17UEC08 Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

17UEC08-Network

MUTHAYAMMAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE,

RASIPURAM-637408
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION
III YEAR/VI SEM
17UEL08-NETWORK
NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS AND SECURITY

Unit-IV (LAN Technologies)

4.1. Introduction:

There are basically three categories of computer networks. They are

LAN : Local Area Network
MAN : Metropolitan Area Network
WAN : Wide Area Network
A Local Area Network is generally a privately owned network within a single office, building
or campus, covering a distance of a few kilometers.
The main reason for designing a LAN is to share resources such as disks, printers, programs
and data.
LANs can use the star, bus or ring topology. The bus topology is popular in the Ethernet
LANs and Token Bus LANs, and the ring topology is popular in the Token Ring LANs.
A modified version of Token Ring is Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDDI.
FDDI
A Metropolitan Area Network is a networkork that is designed to cover an entire city.
As an organization has multiple branches over the cities, and they need to connect their
branch LANs together to share information among the branches.
In such a case the organization utilizes the services of existing
xisting telephone networks to
connect their LANs together to form MAN.
A Wide Area Network is huge as compared to LAN or WAN.
A WAN spans across city, state, country or
or even continent boundaries.
For instance, a WAN could be made up of a LAN in India, another LAN in the US and a third
LAN in Japan, all connected to each other to form a big network of networks.

4.2. LAN (Local Area Networks):

A Local Area Network is generally a privately owned network within a single office, building
or campus, covering a distance of a few kilometers.
The main reason for designing a LAN is to share resources such as disks, printers, programs
and data.
LANs usually broadcast their
thei message to all hosts on that LAN.
This is because all the hosts share
sha a single transmission medium in LAN.
LAN
The address in the packet or frame enables the destination host to receive that packet and
all the other hosts ignore it.
Broadcast networks can be static or dynamic.
In the static method, each host is given a fixed time slice to send the information like in
TDM. And if a host does not have anything to send, that time slice is wasted.
In the dynamic method, a host can send a frame at any time.
If two
wo hosts send a frame at the same time, the two frames could collide with each other.
We need some arbitration to solve this problem.
A protocol called Media Access Control (MAC) performs this job and decides which node can
access the medium and when.
The dynamic method can be further subdivided in two categories centralized and
decentralized channel allocation methods.
In the centralized method, there is a single entity, for example, a bus arbitration unit, which
decides who should send the data next.
This is typically a master--slave method.

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In the star topology, the hub can play the role of the master.
If the arbitration unit goes down, the entire network goes down.
In the decentralized method, the arbitration is done more democratically.

You do not require any external arbitrator for this. This method is more efficient, and
therefore, more popular.
This requires certain discipline or protocol to be followed by all the hosts.
The decentralized method can be implemented in two major ways:
Carrier sensing - Ethernet using bus topology.
Token passing - Token Bus using bus topology uses this method. Token Ring
Using ring topology and FDDI.
4.3. LAN Implementation:
There are various methods to implement the LAN and below three are the major and
popular implementations.
Ethernet (bus),
Token Ring,
FDDI (token passing).
4.3.1. Ethernet

Ethernet is the a popular packet-

switching LAN technology.
Ethernet was invented at Xerox PARC
in the early 1970s and standardized in
1978.
Ethernet uses a single coaxial cable as
the transmission medium.
All hosts in the Ethernet LAN connect
Figure 1(Ethernet Connection)
to this cable.
A device called transceiver (Transmitter
and receiver) is used to establish the
connection between a computer and
the Ethernet.
Physically the transceivers are
connected as shown in the figure.
The transceiver will sense the voltages
on the cable for interpreting the
signals.
The transceiver contains analog circuits
for interfacing with the cable, and
digital circuits for interfacing with the
host.
Each host's Network Interface Card
(NIC) controls the operation of its
transceiver using the network software Figure 2(Transceiver Connection)
inside the host.

