All figures were taken from Chapter 15 of William Stallings' book Data and Computer Communications, 7th Edition

Local Area Network Overview Local area networks (LANs) are computer networks that cover a small area. LANs are usually owned by the organizations that use them. LANs interconnect equipment in an organization to cater to its internal communications. LAN Applications Personal computer LANs connect the PCs, printers etc in the organization. PC LAN enables organization to share central resources such as corporate-wide data, printers, certain and some software applications. Features of PC LANs include Low cost Limited data rate Back end networks interconnect large systems (mainframes and large storage devices). When upgrading of such systems is needed, instead of upgrading at high cost, organizations buy new equipment and connect them to old ones to increase capacity. High dat arate of the order of 100 MBPS high speed interface between the network and host systems distributed access to shared medium limited distance between devices limited number of devices of the order of few tens

Storage Area Network is a variation of back end LANs. It helps networking of large storage devices together. Storage devices may be interconnected based on servers or based of storage devices. (see figure15.1 in text) Detaches storage tasks from specific servers Shared storage facility across high-speed network Hard disks, tape libraries, CD arrays Improved client-server storage access Direct storage to storage communication for backup

High speed office networks cater to transfer huge amounts of data. Advent of graphics-rich applications in organizations necessiated these networks. Desktop image processing High capacity local storage

Backbone LANs interconnect low speed local LANs spanning several buildings. These overcome the drawbacks of a single LAN in such cases. Reliability improves Capacity of LAN increases without sacrificing the performance

Cost effective.

LAN Architecture is defined by their key features: Topologies Transmission medium protocols Medium access control

Topologies: Topology refers to the way in which the end point (stations) are interconnected.
Common topologies for LANs are tree, bus, ring and star. Bus Topology: A single cable, the backbone functions as a shared communication medium. Devices attach or tap into with an interface with full duplex connector. Each station has a unique address. A device wanting to communicate with another device on the network sends a broadcast message onto the wire that all other devices see, but only the intended recipient actually accepts and processes the message. A terminator absorbs frames at end of medium. Data is transmitted in the form of frames. Need to regulate transmission need to to avoid collisions need to avoid hogging Data in small blocks frames uses minimum cabling simplest and least expensive for small networks expansion is easy

Bus topology

Tree Tpology: is a generalization of the bus. Transmission medium has branches of cable and has no closed loops. The tree begins at a point called head end. Transmission from any station propagates throughout the medium. Each branch has a terminator. Stations have unique addresses traffic regulation is needed data is sent in frames Ring Topology network consists of a set of repeaters joined by point to point links in closed loop. Repeaters receive data on one link and retransmit on another. Links are unidirectional.

Stations attach to repeaters. Stations transmit data in frames onto network through repeater. Data circulate past all stations. Destination recognizes address and copies frame. Frame circulates back to source where it is removed. Media access control determines when station can insert frame. Every station in the network gets equal opportunity Ring topology

to send its data. As the number of devices increase, network becomes slow. If one device breaks down, entire network will be down. Troubleshooting is difficult addition of removal of a terminal causes disruption in network operation Ring topology is suitable for high-speed links over long distances.

Star Topology Each station connected directly to central node, usually via two point to point links. Central node is called hub. Only one station can transmit at a time. The central hub can operate as one of the two modes: broadcast mode: when a station sends data to hub, the hub retransmits data on all of its outgoing links. The network is now a physical star, but behaves like a logical bus Switching mode: hub acts as a frame switching device between source and destination. Star topology takes advantage of the natural layout of wiring in a building. It is generally est for short distances and a small number of devices.

Choice of Topology depends on factors like Reliability Expandability Performance consideration of medium Wiring layout Access control

Transmission Medium available for LANs are Voice-grade unshielded Twisted wire pair (CAT 3) inexpensive Well understood technology, easy to install Use existing telephone wiring in office building Low data rates - 1 MBPS Didnt scale for fast LANs Not used in bus LANs now

shielded twisted wire pair (CAT 5)

more expensive than UTP high data rates Uses digital signalling 10 MBPS Original Ethernet used difficult to maintain not used in newer installations High data rate for small number of devices used in switched star topology for large installations As in cable TV systems Analog signals at radio frequencies Expensive, hard to install and maintain No longer used in LANs

baseband coaxial cable

High performance UTP - Cat 5 and above

broadband coaxial cable

optical fiber - Expensive taps discouraged their use in LANs, as better alternatives available. Provides electromagnetic isolation High capacity Small size High cost of components High skill needed to install and maintain Prices are coming down as demand and product range increases Used in backbone LANs

Choice of Medium is determined by factors like LAN topology Capacity Reliability Types of data supported Environmental scope

Protocols organize the basic functions of a LAN. Physical and data link layers of OSI model are standardized for LANs. Interms of OSI model, layers 3

 7 are independent of network architecture. These layers equally applicable to a LAN, MAN and WAN. Therefore, a discusson on LAN protocols is concerned mainly with physical and data link layers. IEEE 802 reference model is defined specifically for LANs. This model lays standards for the bottom two layers in LANs.

