The Ethernet Evolution

From 10 Meg to 10 Gig!!!

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 What Will You Learn?

• Teach you about what you need to know to

understand, troubleshoot, and design
Ethernet networks.
• Discuss the common problems, work-
arounds, and issues in Ethernet hardware.
• Introduce new and upcoming technologies
related to the Ethernets (And help you avoid
the “hype”)

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 What Won’t You Learn?
• Pricing - We don’t know, We don’t care.
• Specific product features – We’re not here to sell.
• The following technologies:
– ATM
– QoS
– IPv6
– VoIP
– DWDM
– OSPF
– MPLS (well, a little on that)
– How to make money in the stock market
Those are all other workshops…
• How to design a real, complete network. (we’ll cover
Ethernet and switching, but not routing)

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 Outline
• Ethernet Essentials
• Media
• Core PHYs
• Auto-Negotiation
• Future Ethernet
– DTE Power via MDI
– 10 Gigabit Ethernet
– Ethernet in the FIRST Mile (EFM)
• Switched Network Design
– Spanning Tree
– Link Aggregation
– VLANs
• Future non-Ethernet (but want to be)
– RPR
– PONs

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 Ethernet Essentials - Outline

• Ethernet History
• Ethernet Standards
• Ethernet Frame
• Half Duplex MAC
• Repeaters
• Full Duplex MAC
• Switches
• Flow Control

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 Ethernet History
• Why is it called Ethernet?
– “In late 1972, Metcalfe and his Xerox PARC colleagues developed
the first experimental Ethernet system to interconnect the Xerox
Alto, a personal workstation with a graphical user interface. The
experimental Ethernet was used to link Altos to one another, and
to servers and laser printers. The signal clock for the experimental
Ethernet interface was derived from the Alto's system clock, which
resulted in a data transmission rate on the experimental Ethernet
of 2.94 Mbps.
– Metcalfe's first experimental network was called the Alto Aloha
Network. In 1973 Metcalfe changed the name to "Ethernet," to
make it clear that the system could support any computer-not just
Altos-and to point out that his new network mechanisms had
evolved well beyond the Aloha system. He chose to base the name
on the word "ether" as a way of describing an essential feature of
the system: the physical medium (i.e., a cable) carries bits to all
stations, much the same way that the old "luminiferous ether" was
once thought to propagate electromagnetic waves through space.
Thus, Ethernet was born.”

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 Ethernet History

• Robert Metcalf’s Idea • Invented by Metcalf at

Xerox in 1973 and
patented in 1976
• Xerox convinced
Digital and Intel to
join in making
products (hence the
group called DIX)
• IEEE standard in
1989
This is Bob Metcalfe’s original drawing for Ethernet

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 Ethernet History: Pure
ALOHA
• Transmit when you want to, regardless of
others.

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 Ethernet History: Pure
ALOHA Collisions
• Extremely inefficient, since the worst-case
period of vulnerability is the time to transmit
two frames.

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 Ethernet History: Slotted
ALOHA
• Transmit only at the beginning of
synchronized “slot times”
• Collision inefficiency limited to one frame
transmission time

Frame

Frame Frame

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 Ethernet History: ALOHA v
Slotted ALOHA
• Throughput efficiency increases
dramatically for Slotted Aloha.

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 Ethernet History: CSMA/CD
• Take Slotted ALOHA to the next level, use the
slots as “contention periods”.
– If no collision occurs before the end of the period, then complete
transmission of the frame.
• CSMA/CD can be in one of three states:
contention, transmission, or idle. More on
CSMA/CD later…

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 Ethernet History: Collisions

• Collisions
– Two or more transmissions literally collided with one
another on the same medium.
– Result corrupts the data contents of the
transmissions.
• Possible due to the medium used by the
original Ethernet

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Ethernet History: The Shared
Bus Topology
• Coaxial Cabling, 10 Mbps
– 10BASE-5 “ThickNet”
– 10BASE-2 “ThinNet”
• Bus Topology = Truly shared media

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 Ethernet History: Bus
Topology Extinction
• Problems with Bus Topology
– Break in Coax cable can sever service to multiple nodes
– Fault in Coax cable can disrupt service to all nodes
» ground fault
» Incorrect termination
– Adding/Removing nodes disrupts network

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 Ethernet History: Star Topology
• Bus Topology Evolved into a Star Topology
– Driven by cabling issues
» Single cable breaks/faults effect only one node
» Emergence of cheap unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable
– Introduces “Hub” or “Concentrator” that isolates faulty
nodes/cables

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 Ethernet History: Hub
• Hub can refer to
either:
– Repeater (“Bus in a
Box”)
» Star Topology
with Logical Bus

– Switch / Bridge
» Still Star
Topology: Allows
simultaneous
transmissions
between different
stations

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 Ethernet History:
Standardization
• First IEEE Ethernet Standard in 1985
• Standardization
– Preferred over competing proprietary solutions
– Creates a shared, open market for component and
systems vendors
– Defines interfaces and mechanisms to permit
interoperable solutions
» Permits creation of heterogeneous (multi-vendor)
networks

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 Ethernet Standards
• Ethernet fits in the Open Standards
Interface (OSI) model of the International
Standards Organization as shown.

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Ethernet Standards: IEEE 802
Architecture

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 Ethernet Standards: IEEE
802.3
• 802.3 Now encompasses
– Original 802.3: 10BASE-T 10BASE-5 10BASE-2 10BROAD-36
– 802.3u Fast Ethernet: 100BASE-TX 100BASE-FX 100BASE-T4
– 802.3x: Flow Control
– 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet: 1000BASE-SX / -LX / -CX
• 802.3ab Copper Gigabit Ethernet: 1000BASE-T
• 802.3ac Frame Tagging for VLAN support
• 802.3ad Link Aggregation
• 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet: Completion by March
2002
• 802.3af DTE Power via MDI: Completion by Sept
2001

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 Ethernet Frame

• Transmitted Data is embedded in a

container, called a frame
• This Frame Format DEFINES
Ethernet
– Historically, two types of frames existed:
» 802.3 Framing used a Length field after the Source
Address
» Ethernet II (DIX) Framing used a type field after the
Source Address
– Now both frame types are defined and supported within
IEEE 802.3

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 Ethernet Frame

• Frame size varies from 64 to 1518 Bytes

except when VLAN tagged (more on that
later…)

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 Ethernet Frame: Addresses
• Station Addresses
– Must be unique on every LAN
– Unless locally administered (uncommon), each node has a unique
address assigned by the manufacturer. First 3bytes of address
are assigned by IEEE (Organization Unique Identifier - OUI)
• Source Address: Must always be Station Address
• Destination Address: May be –
– Unicast Address (Addressed to Station Address of one other
station)
– Multicast Address (Addressed to multiple stations
simultaneously)
» Broadcast Address (FF FF FF FF FF FF) To All Stations

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 Ethernet Frame: Other Fields
• Preamble: repeating 1010 pattern needed for some PHYs
• Start of Frame Delimiter: mark byte boundary for MAC
• Type / Length: length, or type of frame if >1536 (0x0600)
• Data: protocol data unit from higher layers (ie: IP datagram)
• Pad: Only used when necessary to extend frame to 64 bytes
• Checksum: CRC-32 Detect if frame is received in error
• Idle: Occurs between frames, must be at least 96 bit times.

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 MAC
• Ethernet Frame transmission and reception must be
controlled – via the Media Access Control (MAC) layer.
• Ethernet MAC
 Operates in either Half or Full Duplex dependent on

support from the Physical Layer

 Original Ethernet was Half Duplex Only

 Handles

 Data encapsulation from upper layers

 Frame Transmission

 Frame Reception

 Data decapsulation and pass to upper layers

 Does NOT care about the type of Physical layer in

use
 Does need to know speed of physical layer

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 MAC: Half Duplex
• Half Duplex: Only one station may transmit at a
time
• Requirement on shared mediums (Bus
Topologies)
– 10Base-2, 10Base-5
• Half Duplex Mechanism employed by
Ethernet is:
– Carrier Sense, Multiple Access with Collision
Detect (CSMA/CD)

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 MAC: CSMA/CD
• CS - Carrier Sense (Is someone already talking?)
• MA - Multiple Access (I hear what you hear!)
• CD - Collision Detection (Hey, we’re both talking!)

1. If the medium is idle, transmit anytime.

2. If the medium is busy, wait and transmit right after.
3. If a collision occurs, send 4 bytes Jam, backoff for a
random period, then go back to 1.

• We use CSMA/CD in normal group conversation.

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 MAC: Collision Domain
• Collision detection can take as long as twice the
maximum network end to end propagation delay,
worst case.
• This “round-trip” delay defines the max Ethernet
network diameter, or collision domain.
• Round-trip delay = 512 bit times for all Ethernets
up to this point.

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 MAC: Collision Domain
• Space-Time depiction of Collision Domain

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 Repeaters
• Works at layer 1 (PHY layer) ONLY
– thus it doesn’t understand frame formats
• Repeat incoming signal from a port to all other ports with:
– restored timing
– restored waveform shape
– very little delay

• Half Duplex ONLY: If 2 or more receptions, transmit jam

• Can connect dissimilar media/PHY types (e.g., 10base-T and
10base-2)

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 Repeaters: 10Mbps
• 5-4-3 Rule
– 5 Segments
– 4 Repeaters
– 3 Populated segments (in the case of 10Base-5 or 10Base-2)

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 Repeaters: 100Mbps

• 512 bit times isn’t much for

F.E., because the bit time
is 1/10 what it was for
10mbps
– Even on fiber, the max diameter is
412 meters, and that’s purely
because of the round-trip time.

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 Repeaters: 100Mbps

• Repeater delay is VERY

significant. So much
so, they defined two
types or speeds of
repeaters:
– Type I are slower
– Type II are faster
– Even using a Type II, you can
only have 2 of them in a
shared segment!

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 The Ethernet Bridge
• How do you make a half duplex Ethernet network
bigger than the Collision Domain allows?? Use a
Bridge.
• Repeaters are
inside
the collision domain,
since they propagate
collisions
• Bridges/Switches
break up the
domains, since they
operate at layer 2
and buffer packets
before sending them
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 Evolution…
• 10Base-T became dominant in early 90s
– Half Duplex / CSMA/CD is simple
– Repeaters are cheap (not complex / low-speed)
– Growth of Star Topology in building infrastructure
– Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cheaper than coax
• Predominant use of UTP allows for the
creation of Full Duplex MAC.
– Media is no longer SHARED
» 10BASE-T devices transmit on one pair of UTP, and
receive on an entirely separate pair.
» Unlike coax – simultaneous reception and
transmission on the media does NOT corrupt the data
transmission.

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 MAC: Full Duplex

• Remember CSMA/CD? Now forget it.

• As long as we don’t need to share a network
(like with a repeater or coax), why bother
“colliding”?
• New MAC: transmitting while receiving is
OK
• Still maintain IPG, frame sizes, and physical
layer

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 MAC: Full Duplex Pros and
Cons
• Pros: • Cons:
– aggregate throughput = –
Must be point-to-point link (i.e.,
200mbps no repeaters)
– no collision efficiency –
Higher throughput means higher
penalty speed equipment which means
– no need to defer to higher cost.
incoming transmission –
no built in back pressure
– no collision domain - mechanism (see MAC Control /
Distance is media Flow Control)
dependent and not
affected by the protocol.
– Need for point to point links
requires new hub device to
interconnect multiple station – a
full duplex capable switch.

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 The Ethernet Switch
• Each port of Switch has its own MAC
• Typically can support either Half or Full Duplex
• Can switch between different network speeds (i.e.,
10Mbps and 100Mbps)
• More on this to come…

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 Flow Control
• Supported on Full Duplex links only.
• Sends MAC Control Frames called Pause
Frames
• Pause Frames
– Destination address is a special multicast address
that is never forwarded by bridges/switches.
» Thus, Link Level Flow Control ONLY
– Tells MAC Control to pause frame transmission to the
MAC for a period of time
• Useful for input constrained devices such
as network interface cards (NICs) and
buffered distributors (more on those in a
bit).

