Ethernet Networking

Ethernet is a contention-based media access method that allows all hosts on a network to share the same link’s
bandwidth. Ethernet is a technology. Ethernet is the name of the most commonly used LAN today. A LAN (Local Area
Network) is a network of computers that covers a small area like a room, an office, a building or a campus. It is used
in contrast with WAN (wide area network) which spans for much larger geographical areas. Ethernet is a network
protocol that controls how data is transmitted over a LAN. Technically it is referred to as the IEEE 802.3 protocol.

Many people have for their whole lives been using Ethernet without actually knowing it. It is most likely that the wired
network in your office, at the bank and even at home is an Ethernet LAN. Besides, most desktop and laptop computers
come with integrated an Ethernet card inside so that it is ready to be connected to an Ethernet LAN.

Features:
1. Ethernet network is a less expensive device produced high speed local area network. They can send
and receive data at very high speed up to 300 feet telephone which are connected with each other
via hub.
2. Ethernet network is a fast connectively protocol which have the ability to produce up to 10Mbps
speed and if Ethernet designated as 100BASE-T the it can produce up to 100Mbps speed. If you are
using Gigabit Ethernet then you can get up to 1000 Mbps speed. Almost all universities campus,
colleges now days using Ethernet technology to build up a wide network based on Gigabit Ethernet.
3. Ethernet offering network with 10Base-T where you can used thin twisted pair cable, thick coaxial
cable and fiber optic cable. All cables support different standards as twisted 10Base-t, coaxial
10Base2-t or 5 and Fiber 10BaseF. If you want to make a fast connection then uses 100BaseT twisted
pair cable and 100BaseF fiber optic cable.
4. The discrete frames are used for data transformation through Ethernet. The length of data is 64 to
1518 bytes with obligatory 18 bytes used for header and CRC.
5. Ethernet facilitate the user that operated devices equally and separately because there is no need of
any controlling device.
6. Ethernet offering you a variety of data type such as telecommunication protocols TCP, Internet
protocol as IP, Apple talk and IPX
7. Ethernet have lots of abilities therefore it is a most commonly used. It provides access to internet
under DOS because it has a packet driver program. Ethernet also support Novell client and provide
an interface which is called ODI. All companies such as Microsoft, IBM etc support Ethernet and it is
also a narrative choice of window.
8. Ethernet also secure your data with detect collision. When you are using Ethernet then the fear loss
of data vanished. If any one attempts on your network all devices stop processing immediately and
wait until user attempt to transmit again.
To set up a small or big Ethernet LAN, you need the following:
1. Computers and devices to connect. An Ethernet connects any type of computer to its network as long as the
device has an Ethernet adapter or network card.
2. Network interface cards in the devices. This is either integrated into the motherboard of the computer or
installed separately in the device. You also have USB versions of Ethernet cards like external dongles. An
Ethernet card is simply known as a network card. It has ports (sort of a socket to which we can connect cables)
that can accommodate cables for connection. There are normally two ports, one for an RJ-45 jack (see picture),
that connect UTP cables, and one for a coaxial jack.
3. A hub or gateway to connect your devices in a star network. A hub is a device that acts as a connecting point
between devices on a network. It consists of several RJ-45 ports to which you plug the cables.
4. Cables. UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cables are more commonly used in Ethernet LANs. This is the same type
of cable used for landline telephone sets, but fatter, with 8 twisted pairs of wires of different colors inside.
The end is crimped with an RJ-45 jack, which is a larger version of the (RJ-11) jacks that plug into your landline
phone. When the Ethernet spans beyond a room to distances that reach hundreds or meters, coaxial cable is
used. This is the same cable we use for TV, with a round single-core jack.
5. Software to manage the network. Modern operating systems like recent versions of Windows, Linux and Mac
OS are more than sufficient to manage Ethernet LANs. You just need the skills to do do it. There is also third-
party software that gives more feature and better control.

Collision Domain
collision domain refers to a network scenario wherein one device sends a frame out on a physical network
segment forcing every other device on the same segment to pay attention to it. Think of a collision event as
a situation where each device’s digital signals totally interfere with one another on the wire. The hosts
connected to each hub are in the same collision domain, so if one of them transmits, all the others must take
the time to listen for and read the digital signal. Switch or Hub is the device for the Collision Domain.