Physical layer of IEEE 802 corresponds to physical layer of OSI model. Logical link control (LLC) and Medium access control (MAC) layers together correspond to data link layer of OSI model. Physical Layer in IEEE802 is concerned with Encoding/decoding of signals Preamble generation/removal for signal synchronization Bit transmission/reception Transmission medium and topology (in OSI these are below physical layer)

Data link layer of OSI is split into two sub layers in IEEE 802 model, because - logic required to manage access to a shared medium is not found in traditional data link layers. - for the same logical link layer, several MAC options may be provided. Logical Link Control deals with interface to higher levels of network and flow and error control. LLC receives data from higher levels. It appends control information as a header and creates LLC protocol data unit (PDU). LLC passes this PDU to MAC layer. Medium Access Control Sublayer (MAC) appends control information at the front and back of the LLC PDU to make a MAC frame. has the following functions: More discussion on these sub layers follows now.

Logical Link Control (LLC) is concerned with transmission of a link-level protocol data unit (PDU) between two stations without the need for an intermediate switching node. LLC has two characteristics that are distinct from most other data link control protocols. it must support multi-access, shared medium nature of the link. It is relieved of some details of data link access by MAC sublayer. Addressing in LLC involves specifying the source and destination LLC users. These users may be network management function in the station. Addresses of users at LLC are referred to as service access points (SAP). LLC services to its higher layer include specifying mechanisms for addressing stations across the medium control the exchange of data between two users. LLC operation is based on HDLC and provides three types of services: Unacknowledged connectionless service does not involve flow and error control Connection mode service logical connection is setup between two users prior to exchange of data. Flow and error control are provided.

Acknowledged connectionless service no prior connection is set up. Datagrams are acknowledged. LLC Protocol is modeled after HDLC, but differs from HDLC in that Uses asynchronous balanced mode to support connection mode LLC service Unnumbered information PDUs to support unacknowledged connectionless service supports acknowledged connectionless service by using two unnumbered PDUs.

All these operations employ the same PDU format consisting of 4 fields as shown. DSAP 1 byte SSAP 1 byte LLC Control 1 or 2 bytes Information variable

DSAP Destination SAP contains 7-bit destination address. 8th bit specifies whether DSAP is an individual or group address. SSAP Source SAP contains 7-bit source address. 8th bit specifies whether PDU is a

command or a response Control field is identical to that of HDLC control field. It can indicate I-frame, S-frame or Uframe. LLC uses two other unnumbered information (UI) PDUs to support management functions associated with all three types of operations. These are specified by C/R bit in SSAP and are called XID/TEST PDUs. In these PDUs, DSAP and SSAP will have null addresses (all 0s). XID PDU is used to negotiate the LLC services supported by entities and the receive-window size. TEST is used to conduct a loopback test of the transmission path between LLC entities. Medium Access Control All LANs and MANs consist of collections of devices that must share the network's transmission capacity. Some means of controlling to the access of transmission medium is needed toprovide for an orderly and efficient use of that capacity. MAC layer does this job. MAC layer's functions are Assembly of data into frame with address and error detection fields Disassembly of frame Address recognition Error detection Govern access to transmission medium

MAC layer is not found in traditional layer 2 data link control. For the same LLC, several MAC options may be available. Key parameters of MAC technique are where and how to provide the control. Where refers to whether control is centralized or decentralized. Centralized control: A central station is designated as controller and stations need to get grant of access to medium. Advantages are provides greater control simplifies access logic at station. It avoids problems of co-ordination. Disadvantages are Single point of failure Potential bottleneck Distributed control : Stations collectively perform a medium access function to determine the roder in which stations transmit. This decition is dynamically made. This scheme's pros and cons are mirror images of those of centralized scheme. How is concerned with control of access to shared medium. It is constrained by topology of the network. It is a trade off among competing factors such as cost, performance and complexity of the network. Access control techniques can be Synchronous - Specific capacity is dedicated to connection like in FDM. These techniques are generally not optimal in LANs because the needs of stations are unpredictable. Asynchronous techniques are dynamic in response to demand. These can be of three types: Round Robin each station in turn gets a chance to transmit. During its turn, a station may transmit if it has data to do so, or pass the turn to next station in logical order. This

method is good if many stations have data to transmit over extended period. This technique is used in token bus (802.4)and token ring(802.5) LANs. Reservation is good for stream traffic. Time on the medium is divided into slots. A station wishing to transmit reserves future slots for an extended or even an indefinite period. Reservation can be centralized or decentralized. This technique is used in IEEE802.6 DQDB bus LANs. Contention is good for bursty traffic. All stations contend for time. This is a distributed technique. It is simple to implement and efficient under moderate load. It tends to collapse under heavy load. Contention can be centralized or decentralized. Ths is popular technique in bus LANs with CSMA/CD(802.3). MAC Frame Format MAC layer receives data from LLC layer. Then it adds various fields and creates a MAC frame that is transmitted to other station. MAC frame has the following general format.

MAC control field - contains protocol control information needed for functioning of MAC protocol. Actual field content varies among various LAN configurations. We will discuss these in detail later. Destination MAC address is the destination physical point on the LAN for this frame Source MAC address source physical point on LAN (ex: my PC's physical address is 18-03-73-C8C9-C4) LLC PDU CRC or FCS is used for error detection. MAC layer detects errors and discards frames with errors. LLC optionally retransmits unsuccessful frames