LLC Sublayer
Data link layer classified into Logical Link
Control (LLC) sublayer and MAC (Medium
access control) sublayer
Functions of LLC Sublayer:
Multiplexing during data transmission and de-
multiplexing during data reception
hop-to-hop flow and error control
multipoint communication
Frame Sequence Numbers
acknowledged services
MAC Layer
IEEE has defined several MAC standards
including IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) and IEEE 802.5
(Token ring)
MAC layer for coordinating the access to the
shared physical medium
Connectionless transfer of datagrams
No procedures for error control as it is taken
care by LLC
Error Detection and Correction
In data communications, the received information match
with transmitted information, the error is occurred.
Noise, cross talk etc., causes the error in the data communication.
Error control mechanism involves:
Error detection
Error correction
Error detection techniques
Simple parity check
Check sum
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
Error correction
Hamming code
Simple parity check
Data blocks from the source is subjected to
the check or parity bit.
For even parity checker
Add 1 to the parity bit in the data blocks when
number of ones is odd
Add 0 when it contains even number of ones
Sender Receiver
1001010 No Yes
Reject Even Accept
Compute the Compute the
Transmission
1001010 1 1001010 1
medium
LAN BRIDGES
When 2 or more networks are interconnected at the physical
layer, the type of device is a repeater
When 2 or more networks are interconnected at the MAC or
data link layer, the type of device is a bridge
When 2 or more networks are interconnected at the network
layer, the type of device is a router
The device that interconnects networks at a higher level is
usually called a gateway. Gateways usually perform some
protocol conversion and security functions
LAN BRIDGES
When range extension is the only problem, repeaters may solve the
problem as long as the max. distance b/w 2 stations is not exceeded
LANs that involve sharing of media, such as Ethernet & Token ring
can only handle up to some maximum level of traffic
As the no. of stations in the LAN increases or the traffic
generated/station increases, the amount of activity in the medium
increases until it reaches a saturation point
The point at which saturation occurs depends on the particular
MAC protocol as well as the ratio of delay-Bandwidth product to
frame size
Since the collision domain of LANs connected thru repeaters is the
entire n/w, repeaters do not solve the LAN saturation problem
An approach to improve the saturation problem is to segment
the entire network into multiple collision domains
Each domain consists of a group of stations in a single LAN,
and a bridge interconnects multiple LANs to form a bridged
LAN or an extended LAN
A bridged LAN
Figure 1
A bridged LAN configuration
Consider two LANs connected by a bridge as in Fig.1 . When
station 1 transmits a frame to station 3 (local traffic), the
frame is broadcast only on LAN 1.
The bridge can prevent the signal from propagating to LAN 2
because station 3 connected to same LAN as station 1
If station 1 transmits a frame to a remote station, say, station
5, then both LAN 1 & LAN 2 will be busy during the frame
transmission. Thus if most traffic is local, the load on each LAN
will be reduced
In contrast, if the bridge is replaced with a repeater, both
LANs will be busy when a station is transmitting a frame,
independent of where the destination station is
Types of bridges
To have a frame filtering capability, a bridge has to monitor
the MAC address of each frame. Due to this, a bridge cannot
work with phy layers. Also, a bridge does not perform a
routing function, which is why a bridge is a layer 2 relay.
Because bridges are mostly used for extending LANs of the
same type, they operate at MAC layer usually as in Fig.2
Two types of bridges: transparent bridges and source routing
bridges
Transparent bridges typically used in Ethernet LANs (IEEE
802.3 Standard)
source routing bridges are typically used in token-ring (IEEE
802.5 Standard) and FDDI networks
Interconnection by a bridge (fig 2)
Transparent bridges
Transparent bridges were defined by IEEE 802.1d committee
Term transparent refers to the fact that stations are completely
unaware of the presence of bridges in the network
Introducing a bridge does not require the stations to be
reconfigured.
Functions of Transparent bridges are:
1. Forward frames from one LAN to another
2. Learns where stations are attached to the LAN
3. Prevents loops in the topology
A Transparent bridge is configured in a promiscuous mode (NIC
causes controller passes all traffic rather than passing only the
frames intended) so that each frame, independent of its destination
addr can be received by its MAC layer for further processing
Ethernet bridges are multiport Transparent bridges for
interconnecting stations using Ethernet links
BRIDGE LEARNING: forwarding table (with no
data)
MAC ADDRESS PORT
When a frame arrives on one of its ports, the bridge has
to decide whether to forward the incoming frame to
another port based on the destination address of the
frame.
To do this bridge needs a forwarding table or forwarding
database & associates each station address with a port
number
BRIDGE LEARNING: initial configuration
Allowing bridges to learn location of S1