At any point of time, the Ethernet bus can be in any of the following three states:
The bus is idle: No host is sending/receiving any message.
The bus is busy: it carries the signal sent by some nodes.
The bus carriers an erratic: signal generated by a collision of two different
hosts at same time.
The transceiver does not connect to the host directly. Instead of this it connects to a
Network Interface Card (NIC).
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NIC is a small card plugged on the motherboard of the host, and functions like a small
computer consisting of a small CPU, memory and a limited instruction set.
It performs all the network-related
functions.
Each NIC has a unique hardware
address or physical address that
identifies a host uniquely.
If the NIC of one computer is replaced
with another the hardware address of
the computer changes to the address of
the new NIC. This is like a SIM card in a
mobile phone.
The logical architecture of a NIC
contains an interface to the LAN, and
also contains a processor and memory,
which are used during the transmission Figure 3( NIC Organization)
and acceptance of the data.
Following steps are carried out while transmitting a file/message by a host to another host
on the bus:
1. The message is broken into different frames by a higher-level protocol. Each frame
has a header and the actual data. The header contains the source address, the
destination address and CRC, etc.
2. This frame is stored in the memory of the NIC of the source host for transmitting to
the destination host.
3. The NIC now checks the status of the bus with the help of the transceiver and waits
until it finds that the status of the bus is idle.
4. The NIC sends the data bit by bit when it finds that the bus is idle. It also computes
and inserts the CRC with header to be transmitted.
5. If two hosts want to use the bus and check the status of the bus simultaneously, and
find it idle and send their respective frames at the same time, there will be a
collision.
6. If there is no collision, the frame along with the header starts traveling to all the
nodes.
7. The transceiver of every host receives the signal values from the bus and converts
them into bits and sends them bit by bit to the NIC of the host.
8. The bits are stored in the memory of the NIC of the host to form a frame.
9. The NIC of the host compares the destination address in the frame with its own
hardware address. It accepts the frame if the two match. Otherwise, the frame is
discarded.
10. If the addresses match the NIC of the destination host computes the CRC on the bits
received again, and compares it with the one received from the header of the frame.
A mismatch indicates an error. The NIC discards such a frame. There is no provision
for either a positive or negative acknowledgement in Ethernet.
11. The error-free frames are passed by the NIC to the host at the destination, where
they are assembled into a complete message and passed to the higher layers of the
protocol for further processing.
4.3.1.1. Properties of Ethernet:

The Ethernet uses the bus topology and has a transmission speed of 10 Mbps and it has the
following properties:
Broadcast network:
Ethernet is a broadcast network because the transceiver of every host receives every
transmission from any host on the network.
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A transceiver simply accepts all

the bits of a frame traveling
across the Ethernet, and
handover to its NIC one by one.
The NIC decides if the frame is of
any relevance to itself by
matching the destination address
field in the frame with the
address of itself, and accordingly Figure 4(Broadband Connection of Ethernet)
either accepts or discards it.
Best-effort delivery:
There is no hardware to provide any information to the source about the frame
sent by it has successfully reached the destination or not.
The upper layers of the protocol will reassemble the frames to construct the
original message and finds, is there any missing of frame.
If there is any missing frame then the NIC will request the source for the
retransmission of the respective frame.
Decentralized access control:
The control to the transmission cable is distributed.
That is, in Ethernet there is no centralized authority to control the transmission
over the medium.
Instead of this Ethernet uses the approach of Carrier Sense Multiple Access
with Collision Detect (CSMA/CD).
4.3.1.2. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detect (CSMA/CD):

The CSMA/CD technique is quite simple as all the hosts in the Ethernet bus will
simultaneously monitors the bus through their transceivers to determine that the bus is
idle or busy and hence it is called Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA).
When a host has a frame and waiting to be transmitted, its transceiver checks the Ethernet
cable to find any other host has already sending data over the medium.
That is, it performs a carrier sensing. When the host determines that no other host is using
the Ethernet that is the cable is idle, it transmits its own data on to the Ethernet.
Also it can send only a limited amount of data, so that other hosts also get a chance for data
transmission.
When the transceiver of a host begins transmission on the Ethernet, the signal does not
immediately reach all parts of the network and it takes some finite time, even the message
is very small.
Therefore, until the signal reaches another host, that host continues to believe that the
cable is idle. Thus, it is quite possible that two transceivers believe that the Ethernet is free
for transmission, and can transmit data exactly at the same time.
When this happens, the electrical signals of the two transmissions collide together and such
incidents are termed as collisions, which produce peculiar erratic signals.
To resolve collisions, the transceiver of that host continues to listen to the Ethernet bus to
see if a collision has occurred. If it has, the transceiver informs its NIC about it.
The NIC stops further transmission and waits for some time before it asks the transceiver
to retransmit the data.
As soon as it detects a collision, it generates a specific jamming signal across the bus,
informing all the nodes of the collision.
The NIC of the other node trying to send some data also detects the jamming signal and
backs off. Now, both the nodes want to send some data will wait for a while.
The Ethernet standard offers different hosts can choose different random times for waiting
back off and this ensures that to avoid another collision on the bus.

