Medium Access Control Protocols

and Local Area Networks

LAN BRIDGES
Reference
Leon Garcia – 6.11 (Upto 6.11.3)
 Introduction
There are several ways of interconnecting Networks
When two or more networks are interconnected at the physical
layer the type of device is called as a repeater.
When two or more devices are interconnected at the MAC layer
or data link layer, the type of the device is called as a bridge
When two or more devices are interconnected at the network
layer, the type of the device is called as a router
The device that interconnects at higher level is called as gateway,
which generally performs some protocol conversion and security
functions
 Why do we need Bridges
Let us consider a scenario in which a large organization has
multiple departmental LAN.
After a certain period of time, a requirement arises in the
organization to interconnect the departmental LAN in order
to share the resources. But this scenario is complicated by
the following factors:
The departmental LANs use different network layer
protocols.
The departments may be located in different buildings
The LANs differ in type
These three requirements can be supported by
bridges.
As bridges exchange frames in the data link layer,
the frames can contain any network layer packets
If necessary the bridges can be connected by point
to point link.
Bridges also support frame conversion thus
supporting intercommunication between different
LANs.
Thus Bridges are used for connecting multiple LANs as
shown in the figure.
Bridged LAN or Extended LAN
 Bridges of Same Type
Network Network

Bridge LLC
LLC

MAC MAC MAC MAC

Physical Physical Physical Physical

Bridging is done at MAC level thus operating in the data link layer
To have frame filtering capability , a bridge has to monitor MAC address of
each frame.
Types of Bridges
There are two types of bridges which are
widely used:
◦ Transparent Bridges: These bridges are widely
used in Ethernet LANs
◦ Source Routing Bridges: These bridges are widely
used in Token Ring LANs and FDDI networks
Transparent Bridges
◦ These bridges were defined by the 802.1d committee.
◦ The term transparent refers to the fact that the stations
are completely unaware of the presence of the bridges in
the network
◦ Thus introducing a bridge doesn’t require the stations to
be configured.
◦ Following are the functions of the transparent bridges:
◦ Forward Frames from one LAN to another
◦ Learn which stations are attached to a given LAN
◦ Avoid Loops in the topology
 Bridge Learning
When frame arrives on one of the ports of the bridge, the
bridge has to decide whether it has to forward the frame.
To do so it needs to maintain a table called as the forwarding
table or forwarding database
Use table lookup, and
◦ discard frame, if source & destination in same LAN
◦ forward frame, if source & destination in different LAN
◦ use flooding, if destination unknown
Use backward learning to build table
◦ observe source address of arriving LANs
◦ handle topology changes by removing old entries
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5

LAN1 LAN2 LAN3

B1 B2
Port 1 Port 2 Port 1 Port 2

Address Port Address Port

S1 → S 5
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5

LAN1 LAN2 LAN3

B1 B2
Port 1 Port 2 Port 1 Port 2

Address Port Address Port

S1 1 S1 1
S1
S3 → S2
S2 S3 S4 S5

LAN1 LAN2 LAN3

B1 B2
Port 1 Port 2 Port 1 Port 2

Address Port Address Port

S1 1 S1 1
S3 2 S3 1
S4
S3 Details of S4 will be recorded in both B1 and B2 because S3 and B1 are
connected in bus topology, therefore if a packet is forwarded it is received
by all the nodes connected to the LAN
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5

S4 S3

LAN1 LAN2 LAN3

B1 B2
Port 1 Port 2 Port 1 Port 2

Address Port Address Port

S1 1 S1 1
S3 2 S3 1
S4 2 S4 2
 S2 S1
S1
S2 S3 S4 S5

LAN1 LAN2 LAN3

B1 B2
Port 1 Port 2 Port 1 Port 2

Address Port Address Port

S1 1 S1 1
S3 2 S3 1
S4 2 S4 2
S2 1
D elete the entry
Loops in the Network
LAN1

B1 B2

B3
LAN2

B4

LAN3

B5

LAN4
 Spanning Tree

The learning process described works as long as the

network doesn’t contain loops, which means only one
path exists between the two LANs
To remove loops in the network, the IEEE 802.1
committee came up with an algorithm called as
spanning tree
The spanning tree algorithm requires every bridge to
have a unique ID, each port within a bridge to have a
unique port ID and all bridges on the LAN to have a MAC
address
Avoiding Loops
LAN1

