Ethernet Protocol

• Data-link layer and the

physical layer are the
territory of the local
and wide area networks

• We can have wired or

wireless networks
IEEE Project 802
• In 1985, the Computer
Society of the IEEE
started a project, called
Project 802, to set
standards to enable
inter-communication
among equipment from
a variety of
manufacturers

• Project 802 did not seek

to replace any part of the
OSI model or TCP/IP
protocol suite
IEEE Project 802
• A way of specifying
functions of the
physical layer and the
data-link layer of major
LAN protocols
IEEE Standard for LANs
Ethernet Evolution
• The Ethernet LAN was
developed in the 1970s

• Since then, it has gone

through four
generations:

 Standard Ethernet (10

Mbps)
 Fast Ethernet (100
Mbps)
 Gigabit Ethernet (1
Gbps)
 10 Gigabit Ethernet
(10 Gbps)
Ethernet Evolution
Standard Ethernet
• The original Ethernet
technology with the
data rate of 10 Mbps is
called Standard Ethernet

• Most implementations
have moved to later
evolutions

• Still some features of the

Standard Ethernet that
have not changed during
the evolution
Connectionless & Unreliable Service
• Each frame is
independent of other
• No connection
establishment or tear
down process
• The sender may
overwhelm receiver with
frames and frames are
dropped
• If frame drops, sender
will not know about it
unless we are using TCP
(Transport)
Connectionless & Unreliable Service
• Ethernet is unreliable
like IP and UDP

• If a frame is corrupted,
receiver silently drops it

• Left to high level

protocols to find out
abut it
Standard Ethernet
• The original Ethernet
technology with the
data rate of 10 Mbps is
called Standard Ethernet
Ethernet Frame Format
Addressing in Standard Ethernet
• Each station on Ethernet
has its own network
interface card (NIC)

• The NIC fits inside the

station and provides the
station with a link-
layer/physical address

• The Ethernet address is 6

bytes (48 bits), normally
written in hexadecimal
notation, with a colon
between the bytes
Addressing
• For example, the
following shows an
Ethernet MAC
address:

4A:30:10:21:10:1A
 Transmission of Address Bits

How the address 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE is sent out online.

The address is sent left to right, byte by byte; for each

byte, it is sent right to left, bit by bit, as shown below:
Unicast and Multicast Addresses
 Example 13.2
Define the type of the following destination addresses:
a. 4A:30:10:21:10:1A
b. 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE
c. FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF

To find the type of the address, we need to look at the second hexadecimal
digit from the left. If it is even, the address is unicast. If it is odd, the address
is multicast. If all digits are Fs, the address is broadcast. Therefore, we have
the following:

a. This is a unicast address because A in binary is 1010 (even).

b. This is a multicast address because 7 in binary is 0111 (odd).
c. This is a broadcast address because all digits are Fs in hexadecimal.
Implementation of Standard Ethernet
Access Method in Standard Ethernet
• Since the network that
uses the standard
Ethernet protocol is a
broadcast network, we
need to use an access
method to control access
to the sharing medium

• The standard Ethernet

chose CSMA/CD with 1-
Persistent Method
Access Method in Standard Ethernet
Efficiency of Standard Ethernet
• The ratio of the time used
by a station to send data
to the time the medium is
occupied by this station

• The practical efficiency of

standard Ethernet has
been measured to be:

Efficiency = 1/(1+ 6.4 x a)

where a = number of frames

that can fit on a medium
 Example

In the Standard Ethernet with the transmission rate

of 10 Mbps, we assume that the length of the
medium is 2500 m and the size of the frame is 512
bits. The propagation speed of a signal in a cable is
normally 2 × 108 m/s.
Implementation of Standard Ethernet
• The Standard Ethernet
defined several
implementations, but
only four of them became
popular during the 1980s
Summary of Standard Ethernet implementations
Encoding in Standard Ethernet
10Base5 implementation
10Base2 implementation
10Base-T implementation
10Base-F implementation
Changes in the Standard
• The changes that
occurred to the 10-Mbps
Standard Ethernet
opened the road to the
evolution of the Ethernet
to become compatible
with other high-data-
rate LANs

 Bridged Ethernet
 Switched Ethernet
 Full-Duplex Ethernet
Bridged Ethernet- Sharing Bandwidth
A Network with and without Bridging
Changes in the Standard
• The changes that
occurred to the 10-Mbps
Standard Ethernet
opened the road to the
evolution of the Ethernet
to become compatible
with other high-data-
rate LANs

 Bridged Ethernet
 Switched Ethernet
 Full-Duplex Ethernet
Switched Ethernet
Full – Duplex Switched Ethernet
Fast Ethernet
• In the 1990s, Ethernet
made a big jump by
increasing the
transmission rate to 100
Mbps, and the new
generation was called
the Fast Ethernet

• To make it compatible
with the Standard
Ethernet, the MAC
sublayer was left
unchanged
Fast Ethernet
• But the features of the
Standard Ethernet that
depend on the
transmission rate, had to
be changed

• Goals of Fast Ethernet:

 Upgrade data rate to

100Mbps
 Make it compatible with
Standard Ethernet
 Keep same 48-bit
address
 Keep same frame format
Physical Layer
• To be able to handle a
100 Mbps data rate,
several changes need to
be made at the physical
layer
Encoding for Fast Ethernet
Implementation of Fast Ethernet implementations
Gigabit Ethernet
• Need for an even higher
data rate resulted in the
design of IEEE Standard
802.3z Gigabit Ethernet
Protocol (1000 Mbps)
Gigabit Ethernet
• The goals of the Gigabit
Ethernet were:
 Upgrade the data rate
to 1 Gbps
 Make it compatible
with standard or Fast
Ethernet
 Use same 48 bit
address
 Use the same frame
format
 Keep same minimum
and maximum frame
lengths
MAC Sub-layer
• A main consideration in
the evolution of Ethernet
was to keep the MAC
sublayer untouched

• To achieve a data rate of

1 Gbps, this was no
longer possible

• Gigabit Ethernet has two

distinctive approaches
for medium access:
 Half-duplex
 Full-duplex
Physical Layer
• The physical layer in
Gigabit Ethernet is
more complicated than
that in Standard or Fast
Ethernet

• We briefly discuss some

features of this layer:
Encoding in Gigabit Ethernet
Summary of Gigabit Ethernet Implementations
10-gigabit Ehternet
• The idea is to extend the
technology, the data
rate, and the coverage
distance so that the
Ethernet can be used in
LANs and MANs
(metropolitan area
network)

• The IEEE committee

created 10 Gigabit
Ethernet and called it
Standard 802.3ae
Implementation
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet
operates only in full-
duplex mode, which
means there is no need
for contention; CSMA/CD
is not used in 10 Gigabit
Ethernet

• Four implementations
are most common:
Implementation