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4.3.1.3. Ethernet Addresses:

In the case of Ethernet, a physical address is 48-bit long, and is called unique Ethernet
address.
The Ethernet address is hardcoded on the NIC. Thus, if we replace the NIC of a computer, its
Ethernet address would change.
The NIC uses the Ethernet address of a host to determine whether a frame received from
the transceiver is addressed to its host or not
4.3.1.4. Ethernet Frame:
The Ethernet is a data link layer connection between hosts.
Therefore, the unit of data exchanged by hosts over the Ethernet is called a frame, rather
than a packet.
An Ethernet frame has a format as shown in Figure below

Figure 5(Ethernet Frame)

Preamble: The preamble contains 8 bytes or 64 bits of alternating 0s and 1s to help the
receiving hosts synchronize.
Destination address: The 6-byte or 48-bit address of the destination to which the frame
is to be delivered. This is the hardware NIC address that we have studied before.
Source address: The NIC of the sending host inserts the hardware NIC address of the
sender in this 6-byte or 48-bit field.
Frame type: This field identifies the type of data carried in the frame the operating
system of the destination computer uses this field to determine how to process a given
frame.
Frame data: This field contains the actual data of the frame and it can be of variable
length.
CRC: This 4-byte or 32-bit field helps the destination NIC to detect transmission errors.

4.3.2. Token Ring:

Unlike Ethernet that uses a bus topology, the Token Ring network is based on the ring
topology.
A Token Ring network employs a mechanism called token passing.
4.3.2.1. Basics of Token Ring:
All hosts on a Token Ring share the
same physical medium like in Ethernet
and we need to address this issue of
Media Access Control (MAC).
In the case of Token Ring, the hosts are
arranged in the form of circular ring.
When a host on the ring wants to
transmit data, it cannot send it
immediately. It must wait for
permission to transmit.
Once a host gets the permission for Figure 6( Token Ring)
data transmission no other host would
be allowed to transmit data at the same time.
Thus the host has an exclusive control over the transmission medium to transmit data.
The sending computer transmits a frame, which travels across the ring. This means that
each host on the ring has to accept it, check the destination address and if it is not meant
for it, forward it along.

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Only the actual destination after comparing the destination address in the frame with its
own makes a copy of it while the other hosts do not make a copy of it.
In either case, every host forwards it to the next host on the ring anyway, so that the frame
actually comes back to the sender.
However, at the destination node, before it forwards the frame, that host checks the CRC to
ensure that there are no errors and then not only accepts the frame, but also changes a flag
bit in the frame to indicate the receipt of a correct frame.
The frame, therefore, comes back to the sender after covering the entire ring. At this stage,
the sender can check the flag bit to verify if the frame was received by the destination
successfully, or if there were any errors during transmission.
This is shown in Fig. 9.8. This is how the acknowledgement scheme is implemented in
Token Ring unlike Ethernet, where there is no such scheme.
4.3.2.2. Medium Access Control (MAC):

Figure 7(MAC In Token Ring)