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 MAC: Half Duplex at 1 Gbps
• Recall the maximum
network diameter
from 100Mbps is
only ~200m.
– Without modification to
the Ethernet MAC, the
allowed diameter at
1Gbps (10x faster) would
be ~20m (10x smaller)
– To fix this, the minimum
transmission size must
be increased such that
an acceptable distance
(~200m) is covered.
Recall the diagram at
right:

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 MAC: Half Duplex at 1Gbps
• Solution: MAC adds Extension (non-data) bits
after the end of the frame until transmission is at
least 4096bits
• Benefits of the extension system
– Extends collision diameter
– Maintains compatibility
– Bigger frame size would add complexity (more on that soon…)

MAC Frame

Preamble SFD DA SA Type/Length Data/PAD FCS Extension

FCS Coverage
minFrameSize
Gigabit slotTime
Duration of Carrier Event

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 MAC: Half Duplex at 1Gbps
• Extension fields create waste in small packets
– This waste cannot be eliminated but can be reduced by frame
bursting
• Frame Bursting
– First frame, if less than 512 Bytes must be extended to 512 Bytes, but may be
followed minimum size inter frame gaps (IFGs) filled with extension bits and
frames of any size
– Maximum size transmitted burst ~64Kbits
– MAC must end burst if no frame is ready to be sent
– Useful for Servers/Switches transmitting high loads on a half duplex network

Preamble SFD MAC Frame with Ext IFG Preamble SFD MAC Frame Preamble SFD MAC Frame
IFG
Extension Extension
Bits Bits
Burst Timer (Max 64
kbits)

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 Buffered Distributors
• Very rare devices - That said, they are far more common than
half-duplex 1 Gbps devices (which are essentially non-existent)
Why?
• Where a repeater is a “bus in a box”, a buffered distributor (BD)
is “CSMA/CD in a box”.
– Each attached device is connected to an input buffer via a full duplex link. If the
input buffer is full, the BD uses PAUSE frames to stop traffic from the attached
device. When a frame is removed from the input buffer, it is transmitted out all
other ports – hence BDs are sometimes called “Full duplex repeaters”
– Thus the collision domain is the maximum delay within the box, infact, the
medium access method used in the box need not be CSMA/CD, so long as it is
fair.
• Benefit: Silicon cheaper than a switch (max speed 1Gbps) and
less complex than frame extension and bursting
• These are not specified in the standard explicitly, but all the
“enabling mechanisms” are - device internals (ie: “bus in a
box”) rarely need to be standardized

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 Ethernet JUMBO Frames
• BAD IDEA
• Recall that HALF DUPLEX 1 Gig Ethernet
chose to use extension bits to pad a frame
out to 512Bytes to enable a larger
collision domain
• Why didn’t they just change the frame size?
(change the min to 512Bytes, and max to,
oh say, 4K or 9K)
• Because such equipment would NOT work
with any previously deployed equipment
– NOT a smart move for the WORLDS
most popular networking technology.

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 Jumbo Frames cont. 1

• The Problem:
• “Software”/Users think that this is a simple
problem – simply change the MTU (max
transmission unit) to 4K (or more) then let
the switches adapt the frame size (fragment
and reassemble – this is HARD HARD HARD
to do in hardware – read as, costly) -- OR
– don’t care about backward compatibility
(interesting world you live in then… can I
join you?)

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 Jumbo frame cont. 2

• The Reality:
• Hardware is built with certain expectations
about frame sizes, interframe-gaps, and
transmission rates – simply “changing” the
MTU of your system and using hardware not
built for Jumbo frames WILL RESULT in
frame/data loss (things called “elasticity
buffers”, which bridge digital clock domains
in systems, must be built with these
“certain expectations”) --- not to mention
buffer allocation problems, etc…

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 Jumbo frames cont. 3
• That said, Jumbo frames _are_ out there but
they are NON-STANDARD
• But be careful (SANs like iSCSI intend to
use them, but there are real risks there)
• And don’t PLAN on them working beyond
the SINGLE vendor’s equipment that you
are using them with (yes, there’s a good
chance that multi-vendor jumbo frames
would work – but that’s what a standard
would protect – and I assure you – IEEE
802.3 will NEVER adopt a larger frame size,
as they are COMMITTED to supporting the
installed base.

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Physical Media Overview

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 Media Outline

• Copper and Copper and Copper

• Fiber and Fiber

53
 Structured Cabling
• Defines a generic telecommunications cabling
system for commercial buildings.
• Specifies the performance of the cable and
connecting hardware used in the cabling system.
• Why?
– The installation of a cabling system is simpler and cheaper during
building construction than after the building is occupied.
– Such a cabling system must have the flexibility to allow the
deployment of current and future network technologies.
– A structured cabling standard provides a design target for the
developers of new network technologies (like 1000BASE-T).

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Structured Cabling Standards

• TIA/EIA-568-A, North America

• ISO 11801, International
• Scope:
– define performance of unshielded twisted pair (UTP),
shielded twisted pair (STP), and fiber optic cables and
connecting hardware.
– define how these cables will be used in a generic cabling
system.
• Both standards define similar distribution
systems and performance requirements.
– developers do not have to hit two separate targets

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Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)
cable

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 The Category System

• TIA/EIA-568-A defines a performance rating

system for UTP cable and connecting
hardware:
– Category 3 performance is defined up to 16MHz.
– Category 4 performance is defined up to 20MHz.
– Category 5 performance is defined up to 100MHz.
» Original Cat 5 - Not suitable for 1000Base-T
» Category 5n - Suitable for 1000Base-T
» Category 5e - Exceeds requirements for 1000Base-T
– Category 6 performance is defined up to 200MHz

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 Performance Parameters for
UTP Cable
• DC resistance
• characteristic impedance and structural
return loss
• attenuation
• near-end crosstalk (NEXT) loss
• propagation delay

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 Parameters for UTP
Connecting Hardware
• DC resistance
• attenuation
• NEXT loss
• return loss

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 Attenuation
• Electrical signals lose power while traveling along
imperfect conductors.
• This loss, or attenuation, is a function of conductor
length and frequency.
• The frequency dependence is attributed to the skin
effect.
• Skin Effect:
– AC currents tends to ride along the skin of a conductor.
– This skin becomes thinner with increasing frequency.
– A thinner skin results in a higher loss.
• Attenuation increases up to 0.4% per degree Celsius
above room temperature (20oC).

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Attenuation vs. frequency

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 Near-end crosstalk (NEXT)
loss

• Crosstalk:
– Time-varying currents in one wire tend to induce time-
varying currents in nearby wires.
• When the coupling is between a local transmitter and
a local receiver, it is referred to as NEXT.
• NEXT increases the additive noise at the receiver and
degrades the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

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NEXT loss vs. frequency (pair A)

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 Return loss

• The reflection coefficient is the ratio of the

reflected voltage to the incident voltage.
• The return loss is the magnitude of the
reflection coefficient expressed in decibels.

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Structured cabling overview I
• Work area
– for example, an office
• Telecommunications closet
– focal point of horizontal cabling
– access to backbone cabling and network equipment
• Equipment Room
– can perform any of the functions of a telecommunications closet
– generally understood to contain network resources (for
example, a file server)
• Entrance Facility
– the point at which the network enters the building, usually
in the basement

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 Structured cabling overview II
• Horizontal Cabling
– from the work area to the telecommunications closet.
– up to 90m of 4-pair unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable.
• Backbone Cabling
– between telecommunications closets, equipment rooms, and
entrance facilities.
– up to 90m of 4- or 25-pair UTP cable.
• Flexible Patch Cords
– cables use solid conductors making them inflexible and difficult to
work with
– cords use stranded conductors for greater flexibility at the
expense of up to 20% more loss than the same length of cable.
– cords are used at points where the network configuration will
change frequently

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 Structured cabling overview
III
• Transition point
– connects standard horizontal cable to special flat cable designed to run
under carpets.

• Cross-connect
– a patch between two interconnects
– horizontal and backbone cabling runs end at interconnects
– network equipment may use an interconnect
• For UTP cabling systems, horizontal and backbone
runs are always terminated in the
telecommunications closet and equipment room
– for example, you cannot cross-connect a horizontal run to a backbone
run.

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Structured cabling system
example

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 TIA/EIA-568-A channel definition

• 90m of horizontal cable

• 10m of flexible cords
• 4 connectors
• ISO 11801 channel definition does not include a
transition point (3 connectors).
• The channel definition is the developer’s design
target.
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 UTP Copper Info

• Two types of UTP – Solid Core (for

Horizontal runs) and Stranded Core (for
patching)
• RJ-45 connectors – when making
cable:
– solid: use 8-pin modular (RJ-45) plug with three prongs
on the metal contacts
– stranded: two prongs on metal contacts
• Wiremap – there are four pairs in a normal UTP cable:
orange, green, blue, and brown. In each pair there is a
white wire with a colored stripe and a colored wire with a
white stripe. By convention, the white wire carries the
signal and the colored wire carries the inverted signal.

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 More UTP Copper Info
• looking down at the top of the RJ-45 (locking tab facing down )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid
White, Orange, White, Blue, White, Green, White, Brown,
Orange White Green White Blue White White
Stripe Stripe Stripe Stripe Stripe Brown Stripe
Stripe Stripe

• A good UTP cable will have:

– All 8 wires visible at the very end of the RJ45 cable
– The Jacket of the cable fully inserted into the RJ45 (so when you
pull on the cable, you pull the jacket and the RJ45, and not the
wires and contacts)

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 Fiber Types
• Fiber’s form and 3 basic types

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 Fiber Core Sizes

• Multimode: Two most common are 62.5 and

50 micron
• Singlemode – To be singlemode, diameter
must be no more than ~6 times the
wavelength, thus for 1330 – 1510 nm light,
the diameter must be 7 to 9 micron
• Mismatching core sizes can be done, but in
general is bad!

73
 Modal Dispersion
• A flashy name to describe how in a multi-mode fiber, the multiple
paths arrive at the end of the fiber at different times.
• This multi-path delay causes a “small” input pulse to smear into a
“wide” output pulse, degrading the rate at which those data
pulses can be sent down the fiber (degrading the bandwidth)
• Note that a multimode step index fiber has high modal dispersion,
as a result, such fiber is not typically used today.
• Graded index fiber varies the refraction index of the fiber material
from the center of the fiber out to its edge. The result is that the
modes traveling the longer sinusoidal paths actually propagate
faster than the modes traveling the shorter, straighter paths –
thus, in a perfect graded index fiber, all modes would arrive at the
same time at the output of the fiber, and no smearing would occur.
(of course perfection is impossible to achieve)

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Fiber Launches

75
 Recent Modal Dispersion
Issues
• As a side-note: During the
development of Gigabit
Ethernet, it was discovered that
a sizeable percentage of
installed (old) multimode
graded index fiber had a
deviation in the center of the
core, as depicted at left. This
was determined to cause
increased modal dispersion
(DMD, differential modal delay
as the gig folk called it)
• The result of this discovery of a
flaw in the installed media was
the subsequent reduction in
supported link lengths for GbE
on installed multimode fiber.
• Which leads to the following
new term…

76
 Launch Conditioning
• Many options exist to minimize the DMD effect, one of which
is to use a single-mode “pig-tail” to condition/reduce the
modes launched into the multi-mode segment, by launching
them off-center (and thus avoiding the index “notch” in the
center of the installed fibers)

77
 Chromatic Dispersion
• Effects all fiber types, but is one of the primary
limiting factors of long-haul single-mode
connections.
• As mentioned earlier, EM waves propagate at
different speeds in different media. Well, simply
put, EM waves at different frequencies propagate at
different speeds, even in the same media! In
general, this is referred to as group delay, but in
Fiber Optics, its more commonly called chromatic
dispersion.
• This spreading of different colors smears the
transmitted pulses just as with modal dispersion

78
Bad Fiber Connections

• Always keep
your Fiber
CLEAN! And
Capped
when not in
use (both
patch and
ports)

79
Some Types of Connectors

LC

MTRJ

Especially note SC,

ST, LC, and MTRJ

80
 Most Common Connectors
• ST

• SC

• MTRJ
and LC
to SC
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 SFF Connectors
• Small Form Factor (SFF)
allows more interfaces
in same footprint
• 4 Competing types, but LC
and MT-RJ are the 2 big
ones
• SFF has a hot-pluggable
version (like GBICs)

82
 Fiber Info
• Not only must the fiber be kept clean, but its end
should be polished (to eliminate scratches) and
rounded.
• The rounding of the ends allows the two fiber
ends to touch without an airgap forming between
them.
• DO Keep your fiber clean. If in doubt, use
an airgun or alcohol swab to clean the ends.
• DO Keep your fiber capped when not in use (to
prevent dust and scratches)
• DO Keep fiber ports on devices capped when not
in use – dust collected on a transmitter or receiver
can only – at best, be blown at with an airgun.

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 More Fiber Info
• DON’T EVER allow the fiber to bend more than the
diameter of your closed fist. Fiber is glass,
bent glass breaks and/or creates microfractures.
• DON’T touch the tip of the fiber with your
finger/body
– The core may be protruding and slice you open (it
is glass!)
• DON’T look down a fiber! Its YOUR EYESIGHT
at stake!! Use a power meter to check your
cable!
• Quick way to test fiber / find the right fiber –Hold one
fiber at the far end up to a light, look in the other
end to find the white dot! – If you don’t see it, it’s the
wrong fiber, or its EXTREMELY broken.

