.
Efficiency = 1 / (1 + 6.4 * a)
where “a” is the number of frames that can fit on the medium.
a = (propagation delay)/(transmission delay)

10Base5: Thick Ethernet

 10Base5 was the first Ethernet specification to use a bus topology with an external
transceiver (transmitter/receiver) connected via a tap to a thick coaxial cable.

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  The transceiver is responsible for transmitting, receiving, and detecting collisions. The
transceiver is connected to the station via a transceiver cable that provides separate paths
for sending and receiving. This means that collision can only happen in the coaxial cable.
 The maximum length of the coaxial cable must not exceed 500 m, otherwise, there is
excessive degradation of the signal. If a length of more than 500 m is needed, up to five
segments, each a maximum of 500 meters, can be connected using repeaters.

10Base2: Thin Ethernet

10Base2 also uses a bus topology, but the cable is much thinner and more flexible. The cable can
be bent to pass very close to the stations.

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10Base-T: Twisted-Pair Ethernet
The third implementation is called 10Base-T or twisted-pair Ethernet. 10Base-T uses a physical
star topology. The stations are connected to a hub via two pairs of twisted cable.

The maximum length of the twisted cable here is defined as 100 m, to minimize the effect of
attenuation in the twisted cable.

10Base-F: Fiber Ethernet

Although there are several types of optical fiber 10-Mbps Ethernet, the most common is called
10Base-F. 10Base-F uses a star topology to connect stations to a hub. The stations are connected
to the hub using two fiber-optic cables.

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Changes in the Standard

i. Bridged Ethernet

ii. Switched Ethernet

3. FAST ETHERNET (100 MBPS)

The goals of Fast Ethernet can be summarized as follows:

1. Upgrade the data rate to 100 Mbps.
2. Make it compatible with Standard Ethernet.
3. Keep the same 48-bit address.
4. Keep the same frame format.

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  Autonegotiation. A new feature added to Fast Ethernet is called autonegotiation.
Autonegotiation allows two devices to negotiate the mode or data rate of operation. It
was designed particularly to allow incompatible devices to connect to one another. It was
designed particularly for these purposes:
❑ To allow incompatible devices to connect to one another. For example, a device with a
maximum capacity of 10 Mbps can communicate with a device with a 100 Mbps capacity
(but which can work at a lower rate).
❑To allow one device to have multiple capabilities.
❑To allow a station to check a hub’s capabilities.

4. GIGABIT ETHERNET
The IEEE committee calls it the Standard 802.3z. The goals of the Gigabit Ethernet design can
be summarized as follows:
1. Upgrade the data rate to 1 Gbps.
2. Make it compatible with Standard or Fast Ethernet.380
3. Use the same 48-bit address.
4. Use the same frame format.
5. Keep the same minimum and maximum frame lengths.
6. Support autonegotiation as defined in Fast Ethernet.

 To achieve a data rate of 1 Gbps, MAC sublayer was touched.

 Gigabit Ethernet has two distinctive approaches for medium access: half-duplex and full-
duplex.
Full-Duplex Mode
In full-duplex mode, there is a central switch connected to all computers or other switches. In
this mode, for each input port, each switch has buffers in which data are stored until they are
transmitted.
In the full-duplex mode of Gigabit Ethernet, there is no collision; the maximum length of the
cable is determined by the signal attenuation in the cable.
Half-Duplex Mode
The half-duplex approach uses CSMA/CD.
 Gigabit Ethernet is designed to connect two or more stations. If there are only two
stations, they can be connected point-to-point. Three or more stations need to be
connected in a star topology with a hub or a switch at the center.

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  Gigabit Ethernet can be categorized as either a two-wire or a four-wire implementation.
 The two-wire implementations use fiber-optic cable (1000Base-SX, short-wave, or
1000Base-LX, long-wave), or STP (1000Base-CX).
 The four-wire version uses category 5 twisted-pair cable (1000Base-T).

5. 10 GIGABIT ETHERNET
 The IEEE committee created 10 Gigabit Ethernet and called it Standard 802.3ae.
 The goals of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet design can be summarized as upgrading the data rate
to 10 Gbps, keeping the same frame size and format, and allowing the interconnection of
LANs, MANs, and WAN possible.
 This data rate is possible only with fiber-optic technology.
 The standard defines two types of physical layers: LAN PHY and WAN PHY. The first is
designed to support existing LANs; the second actually defines a WAN.
 10 Gigabit Ethernet operates only in full-duplex mode.
 CSMA/CD is not used in 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
 Four implementations are the most common: 10GBase-SR, 10GBase-LR, 10GBase-EW,
and 10GBase-X4.