Unlike Ethernet here in the token ring any host can transmit data any time.
Thus in the case of Token Ring, a host gets exclusive access to the medium when it is
transferring data, and that no other host can perform any transmissions.
Token Ring does not employ CSMA/CD instead of this the Token Ring hardware ensures
that the permission for data transmission is granted to each host on the Token Ring.
The hardware coordinates this by a special three-byte frame called token.
A token contains a bit pattern that is completely different from any other data frame so that
the token and data frames can be easily distinguished from each other.
The Token Ring hardware makes there will be one and only one token frame on the
medium, which keeps circulating over the ring from one host to the next continuously.
The token is the permission for data transmission.
Thus, before sending a frame a host must wait for the token frame to arrive.
Once a host receives the token frame, it knows that it has an exclusive access to the
transmission medium.
Therefore it temporarily removes the token frame from the transmission medium and
sends its data frame to the transmission medium.
Once the data frame comes back to it by completing its full journey, the transmitting host
then sends back the token frame onto the medium.
Every host is given an equal chance for data transmission. Also, if a host has two or more
frames to transmit, it must send one frame at a time.
This means that small transmissions do not have to wait for long because of other big
transmissions. In short, this is an interesting implementation of time division multiplexing.
When no host has any data to transmit, the token frame keeps circulating continuously,
without any host using it to gain access to the medium.

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4.3.2.3. Addressing Mechanism:

The Token Ring addressing mechanism is very similar to that of the Ethernet with the 48-
bit NIC address being used for all transmissions.
4.3.2.4. Properties of Token Ring
Data rate: Token Ring supports data rates up to 4 to 10 Mbps. And it has increased over the
years, because of the improvements in the hardware.
Transmission medium: The ring in the Token Ring network consists of a series of shielded
twisted-pair wire sections that link to their immediate neighbors. The output port of one host
is connected to the input port of the next, to create a unidirectional traffic flow. The output
from the final host is connected back to the input of the first host to complete the ring.
4.3.2.5. Token Ring Frame:
The Token Ring specification describes three frame formats such as data, token and abort.
These formats are discussed one by one.

1. Data frame : The fields in the data frame of a Token Ring are as follows:

Figure 8(Data Frame)

Preamble : This field internally contains three subfields, each consisting of one byte.
The preamble is used for synchronization purposes. One of the flags in this field also
indicates that it is a data frame, and not a token frame or an abort frame.
Destination address: The 6-byte or 48-bit address of the NIC of the destination host.
Source address: The 6-byte or 48-bit address of the NIC of the sending host.
Frame data: This field contains the actual data of the frame which is being variable
length up to a maximum of 4,500 bytes.
CRC: This 32-bit field helps the source and the destination NIC to detect transmission
errors.
ED (End Delimiter): This one-byte field signifies that the sender's data and control
information ends here.
FS (Frame Status): This one-byte field is the last one in the data frame. The receiver
sets it when it receives the frame correctly to indicate that it was received the correctly.
One byte is occupied by this field. It contains two bits to indicate that the destination
address was recognized and the data was captured by the destination correctly. And the
destination is present but the frame cannot be copied by the destination host due to
buffer full.
2. Token frame: The token frame acts like a placeholder.

Figure 9(Token frame)

Start Delimiter (SD): This field signifies to a host that a frame is coming.
Access Control (AC) : This field indicates to the host that the arriving frame is a token
frame.
End Delimiter (ED): This field signifies to a host that the end of the token frame.
3. Abort frame: This frame does not contain any meaningful information. It is used by a
sender to abort an ongoing transmission for whatever reasons.

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Figure 10(Abort Frame)

Start Delimiter (SD): This field signifies to a host that a frame is coming.
End Delimiter (ED) : This field signifies to a host the end of the abort frame.

4.3.3. FIBER DISTRIBUTED DATA INTERFACE (FDDI):

The Fiber Distributed Data Interface

(FDDI) network architecture is a LAN
protocol standardized by ANSI.
It supports data transmission rates of up
to 100 Mbps because it uses Optical Fibers
as transmission medium, and it is an
alternative to Ethernet and Token Ring
architectures.
FDDI uses glass fibers for data
transmission, therefore it encodes data
bits in the form of pulses of light.
Figure 11(FDDI)
4.3.3.1. Properties of FDDI:
The main properties of FDDI can be summarized as follows.
Token passing for Media Access Control: Like the Token Ring protocol, FDDI also uses
the concept of a token frame to regulate medium access. The same principles of token
frame apply here.
Self-healing mechanisms: The hardware in FDDI provides mechanisms for detecting
and correcting problems on its own.