84
Core PHYs

85
 Core PHYs Outline

• Review of the Physical layers role

• UTP Copper Phys
• Fiber Phys

• Primary focus on 10Base-T, 100Base-TX,

and 1000Base-T

86
 Review
• MAC
– Sends/Receives data to/from higher layer client
– Handles addressing of data frames for the LAN
– Appends a checksum to ensure frame validity on reception
• Medium
– Available channel in infrastructure for data transmission
– May be copper or fiber
– Medium selected is typically a matter of cost and installed base
• PHY – Physical Layer
– Prepares MAC frame for Medium
– Drive signal across Medium (Tx to Rx)

87
 PHY Objectives

• Balance of the following desirables:

– Low Cost
– Long Distance
– High Data Rate capability
– Low Bit Error Rate
– Support the current installed media when possible

88
 PHY Stack Model - Slide 1

• Notice the PHY connects the SAME MAC

layer to different types of Media, the
four most common are shown:

89
 PHY Stack Model – Slide 2
• To support different media, different PHYs are
required.
• Each PHY balances the objectives (cost, speed,
etc) differently

90
 PHY Evolution
• 1985 – IEEE 802.3 – 10Base-5 & 10Base-2
• 1987 – IEEE 802.3d – FOIRL
• 1990 – IEEE 802.3i – 10Base-T
• 1993 – IEEE 802.3j – 10Base-F
• 1995 – IEEE 802.3u – 100Base-T4 / TX / FX
• 1997 – IEEE 802.3y – 100Base-T2
• 1998 – IEEE 802.3z – 1000Base-SX / LX /
CX
• 1999 – IEEE 802.3ab – 1000Base-T

91
 UTP Copper Evolution
Summary
• 1989 – 10Base-T:
– Cat-3 Cabling dominant (pre Cat-5)
• 1995 – 100Base-T4:
– Support Cat-3, using all 4 pairs, only half duplex capable
• 1995 – 100Base-TX:
– Capitalizing on CDDI (FDDI) work
– Requires Cat-5 (low installed base at time), full duplex capable
• 1997 – 100Base-T2:
– Cat-3 or better, requires only 2 pair, full duplex capable
• 1999 – 1000Base-T:
– Cat-5, requires all 4 pair, full duplex capable

92
 10BASE-T Overview

• 10 Mbps (Million Bits per second)

• Category 3 cable (voice-grade) or better
• 2 pairs DATA (1,2 & 3,6) leaves center pair
(4,5) for PHONE
• 100 meter runs (limited by cable
attenuation)
– All that’s necessary to support building
structured cabling
• Star/Hub Topology
• Inherently Full Duplex (Upper layer
MAC/Repeater may be half duplex though)

93
 10BASE-T: Data Encoding
• 10base-T uses Manchester Encoding
• + to - transition = “0” - to + = “1”
• Always DC balanced & Always has a transition
each bit-time for clock recovery.

94
 10BASE-T: Between the
frames
• Idle between frames is filled with Link Test Pulses
(LTPs)
• Periodically signal presence of link partner

95
 10BASE-T: Preamble and SFD
• Preamble allows device to recover clock of link
partner
• Since “x” bits will be lost until clock is recovered,
start frame delimiter (SFD) marks byte boundary
• Recall: Preamble: 7bytes 10101010 SFD=
10101011

96
 10BASE-T: AUI
• Model at right for all
10Mbps Ethernet
PHYs including:
– 10BASE-2, 10BASE-5,
10BASE-T, 10BASE-FP / -
FB / -FL
• Attachment Unit
Interface (AUI) allows
different PHYs to be
attached to the MAC.
Also used in
repeaters.
• Medium Attachment
Unit (MAU) = PHY

97
 100BASE-T4 Overview
• 100Mbs
• Cat-3 or Better, 100 meter max
• Uses all 4 pair
– Transmits on 3 pair, listens for collision on 4th.
– Creates half-duplex only limitation in PHY
• Extinct – Why?
– Introduced at same time as 100Base-TX(Cat-5 or better) when
10Base-T(Cat-3 or better) was prevalent.
– 100Base-TX based on pre-existing CDDI, thus low cost TX chips
emerged rapidly
– Provided customers with option –
» Buy T4 equipment supporting installed base of Cat-3
» OR… Install new Cat-5 cable and buy TX equipment
» Most choose to install new cable to “future proof” network

98
 100BASE-TX Overview

• The critter commonly called Fast Ethernet

• 100 Mbps
• Category 5 cable (data-grade) or better
• Same 2 pairs for DATA as 10BASE-T (1,2
& 3,6)
• 100 meter runs (limited by cable
attenuation)
– All that’s necessary to support building
structured cabling
• Inherently Full Duplex (Upper layer
MAC/Repeater may be half duplex though)

99
 100BASE-TX: Data Encoding
• 4B/5B Block Code
• 4B/5B means 100Mbps data requires 125Mbps on
the media (a 25% speedup – resulting in 20%
overhead(non-databits transmitted)
• Why is this useful? Creates control codes.
• “I” (Idle) = 11111 Which is sent continuously to
provide a good clock to the link partner’s receiver
• “J” and “K” = 11000 & 10001 – Start of Frame,
unique bit pattern, cannot be made from any
combination of other VALID symbols
• 2^5=32 symbols, only need 16 (2^4) symbols for
data, 1 for idle, 2 for start of frame, 2 for end of
frame, rest are invalid

100
100Base-TX: 4B/5B Tables

101
 100BASE-TX: MLT-3 Coding
• 5B Idle code is 11111, at 125Mbs (NRZI) that’s a
125MHz tone, recall cat-5 performance specification
ends at 100MHz!
• Multi-Level Transition with 3 levels a.k.a. MLT-3
Reduces frequency of 5B encoded data.
• If data is “1”, then transition from current level to
next level. ie 1111=+1,0,-1,0 reducing freq by 1/4
• If bit data is “0”, then don’t transition
bit 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0

MLT-3

102
 100Base-TX: MLT-3 Eye
Diagram
• 1-Bit Time shown, with all possible transitions

103
 100BASE-TX: Scrambling
• MLT-3 successfully reduces frequency of 5B
encoded data, but recall the 5B idle stream is sent
continuously between frames.
• After MLT-3 encoding, Idle went from a 125MHz
tone to a 31.25MHz tone (125/4). Since most of the
transmitted energy is at this frequency, it radiates
strongly, which the FCC does not like, hence…
• Scrambling of the 5B encoded stream is required.
• Prior to MLT-3 encoding, the 5B stream is pseudo-
randomly scrambled, this breaks up the repeating
1s and spreads the transmitted energy across
many frequencies, thus no single frequency has
much energy.

104
 100BASE-TX: Media
Independent Interface

105
 100BASE-T2

• 100Mbs
• Cat-3 or Better
• Uses only 2 pair
– Uses 5 level signaling
– Transmits and receives on both pairs simultaneously
– Allows use of other pairs.
– Full-duplex capable
• Extinct – Why?
– Limited market potential due to 100Base-TX

106
 1000BASE-T Overview

• 1000Mbs
• Cat-5 or Better
• Uses all 4 pair
– Uses 5 level signaling
– Transmits and receives on both pairs simultaneously
– Full-duplex capable
• Emerging –
– Growing number of PHY chip vendors
– 10/100/1000 single chip solutions and multiport chips

107
 The 1000BASE-T Solution
• Start with 125 MHz signaling rate
125Mbps
– Exactly like 100BASE-TX
• Transmit/Receive on all 4 pairs of cable x 4
– Similar to 100BASE-T4 500Mbps
• Use multilevel signaling – PAM5
– Similar to 100BASE-TX (3-level MLT-3 signaling) 500Mbps
– Exactly like 100BASE-T2 (5-level PAM5 signaling) x 2
– Allows 2 bits per symbol 1000Mbps
• Allow simultaneous bi-directional signaling on all 4
pair
– Exactly like 100Base-T2
– Allows full-duplex communication at 1000Mbps

108
 1000Base-T: 4D-PAM5
• 4 Dimensional Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 5
levels
• 5 levels on 4 pairs yields 625 possible symbols
(5^4)
• To encode 8bits every 8ns (125MHz), only 256
symbols are needed (2^8).
• Remaining symbols can be used for control
characters (idle, start of packet, end of packet, etc).
• Data frames are transmitted using a convolutional
(Trellis) code
– Adds structure to the transmitted symbols needed for Viterbi
Decoding

109
1000Base-T: Error Correction

• Viterbi Decoder
– Takes the last few received symbols
– Calculates the most likely sequence of symbols
– A symbol error results in an impossible or unlikely
sequence
– The most likely sequence probably contains the
correct symbols
– “Most likely sequences” are known in advance due
to the trellis code structure

110
1000Base-T: Noise
Environment

111
 1000Base-T: DSP
• Digital signal processing (DSP) techniques can
reduce effects of echo and NEXT
– These are caused by local transmissions
– Tap the signal on all 4 transmitters
– Cancel out these signals from the received waveform
• ELFEXT is not easily cancelled with DSP
– Originates from remote transmitters
– Relies on cable and connectors to meet new Cat5 specification, so
that ELFEXT is minimal
• Alien Crosstalk also unpredictable
– Unknown source
– Thus, cannot be cancelled
• 25-pair bundles not allowed!
– Crosstalk between bundled pairs too high
112
 1000Base-T: Master/Slave
Timing
• Synchronization to implement adaptive
filters for canceling echo and NEXT
– Need a common master clock to reference
– Symbols transmitted & received at the same rate
• Link pair must have a Master and a
Slave
– Master uses internal clock to transmit
– Slave recovers the master clock from the data
received
– Slave uses recovered clock to transmit its data
• Need a means of deciding who is who
–
– uses Auto-Negotiation (more on that later)
113
10, 100, 1000 Signal
Comparison

114
 UTP Copper Phys Wrap-up

• Combo PHYs
– 10/100 PHYs – 10Base-T & 100Base-TX
– 100/1000 PHYs – 100Base-TX & 1000Base-T
– 10/100/1000 PHYs – emerging
• Quad / Hex / Octal PHYs
– Reduces chip and other component count required to
manufacture multiport devices, thus lower cost.
– Most multi-phy devices are also Combo PHYs

115
 Fiber Evolution Summary
• 1987 – Fiber Optic Inter-Repeater Link (FOIRL):
– Link 10Mbps repeaters via multimode fiber (2km max)
• 1993 – 10Base-F:
– 10Mbps to end stations via multimode fiber (2km max)
• 1995 – 100Base-FX:
– Capitalizing on FDDI work
– 100Mbps via multimode fiber (2km max) to repeaters or end
stations
• 1998 – 1000Base-SX / LX:
– Capitalizing on FibreChannel work, but spedup
– 1000Mbps

116
 10Mbps Fiber Overview
• All use multimode fiber, driven by LEDs
• FOIRL: Fairly common
– FOIRL = Fiber Optic Inter-Repeater Link
– Typical use: FOIRL Medium Attachment Unit (MAU) attached to
Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) of repeaters w/o built in fiber
support
• 10BASE-F
– Catch all for 10Base-FP, 10Base-FB, 10Base-FL
• Distances:
– 10Base-FP: 500m max
– All others: 2000m max – limited by cable attenuation
• Same speed, but different techniques – identical
type of MAU required on both sides of fiber
117
 100BASE-FX Overview

• 100 Mbps
• Multimode Fiber
• Inherently Full Duplex (Upper layer
MAC/Repeater may be half duplex though)
• Full Duplex Distance: 2000 meter runs
– Limited by cable attenuation
• Half Duplex Distance: 412 meters
– Point-to-point link, no repeaters
– Limited by collision domain

118
 100BASE-FX: Similar to -TX

• Like all 100Mbps Fast Ethernet, supports

Media Independent Interface (MII)
• Like 100BASE-TX, uses 4B/5B Coding to
encode data and idle
• Similarity ends here though – No need
for:
– Scrambling
– MLT3 Encoding
• Why?
– MLT3 is unnecessary due to high bandwidth of fiber
– Scrambling is unnecessary as fiber does not radiate, thus
no possibility of interference.

