Chapter 5 - Ethernet Flashcards
What is the most widely used LAN technology today?
Ethernet
What layers does Ethernet operate in?
The data link layer and the physical layer.
What standards define Ethernet?
IEEE 802.2 and 802.3 standards.
What bandwidths does Ethernet support?
- 10Mb/s
- 100Mb/s
- 1000Mb/s (1Gb/s)
- 10,000Mb/s (10Gb/s)
- 40,000Mb/s (40Gb/s)
- 100,000Mb/s (100Gb/s)
What does the Ethernet LLC sublayer do?
It handles the communication between the upper layers and the lower layers. This is typically between the networking software and the device hardware. It takes the network protocol data, and adds control information to help deliver the packet to the destination node.
Where is the LLC sublayer implemented?
In software, independent of the hardware. In a computer, the LLC can be considered the driver software for the NIC. The NIC driver is a program that interacts directly with the hardware to pass the data between the MAC sublayer and the physical media.
Where is the MAC sublayer implemented?
It’s implemented by hardware, typically in the computer NIC.
What are the primary responsibilities of the Ethernet MAC sublayer?
Data encapsulation & Media Access Control
What is data encapsulation?
The process includes frame assembly before transmission, and frame disassembly upon reception of a frame. In forming the frame, the MAC layer adds a header and trailer to the network layer PDU. The use of frames aids in the transmission of bits as they are placed on the media and in the grouping of bits at the receiving node.
What are the primary functions of data encapsulation?
Frame delimiting, addressing, error detection
What is frame delimiting?
The framing process provides important delimiters that are used to identify a group of bits that make up a frame. These bits provide synchronization between the transmitting and receiving nodes
What is addressing?
The encapsulation process contains the Layer 3 PDU and also provides for data link layer addressing
What is error detection?
Each frame contains a trailer used to detect any errors in transmission.
What is Media Access Control?
Media access control is responsible for the placement of frames on the media and the removal of frames from the media. This sublayer communicates directly with the physical layer.
What is the logical topology of Ethernet and what does that mean?
The underlying logical topology of Ethernet is a multi-access bus; therefore, all nodes on a single network segment share the medium. As Ethernet is a contention-based method of networking, any device can try to transmit data across the shared medium whenever it has data to send.
What process is used in half-duplex Ethernet LANs to prevent colissions?
Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)
What is one of the reasons Ethernet has become so popular?
It’s ability to improve over time. Early versions were relatively slow at 10Mbps. The latest versions operate at 10 Gigabits per second and faster.
What is the minimum and maximum ethernet frame size?`
64 bytes, and 1518 bytes.
What are frames that are too big or too small called? What happens to them?
If the size of the frame is less than the minimum it is called a “collision fragment” or a “runt frame”. Frames bigger than 1500 bytes are called “jumbo” or “baby giant frames”. If the size is too big or too small the receiving device drops the frame.
What are the fields in the Ethernet frame?
Preamble and Start Frame Delimiter, Destination MAC Address, Source MAC Address, EtherType, Data, Frame Check Sequence Field (FCS)
What are the preamble and start frame delimiter fields?
The Preamble (7 bytes) and Start Frame Delimiter (SFD), also called the Start of Frame (1 byte), fields are used for synchronization between the sending and receiving devices. These first eight bytes are used to inform the receiving device that a new frame is coming.
What is the destination MAC address field?
This 6-byte field is the identifier for the intended recipient. This address is used by Layer 2 to assist devices in determining if a frame is addressed to them. The address in the frame is compared to the MAC address in the device, and accepted if there is a match. Can be a unicast, multicast, or broadcast address.
What is the source MAC address field?
This 6-byte field identifies the frame’s originating NIC or interface. Must be a unicast address.
What is EtherType field?
This 2-byte field identifies the upper layer protocol encapsulated in the Ethernet frame. Common values are, in hex, 0x800 for IPv4, 0x86DD for IPv6 and 0x806 for ARP.
What is the data field?
This field (46-1500 bytes) contains the encapsulated data from a higher layer, which is a generic Layer 3 PDU, or more commonly, an IPv4 packet. If a small packet is encapsulated, additional bits called a pad are used to increase the size of the frame to this minimum size.
What is the FCS field?
The Frame Check Sequence field (4 bytes) is used to detect errors in a frame. It uses a cyclic redundancy check (CRC). The sending device includes the results of a CRC in the FCS field. The receiving device receives the frame and generates a CRC to look for errors. If the calculations match, no error occured. If not, the data has changed and the frame is dropped.
What is an Ethernet MAC address?
A 48-bit binary value express as 12 hexadecimal digits (4 bits per digit).
What is hexadecimal?
The base-16 numbering system. Uses the numbers 0 to 9 and the letter A to F.
How is hexadecimal represented?
Usually represented by the value preceded by 0x (ex: 0x73) or with a subscribt 16. Less commonly, it may be followed by an H (ex: 73H) However, since subscript text is not recognized in command line or programming environments, the technical representation is preceded with “0x”.
What are the rules of the MAC address structure, and who enforces these rules? What is the OUI?
The MAC address value is a direct result of IEEE-enforced rules to ensure globally unique addresses for each Ethernet device. The IEEE requires any vendor that sells ether devices register with the IEEE. The IEEE then assigns the vendor a 3-byte (24-bit) code called the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI). All Mac addresses assigned to a NIC or other Ethernet device must use that vendor’s assigned OUI as the first 3 bytes. All MAC addresses with the same OUI must be assigned a unique value in the last 3 bytes.
What does BIA mean?
Burned-in address, a different name for MAC address because, historically, this address is burned into ROM (Read-Only memory) on the NIC.
What is the first thing the NIC does when a computer starts up?
Copies the MAC address from ROM into RAM.
What happens when a NIC receives an Ethernet frame?
It examines the destination MAC address to see if it matches the device’s physical MAC address stored in RAM. If there is no match, the device discards the frame. If there is a match, it passes the frame up the OSI layers, where the de-encapsulation process takes place. (Note: Ethernet NICs will also accept frames if the destination MAC address is a broadcast or a multicast group of which the host is a member)
On a Windows host, what command can be used to identify the MAC address of an Ethernet adapter?
ipconfig /all
The display will indicate the Physical (MAC) Address of the computer.