4.3.3.2. Operation of FDDI

FDDI operates exactly like Token Ring, with
one difference. Token Ring employs a single
wire through all the hosts in the network,
whereas FDDI employs two wires.
FDDI hardware uses two independent rings to
connect to every host.

4.3.3.3. FDDI Frame

The FDDI specification describes the frame
format, which is very similar to the Token Ring
data frame format with a few changes. Figure 12(Loop Back in FDDI)

Figure 13(FDDI Frame)

Preamble: This field internally contains two subfields, each consisting of one byte. The
preamble is used for synchronization purposes.
Destination Address: The 6-byte or 48-bit address of the NIC of the destination host.

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Source Address: The 6-byte or 48-bit address of the NIC of the source host
Frame Data: This field contains the actual data of the frame. This is also of variable
length, up to a maximum of 4,500 bytes.
CRC: This 32-bit field helps the source and the destination NIC to detect transmission
errors.
ED (End Delimiter): This one-byte field signifies that the sender's data and control
information ends here.
FS (Frame Status): This one-byte field is the last in the data frame. The receiver sets it
when it receives the frame to indicate that it was received by it.

4.4. Comparison of Ethernet, Token Ring and FDDI:

Access Address Error control

Network Data rate
mechanism length (Acknowledgement)
Ethernet CSMA/CD 48 bits 1-10 Mbps No
Token Ring Token passing 48 bits 10--16 Mbps Yes
FDDI Token passing 48 bits 100 Mbps Yes

4.5. FAST LANs:

Basic Ethernet transmission takes place at the speed of 10 Mbps.
However, with emerging changes in computer hardware and software, an attempt was
made to try and improve on this Ethernet better and really fast.
These improvements resulted in the creation of a set of modified Ethernet standards, which
are collectively known as fast Ethernet.
Fast Ethernet provides speeds in the range of about 100 Mbps.
This concept was born in the year 1995. The most common of the fast Ethernet standards is
called 100BASE-TX.
This standard is supported by a majority of hardware vendors. Fast Ethernet remained
popular for about 3 years. Subsequently, it was almost toppled by gigabit Ethernet.
4.5.1. Fast Ethernet:
The fast Ethernet technology is conceptually made up of two parts such as the Media Access
Controller (MAC), and the Physical Layer Interface (PHY).
In general, a layer called Media Independent Interface (MII) is sandwiched between the MAC
and PHY.
Usually the MII is found inside a single IC or as a join between two ICs.
The transmission rate of fast Ethernet is limited to 100 Mbps.
The 100BASE-T Ethernet are refer to a collection of Ethernet networks that are created
using the twisted-pair copper cables.
Since the variations in the various twisted-pair copper cables there also have various
variations of the I 00BASE-T standard. Some of the common ones are as follows:
100BASE-TX : Provides 100 Mbps data rate over a two-pair cable of good grade.
100BASE-T4: Provides 100 Mbps data rate over a four-pair cable of good grade.
100BASE-T2: Another standard that provides 100 Mbps data rate over a two-pair cable
of good grade.
Fast Ethernet networks based on the 100BASE-T standard can span across a distance of 100
meters.
Because the other two types of 100BASE-T networks are obsolete, the one that is used most
often in real life is the 100BASE-TX network.
100BASE-TX network provides full duplex transmission capabilities.
With the introduction of optical fibers that replacing twisted copper wires, new standards
of fast Ethernet are introduced.