119
 1000BASE-SX/LX Overview

• 1000 Mbps
• Multimode Fiber for SX or LX
• Singlemode Fiber for LX only
• Inherently Full Duplex (One fiber for Tx, one
for Rx)
– Upper layer MAC may be half duplex, but this is highly
unlikely
• Distance:
– Tricky issue

120
1000Base-SX/LX: Distance and
Launch Cable

• Remember from the physical media section

the following two slides…

121
 Recent Modal Dispersion
Issu
es
• As a side-note: During the
development of Gigabit Ethernet, it
was discovered that a sizeable
percentage of installed (old)
multimode graded index fiber had a
deviation in the center of the core, as
depicted at left. This was determined
to cause increased modal dispersion
(DMD, differential modal delay as the
gig folk called it)
• The result of this discovery of a flaw in
the installed media was the
subsequent reduction in supported
link lengths for GbE on installed
multimode fiber.
• Which leads to the following new
term…

122
 Launch Conditioning
• Many options exist to minimize the DMD effect, one of which
is to use a single-mode “pig-tail” to condition/reduce the
modes launched into the multi-mode segment, by launching
them off-center (and thus avoiding the index “notch” in the
center of the installed fibers)

123
Wavelength vs. Attenuation

124
 1000Base-SX Distances

• Modal Bandwidth refers to the quality of your installed MM

fiber.
• Recall, SingleMode Fiber (SMF) is not supported for SX
• Greater distances are likely, but not recommended by the
standard
125
1000Base-LX Distances

126
 1000Base-SX/LX:
Data Encoding
• 8B/10B Block Code
• Code developed by IBM in the 80s, used by
FibreChannel.
• Like 4B/5B, has 20% overhead, used not only
for control characters (idle, start of packet, end
of packet) but also for data code redundancy.
• Running Disparity:
– Every data code has a + and a – running disparity version
– The form of each data code determines whether the NEXT data
code should be + or –
– If data is received that does not follow the running disparity rules,
then an error has occurred.

127
 Non-Standard Interfaces

• 1000Base-LH
– Provides up to 10km distances over single mode
– Interoperates with LX for 5km (same wavelength, just
higher transmit power and lower receive sensitivity)
• 1000base-XD
– Provides up to 50km distances over single mode
– Does not interoperate with any other interface type
• 1000Base-ZX
– Provides up to 70km distances over single mode (100km
on dispersion shifted fiber)
– Does not interoperate with any other interface type

128
 GBIC
• GigaBit Interface Converter –
industry agreement (SFF
Committee)
• Allows for hot-pluggable
transceiver
• Support both 1000Base-SX and LX,
so user can choose after
purchasing the box

129
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130
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131
This page left intentionally blank.

132
Autonegotiation

Clauses 28 and 37 of 802.3

133
 Autonegotiation vs.
Autosensing
• Autonegotiation • Autosensing/Speed
– standardized speed handshake Detection
– auto-configures to best possible link – several different proprietary
(e.g., 100 full duplex) methods
– still links with older or non-autoneg – only auto-configures to 10 or
devices 100, not duplex settings
– sometimes causes autosensing – creates many interoperability
(NOT autonegotiating) devices to headaches
link at 10 and not 100
– user error/misunderstanding cause
problems

134
 ISO-OSI model

LLC - Logical Link Control

Application
MAC - Media Access Control
Presentation
Reconciliation
Session
MII
Transport
Network PCS
PMA
Data Link
PMD
Physical AUTONEG
MDI
medium

135
 Autonegotiation - How?
• Constantly sends out 10base-T Link Test Pulses before linking
• The pulses are grouped together in defined “words” that convey
meanings, such as “I can do 100 half and full duplex”
• Older 10base-T devices just think they’re LTPs
• Autoneg devices understand them as words and exchange
handshake info to link at best possible link
• If the autoneg device sees regular LTPs coming in (not autoneg
words), it just links at 10 half duplex
• If the autoneg device sees Fast Ethernet IDLE stream coming in, it
just links at 100 half duplex.
• Unfortunately, this only works on copper for 10/100 - it’s supported
on fiber and copper for gig (i.e., there is no autonegotiation for
100base-FX)

136
 NLP (Normal Link Pulse)

this is typically 100 ns in width

•Looks just like a 10base-T Link Test Pulse (LTP)

137
 When do we care about
NLPs?
•When the NLPs are spaced apart they look just like normal
10base-T Link Test Pulses (LTPs)
•So an old 10base-T legacy device will see them as normal
link
•But a legacy device won’t care if we send the NLPs more
often than normal, so...

16 +/- 8 ms
138
 When they are FLP Bursts!
•Stick a bunch of NLPs together and use it to signal info (like
Morse code)
Burst width = 2 ms

FLP Burst (17 NLP “clock pulses”) beginning of

next FLP

16 +/- 8 ms
139
 Data Pulses
•In between the “clock pulses” we can put a data pulse to
signify a value of 1, or not put one to signify value of 0

This is a “1” This is a “0” beginning of

next FLP

16 +/- 8 ms
140
 right….What’s an FLP for
again?
The data fields are pre-defined for specific meanings
The selector field is used for version info, such as “802.3
version 1 The NLPs used are all the same
voltage level (height), I just draw
Selector Field the data ones shorter to distinguish
them from the clock ones.

141
 right….What’s an FLP for?
The Technology Ability Field is used to signal which modes
the device can handle, for example 100base-T Full Duplex

Selector Field Technology Ability Field

10BT 10BT100BT 100BT 100 [Link] for
Pause
HDX FDX HDX FDX T4 Pause the FUTURE

142
 right….What’s an FLP for
again?
The last fields are used to tell the link partner of a remote
fault, acknowledge the receipt of its partner’s FLPs, or that
there are more “pages” of FLP fields to send
Selector Field Technology Ability Field
Remote
10BT 10BT100BT 100BT 100 Asym.
Pause Fault ACK NP
HDX FDX HDX FDX T4 Pause

143
 A Sample FLP

Selector Field Technology Ability Field

Remote
10BT 10BT100BT 100BT 100 Asym.
Pause Fault ACK NP
HDX FDX HDX FDX T4 Pause

144
 How It Works: 2 Aneg
Devices
• Device A sends FLPs out, while Device B does the
same
• Each device receives the other’s FLPs and sets their
ACK bit to true (a value of “1”)
• They then choose the best possible mode that both
support and start transmitting IDLE, and it’s
linked!
Device A Device B
TX RX
100Mbps
Aneg 100Mbps
Aneg
Full Duplex RX
10/100 TX Full Duplex
10/100
HD/FD HD/FD

145
 How It Works: an Aneg Device
with a
10Mbps Legacy Device
• Device A sends FLPs out, while Device B sends out
LTPs
• Device A “parallel detects” the LTPs and links with
Device B in 10mbps half-duplex mode
Warning!

Device A Device B
TX RX
10Mbps
Aneg 10Mbps
Half
10/100 RX TX Half or Full
Duplex
HD/FD Duplex

146
 How It Works: an Aneg Device
with a
100Mbps Legacy Device
• Device A sends FLPs out, while Device B sends out
Fast Ethernet IDLE
• Device A “parallel detects” the IDLE and links with
Device B in 100mbps half-duplex mode
Warning!

Device A Device B
TX RX
100Mbps
Aneg 100Mbps
Half
10/100 RX TX Half or Full
Duplex
HD/FD Duplex

147
 Autoneg Problems

• Three types of problems are sometimes

encountered:
1) A Duplex mismatch occurs whereby one side is Half-
Duplex, one side is Full-Duplex
2) The wrong speed link is used (10 instead of 100)
3) The devices never link
• Let’s look at how these happen...

148
 Aneg Error #1: User
Misconfiguration
User configures Device B to be 100Mbps Full Duplex, not
knowing this disables Autoneg (sending FLPs)
Device A sends FLPs out, while Device B sends out IDLE
Device A sees IDLE and assumes Device B is 100Mbps Half-
Duplex, thus it links in Half-Duplex mode
Mismatch

Device A Device B
TX RX
100Mbps
Aneg 100Mbps
Half
10/100 RX TX Full
Duplex
HD/FD Duplex

149
 Duplex Mismatch Problem
If Device A and B send out a frame at the same time, then:
1)Device A will believe a collision occurred and corrupt its outgoing
frame while discarding Device B’s frame, and then attempt to resend
its own frame
2)Device B will not resend its frame, and see Device A’s frame as
corrupted

Device A Device B
TX RX
100Mbps
Aneg 100Mbps
Half
10/100 RX TX Full
Duplex
HD/FD Duplex

150
 Duplex Mismatch Symptoms
Device A will record many “Late Collisions” in its counters
Device B will record many “CRC Errors” in its counters
The connection will appear slow, as the dropped frames aren’t
resent until a higher layer times out (usually 1 second later)

Device A Device B
TX RX
100Mbps
Aneg 100Mbps
Half
10/100 RX TX Full
Duplex
HD/FD Duplex

151
 Aneg Error #2: User
Misconfiguration
• User configures Device A for 100Mbps Full-Duplex
and Device B for Half-Duplex (or Device B is only
Half-Duplex) while leaving Aneg (sending FLPs)
turned on for both
• Each device receives the other’s FLPs, but the
mismatch never resolves to a link because there is
no common option

Device A Device B
TX RX
Aneg Aneg
100Mbps RX TX 100Mbps
Full Duplex Half Duplex

152
 Aneg Error #3: Autosensing Devices
Autosensing devices do not use FLPs
Instead, they send IDLE while watching the RX line for LTPs or
IDLE and decide based on that
So Device A will send FLPs, which Device B will interpret as LTPs
and switch to transmitting LTPs itself
Meanwhile, Device A may have seen the IDLE from B and “parallel
detected” over to sending 100Mbps IDLE, which Device B will now
see as 10Mbps junk data (yes, this is legal) - this should fix itself
in a few seconds, or never

Device A Device B
TX RX
Aneg
100Mbps 10Mbps
Autosensing
10/100
Half RX HalfHD
TX 10/100
HD/FD
Duplex Duplex

153
Aneg Error #3: Autosensing Devices

OR, Device A will see the LTPs from Device B and parallel detect to
10mbps, thereby successfully forming a 10mbps link, which is not
optimal

Device A Device B
TX RX
Aneg
10Mbps 10Mbps
Autosensing
10/100
Half RX HalfHD
TX 10/100
HD/FD
Duplex Duplex

154
 Gigabit Ethernet
Autonegotiation
• Gigabit Ethernet uses the same Aneg mechanism as 10/100 copper
Ethernet (remember there is no Aneg for 10 or 100 fiber)
• For 1000base-SX and 1000base-LX, it’s used to determine duplex
and flow-control parameters using the pre-defined fields shown
below
• For 1000base-T, the Next Page field is used to indicate there is
additional info that must be exchanged using more “pages”

RemoteRemote
Reserved Asym.
FDX HDX Pause Pause Reserved Fault 1 Fault 2ACK NP

Base Page for Gig fiber technologies

155
 Gig Aneg Error #1: User
Misconfiguration
• There are almost no Half-Duplex Gig devices, so we never
have the mismatch problem of 10/100 Aneg
• The biggest problem is when users configure one device to
“Autoneg Enabled” and the other device to “Autoneg
Disabled”
• Such misconfigured devices will not link, or only one side
will think it’s linked

Device A Device B
TX RX
Aneg Not Aneg
1000base- RX TX
SX or 1000base-
LX SX or
LX
156
 Gigabit Copper

Autonegotiation
• For 1000base-T, the Next Page field is used to indicate there is
additional info that must be exchanged using more “pages”
• These pages contain the same type of info regarding duplex and
speeds, but they also contain a couple new things:
– a field to indicate whether the device is a single-port or multi-port
device
– a field for whether the master/slave determination is manually
configured
– a field for whether this device is the master or slave
– a seed value 10BT 10BT100BT 100BT 100 Asym. Remote
HDX FDX HDX FDX T4Pause Pause Fault ACK NP
Selector Field Technology Ability Field

Base Page for Gig copper technologies

157
 Gigabit Copper Autoneg
(cont.)
• The purpose for the new fields is to resolve
which side is the master and which the
slave for a training sequence to adjust to
the cable characteristics (like a DSL modem
does)
• If the user does nothing, then it will
automatically select a master based on:
– if one side is multi-port, it is the master
– if both sides are or both sides are not multi-port, then the
seed is used to randomly choose
• Or the user can manually configure one to
be the master and the other a slave

158
 Gig Copper Aneg Error #1:
User Misconfiguration
• There are almost no Half-Duplex Gig devices, so we never
have the mismatch problem of 10/100 Aneg
• The biggest problem is when users configure one device to
“Autoneg Enabled” and the other device to “Autoneg
Disabled”
• Such misconfigured devices will not link, or only one side
will think it’s linked

Device A Device B
TX RX
Aneg Not Aneg
1000base-T RX TX 1000base-T
Master Slave

159
 Gig Copper Aneg Error #2:
User Misconfiguration
• A user configures both devices to be master or both
to be slave
• Such misconfigured devices will never link - even if
they’re also both autonegotiating, or both manual
• The problem is manually configuring master/slave
overrides automatically selecting which side is which

Device A Device B
TX RX
1000Mbps
Manual RX TX 1000Mbps
Master Manual
Master
160
Power over Ethernet - 802.3af

161
Etherpower = No More Wall
Warts !!

Hadriel … what a
mess !

