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Ccna1 Mod5 EthernetFrameTypes PDF

There are five types of Ethernet frames, but the most common today is Ethernet Version 2 or Ethernet II frame, which uses an EtherType field to indicate the protocol being carried. Common EtherType values are assigned to IP, ARP, IPX, and IPv6. While different frame types can coexist, Ethernet II is predominantly used on Internet Protocol-based networks due to its support for IP as indicated by an EtherType of 0x0800.

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76 views

Ccna1 Mod5 EthernetFrameTypes PDF

There are five types of Ethernet frames, but the most common today is Ethernet Version 2 or Ethernet II frame, which uses an EtherType field to indicate the protocol being carried. Common EtherType values are assigned to IP, ARP, IPX, and IPv6. While different frame types can coexist, Ethernet II is predominantly used on Internet Protocol-based networks due to its support for IP as indicated by an EtherType of 0x0800.

Uploaded by

Kidus Yosef
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ethernet frame types and the EtherType field

Frames are the format of data packets on the wire.

There are five types of Ethernet frame:

• Original Ethernet Version I (no longer used)


• The Ethernet Version 2 or Ethernet II frame, the so-called DIX frame (named
after DEC, Intel, and Xerox), this is the most common today, as it is often used
directly by the Internet Protocol.
• Novell's homegrown Variation of IEEE 802.3 ("raw 802.3 frame") without LLC
• IEEE 802.x LLC frame
• IEEE 802.x LLC/SNAP frame

The different frame types have different formats and MTU values, but can coexist on the
same physical medium.

The most common Ethernet Frame format, type II

The original Xerox Version 1 Ethernet had a 16 bit length field, although the maximum
length of a packet was 1500 bytes. This length field was soon re-used in Xerox's Version
2 Ethernet as a label field, with the convention that values between 0 and 1500 indicated
the use of the original Ethernet format, but higher values indicated what became known
as an EtherType, and the use of the new frame format. This is now supported in the IEEE
802 protocols using the SNAP header.
EtherType Protocol
0x0800 IP Internet Protocol (IPv4)
0x0806 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
0x8035 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
0x809b AppleTalk (Ethertalk)
0x80f3 Appletalk Address Resolution Protocol (AARP)
0x8137 Novell IPX (alt)
0x8138 Novell
0x86DD Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)

Type field (EtherType) for some common protocols

IEEE 802.x defined the 16 bit field after the MAC addresses as a length field again. As
Ethernet I framing is no longer used, this allows software to determine whether a frame is
an Ethernet II frame or an IEEE 802.x frame, allowing the coexistence of both standards
on the same physical medium. All 802.x frames have an LLC field. By examining the
LLC field, it is possible to determine whether it is followed by a SNAP field.

Novell's "raw" 802.3 frame format was based on early IEEE 802.3 work. Novell used this
as a starting point to create the first implementation of its own IPX Network Protocol
over Ethernet. They did not use any LLC header but started the IPX packet directly after
the length field. In principle this is not interoperable with the other later variants of 802.x
Ethernet, but since IPX has always FF at the first byte (while LLC has not), this mostly
coexists on the wire with other Ethernet implementations (with the notable exception of
some early forms of DECnet which got confused by this).

Novell Netware used this frame type by default until the mid nineties, and since Netware
was very widespread back then (while IP was not) at some point in time most of the
world's Ethernet traffic ran over "raw" 802.3 carrying IPX. Since Netware 4.10 Netware
now defaults to IEEE 802.x with LLC (Netware Frame Type Ethernet_802.2) when using
IPX. There is a Classical Series of Usenet Postings
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-
8&c2coff=1&frame=right&th=887b61494cf0c72a&seekm=1993Sep17.191208.13580%
40novell.com#link1) by Novell's Don Provan that have found their way into numerous
FAQs and are widely considered the definitive answer to the Novell Frame Type jungle.

The 802.x variants of Ethernet are not in widespread use on common networks currently,
with the exception of large corporate Netware installations that have not yet migrated to
Netware over IP. The most common type used today is Ethernet Version 2, as it is used
by most Internet Protocol-based networks, with its EtherType set to 0x0800. There exists
a well defined standard (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1042.txt) for encapsulating IP traffic in
IEEE 802.3 frames with LLC/SNAP headers, but it is commonly not supported.

IP Version 6 over Ethernet is also standardized based on IEEE 802.x. with LLC/SNAP.

Novell IPX is probably the only network protocol that supports all 4 current frame types.

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