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100BASE-FX: This kind of fast Ethernet using optical fibers has two fibers: one for
sending data and other for receiving it. Hence, we can use the full-duplex mode. However,
to ensure that collisions are detected, it is also used in the half-duplex mode. In that case,
the maximum length of the fiber is restricted to 400 meters.
100BASE-SX: This type of fast Ethernet technology uses a technique that is cheaper than
what is used in 100BASE-FX. As a result, it can also support distances shorter in length as
compared to the 100BASE-FX technology. Hence, 100BASE-SX is an alternative to
100BASE-FX when cost is the main factor.
100BASE-BX: This kind of fast Ethernet uses a single strand of optical fiber. A special
multiplexer is used to split the single signal into transmission signal and receiver signal.
100BASE-LX10: This type of optical fiber uses two single-mode fibers.
4.5.2. Gigabit Ethernet:
Gigabit Ethernet technology is actually a collection of various standards.
These allow transmissions at a rate of about one gigabit per second.
Gigabit Ethernet supports both the half-duplex and full-duplex modes, in practice, the full-
duplex mode is more common.
As Ethernet transitioned to fast Ethernet, transmission speeds increased from 10 Mbps to
100 Mbps. The next logical step after fast Ethernet was gigabit Ethernet, which provides
transmission speeds of 1 Giga bits per second (1 Gbps), or 1000 Mbps.
The standard developed for gigabit Ethernet in the year 1998 was called IEEE 802.3z.
This was based on the use of optical fiber as the medium of communication and collectively
called 1000BASE-X.
Note that fast Ethernet was 100BASE-X. In the case of gigabit Ethernet, variations of X were
CX, SX, LX, or ZX.
The original IEEE 802.3z specification also had addendums in the form of two more
specifications, namely IEEE 802.3ab using unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and IEEE 802.3ah
which uses optical fiber again.
4.6. Virtual LAN (VLAN):
When the Ethernet technology was first developed, no consideration was given to the
logical organization of computers connecting together to form a network.
The simple arrangement was a central
hub connecting all the computers on the
floor.
And all such hubs are connected together
by using one large switch.
If different groups of people needed
different functionalities from this
network, it was not possible.
This was because only physical
segregation on the basis of different
floors/hubs was possible. Logical
segregation of computers connected to
the network was not possible.
With the introduction of hubs and
switches, it was now possible that LANs
be configured as per the actual needs.
Instead of organizing a LAN in the strict
physical sense, it was now possible to Figure 14(VLAN)
organize it on logical grounds.
This is possible because the wires or connectors from various computers can be inserted
into different hubs, depending on the need.

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When broadcast (send to all) or multi-cast (send to a select few) messages are sent, it is
important to know which computers could receive such messages.
Imagine a building containing thousands or more computers with dozens of hubs and
switches, where a person's computer has to move from one hub to another.
it would cause if this change is physical, i.e., taking the cable out from the current hub and
moving it to the new hub.
Consequently, to achieve all these objectives, the technology of virtual LAN (VLAN) was
conceived. These networks need special switches,
The administrator needs to decide roughly how many computers should connect to a
VLAN-switch, and also how many such VLAN-switches are necessary.
Administrators then use configuration tables to signify the current state of a VLAN.
These tables contain entries like which VLANs can be accessed by which network lines or
ports.
These are grouped in such a way that broadcasting or multicasting is possible by adjusting
the entries in this table.
VLAN can be created by using one of the following three methods:
1. Work at the IP address level.
2. Work at the physical address level.
3. Work at the network port level.
Every frame that is sent out now contains information about the VLAN tags also.
The Ethernet frame size was increased from 1518 bytes to 1522 bytes.
Technically, the VLAN standard is called IEEE 802.1Q.

4.7. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN):

MAN can be of two types as Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) and Switched Multimegabit
Data Services (SMDS). These services are provided by telephone companies.

4.7.1. Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB)

The Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) protocol is a dual bus configuration.
This means that each host in the network connects to two backbone network lines.
The hosts get an access to the transmission medium with an approach that is different from
LANs in case of DQDB, it is done using a mechanism called distributed queue.
Figure shows sample DQDB
architecture with two unidirectional
buses, called bus A and bus B.
There are five hosts numbered 1 to 5
connects to these buses.
Each bus connects to the hosts on
their input and output ports.
4.7.1.1. DQDB Traffic:
Each bus on DQDB supports traffic in
only one direction. The two buses
that make up DQDB facilitate traffic
in the opposite directions. Bus A Figure 15(DQDB Architecture)
allows traffic in the direction from
host 5 to host 1, whereas bus B allows traffic from host 1 to host 5 in the opposite
direction.
The relationships between hosts are expressed in relation to the direction of traffic on the
two buses.
This architecture gives rise to a set of properties, called upstream and downstream.