162
 Power over Ethernet: the
concept

Ethernet Switches
48VDC Modular
or
Rectifier and
‘mid-span
Battery Tray
insertion’ Data Appliances

163
Power over Ethernet: the details

Mid-span Power
Patch Panel

Dongle

164
 UTP Copper
• looking down at the top of the RJ-45 (locking tab facing down )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid Solid
White, Orange, White, Blue, White, Green, White, Brown,
Orange White Green White Blue White White
Stripe Stripe Stripe Stripe Stripe Brown Stripe
Stripe Stripe

• 10base-T and 100base-TX/T2 only use wires 1, 2,

3, and 6 - wires 4, 5, 7, and 8 are unused
• 100base-T4, and 1000base-T use all 8 wires

165
 Power Over What?
Unused pairs (4/5,7/8) Signal pairs
• Safer (1/2, 3/6)
• Cheaper for phone side
• Doesn’t need all 4
• Allows for mid-span
insertion (but this breaks pairs
1000Base-T • Works with 1000Base-
• Allows for cheap “dongles” T
and non-data equipment
• Cheaper for switch
side

166
 Power Method Options
• Voltage: 44-57v nominal DC
• Amperage: 350mA Max
• Power: 12.95 Watts max during use
• Use either pair sets: the source can feed
power on one or the other, but the sink
(device to be powered) will draw it from
either
– this makes the receiver (the phone side) more
expensive
– this allows for both a cheap powered patch panel and
cheap powered switch method
– this does not allow both data and unused pairs to send
power simultaneously (not safe)

167
 Power Discovery

• Method for power source to determine if

connected device needs power
• Needs to be fool-proof (doesn’t fry old
stuff)
• Needs to be cheap
• Needs to work before the other side is
powered up (obviously)
• Needs to be safe regardless of cable-type
connected: could be regular, crossover,
flipped, wrong, broken
• Uses 19k-26.5kOhm Resistor

168
 Houston, we have a
problem…
• One company has filed a suit against another for
patent infringement
• Their patent covers a security method whereby
they monitor a small current (<1ma). If the
current drops off then they produce an alarm.
• Power over Ethernet's minimum current is 10ma
and if the PD's current draw falls below 10ma
then the PSE removes power.
• By sending current over active Ethernet links,
their patent may cover power over Ethernet
• If they don’t sign a Fair Use Agreement, the
standard will be stopped/blocked

169
 …and hopefully a solution

• Power/current detection has been used in

this manner “for all time”, including for
Token Ring (phantom signaling)
• IEEE will likely persevere, or find a way
around this legal snafu
• To continue towards this solution, IEEE
P802.3af DTE Power via MDI Interim
Meeting will be held Sept 24-26 in
Portsmouth, NH, hosted by UNH IOL
[Link]
ml

170
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171
This page left intentionally blank.

172
10 Gigabit Ethernet - 802.3ae

173
 IEEE 802.3ae Objectives
• Support full-duplex operation only.
• Provide Physical Layer specifications which support link
distances of:
– At least 300 m over installed MMF
– At least 65 m over MMF
– At least 2 km over SMF
– At least 10 km over SMF
– At least 40 km over SMF
• Define two families of PHYs
– A LAN PHY, operating at a data rate of 10.000 Gb/s
– A WAN PHY, operating at a data rate compatible with the payload rate
of OC-192c/SDH VC-4-64c

174
 Where does 10GE fit ?
Key Applications
Data Center

Edge 1 Server Farm & Data Center Connectivity

Routers Core Router
2 Intra-POP Connectivity
T1
3 Geographic POP Extension
1 4 Inter-POP Connectivity
Data
Access Transport Center 1
Switch 4
Access
Metro 3 Carrier Core
DWDM Optical
POP Optical
Network
Network (WAN)
Extension

Access
2

Access

1
Legend

10 GE
1 GE
T1
Server Farm

175
Timeline
We Are Here
177
 The PMDs

• Set of 4 PMDs (Physical Media Dependent)

to optimize balance between distance
objectives, cost and application.

178
PMD Distance

179
 PMD Names
• Wavelength: S=850nm L=1310nm E=1550nm
• PMD Type:
– X=WDM LAN(Wave Division Multiplexing – 4 wavelengths on 1 fiber)
– R=Serial LAN using 64B/66B coding (LAN Application)
– W=Serial WAN – SONET OC-192c compatible speed/framing

• 10GBASE-LX4 So that’s 7
• 10GBASE-SR / -LR / -ER
interface
• 10GBASE-SW/ -LW / -EW
types!

180
 Types of 10Gig
Interfaces Type Encoding Wave- Fiber Distance

length Type
10GBASE-LX4 WWDM 8B/10B 1310nm MMF or 300m or
SMF 10km
LAN

10GBASE-SR Serial 64B/66B 850nm MMF 65m

10GBASE-LR Serial 64B/66B 1310nm SMF 10km
10GBASE-ER Serial 64B/66B 1550nm SMF 40km

10GBASE-SW Serial 64B/66B, 850nm MMF 65m

SONET
WAN

10GBASE-LW Serial 64B/66B, 1310nm SMF 10km

SONET
10GBASE-EW Serial 64B/66B, 1550nm SMF 40km
SONET
181
 Types ofNON-
STANDARD
• 850nm CWDM
10GigE
– very similar to the 1310nm
WWDM – everything is “identical” except the
laser/optics are 850nm vcsels – LAN and WAN
options are likely to exist – but this is NOT likely
to be adopted by the standard (already has too
many options, and this phy can only go 100m on
installed MMF, and 300m on NEW fiber)
• Parallel Optics – 4 lasers, 4 receivers, 4 fibers,
but otherwise like the WWDM solution – useful
for short interconnects at either LAN or WAN
(cable is too expensive for long reach)

182
A bit on Technical Feasibility,

183
 Technical Feasibility

• These new PHYs must be shown to be

technically feasible by this November.
• Bob will be presenting additional data/info
on this as these demos/studies will have
been conducted in the past two weeks with
UNH IOL support. Also check out the trade
show floor for real demos of 10GigE and
stay tuned to the outcome of next weeks
IEEE P802.3ae Interim Meeting in
Copenhagen, Denmark, where some
presentations on this topic will be made.

184
History: Gig Ethernet GBIC

• GBIC is a hot-
swappable
connector for
Gigabit Ethernet
• All layers above
GBIC are
identical
• GBIC module is
simply O/E
and E/O (laser
and photo
detector)

185
 XGMII

• PHY
independent
interface
• XGMII is a 32bit
wide data bus,
split into 4 8bit
lanes, and a 4bit
control bus
• Requires 74
pins!

186
 XAUI (Sounds like Zowie)
• Phy Independent
Interface
• XAUI works just like
10GBase-LX4, 8B/10B
encoding 4 XGMII 8bit
lanes to 4 10bit lanes,
serialized to 4 3.125Gbps
• Requires only 16pins!
• Allows for longer chip-to-
chip distance
• Same interface as
Infiniband and Fibre
Channel use
• Hot-swappable PHYs
likely to emerge at this
interface (like GBIC for 1
Gig Ethernet) – called
XGP (Ten Gig Pluggable)

187
188
 Why do YOU care about
XAUI?
• XAUI will form the basis for your hot
plugable
• Now a word from….

189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
 XGP

• A competing hot-plugable connector to

XENPAK
• Also uses XAUI as the common
communication scheme between
transceiver and system
• Should be smaller, cooler, lower pin count,
lighter

204
 Ok, but does XAUI WORK!?

• Funny you would ask…

205
206
207
208
209
210
211
 XAUI Conclusions

• Will form the basis for the 10GigE version

of a “GBIC”
• Transceiver interface, with Hot pluggable
connectors like Xenpak and XGP
• Works TODAY and components are
shipping!
• Technical feasibility already accepted by
IEEE 802.3ae working group

212
 64B/66B Coding

• Used in serial LAN and WAN PHY

• 8B/10B code has 25% overhead. 10Gbps
data requires 12.5Gbps signaling on fiber
(deemed too expensive to attempt)
• 64B/66B code has 3.125% overhead.
10Gbps data requires only 10.3125Gbps
signaling on fiber.
• NEW code developed by Agilent for
10GigE

213
 LAN PHY
• Simple Ol’ Ethernet
• Transmits/Receives MAC frames at 10.000Gbps
• Allows easy/simple speed scaling/aggregating of
10 1-Gbps links
• Supports Link Aggregation
• Can drive 2m to 40km depending on PMD
• Useful for:
– Campus backbones (connect Gig E switches together)
– Dark Fiber runs
– Computer Rooms
– SANs, etc…

214
 WAN PHY
• Transmit/Receive MAC Frames at 9.29419 Gig
Why?
• SONET/SDH OC-192c Data rate compatible
• Take coded (via 64b/66b) MAC frames and place in
the payload section of SONET frame and transmit
onto SONET at OC-192c speeds (9.95328)
• For what purpose?
– Make use of the existing SONET Photonic Network
– Predominate optical infrastructure in North America, Europe, and
China
– Avoid use of costly features of SONET – Optics, Stratum Clock, and
many management features
• Likely that most 10GigE WAN phys will be nearly
indistinguishable from an OC-192c interface using
10GigE compatible payload encoding

215
216
WAN Interface Sublayer (WIS)
• MAC (and higher layers) OPERATES AT 10Gbps!!!
• Takes coded (via 64b/66b) MAC frames and places in
the payload section of SONET frame (and builds the
Path Section and Line Overhead) and transmits onto
SONET at OC-192c speeds (9.95328)
• MAC must be configured to WAN mode, which thus
increases the inter-frame gap (using
“ifsStretchRatio”) to slow the frame rate to 9.29419
BUT the MAC (XGMII/XAUI/ etc) signaling rate is still
10Gigabit
• WIS must delete IDLES (on the transmit path) and
insert IDLES (on the receive path) to rate match
between 10Gig MAC and 9.29419 Data rate
• By being able to “Turn on/off” the WIS, a PHY could
be a “UNIPHY” (both WAN AND LAN!!!) in one ‘box’

217
10G WAN Phy

218
 WAN PHY
• Does use/fill-in some of the Path, Section, and
Line overhead – but need not use all of it

219
ELTE

220
 A 10GigE Phy Type Joke

• LAN PHYs - LOCAL Area Network Phys will

be able to reach 40km!!!

• WAN PHYs – WIDE Area Network Phys,

while ABLE to reach 40km, are likely to only
be used for short connections between
10GigE LAN (or other) equipment and
SONET LTEs - OR – they the WAN PHYs
_will_ be SONET OC-192c PHYs
(performing the WIS payload encoding).

221
Use in today’s DWDM

222
 Stay Tuned…

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet promises 10 times your

current maximum Ethernet speed at only 3
times the cost?
• Will they succeed?
• Will you see shipping systems soon?
• Will Scooby Doo solve the mystery in time?

223
This page left intentionally blank.

224
Switched Networks

225
 Topics

• Quick Background
• Spanning Tree
• VLANs
• 802.1p/QoS
• L3 Switching
• Link Aggregation
• Multiple Spanning Trees
• Rapid Reconfiguration

226
 Shared Medium (Repeated
Network)
• All machines “share” the Repeaters
network
• Only one machine can talk at
any one time 5m
• Distance limitations
– At most 205m for Fast Ethernet
• Total throughput limited 100m
• Single collision domain

End Stations
227
 Bridging Review
• Connects Separate shared
Networks
• Frame Translation/
Encapsulation (Token Ring
to Ethernet)
• Reduces Unicast Traffic
• Switches: Allow for
multiple conversations

228
 Bridging Background

• Bridges work at
layer 2 of the OSI
Model
• Their primary
function is to relay
frames

229
 Bridge Tables
• One table lists Entry MAC Addr Port active
1 0800900A2580 1 yes
MAC addresses, 2 002034987AB1 1 yes
which port they’re 3 0500A1987C00 2 yes
on, and if they’re 4 00503222A001 2 yes
active or disabled 5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

230
 Learning of addresses
The Filtering Database learns a
station’s location from the source
address on an incoming frame.
hriasmsoeuwcr iethasdoduer rcses
Port 1
ddress
e0a2rnda2Frames
et2ndab
o 2 ”P33abowith
[Link]
1
4. All future
h4edestination
destined for this MAC address Switch
ilrterciframes
e nigved 002222333344 are
address
will be forwarded ONLY out of
only forwarded on port 1
this Port. Port 4

Frame with destination address

002222333344 is received on
Port 4. Since this is not learned, it is
FLOODED out all of the other ports.