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 WIRELESS LANs

COMPARISION OF WIRED AND WIRELESS LANs

Wired LAN Wireless LAN
Medium Wires Air
Hosts host is always connected to its host is not physically connected
network physically at a point to the network
Isolated LANs A wired isolated LAN is a set of A wireless isolated LAN, called
hosts connected via a link-layer an ad hoc network in wireless
switch LAN terminology, is a set of
hosts that communicate freely
with each other.
Connection to Other It can be connected to another A wireless LAN may be
Networks network or an internetwork such connected to a wired
as the Internet infrastructure network,
using a router. to a wireless infrastructure
network, or to another wireless
LAN.

CHARACTERISTICS:
 Attenuation: The strength of electromagnetic signals decreases rapidly because the signal
disperses in all directions; only a small portion of it reaches the receiver. The situation
becomes worse with mobile senders that operate on batteries and normally have small
power supplies.
 Interference: Another issue is that a receiver may receive signals not only from the
intended sender, but also from other senders if they are using the same frequency band.
 Multipath Propagation: A receiver may receive more than one signal from the same
sender because electromagnetic waves can be reflected back from obstacles such as
walls, the ground, or objects.The result is that the receiver receives some signals at
different phases (because they travel different paths). This makes the signal less
recognizable.
 Error: The error level is the measurement of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). If SNR is high,
it means that the signal is stronger than the noise (unwanted signal), so we may be able to
convert the signal to actual data. On the other hand, when SNR is low, it means that the
signal is corrupted by the noise and the data cannot be recovered.

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Access Control
The CSMA/CD algorithm does not work in wireless LANs for three reasons:
1. To detect a collision, a host needs to send and receive at the same time (sending the frame
and receiving the collision signal), which means the host needs to work in a duplex mode.
Wireless hosts do not have enough power to do so (the power is supplied by batteries).
They can only send or receive at one time.
2. Because of the hidden station problem, in which a station may not be aware of another
station’s transmission due to some obstacles or range problems, collision may occur but
not be detected.

3. The distance between stations can be great. Signal fading could prevent a station at one
end from hearing a collision at the other end.

To overcome the above three problems, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision
Avoidance (CSMA/CA) was invented for wireless LANs

802.11 Architecture

 The standard defines two kinds of services: the basic service set (BSS) and the extended
service set (ESS).
Basic Service Set
 A basic service set is made of stationary or mobile wireless stations and an optional
central base station, known as the access point (AP).
 The BSS without an AP is a stand-alone network and cannot send data to other BSSs. It is
called an ad hoc architecture.
 A BSS with an AP is sometimes referred to as an infrastructure BSS.

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Extended Service Set
 An extended service set (ESS) is made up of two or more BSSs with APs.
 The distribution system connects the APs in the BSSs.
 The extended service set uses two types of stations: mobile and stationary. The mobile
stations are normal stations inside a BSS. The stationary stations are AP stations that are
part of a wired LAN.
 Communication between a station in a BSS and the outside BSS occurs via the AP.

 IEEE 802.11 defines three types of stations based on their mobility in a wireless LAN:
no-transition, BSS-transition, and ESS-transition mobility.
 A station with no-transition mobility is either stationary (not moving) or moving only
inside a BSS.
 A station with BSS-transition mobility can move from one BSS to another, but the
movement is confined inside one ESS.
 A station with ESS-transition mobility can move from one ESS to another.
 IEEE 802.11 defines two MAC sublayers: the distributed coordination function (DCF)
and point coordination function (PCF).
Distributed Coordination Function
 DCF uses CSMA/CA as the access method.

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 Frame Exchange Time Line:Figure 15.7 shows the exchange of data and control
frames in time.
1. Before sending a frame, the source station senses the medium by checking the
energy level at the carrier frequency.
a. The channel uses a persistence strategy with backoff until the channel is
idle.
b. After the station is found to be idle, the station waits for a period of time
called the distributed interframe space (DIFS); then the station sends a control
frame called the request to send (RTS).
2. space (SIFS), the destination station sends a control frame, called the clear to
send (CTS), to the source station. This control frame indicates that the destination
station is ready to receive data.
3. The source station sends data after waiting an amount of time equal to SIFS.
4. The destination station, after waiting an amount of time equal to SIFS, sends an
acknowledgment to show that the frame has been received.