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From host 3's point of view, hosts 1 and 2 are downstream on bus A, whereas hosts 4 and 5
are upstream on bus B.
By the same logic, for host 5, there are no upstream hosts on bus B, but there are four
downstream hosts on bus A.
Because of this, host 5 is considered as the head of bus A, and host 1 as its end.
By a similar reasoning, host 1 has no downstream stations on bus B, but has four upstream
stations on bus A. So, host 1 is the head of bus B, and host 5 is its end.
Data flows on each bus in the form of 53-byte transmission slots. These slots are not
packets rather; they are like boxes or containers that contain packets.
The heads generate slots. Therefore, station 5 on bus A and station 1 on bus B generate
empty slots for use, respectively.
The data transmission speed depends on how many slots are generated per second.
An empty slot travels along the bus until a host drops data into that slot and the
destination receives it.
There is a rule that says that the sending host must choose a bus for which the destination
is downstream.
Let us illustrate this with example
the figure depicts a situation
where host 4 sends data to host 2.
We will realize that the
downstream from host 4 to host 2
is on bus A.
Therefore, host 4 must choose a
slot on bus A.
As shown in the figure, the
transmission from host 4 to host 2
is done as follows:
1. The head of bus A, (host 5) Figure 16(Data Transmission in DQDB)
creates an empty
transmission slot.
2. When the empty transmission slot reaches host 4, host 4 drops its data with its
destination address into that slot.
3. The slot moves on the bus A and reaches host 3, then host 3 checks the destination
address and it is not matched with its own address, hence it passes the slot to host 2.
4. When the slot reaches host 2,it also checks the destination address with its own and
it is matched hence it copies the data contents of the slot, marks the slot as read and
allows it to move on the bus A.
5. The slot reaches the end host (host 1) of bus A there it is absorbed.
6. If host 1 sends some data to host 3, it should be clear now that it has to go via bus B.
It would follow the same steps as described above.
When the destination host is also the end host, the end host does not need to mark the slot
as read, because it is the last host.
So, if the destination host is the end host, the read flag is not set in the slot.

4.7.1.2. Medium Access:

In DQDB, a host reserves the slot before transmitting its data.
The slot reservation is made on the bus that is upstream for the host.
The data transmission takes place on the downstream.
The reservations made by all hosts are stored in a First In First Out (FIFO) queue structure.
Each host on the network maintains a copy each of two such queues one for each bus.
Thus, at any point of time, every host knows how many reservations are pending to be
served from the two queues.

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When a host receives a slot containing a reservation request, it adds a new element to the
end of the queue to indicate that a new request has to be added to the queue.
On the other hand, the moment a host receives an empty slot, it realizes that one of the
reservations is being served.
There are two possibilities here:
1. If the reservation request belongs to another host on the bus, the host simply removes
the tail element, and that one of the pending reservations is now served.
2. If the reservation request being served as made by the host itself, Therefore, apart
from removing the tail element from the queue, it adds the data to be transmitted to
the empty slot.
4.7.2. Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS):
Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS) is a high-speed MAN technology.
Bell Communications Research developed the SMDS specifications in the 1980s
SMDS is aimed at fulfilling the needs of organizations that have a number of LANs spread
across different locations in a city.
It is a packet-switched datagram service for high-speed MAN data transmissions.
SMDS is provided by common carriers. Since it is a switched technology, the subscribers of
SMDS pay only for the time that they use its services.

Figure 17(SMDS Architecture)

4.7.2.1. Medium Access:

A LAN can be connected to an
SMDS network by a router.
Many LANs are connected
together to form a SMDS MAN.
The SMDS network acts like a
high-speed LAN backbone,
which allows packets from Figure 18(Connection between LAN and SMDS)
any LAN to travel to any other
LAN on the SMDS.
The connection is based on the dual bus technology, similar to what it is in DQDB.
At the LAN end, we have a router, and at the SMDS end, we have a switch.
This switch belongs to a telephone company's switching office, which, in turn, routes the
LAN traffic to the other LAN(s) of the organization, which are connected to the SMDS
service.
Such an arrangement avoids a direct one-to-one connection between all LANs of an
organization.
SMDS uses the existing telephone company's switching infrastructure to route the traffic.