231
 The Learning Bridge
That was a bit fast and complex. Let’s review.
Every bridge has a table called a Filtering Database.
Entries in this table are updated upon receipt of frames,
the source addresses and the ports they arrive on are
learned.
Once a MAC address is associated with a port, frames
containing that destination address are only
forwarded out of that port.
In the real switches these tables vary in size, most have the
capability of holding several thousand MAC addresses.
I’ve seen one that has the capacity for more than 150,000
addresses.
232
Spanning Tree

Part of 802.1D

233
 802.1D - Spanning Tree
• Configures arbitrary physical
topology into one loop-free
spanning tree
• provides fault-tolerance by
using redundant links as
backups
• configures deterministically/
reproducibly
• low overhead/bandwidth
• auto-configures

234
 Auto-Configuration
• Default values allow out-of-box
configuration without user interaction
• If the user wants, though, they can control
the relative priority of bridges and ports
to be used
• The user can also control the “path cost” of
each port, so a least-cost tree can be built
according to the user’s specifications

235
 Spanning Tree

Why a tree?
If you have 2 switches that are connected in parallel, it could
create a loop.

LAN Connection
A B
Incoming broadcast
frame

236
 More Reasons
Spanning Tree Disables one of these connections.

It also keeps track of each of these connections. If the active

connection becomes disconnected, it will activate a disabled
one to take over and make a new tree.

How does it do
this?

237
 Initial Bridge Parameters:
Bridge Priority Path Cost
B1 1 20
B2 2 15
B3 2 25

-All Ports on each bridge have the same Path Cost in this
example.
-The Max Age, Hello Time, and Forward Delay parameters
are left at their default values of 20.0, 2.0, and 15.0
respectively.

238
Initial Bridged LAN Topology
LAN A

0 B1

LAN B
B2 15 B3
25

LAN C
239
Active Bridged LAN Topology
after Bootup
LAN A

0 B1

LAN B
B2 15 B3
25

LAN C

240
VLANs

802.1Q

241
802.1Q - Standard for VLANs

• Defines a method of
establishing
VLANs
• Establishes the
Tagged Frame
• Provides a way to
maintain priority
information across
LANs

242
What are VLANs - Virtual Local Area Networks?
• Divides switch into two or more
“virtual” switches with
broadcast
separate domains
• Achieved by manual
configuration through the
switches’ management interface
• Only that switch will be
segmented

243
 Multiple VLANs in One Switch

• Multiple VLANs can be defined on the same switch

244
 Why VLANs?
• Lots of broadcast traffic wastes bandwidth
– VLANs create separate broadcast domains
» Microsoft Networking
» Novell Networking
» NetBEUI
» IP RIP
» Multicast (sometimes acts like broadcast)
• VLANs can span multiple switches and therefore
create separate broadcast domains that span
multiple switches

245
 Why Are VLANs Needed? Internet

Router
Legacy
Server
Switch Farm

Legacy One Legacy

Broadcast
Switch Switch
Domain
Legacy Legacy Legacy Legacy
Legacy
Legacy
Switch Switch Switch Switch
Switch
Switch

246
 Possible Solution: Routers Internet

Router
Switch
Server
Farm

Router Router

Legacy Router Legacy

Router Router
Router
Switch Switch

247
 Possible Solution: Move
Cables or Users Internet

Router

Router
Server
Farm

Legacy Legacy

Switch Switch

Legacy Legacy Legacy Legacy

Legacy
Legacy
Switch Switch Switch Switch
Switch
Switch

248
 Easier Solution: VLANs Internet

Router
802.1Q
Switch Server
Farm

802.1Q 802.1Q
Switch Switch

Legacy 802.1Q 802.1Q

802.1Q Legacy
Switch 802.1Q Switch
Switch Switch
Switch Switch

249
 More Reasons...
• Link Multiplexing
– slower speed technologies share the high-bandwidth uplink
– multiple IP subnets on one physical link with layer 3 switching
• Security
– Without it, broadcasts are seen by everyone
– Virtual private tunnel – “VPN Like” service
• Moving end-stations to different ports
• Switching is faster and cheaper than routing, but
you still need full routing for some applications
and to connect VLANs (IP Subnets) together

250
 Standards Based VLANs

• Includes definition for a new GARP application

called GVRP (GARP VLAN Registration Protocol)
– Propagate VLAN registration across the net
• Associate incoming frames with a VLAN ID
• De-associate outgoing frames if necessary
• Transmit associated frames between VLAN 802.1Q
compliant switches

251
 Basic VLAN Concepts
• Port-based VLANs
– Each port on a switch is in one and only one VLAN (except trunk links)
• Tagged Frames
– VLAN ID and Priority info is inserted (4 bytes)
• Trunk Links
– Allow for multiple VLANs to cross one link
• Access Links
– The edge of the network, where legacy devices attach
• Hybrid Links
– Combo of Trunk and Access Links
• VID
– VLAN Indentifier

252
 Tagged Frames

• 4 Bytes inserted
after Destination
and Source Address
• Tagged Protocol
Identifier (TPID) = 2
Bytes (x8100)
– length/type field
• Tagged Control
Information (TCI) = 2
Bytes
– contains VID

253
 Trunk Link

• Attaches two VLAN switches - carries Tagged

frames ONLY.

254
 Trunk Links Internet

Router
802.1Q
Switch Server
Farm

802.1Q 802.1Q
Switch Trunk Links Switch

Legacy 802.1Q 802.1Q

802.1Q Legacy
Switch 802.1Q Switch
Switch Switch
Switch Switch

255
 Access Links

• Access Links are Untagged for VLAN

unaware devices - the VLAN switch adds
Tags to received frames, and removes Tags
when transmitting frames.

256
 Access Links Internet

Router
802.1Q
Switch Server
Farm

802.1Q 802.1Q
Switch Access Links Switch

Legacy 802.1Q 802.1Q

802.1Q Legacy
Switch 802.1Q Switch
Switch Switch
Switch Switch

257
 Hybrid Links

• Hybrid Links - ALL VLAN-unaware devices are in the

same VLAN

258
 Hybrid Links Internet

Router
802.1Q
Switch Server
Farm

802.1Q Hybrid Links 802.1Q

Switch Switch
One of the PCs
must support
tagged frames
Legacy 802.1Q
802.1Q Legacy
802.1Q Legacy Switch
Switch Switch Switch
Switch
Switch

259
 So Far So Good...
• So one might ask: “what does the Bridge
table look like?”
• Two answers:
– multiple (distinct) tables: one for each VLAN
– one mother of all tables, with a VLAN column
• They sound similar, but it turns out they are
VERY different

260
 Each Table is
Multiple Tables for One VLAN

• Called MFD (multiple Entr MAC Addr Port active

MAC Addr Port active
forwarding databases) y Entr MAC
1 0800900A2580Addr 1 Port active
y Entr
1 0800900A2580 1Port
Entr
yyes MAC Addr active
or Independent 1
yes 0800900A2580 1
2y002034987AB1
1 0800900A25801 1
yes yes
Learning 2 002034987AB1
yes 2 002034987AB1 1
2 002034987AB1
yes 11 yes
• Each VLAN learns MAC 3 0500A1987C00
3 0500A1987C002 2
yes yes
3
yes 0500A1987C00 2
addresses 3 0500A1987C00
yes 4 00503222A001 22 yes
independently, so 4 00503222A001
yes 2
5
yes 00503222A001
4 2
duplicate MAC 4 00503222A001
yes 6
5 yes
2
addresses are OK. 5 7
6 5
6 8
7 6
7 9
8 7
8 10
9 8
9 11
10 9
10 12
11 10
11
12 11
12
12
261
 One (Big) Table
Entry MAC Addr Port active VLAN
• Called SFD (Single 1 0800900A2580 1 yes 2
Forwarding 2 002034987AB1 1 yes 2
Database) or Shared 3 0500A1987C00 2 yes 2
Learning 4 00503222A001 2 yes 2
5 080034090478 3 yes 1
• No duplicate MAC 6 049874987AB1 5 yes 1
addresses 7 0555A1945600 5 yes 3
• Asymmetric VLAN 8 00503222A023 5 yes 2
possible 9
10
11
12

262
 Asymmetric VLANs (also known as “interoperability killer”)

Legacy

Router
• Legacy router can
talk to legacy
clients with one
physical link
• Legacy clients
cannot talk to
each other

263
 Asymmetric VLANs Internet
Legacy
4
Router
Legacy
802.1Q 5
Switch
Server
4
3 Farm
6
802.1Q Access Link
Switch
2 7
A Simplified Example:

Legacy 7 3 802.1Q George sends broadcast

Switch message to Al through
Switch Legacy Router. (remember
8 they can’t talk direct)
8 2
8 1 4
Router sends broadcast,
8 which all devices receive.
Al

George

264
 Independent Learning I
• Legacy router
learns MAC
addresses from
both VLANs
• Requires 2
physical links

265
 Independent VLANs Legacy Internet
Router
4
Legacy
802.1Q 5
Switch
Server
4
3 Farm
6
802.1Q Access Link
Switch
2 7
A Simplified Example:

Legacy 3 802.1Q George sends broadcast

Switch message to Al through
Switch Legacy Router. (remember
8 they can’t talk direct)
2
1 4
Router sends broadcast,
which only VLAN green
Al receives.

George

266
 Independent Learning II

• VLAN-aware router only needs one physical link

267
 Independent VLANs 802.1Q
Router
Internet

4
Legacy
802.1Q 5
Switch
Server
4
3 Farm
6
802.1Q Trunk Link
Switch
2 7
A Simplified Example:

Legacy 3 802.1Q George sends broadcast

Switch message to Al through
Switch Legacy Router. (remember
8 they can’t talk direct)
2
1
4 Router sends broadcast,
which only VLAN green
Al receives.

George

268
 Problems
• Can’t combine SFD and MFD switches in
one network
• Some switches only do one or the other,
and can’t be changed
• Hybrids of SFD and MFD makes this
tricky

269
 Other Additions

• 802.1v: Layer 3 based VLANs

– IP traffic on a different VLAN than IPX
• 802.1s: Multiple Spanning Trees (one per
VLAN)
– allows for using the disabled links
• ATM to IEEE VLAN mapping
– VLAN to ELAN mapping (Emulated LANs)

270
 GARP (yeah, I know, “the world according to”… that’s a
new one!)

• Generic Attribute Registration Protocol

• Standard Defines:
– method to declare attributes to other GARP participants
– frame type to convey GARP messages: Protocol Data Unit
(PDU)
– rules and timers for registering/de-registering attributes
• GVRP: GARP VLAN Registration Protocol
– GARP based method for VLAN info propagation
• GMRP: GARP Multicast Registration
Protocol
– GARP based method for multicast group
propagation

271
Windows screenshot —>

GVRP Vendors
(current): Extreme,
3Com and HP
Several others are
developing working
implementations also.

• Industry
Implementation
Example
– 3Com manufactures
Network Interface
Cards that take
advantage of GVRP
– Accessed via the
Control Panel 272
 How Do VLANs “Secure”? Internet

Router
802.1Q
Switch Server
Farm

802.1Q 802.1Q
Switch Broadcasts Switch
not seen by
Green Users
Legacy 802.1Q 802.1Q
802.1Q Legacy
Switch 802.1Q Switch
Switch Switch
Switch Switch

273
 VLAN Security

• VLAN is NOT a security mechanism, but its

attributes provide some basic defenses
against naïve users
• Ultimately, 802.3 and 802.1 do not provide
real security – upper layers must be used to
authenticate, encrypt, etc.
• Even 802.1x Network Access is not perfect
either (more on that later…)

274
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275
This page left intentionally blank.

276
Priorities/QoS

802.1p

277
 The Problem

• In a switched network, if more than one device

sends packets to the same destination at the same
time, the switch will buffer them and send them out
based on first-in first-out basis
• So time-sensitive traffic (like voice) has no priority
over other types (mail, ftp, web)

278
 Stack View

• Same switched network drawn as stack models

279
 Inside the Switch
This is a very simplistic view

• Buffers can have multiple queues for different

priority traffic
• Higher-priority can be sent before lower-
priority
280
 Possible Solution

• Q: How does switch know which traffic to

prioritize?
• Possible answer: set priority for each port
inside the switch configuration...
• But then how does it tell the next switch
along the path what the priority was?
• And not all traffic from the same port should
be treated equally - it may come from a
router, or a shared link, or another switch

281
 Better Solution

• Tag the priority of each packet with its

relative priority value
• Then switch can put higher-priority tagged
frames in a higher-priority queue based
on the value

282
 Remember VLAN Tagged
Frames?
• 4 Bytes inserted
after
Destination and
Source Address
• Tagged Protocol
Identifier (TPID) =
2 Bytes (x8100)
– length/type field
• Tagged Control
Information (TCI) =
2 Bytes
– contains VID

283
 Priority Tagged Frames

• Uses user_priority field value of 0-7 for priority

numbers
• VID may be a real VLAN ID number, or the value of
x000 = “Priority Tagged”, meaning not a VLAN
Tagged frame (x000 is illegal VLAN value)
• Same Ethertype of x8100

284
 Limitations of 802.1p

• It is NOT Quality of Service (QoS)

– There is no guarantee of bandwidth, latency, nor jitter
– If other devices use the same priority, no difference
– If higher-priority fills the pipe constantly, lower-priority will
never get through (depending on implementation)
• It IS Class of Service (CoS)
• Access to a shared ethernet
medium/network isn’t helped - it’s still under
the rules of CSMA/CD

285
 Example

• Even if the phone uses 802.1p tagged frames, it

has to share the repeated network with the other
devices with the same odds of success
• Once its frames get to the switch, then they will
be sent through faster and with better odds than
frames from other devices

286
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287
This page left intentionally blank.

