Fiber Distributed Data Interface

By - Shivakumar N Laxani

FIBER DISTRIBUTED DATA INTERFACE (FDDI)

Introduction
SHARED MEDIA NETWORK LIKE ETHERNET (IEEE 802.3) & TOKEN RING (IEEE 802.5) 100 Mbps SPEED
RUNS ON OPTICAL FIBER AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARDS INSTITUTE (ANSI) STANDARD

FDDI FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) is a standard for data transmission on fiber optic lines in a local area network (LAN) that can extend in range up to 200 km (124 miles).

The FDDI protocol is based on the token ring protocol. In addition to being large geographically, an FDDI local area network can support thousands of users.

FDDI
An FDDI network contains two token rings, one for possible backup in case the primary ring fails. The primary ring offers up to 100 Mbps capacity. If the secondary ring is not needed for backup, it can also carry data, extending capacity to 200 Mbps. The single ring can extend to the maximum distance; a dual ring can extend up to 100 km.

FDDI RING ARCHITECTURE

TIMELINE FOR FDDI

PROJECT INITIATED IN OCTOBER 1982 BY JAMES HAMSTRA AT SPERRY (NOW UNISYS) FDDI - II PROPOSAL WAS MADE IN EARLY 1986 FDDI MAC BECAME AN ANSI STANDARD IN LATE 1986 FIRST PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS WAS DONE AT ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES (AMD) IN 1989

FDDI Basic principle

TOKEN RING NETWORK LIKE IEEE 802.5

TOKEN: A SPECIAL SEQUENCE OF BITS TOKEN CIRCULATES AROUND THE RING A STATION REMOVES THE TOKEN FROM RING BEFORE TRANSMISSION
AFTER TRANSMISSION, THE STATION RETURNS THE TOKEN TO THE RING COLLISIONS ARE PREVENTED AS THERE IS ONLY ONE TOKEN IN THE RING

FDDI Physical Properties

DUAL-COUNTER-ROTATING TOKEN RING ARCHITECTURE
ONE RING IS PRIMARY AND THE OTHER SECONDARY UP TO 500 STATIONS WITH A MAXIMUM DISTANCE OF 2 KM BETWEEN ANY PAIR OF STATIONS FOR MULTIMODE FIBER

WITH SINGLE-MODE FIBER THE DISTANCE CAN BE UP TO 40 KM

MAXIMUM RING LENGTH IS 100 KM (TOTAL FIBER LENGTH IS 200 KM FOR TWO RINGS) USES 4B/5B ENCODING

FDDI RING ARCHITECTURE

OPERATION ON FAILURE OF THE PRIMARY RING

FDDI ARCHITECTURAL MODEL: ACCORDING TO THE ISO-OSI, FDDI SPECIFIES LAYER 1 (PHYSICAL LAYER) AND PART OF LAYER 2 (DATA LINK CONTROL LAYER) THE PHYSICAL LAYER HANDLES THE TRANSMISSION OF RAW BITS OVER A COMMUNICATIONS LINK THE DATA LINK CONTROL (DLC) LAYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE INTEGRITY OF INFORMATION EXCHANGED BETWEEN TWO POINTS

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FDDI AND ISO- OSI

The PMD Layer: PMD (Physical medium dependent) LAYER DEFINES THE TYPE OF MEDIA INTERCONNECTION AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS SUCH AS TRANSMITTER POWER, FREQUENCIES, RECEIVER SENSITIVITIES, BIT ERROR RATES (BER), OPTICAL COMPONENTS ETC. PMD-MMF: MULTIMODE (62.5 MICRON CORE DIAMETER) FIBER PMD-SMF: SINGLE-MODE (8-10 MICRON CORE DIAMETER) FIBER

The Physical Layer: PROVIDES THE MEDIA INDEPENDENT FUNCTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE OSI PHYSICAL LAYER RECEPTION: DECODES THE RECEIVED BIT STREAM FROM PMD LAYER INTO A SYMBOL STREAM FOR USE BY THE MAC LAYER TRANSMISSION: ENCODES THE DATA AND CONTROL SYMBOLS PROVIDED BY MAC FOR THE PMD LAYER ALSO PROVIDES SMT (System Management) WITH THE SERVICES REQUIRED FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF THE FDDI RING (BY CONTINUOUSLY LISTENING TO THE INCOMING SIGNAL)