(1) (1)
B1 B2
(2)
B3
LAN2

B4

LAN3

B5

LAN4
 Spanning Tree Algorithm
1. Select a root bridge among all the bridges.
• root bridge = the lowest bridge ID.
2. Determine the root port for each bridge except the root bridge
• root port = port with the least-cost path to the root bridge
3. Select a designated bridge for each LAN
• designated bridge = bridge has least-cost path from the LAN to the
root bridge.
• designated port connects the LAN and the designated bridge
4. All root ports and all designated ports are placed into a
“forwarding” state. These are the only ports that are allowed to
forward frames. The other ports are placed into a “blocking”
state.
 LAN1
(1) (1)

B1 B2
(1)
(2) (2) (3)
B3
LAN2 (1) (2)

B4
(2)
LAN3 (1)
B5
(2)
LAN4
 LAN1
(1) (1)
Bridge 1 selected as root bridge
B1 B2
(1)
(2) (2) (3)
B3
LAN2 (1) (2)

B4
(2)
LAN3 (1)
B5
(2)
LAN4
 LAN1
(1) R (1)

B1 B2 Root port selected for every

R
(1) bridge except root port
(2) (2) (3)
B3
LAN2 R (1) (2)

B4
(2)
LAN3 R (1)

B5
(2)
LAN4
 LAN1
D (1) R (1)

B1 B2 Select designated bridge for

R
(1) each LAN
D (2) (2) (3)
B3
LAN2 R (1)
D (2) D
B4
(2)
LAN3 R (1)

B5
(2)
LAN4
 LAN1
D (1) R (1)

B1 B2 All root ports & designated

R
(1) ports put in forwarding state
D (2) (2) (3)
B3
LAN2 R (1)
D (2) D
B4
(2)
LAN3 R (1)

B5
(2)
LAN4
Adaptive Learning
In a static network, tables eventually store all
addresses & learning stops
In practice, stations are added & moved all
the time
◦ Introduce timer (minutes) to age each entry &
force it to be relearned periodically
◦ If frame arrives on port that differs from frame
address & port in table, update immediately
 Source Routing Bridges
•To interconnect IEEE 802.5 token ring networks.
•Presence of routing information field is indicated by I/G bit source address field.
1= present. 0 indicates destination is in the same LAN.
•Each source station determines route to destination
•Routing information inserted in frame if and only if the two stations are on different
LANs
•The routing control field defines the type of the frame, the length of the routing
information, the direction of route (i.e. L2R or R2L) and the largest frame supported
by the path
•The route designator contains a 12 bit LAN number and a 4 bit bridge number.
Routing Route 1 Route 2 Route m
control designator designator designator
2 bytes 2 bytes 2 bytes 2 bytes

Destination Source Routing Data FCS

address address information
Route Discovery
To discover route to a destination each station
broadcasts a single-route broadcast frame
Frame visits every LAN once & eventually reaches
destination
Destination sends all-routes broadcast frame which
generates all routes back to source
Source collects routes & picks best
Detailed Route Discovery
Single-route broadcast
Bridges must be configured to form a spanning tree

Source sends single-route frame without route designator field

Bridges in first LAN add incoming LAN #, its bridge #, outgoing

LAN # into frame & forwards frame

Each subsequent bridge attaches its bridge # and outgoing LAN #

Eventually, one single-route frame arrives at destination

Detailed Route Discovery
All-routes broadcast
When destination receives single-route broadcast frame it
responds with all-routes broadcast frame with no route
designator field
Bridge at first hop inserts incoming LAN #, its bridge #, and
outgoing LAN # and forwards to outgoing LAN
Subsequent bridges insert their bridge # and outgoing LAN #
and forward
Before forwarding bridge checks to see if outgoing LAN
already in designator field
Source eventually receives all routes to destination station
 Discover the route from S1 to S3
using source routing bridges
Assume B1, B3, B4, B6 are part of spanning tree

LAN 2 B4 LAN 4
S1
B1 S2

LAN 1
B3 B5 B7

B2 S3
LAN 3 B6 LAN 5
Find routes from S1 to S3
LAN 2 B4 LAN 4
S1
B1 S2

LAN 1
B3 B5 B7

B2 S3
LAN 3 B6 LAN 5

Assume B1, B3, B4, B6 are part of spanning tree

B3 LAN3 B6 LAN5

LAN1 B1 LAN2

B4 LAN4
 LAN 2 B4 LAN 4
S1
B1 S2

LAN 1 B5
B3 B7

B2 S3
LAN 3 B6 LAN 5

B3
Find the mistake !!
Five LANs are connected using source routing bridges. Assume that the bridges 3 and
4 are not part of the initial spanning tree.
1. show the single route broadcast frames when S1 wants to learn the route to S2
2. Show the path to all routes broadcast frames returned by S2.
3.List all possible routes from S1 to S2 from part (2)
4. How many LAN frames are required to learn the possible routes
1.
2.
3. List all possible routes from S1 to S2 from part (2)

4.