288
Layer-3 Switching

289
 Routing vs. Switching

• Routing is done at layer 3 (IP layer), thereby

connecting IP subnets
• Switching is done at layer 2 (MAC layer),
thereby connecting Ethernet LAN segments
• Routing is slow because it’s done in
software
• Switching is fast because it’s done in
hardware
• So why not Route in hardware?

290
 Routing in Hardware

• Put forwarding engine into hardware, leave

routing protocols/database in software
• Remove unnecessary or seldom-used
protocols (IPX, Appletalk, etc.)
• Don’t route to non-Ethernet technologies
(Token Ring, FDDI, Frame Relay, ATM, etc.)
• Lose advanced functions (statefull firewall,
NAT, IP header compression, etc.)

291
Stack View

Remember this?

292
Layer-3 Switch Stack View

293
 Layer-3 Switch
Implementations
• Actual implementations vary depending on
architecture
• Most have fast-forwarding engines per blade which
can forward based on IP Address
• Usually, there is one or more central CPUs to handle
exception cases, routing updates and management
• Some L3 Switches now offer advanced features:
– filtering based on address, ports, etc.
– IP multicast in the fast path
– IPX, Appletalk, etc.
– Advanced routing protocols such as BGP

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296
MPLS over Ethernet

297
 The Problem

• Today’s Internet Core isn’t scaling rapidly

enough
• Traffic is doubling every 6 - 12 months
• Bandwidth consumption is not balanced
across all possible paths (unless ECMP is
used)
• All traffic traverses the shortest path
without regard to QoS
• ATM switches in the core create a two-layer
problem of ATM switching vs. IP routing

298
 The Solution
• MPLS defines a method of switching packets by
exchanging labels at each hop
• A router in the MPLS context is called a LSR (Label
Switching Router)
• A Traffic engineered MPLS tunnel is a series of label
switched hops (LSH) collectively called an LSP
(Label Switched Path)
• The Tunnel is constructed by the Ingress LSR
• LSPs created with Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
are bounded by a pair of participating LSRs, the data
plane topology is identical to IP hop by hop

299
 Shortcut Routing
Router K's Next
Hop For Routes in
ISP 1 Subscribe
EGRESS
LSR I r ISP 1
Backbone
BGP
Shortest Path to Provider Router E's Next Hop
ISPs 1, 2, 3, and K For Routes in ISP 2
4
B 1 Subscriber
nel
ut Tun

INGRESS
rt C
Sho
E BGP J ISP 2
LSR C
Incoming Transit
Traffic A
Short Cu
t Tunnel 2 Router G's Next Hop
For Routes in ISP 3
G

Forwarding Table D
F EGRESS BGP Subscriber
Destination Next Hop BG LSR H
Prefixes in ISP 1 LSP 1 P ISP 3
Prefixes in ISP Router B
2 Prefixes in LSP 2
ISP 3 Prefixes LSP 2 Subscriber M
Router G's Next Hop
in ISP 4
ISP 4 For Routes in ISP 4

300
 MPLS Encoding
• MPLS uses a 32 bit “Shim Header”
– The Header is pushed onto the IP packet by the Ingress LSR
– The Header is popped off by the Egress LSR or Penultimate LSR
– Labels can be STACKED!

Data Link Layer MPLS Shim IP Header Packet Data

Layer 2 Header Header Layer 3

Label EXP S Time To Live

20 bits 3 bit 1 bit 8 bits

32 Bits

 The Label Field is self explanatory

 The EXP Field is "Experimental" though it is proposed use is to inidicate Per Hop Behavior of labeled
packets traversing Label Switching Routers
 The Stack (S) Field indicates the presence of a label stack
 The Time to Live Field is decremented at each LSR hop and is used to throw away looping packets

301
 MPLS over Ethernet

• MPLS header adds 5 Bytes (as opposed to

VLAN which adds 4)
– There can be more than 1 MPLS header
– Therefore, your GigE equipment must support more than
1518 bytes if you want MPLS to cross it (I.e., you use it in
the core)
• MPLS is NOT VLANs
– VLANs define a broadcast domain, MPLS defines an LSP
tunnel
– A broadcast packet with an MPLS label will still be
broadcast to everyone (although MPLS packets never
need broadcasting)

302
 Ethernet over MPLS
• Because MPLS defines an end-to-end
labeled tunnel, it’s very useful for creating
VPNs
• The ISP can create VPNs between
Enterprise/corporate regional offices
– For internal VoIP calls
– For internal data exchange
– For intranet apps
• The Carrier can create VPNs between ISP
POPs
– To simulate a leased long-haul backbone
– So the ISP can offer Enterprise VPNs
– As a backup backbone or to offload bandwidth

303
 Virtual Leased Line
DA” SA” 0x8847 L2 ’ DA SA Etype Payload
L1

DA’ SA’ 0x8847 L2 L1 DA S DA*SA *0x884 L1 DA SA Etype Payload

A EtypePayload 7

D A Etype Payload DA SA Etype Payload

SA

LER LER
CPE CPE
LSR LSR
Provider’s MPLS Backbone

CPE LER CPE

LER
Last Mile POP Last Mile
POP

304
 Transparent LAN Service
Customer A
CPE

Customer B
Chicago POP
LSR

LER LER
San Francisco POP New York POP
Last Mile Last Mile
LER LER
CPE CPE
LSR LSR

Provider’s MPLS Backbone

CPE CPE
LER LER

VLAN Ethernet VC LSP Tunnel LSP

305
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307
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308
Link Aggregation

802.3ad

309
 Basic Concept
• Originally only one of
many separate physical
links could be used (else
loops)
• Spanning tree used to
disable all but one
• Did provide redundancy,
but not efficient use of
links

310
 Enter Trunking
• Multiple physical links
joined into one logical link
• Only one MAC address
used for trunk group
• All links in same group
must be same speed and
full-duplex

311
 Proprietary Methods

• Very popular with users, but proprietary

• EtherChannel, Fast EtherChannel, Gig
– Cisco’s protocol (routers, switches)
– Also licensed by Adaptec, Intel, Compaq, Sun, HP, ZNYX,
Phobos, Auspex (all NICs)
• MultiLink Trunking (MLT)
– Nortel’s protocol (switches)
• Virtual Link Trunking (VLT)
– 3Com’s protocol (switches)

312
 802.3ad - Link Aggregation
• Study group started in
November 1997 – Standard
completed last year (2000)
• website:
[Link]
ups/802/3/ad/

313
 Benefits and Goals
• Increased Bandwidth (duh)
• Incremental bandwidth increases - smaller jumps than 10 to 100
to 1000 - not perfect scaling, but better than one link’s worth
• Failure protection/redundancy (maybe)
• Automatic configuration - if it can aggregate, it will
• Rapid reconfiguration
• Deterministic behavior - configuration will not be dependent on
the order in which events occurred
• NOTE: some of these goals are inconsistent (see later)

314
 Layers Involved

• IEEE Standard - adds to 802.3 CSMA/CD Standard

• Works with 10/100/1000 - portable to other MACs

315
 Layers Involved (cont.)
• MAC Client is Bridge layer,
LLC, etc.
• MAC Control (optional) is
for Flow control (802.3x)
• MAC is CSMA/CD, CRC32,
Frame Encapsulation

This means Inter-Packet Gap and encapsulation is enforced by the individual link MACs
(called physical MACs), but FCS and source MAC address can be sent from the single
MAC above (e.g., if relayed)
No CSMA/CD since full-duplex required for link aggregation
Notice the split happens at the traditional software layer, so changes need only be done
in software (usually)
Flow control operates independent of the aggregation - it could pause link
aggregation control frames (this is good, me thinks)

316
 Spanning Tree
• Assume redundant link on
right is a trunk group
• Spanning Tree sees one
logical link (because it
operates above the LA
sublayer)

So Spanning Tree would disable

the link - thus all physical links
disabled
This is a bad example because it’s
impossible for a bridge to be trunk
linked to a shared medium
(gotcha!)

317
 Quick Overview

• Ports constantly send out packets

• When one or more cables are linked, they
auto-configure an aggregate group link
• (yes, I do mean one or more)
• Once aggregated, they still send each other
packets as a keep-alive

318
 How it works (or doesn’t)
Frame 1
Frame 2 Frame 4 Frame 6 Frame 8

Frame 3 Frame 5 Frame 7

• The 3 physical links above are grouped together automatically or through

configuration to be one logical link
• The green user on the right sends frames to the red user

Each frame is NOT broken up/spread across the wires (we’re still stuck with a
normal MAC, after all)
Instead, they are each sent whole - on one wire.
Also, we CANNOT send one frame on one wire, another on a second wire, etc.
(the way shown above) Why not?
Because they could arrive out of order - that would be BAD.

319
 How it really works
Frame 1 Frame 5
Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4
Frame 1

Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4

Frame 1
Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4

• So to protect against out of order delivery, the standard requires that the transmitting side
(Switch 2) keep “conversations” together on one wire.
• A conversation is a one-way sequence of frames with same dest/src address for the same
application. (i.e., anything that would be hurt by mis-ordering)
• In the case above, Switch 2 could keep all frames from station green to any other station
on the same wire. (src. addr. based) So even if green sends frames to someone else on
the left, it would still go through the same wire.

Likewise, any frames from other stations could be kept together on a separate wire. For
example if blue and yellow sent frames, each of their streams could be on a separate wire.
This is called a distribution algorithm, and is totally up to Switch 2. The standard only
requires that a conversation not be misordered.

320
 Reference Topologies
• Notice that repeaters
cannot participate
• Each trunk link is one MAC
layer to one MAC layer.
• All the trunks are MAC-to-
MAC, but network A is
many MAC addresses to
many others, whereas B
and C are many to one, and
D and E are one to one.
Thus the distribution
algorithms will be different
for them: based on src.
addr., src & dest, src & dest
& type, etc.

321
 LACPDU
• Link Aggregation Control (LAC) entities
send each other configuration info using
LACPDUs (LAC Protocol Data Units)
• The destination address of the LACPDU is
a well-known multicast address
• If the link partner doesn’t support LA, then
it discards them (doesn’t forward)
• Repeaters forward them like normal
frames (remember, repeaters are layer 1 - they don’t
even know what a “frame” is!) - BUT if there’s a
repeater, then the link should be half-duplex
and thus non-aggregatable (is that a word?)

326
 Destination Address

• LACPDU Destination Address is a multicast of the type not forwarded by

bridges (even if they don’t know what it’s for, they won’t forward it)

323
Some Background on
Selection
• Wanted auto-config to
avoid user mistakes, as
well as be flexible
• For instance, when the
user crosses wires from
2 systems (shown left)
• By using a System ID
Key, this can be
detected and fixed

324
More Goals

• Can also detect

loopbacks and disable
ports
• Plus need Port ID Keys
to detect which ports
can be aggregated
together
• So for two systems A
and B with ports 1 and
2, we call it {A1,B2}

325
One more set of Keys
• For manual config, and
alernative selection
algorithms, the
Aggregators need a
Key
• This way the Agg
Group MAC address
can be assigned to the
ports
• Port selects Agg with
same Key as itself
• This Key is internal -
not transmitted - only
port key and sys ID
transmitted

326
 Selection Logic
• IEEE wanted differing implementations of selection, as long as the
following are kept:
– Each port assigned a Key - ports that can agg together have the same key - else
unique Key
– Each Aggregator assigned a Key and MAC address
– Ports only select Aggs with same Key
– Ports in the same LAG use the same Aggregator
– Individual ports each have their own Agg
– If a port can’t select an Agg due to rules above, then it can’t be attached to one
– MAC Client won’t see the port until it’s selected and attached
• That’s it. This leaves a lot open.

