Ethernet Tutorial

This tutorial section on Ethernet basics covers following sub topics:

Ethernet over copper Ethernet Business Gigabit Ethernet 40Gbps Ethernet
PHY 100Gbps Ethernet PHY 10Gbps Ethernet PHY Ethernet types
We all are aware of Local Area Network or LAN which is used to interconnect
multiple workstations over small area. These LANs usually will have about 10 to
100 users but not more than 1000. It is widely used to connect several office
departments in the same building or to connect different floors. Ethernet is the
physical layer used in a LAN. More than about 85% of the LANs are using
Ethernet standard due to its speed, lower cost and ease in the installation.
Robert Metcalfe, engineer who was working with Xerox first invented Ethernet
network in the year 1973 and was used to interconnect and send data between
work station and printer. The system had detected collisions when two frames
are simultaneously transmitted by work stations. The collisions were avoided
later by the concept called CSMA/CD as mentioned below. ThisEthernet
tutorial covers standards, Ethernet frame formats (DIX, IEEE802.3), CSMA/CD
protocol, Ethernet topologies, Ethernet test protocols and more.

Ethernet Standards
XEROX later joined with DEC and Intel and this joint collaboration resulted as
base of IEEE 802.3 standard. Ethernet standards have been evolved for data
speed ranging from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps and 1000Mbps. 10Mbps referred as
legacy Ethernet and is specified in 802.3. 100Mbps is referred as fast Ethernet
and is specified in 802.3u. Later 1000Mbps referred as gigabit Ethernet is
specified in 802.3z and 802.3ab based on transmission media to carry data.
Following table describes Ethernet standards.
Ethernet Standard

Maximum Cable Length/cable type

10Base5

500m/50 ohm thick coaxial cable

10Base2

185m/50 Ohm thin coaxial cable

10BaseT

100m/category 3,4,5 UTP

10BaseFL

2000m/Fiber

100BaseTx

100m/category 5 UTP

100BaseT4

100m/category 3 UTP

100BaseT2

100m/category 3,4,5 UTP

100BaseFx

400(half duplex),2000(full duplex),

multimode fiber

1000BaseLx

10,000m/single mode fiber

1000BaseSx

220-550m/multimode fiber

1000BaseLx

3000m/single mode or multimode fiber

1000BaseCx

25 m /shielded copper

1000BaseT

100m/category 5 UTP

Topology
Topology is the shape of the network i.e. configuration by which nodes and
connecting lines are arranged. There are four basic topologies used by LAN.
They are Bus, Ring, Star and Tree. Ethernet uses these topologies to provide the
connectivity between nodes. The connecting medium between nodes can be
large coaxial cable or small coaxial cable or twisted pair or fiber optic or wireless
medium. Based on these different Ethernet versions exist.

CSMA/CD protocol

This protocol makes effective use of the bus between transmitting and receiving
nodes. CSMA/CD stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision
Detection. For example, one node-A wants to transmit the data to node-B
connected on Ethernet medium. The software running on node-A sends the data
to NIC to build the packet. The packet is stored in the RAM of NIC and node-A
monitors the bus. If no carrier is present on the Ethernet network, node-A
transmits the packet over the medium. The data is broadcasted to all the PCs
connected on the Ethernet bus. All the receiving nodes compare destination
Ethernet address and whoever nodes' Ethernet address matches it will accept
the packet from the medium and rest of the others will discard the packet.
Whenever any one of the nodes transmits the information on the bus, all the PCs
detect what is known as carrier. Carrier is nothing but the data transmitted over
the bus at some rate as specified by Ethernet standard.
If collision is detected when two or more nodes try to transmit at the same time
then nodes will wait for some random period of time and will transmit again. This
protocol is referred as CSMA/CD.

Ethernet frames
Ethernet has two main layers as per OSI stack physical layer and data link layer.
These layers are involved in forming the Ethernet frame which is used to
package the data transported between nodes. These Ethernet frames are
processed by NICs (Network Interface Cards) in both the transmitting and
receiving devices. There are two frame formats DIX and 802.3. There is slight
different between these frame fields as shown in the figures below. Hence device
using DIX and one using IEEE802.3 need to adapt each other's frame formats in
order to communicate over LAN.

Fig.1
As shown in the DIX frame consists of preamble, destination address, source
address, type, data payload and FCS fields. Source and destination addresses
signify originating and terminating NICs respectively. This Ethernet addresses are
of 6 bytes each. Preamble is used for synchronization purpose in the receiving
Ethernet card. FCS is used for error detection purpose and is of 4 bytes. Data
payload part carries information and will be of size from about 46 to 1500 bytes.
Type field signifies higher layer protocol used for transmission of the frame for
example TCP/IP or UDP/IP.

Fig.2
As shown in the fig.2, IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame consists of preamble, Start
Frame Delimiter (SFD), destination and source addresses, length, data and FCS
fields. SFD defines start of the frame and is usually contains 10101011 bit
sequence. Length field signifies number of bytes in data field portion of the
frame. If data field is less than 46 bytes, padding bytes of value zero is
appended. The difference between both the type of frame is that DIX contains
type field and 802.3 contains length field in the same position in the Ethernet
frame.

Encoding
In Ethernet digital data is directly transmitted over the cable and no modulation is
applied. In Manchester encoding data is mapped as per non return to zero format

which will have both positive and negative voltage in a single bit. Here Bit '1' is
represented as positive pulse followed by negative pulse. Bit '0' is represented as
negative pulse followed by positive pulse. As this signals are AC resulting into
zero voltage on the Ethernet cable. The positive to negative and negative to
positive transition at the center helps derive the clock signal from the information
data itself. Hence synchronous process is performed without even transmitting
the clock signal. Most of the Ethernet uses DC version of Manchester encoding.

Ethernet Network

Fig.3
Fig.3 shows simple Ethernet network connecting various work stations and
server using Ethernet hardware devices switches, hubs, router and gateway.

Ethernet Protocols
Following protocols are very useful for Ethernet testing. ARP and RARP are
already incorporated in the framework of internet protocol family in all the
Ethernet devices.

ARP: This ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) converts IP address (logical

address) to the physical address (Ethernet address).
RARP: This RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) converts Ethernet
address to the IP address.
Ping: This protocol helps test the path between source node to the destination
node. This protocol sends some packets from source node to the destination
node and back. If all the bytes are received without any packet loss then path
between two nodes does not have any problem/issue. If this continuity test
passes than user can send the information over the Ethernet network.

Ethernet test products and services

There are companies which provide Ethernet test solutions and services. The
reputed among them include IXIACOM, EXFO, Agilent technologies, Spirent ,
Tektronix and more. They provide test solutions for 10Mbps (10BaseT), 100Mbps
(100BaseTX), and 1Gbps (1000BaseT) and other Ethernet standards based
solutions.
The Ethernet test solutions are manufactured by companies to cater for product
testing based on various transmission mediums which include copper, twisted
pair and fiber optic.
The major test parameters are throughput (maximum bandwidth at which
Ethernet works), round trip latency, lost frames and back-to-back frames as
defined in RFC2544. There should be zero lost frames ideally. Back to back
frames test determine maximum buffering capacity of the Ethernet.
Networking is the term used for network of computers or internet enabled devices
connected together to form data communication network. This network is used
for transfer of data from one device to the other with the use of TCP/IP or UDP/IP
packet.

TCP is Transmission Control Protocol mainly used for connection oriented

network. UDP is User Datagram Protocol mainly used for connectionless
network.