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It also means that a packet from one LAN to another could travel via many switches of
telephone companies before reaching the destination.
SMDS uses a small header and allows for each data packet to contain up to 9188 bytes.
A host connected to a SMDS network can send a packet to any destination at any time.

4.7.2.2.SMDS Billing:
In general, telephone company services are suitable for continuous traffic.
There would be no continuous data transmission between LANs and there will be no
transmission between LANs for some time.
The billing is made for only to the amount of packets transferred over the telephone
switching line.
Hence a packet-switching technology such as SMDS is more cost-effective

4.8. Wide Area Network (WAN)

A LAN can span a single building or campus. A MAN, on the other hand, can span a single
city. Finally, a Wide Area Network (WAN) can span across cities, countries or even continents.
A WAN can be scaled easily. That is, a WAN can support new sites with the same ease as it
supports the existing sites.
For example, an organization whose base is in USA, decides to open an office in India.
If WAN technology is used to first connect the offices in USA and India, and then connect
the Australian offices to that WAN, it can happen quite easy.
Thus, scalability is the factor that distinguishes a WAN from other network types.
As the switching
technology allows many
computers to connect to
many switches, rather
than to each other.
When computers are
connected to each other
to form a network, such
architecture is called Figure 19(Packet Switch in WAN)
point-to-point
architecture.
Instead increasing point to point connection between computers if more switches are
added to which the additional computers can attach, the network size can be expanded
arbitrarily.
The basic hardware device in a WAN is called a packet switch.
The name is due to the fact that this device moves packets from one connection to another.
A packet switch is actually a computer that has its own processor, memory and I/O
devices.
All these peripherals are required for accepting and appropriately routing packets.

4.8.1. WAN Architecture:

When we connect a number of packet switches together, a WAN is formed.
A packet switch has multiple I/0 ports. Thus, it can connect to a many different computers
or other switches to form a variety of topologies.
A WAN need not be a symmetric network. There can be any number of packet switches,
and the packet switches connect to each other and the hosts.
In the figure Packet switch 1 connects to only three hosts, whereas packet switch 3
connects to 5 hosts.
The packet switches are connected to each other using very high-speed lines, such as T1.

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4.8.2. WAN Transmission Mechanism:

We know that at a time only a pair of computers can communicate with each other in case
of LANs. This is because all the computers in a LAN share a common transmission medium.
However, in a WAN, the transmission medium is not shared, as we have seen. Therefore,
any computer can transmit data at any time.

Figure 20(WAN Architecture)

In WAN transmission mechanism is based on the packet store-and forward concept.
A packet switch must have sufficient amount of buffer memory to store packets
temporarily before they can be forwarded to the destination along with the chosen route.
From the viewpoint of a packet switch, the store operation occurs when a packet arrives
from a host or another packet switch.
When a packet arrives, the input device of the switch accepts the packet, stores it in the
memory of the switch, and informs the processor of the switch by using the interrupt
mechanism.
The processor of the switch examines the packet and decides where it needs to be
forwarded. Accordingly, it performs the forward operation by invoking the services of the
appropriate output device.
This store-and-forward philosophy allows a switch to store packets temporarily in its
memory until the route over which they have to be forwarded is free.
This also means that even if a route is very busy, the switch can hold on to the packets
until the route becomes free, so that the switch can transmit the held packets over that
route.

4.8.3. WAN Addressing

For efficient routing of packets, the addressing

mechanism in the case of WANs is slightly different
from that used in LANs.
Every host in a WAN has a physical address, there is
one difference in WAN addressing is hierarchical.
The address of a host on a WAN is composed of two
Figure 21(WAN Addressing)
parts,

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Switch number: The first part identifies the switch to which the host connects.
Host number: second part uniquely identifies a host attached to that switch.
For example, if the address of a host is (1, 5), it means that the host is connected to switch
number 1, and on that switch, it is host number 5.
The address of a host is represented as a combination of switch number and host number,
internally the address is stored as a series of bits.

Figure 22(Hierarchal Addressing in WAN)

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