327
 Default Selection Operation
• When multiple ports
in an aggregation,
select the lowest
number Aggregator
of the ports in the
aggregation
• That port may be just
selected but not
attached

This algorithm has a flaw - can you see it?

328
 Problems

• Not necessarily deterministic

• If deterministic, then a failover can take the
net down for a LONG time (due to
spanning tree)
• A few too many options for users
• Doesn’t support full-duplex repeaters (yes,
there is a such a thing)

329
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332
Multiple Spanning Trees
802.1s

333
 Multiple Spanning Trees

• If multiple VLANs are run on a network, they

all run on the same spanning tree
• This means unused (blocked) links don’t
carry any traffic
• But traffic from separate VLANs can be sent
on different spanning trees, thereby
utilizing the blocked ports
• So now one can assign VLANs to separate
spanning trees
• (This is NOT trivial to actually deploy)

334
Rapid Reconfiguration
802.1w

335
 Rapid Reconfiguration

• A broken spanning tree can take 50

seconds to re-converge
• A new algorithm, using new BPDU frames,
can decrease the time down to 10
milliseconds (best case)
• It’s backwards compatible with legacy
802.1D bridges (they won’t converge faster,
but they will work)

336
Port Based Network Access
802.1X

337
 LAN Security
• Anyone can connect their notebook/PC to a
switch and use/snoop the network
• 802.1x provides a method whereby the
switch only allows the user to contact a
RADIUS server with EAP packets to be
authenticated
• Once authenticated the user will be able to
access the net
• This is NOT fool-proof, but good enough for
hotels, libraries, etc. (not good enough for
the government)

338
Resilient Packet Rings
802.17

339
 Resilient Packet Rings
• In a SONET ring, half of
the fiber is never used
for real traffic – this is a
waste of possible
bandwidth – better to
use both rings
• Currently, several
vendors (Cisco, Nortel,
Lucent) have
proprietary methods
• There’s still debate
about the need for the
standard, but they’re
trying to move forward
– working group
802.17

340
RPR Applications

341
 RPR’s Goal
• Reuse as much of Ethernet as possible
– Frame format (mostly)
– Physical speeds (the higher ones)
– Marketing name power (definitely)
• Connect in a ring topology like SONET &
FDDI
• Have a fast SONET-like protection fail-
over
• Apply QoS from upper layers to Layer 2
– Similar to 802.1p but for media access as well
– Possible changes/additions to IP to make use of it (yes,
that sounds incredibly stupid, but there are people
pushing for this)
• Create more work for people
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343
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344
Ethernet in the First Mile
802.3ah

345
 EFM

• VERY early stages – had 2 meetings so far

• Basic idea is delivering Ethernet to the local
loop for FTTH, FTTC, FTTB markets
• Currently multiple vendor options for Multi-
Tenant Units (MTU)
• Easy problem: getting industry interest
(100-150 people at each meeting so
far)
• Hard problems: determining the business
models and market direction for the
application

346
 EFM Work
• Fiber Loop
– Basic Gig Ethernet from CO to switch in the field out to
CPE, like a bigger LAN – only needs some missing
pieces
» Adds 1Gig over single-fiber (bi-directional) for
10km
– PONs (Passive Optical Networks) using passive
splitters
• Copper Loop
– At 10mbps for <750m
– Replace DSL MAC layer with Ethernet but use same
PHY (thus, copper loop)
• Specify OAM
– Remote failure, loopback, and link monitoring

347
First Mile Copper

348
 PONs

• Passive Optical fiber plant, based on splitters

• Logically equivalent to Cable TV (HFC) plant
• MAC access protocol like DOCSIS over fiber – broadcast down from
headend, upstream is TDM-like (requested slots of varying length)
• APON: ATM version, standardized by ITU and FSAN but no interop
• EPON: Ethernet frame version

349
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352
Wrap-Up

353
The Future

354
 Acknowledgements

• Some of the slides, drawings, and

animations were stolen borrowed from:
– Gerry Nadeau
– Benjamin Schultz
– Adam Healey
– Rupert Dance
– Gary Pressler
– Eric Lynskey
– The IEEE standards and website

355
 Websites
• IEEE website: [Link]
• IETF website: [Link]
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance: [Link]
• My email address: malleswar@[Link]

356
 Acronym Expansion
• ARP – Address Resolution Protocol – the protocol used to discover a
device’s Ethernet address based on its IP address
• ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode – the Broadband-ISDN protocol based
on circuits and cell switched communications.
• AUI – Attachment Unit Interface
• BPDU – Bridge Protocol Data Unit
• CIR – Committed Information Rate – the bandwidth level/rate for Frame
Relay circuits which the user has agreement to transmit for
• CoS – Class of Service
• CRC – Cyclical Redundancy Check – a 4-byte value produced from a
polynomial function, used to validate the integrity of the contents of the
frame (like a parity check, or checksum)
• CSMA/CD – Carrier Sense, Multiple Access with Collision Detection – the
name and description of the half-duplex protocol used to access the
network in an Ethernet network
• CWDM – Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing – a method of sending
multiple independent signals on the same fiber by sending them at different
wavelengths (colors) – the Coarse version of WDM usually implies very few
wavelengths are used (6 or less) and they may not be in the same band
• DIX – Digital, Intel, and Xerox – the three companies that produced
interoperable Ethernet products before moving into an 802.3 working group
to become a standard
• DMD – Differential Modal Delay
• DOCSIS – Data over Cable System Interface Specification – the industry
standard for data communications over cable TV systems

357
 Acronym Expansion

• DSCP – DiffServ Code Point – the binary value field in the IP packet to mark
a packet with a particular per-hop behavior (PHB) for QoS parameters
• DTE – Data Terminal Equipment
• DWDM – Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing – a method of sending
multiple independent signals on the same fiber by sending them at different
wavelengths (colors) – the Dense version of WDM usually implies all of the
more than 8 wavelengths are within a fixed narrow band
• FEXT – Far End Crosstalk
• FR - Frame Relay - A packet-switched method of data communication
(similar to, but more efficient than, the original X.25 WAN protocol) provided
by telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers (ISPs). Frame
Relay can provide guaranteed bandwidth at no additional charge if the lines
are “open” during periods of low traffic. Frame Relay can run at speeds of
36 Kbps to 2 Mbps. It is now enjoying high popularity as a reasonably priced
alternative to leased line service.
• FRF – Frame Relay Forum – the industry forum that coordinates and
advances standards for Frame Relay.
• FCS – Frame Check Sequence
• GARP – Generic Attribute Registration Protocol
• GMRP – Generic Multicast Registration Protocol
• GMII – Gigabit Media Independent Interface
• GVRP – Generic VLAN Registration Protocol

358
 Acronym Expansion
• IEEE – Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers – the standards body that
defines electrical standards, including the 802 LAN/WAN committee which defines
such protocols as Ethernet and Token Ring.
• IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force – the standards body that defines protocols for
the Internet.
• IP - Internet Protocol - The communication protocol of the Internet. (version 4 is the
current version)
• IPv6 – IP version 6 – the heir apparent for the current IP version 4 – version 6 adds a
much larger address space, security, auto-configuration, and anycasting
• IPG – Inter-Packet Gap – the idle period between packets, defined as minimally 96 bit
times
• ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network - Allows for end-to-end digital transfer of
voice and data. ISDN, used primarily by small offices, home offices, and individual
households, combines digital switching and digital transmission and offers higher
bandwidths than current analog modems.
• ISP - Internet Service Provider - A service company that provides customers access to
the Internet.
• ITU – International Telecommunications Union – (formerly the CCITT) the standards
body that defines many international standards, including the phone system.
• LLC – Logical Link Control
• LTP – Link Test Pulse
• MAC – Media Access Control – The layer of the 802.3 stack above the Physical below
the Logical Link layer – the MAC is responsible for encapsulating/decapsulating the
packet with Ethernet fields, accessing the medium (either in half-duplex or full-duplex
mode), and padding or removing the pad on receipt.

359
 Acronym Expansion

• MAU – Medium Attachment Unit

• MDI – Media Dependent Interface
• MFD – Multiple Forwarding Database – a bridge that supports independent
learning, using a separate bridge table for each VLAN
• MII – Media Independent Interface – the interface between the Physical and
MAC layers – it can be a physically exposed interface allowing the user to
replace the transceiver (e.g., to use a fiber transceiver instead of copper)
• MMF – Multi-Mode Fiber
• MPLS - Multi-Protocol Label Switching – an IETF standard for assigning tags
to multiprotocol frames for transport across packet or cell-based networks.
It is based on the concept of label swapping, in which units of data (e.g., a
packet or a cell) carry a short, fixed-length label that tells switching nodes
how to process the data.
• NAT – Network Address Translation – the method whereby fake/illegal IP
addresses are used inside a user’s network and are translated to a real
address on the public side of the NAT router/gateway. Also sometimes
called NAPT for Network Address and Port Translators because they
translate both addresses and TCP/UDP ports.
• NEXT – Near End Crosstalk
• NIC – Network Interface Card
• OC-3/12/48/192 - Optical Carrier Levels 3, 12, 48, and 192. SONET
(Synchronous Optical Network) line interfaces/rates based on multiples of
OC1 at 51.84mbps, so OC-3 would be 155.52mbps.

360
 Acronym Expansion

• OSI - Open Systems Interconnection (Model) - An international set of rules

for computer networking that creates open standards to allow a computer
on any network to share iformation with any other computer on that network
or a connected network. The OSI model is divided into seven layers based
on the function and intelligence of the transmission equipment involved.
• PCS – Physical Coding Sublayer – a layer within the PHY that
encodes/decodes the bitstream
• PHY – Physical Layer – the layer between the MAC layer and transmission
medium (cable)
• PMA – Physical Medium Attachment
• PMD – Physical Medium Dependent – the lowest layer of the Physical layer
that attaches to the transmission medium
• PON – Passive Optical Network
• QoS – Quality of Service
• RS – Reconciliation Sublayer
• RSVP – Resource reSerVation Protocol – the protocol used for reserving
bandwidth for a particular flow.
• RTP – Real-time Transport Protocol – the IETF standard for a light-weight,
sequenced, transport protocol to carry time-sensitive data.
• RTCP – Real-time Transport Control Protocol – a control protocol for RTP
streams

361
 Acronym Expansion

• SDH - Synchronous Digital Hierarchy - The European version of the SONET

standard with two major differences: (1) the terminology and (2) the basic
line rate in SDH is equivalent to that of the SONET OC-3/STS-3 rate (i.e.,
155.52 Mbps). SDH is the ITU standard for high-capacity optical
transmission.
• SFD (1) – Start Frame Delimiter – the byte after the 7 byte preamble used to
indicate the beginning of the MAC frame
• SFD (2) – Single Forwarding Database – a bridge that supports shared
learning, using the same bridge table for every VLAN
• SMF – Single-Mode Fiber
• SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol - A protocol used in the
development of network management S. It is used to report on the status of
a network and the devices attached to it.
• SOHO - Small office/home office.
• SONET - Synchronous Optical Network - A transmission technology based
on overlaying a synchronous multiplexed signal onto a light stream
transmitted over fiber-optic cable. SONET is the ANSI standard for
transmitting digital information over optical networks. Fiber-optic
transmission rates range from 51.84 Mbps to 10 Gbps. SONET defines a
physical interface, optical line rates, frame formats, and an OAM&P
protocol. The base rate is known as OC-1 and runs at 51.84 Mbps. Higher
rates are multiples of 51.84 Mbps.
• TDM - Time Division Multiplexing - An electrical multiplexing technique for
transmitting a number of separate data, voice, and/or video signals
simultaneously over one communications medium by quickly interleaving a
piece of each signal one after the other

362
 Acronym Expansion

• TCP - Transmission Control Protocol – the reliable, connection-oriented

protocol for transporting data.
• UDP – User Datagram Protocol – the unreliable, connectionless protocol for
carrying data.
• UTP – Unshielded Twisted Pair
• VID – VLAN ID – the VLAN number
• VLAN – Virtual Local Area Network – a method whereby the Layer-2
broadcast domain is broken up into multiple broadcast domains, by
assigning some ports on switches to be in the same “VLAN” as other ports.
This limits those ports to only be able to communicate (at layer 2) with
others of the same VLAN (i.e., it requires a router to pass traffic between
different VLANs).
• VoIP – Voice over IP – providing voice service over an IP data network
instead of the traditional TDM-based method.
• VPN – Virtual Private Network
• X.25 - A standard (the standard’s document number is X.25) for handling
data in a packet-switched network (the predecessor to Frame Relay) that
uses a virtual circuit to establish a connection between a sender and a
receiver. Transmission in an X.25 network ranges from 9.6 Kbps to 64 Kbps
and operates on levels 1, 2, and 3 of the OSI model.

363