Point Coordination Function (PCF)

 The point coordination function (PCF) is an optional access method that can be
implemented in an infrastructure network (not in an ad hoc network).
 It is implemented on top of the DCF and is used mostly for time-sensitive transmission.
 PCF has a centralized, contention-free polling access method.
 The AP performs polling for stations that are capable of being polled.
 The stations are polled one after another, sending any data they have to the AP.
 To give priority to PCF over DCF, another interframe space, PIFS, has been defined. PIFS
(PCF IFS) is shorter than DIFS. This means that if, at the same time, a station wants to use
only DCF and an AP wants to use PCF, the AP has priority.
 A repetition interval has been designed to cover both contention-free PCF and contention-
based DCF traffic.

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 The repetition interval, which is repeated continuously, starts with a special control frame,
called a beacon frame.
 When the stations hear the beacon frame, they start their NAV for the duration of the
contention-free period of the repetition interval.

FRAME FORMAT OF WIRELESS LAN

 Frame control (FC). The FC field is 2 bytes long and defines the type of frame and some
control information. Table 15.1 describes the subfields.
 D. This field defines the duration of the transmission that is used to set the value of NAV.
In one control frame, it defines the ID of the frame.
 Addresses. There are four address fields, each 6 bytes long. The meaning of each address
field depends on the value of the To DS and From DS subfields.
 Sequence control. This field, often called the SC field, defines a 16-bit value. The first
four bits define the fragment number; the last 12 bits define the sequence number, which
is the same in all fragments.
 Frame body. This field, which can be between 0 and 2312 bytes, contains information
based on the type and the subtype defined in the FC field.
 FCS. The FCS field is 4 bytes long and contains a CRC-32 error-detection sequence.
Frame Types

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A wireless LAN defined by IEEE 802.11 has three categories of frames: management
frames(Management frames are used for the initial communication between stations and access
points.), control frames, and data frames(Data frames are used for carrying data and control
information.).

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 BLUETOOTH(IEEE 802.15)
 Bluetooth is a wireless LAN technology designed to connect devices of different
functions such as telephones, notebooks, computers (desktop and laptop), cameras,
printers, and even coffee makers when they are at a short distance from each other.
 A Bluetooth LAN is an ad hoc network, which means that the network is formed
spontaneously.
 Today, Bluetooth technology is the implementation of a protocol defined by the IEEE
802.15 standard.

Architecture
 Piconets. A piconet can have up to eight stations, one of which is called the primary;
the rest are called secondaries. All the secondary stations synchronize their clocks and
hopping sequence with the primary. Note that a piconet can have only one primary
station. The communication between the primary and secondary stations can be one-
to-one or one-to-many. Although a piconet can have a maximum of seven
secondaries, additional secondaries can be in the parked state. A secondary in a
parked state is synchronized with the primary, but cannot take part in communication
until it is moved from the parked state to the active state.

 Scatternet. Piconets can be combined to form what is called a scatternet. A

secondary station in one piconet can be the primary in another piconet. This station
can receive messages from the primary in the first piconet (as a secondary) and,
acting as a primary, deliver them to secondaries in the second piconet. A station can
be a member of two piconets.

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 Bluetooth Layers

 Radio (RF) layer: It performs modulation/demodulation of the data into RF signals. It

defines the physical characteristics of bluetooth transceiver. It defines two types of
physical link: connection-less and connection-oriented.
 Baseband Link layer: It performs the connection establishment within a piconet.
 Link Manager protocol layer: It performs the management of the already established
links. It also includes authentication and encryption processes.
 Logical Link Control and Adaption protocol layer: It is also known as the heart of the
bluetooth protocol stack. It allows the communication between upper and lower
layers of the bluetooth protocol stack. It packages the data packets received from

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 upper layers into the form expected by lower layers. It also performs the segmentation
and multiplexing.
 SDP layer: It is short for Service Discovery Protocol. It allows to discover the
services available on another bluetooth enabled device.
 RF comm layer: It is short for Radio Frontend Component. It provides serial interface
with WAP and OBEX.
 OBEX: It is short for Object Exchange. It is a communication protocol to exchange
objects between 2 devices.
 WAP: It is short for Wireless Access Protocol. It is used for internet access.
 TCS: It is short for Telephony Control Protocol. It provides telephony service.
 Application layer: It enables the user to interact with the application.

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