THE MAC LAYER: PROVIDES FAIR & DETERMINISTIC ACCESS FAIR: NO NODE HAS ADVANTAGE OVER ANOTHER IN ACCESSING THE MEDIUM DETERMINISTIC: UNDER ERROR-FREE CONDITIONS, THE TIME A NODE HAS TO WAIT TO ACCESS THE MEDIUM CAN BE PREDICTED MEDIUM ACCESS IS CONTROLLED BY A TOKEN TOKEN PERMITS THE NODE THAT RECEIVES IT TO TRANSMIT FRAMES THE MAC LAYER OF THE NODE THAT GENERATED THE FRAME IS RESPONSIBLE FOR REMOVING THE TOKEN

The SMT Layer: A SOPHISTICATED, BUILT-IN NETWORK MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY SMT IS NOT AN OSI MODEL SPECIFICATION MAKING USE OF THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY PMD, PHY, AND MAC, IT CARRIES OUT MANY FUNCTIONS SUCH AS NODE INITIALIZATION, BYPASSING FAULTY NODES, COORDINATION OF NODE INSERTION AND REMOVAL, FAULT ISOLATION AND RECOVERY SMT IS MOST COMMONLY IMPLEMENTED AS A SOFTWARE PROCESS RUNNING ON THE FDDI DEVICE

FDDI - II
ENHANCED FDDI THAT HANDLES DATA, VOICE, AND

VIDEO SAME FEATURES AS BASIC FDDI (FDDI - I), INCLUDING MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MODES, 100 MBPS DATA TRANSFER BIT RATE, AND THE DUAL RING DEFINES THE PHYSICAL LAYER AND THE LOWER HALF OF THE DATA LINK LAYER SIMILAR TO FDDI-I FDDI-I SUPPORTS ONLY PACKET MODE (SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS) TRAFFIC, FDDI-II SUPPORTS BOTH PACKET DATA AS WELL AS ISOCHRONOUS DATA TRAFFIC (IN FDDI ISOCHRONOUS INDICATES A CLASS OF TRAFFIC FOR VOICE AND VIDEO THE SIMULTANEOUS SUPPORT OF BOTH PACKET AND ISOCHRONOUS TRAFFIC IS CALLED THE HYBRID MODE OF OPERATION

FDDI BENEFITS
HIGH BANDWIDTH (10 TIMES MORE THAN

ETHERNET) LARGER DISTANCES BETWEEN FDDI NODES BECAUSE OF VERY LOW ATTENUATION ( 0.3 DB/KM) IN FIBERS IMPROVED SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO BECAUSE OF NO INTERFERENCE FROM EXTERNAL RADIO FREQUENCIES AND ELECTROMAGNETIC NOISE BER TYPICAL OF FIBER-OPTIC SYSTEMS (10^-11) IS SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER THAN THAT IN COPPER (10^-5) AND MICROWAVE SYSTEMS (10^-7) VERY DIFFICULT TO TAP SIGNALS FORM A FIBER CABLE

COMPARISON OF TRANSMISSION MEDIA

FDDI LIMITATIONS
HIGH COST OF OPTICAL COMPONENTS

REQUIRED FOR TRANSMISSION/RECEPTION OF SIGNALS (ESPECIALLY FOR SINGLE MODE FIBER NETWORKS) MORE COMPLEX TO IMPLEMENT THAN EXISTING LOW SPEED LAN TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS IEEE 802.3 AND IEEE 802.5

APPLICATIONS OF FDDI

OFFICE AUTOMATION AT THE DESKTOP BACKBONES FOR FACTORY AUTOMATION BACKEND DATA CENTER APPLICATIONS CAMPUS LAN INTERCONNECTION INTERCAMPUS BACKBONES OR METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORKS (MANs) INTERCONNECTION OF PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGES (PBXS) WORKGROUP AND DEPARTMENTAL LANS INTEGRATED TRANSPORT FOR MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS

COMPARISON WITH OTHER NETWORKS

FEATURES
TRANSMISSION RATE DATA RATE

FDDI
125 MBAUD 100 MBPS

ETHERNET
20 MBAUD 10 MBPS

TOKEN RING
8 & 32 MBAUD 4 & 16 MBPS

SIGNAL ENCODING
MAXIMUM COVERAGE MAXIMUM NODES MAXIMUM DISTANCE BETWEEN NODES

4B/5B (80% EFFICIENT)

100 KM 500 2 KM (MULTIMODE FIBER) 40 KM (SINGLEMODE FIBER)

MANCHESTER (50% EFFICIENT)

2.5 KM 1024 2.5 KM

DIFFERENTIAL MANCHESTER (50% EFFICIENT)

CONFIGURATION DEPENDENT 250 300 M (RECOMMENDED 100 M)

Conclusion
Compared to Ethernet , ARC net and token ring

networks ;the FDDI is faster Network architecture. In future if the cost of optical fibers used in FDDI is reduced , it will be the most used & efficient LAN Architecture.