Broadcast Domain
broadcast domain refers to a group of devices on a specific network segment that hear all the broadcasts
sent out on that specific network segment. But even though a broadcast domain is usually a boundary
delimited by physical media like switches and routers, it can also refer to a logical division of a network
segment, where all hosts can communicate via a Data Link layer, hardware address broadcast. Switches
break up collision domains with each port, which is awesome, but they’re still only one broadcast domain by
default! It’s also one more reason why it’s extremely important to design our networks very carefully. A
router creates broadcast domain boundaries.
CSMA/CD
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is the LAN access method used in Ethernet.
When a device wants to gain access to the network, it checks to see if the network is free. If the network is
not free, the device waits a random amount of time before retrying. If the network is free and two devices
access the line at exactly the same time, their signals collide. When the collision is detected, they both back
off and wait a random amount of time before retrying. Only switches and routers can affectively prevent a
transmission from propagating throughout the entire network!

Addressing: LAN data transmissions classified into one of three categories: Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast.
1. Unicast: Addressing is one-to-one, where one computer sends a frame to another computer. Even though
many stations can receive the same data, they should ignore it since it is not addressed to them. With unicast
transmissions, a single packet is sent from the source to a destination on a network. The source-node
addresses the packet by using the network address of the destination node. The packet is then forwarded to
the destination network and the network passes the packet to its final destination.
2. Multicast: Addressing is one-to-many, where one computer is sending a frame to many other computers. This
can be done via a list of addresses, or some masking scheme that selects a subset of addresses. With a
multicast transmission, a single data packet is copied and forwarded to a specific subset of nodes on the
network. The source node addresses the packet by using a multicast address.
3. Broadcast: Addressing is one-to-all, where one computer sends data to all computers connected to the LAN.
Broadcasts are found in LAN environments. Broadcasts do not traverse a WAN unless the Layer 3 edge-routing
device is configured with a helper address (or the like) to direct these broadcasts to a specified network
address.

Ethernet-802.3
Normal ethernet works at 10Mbps speed. The Ethernet MAC technology is called CSMA/CD (carrier-sense
multiple access with collision detection).

Following table mentions different 10 Mbps Ethernet such as 10BASE5, 10BASE2, 10BASE-F and 10BASE-T.
 Specification 10BASE5 10BASE2 10BASE-F 10BASE-T

Maximum segment 500 m 185 m varies from 400 m to 100m

length 2000 m

topology Bus Bus Star Star

medium 50-"omega" thick 50-"omega" thin multimode fiber 100-"omega"

coax. coax. UTP

connector NICDB15 BNC ST RJ-45

Medium attachment MAU bolted to coax ethernal or on NIC External or on NIC External or on
NIC

stations/cable segment 100 30 N/A 2(NIC, repeater)

Maximum 5 5 5 5 segments

NB: There are two types of ethernet half duplex and full duplex.

Following are the Ethernet MAC parameters:

1. Slot time: 512 bit times
2. Min. Interframe Gap: 96 bit times
3. Attempt Limit: 16 (tries)
4. Backoff limit: 10 (exponential number)
5. JamSize: 32 bits
6. Max. Frame Size: 1518 bytes
7. Min. Frame Size: 64 bytes (512 bits)
8. Address Size: 48 bits

Fast Ethernet-802.3u
The ethernet working at the speed of 100Mbps is referred as fast ethernet. IEEE standard 802.3u fast
ethernet/100BASE-T specified in May1995. The features of this type of fast ethernet are as follows:
1. Includes multiple PHY layers.
2. It uses original ethernet MAC but operates at 10 times higher speed.
3. It needs star wired configuration with central hub.
The MAC parameters are same as described for ethernet above. There are three physical layers for fast
ethernet.
1. 100BASE-TX: Needs 2 pairs of cat.5 UTP/Type1 STP cables
2. 100BASE-FX: Needs 2 strands of multimode fiber
3. 100BASE-T4: Needs 4 pairs of cat.3 or any better cables

Gigabit Ethernet-802.3z
The ethernet working at the speed of 1000Mbps (i.e. 1Gbps) and above is referred as Gigabit ethernet. Gigabit
Ethernet uses 802.3 frame format same as 10Mbps ethernet and 100Mbps fast Ethernet It also operates in half duplex
and full duplex modes. There are various Gigabit ethernet versions which operates at 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit, 40 Gigabit
and 100 Gigabit per second speeds. MAC parameters for gigabit ethernet are same as mentioned above in ethernet.
Except slot time which is 512 byte times. Gigabit Ethernet is defined in IEEE 802.3z and 802.3ab (1000Base-T). The 10
Gigabit Ethernet version is defined in IEEE 802.3ae

Gigabit Ethernet can use different types of cable.

1. 1000Base-LX: Long wavelength laser (1300 nm) optical fibres. The maximum cable length is 316 m in a half-duplex
configuration and 550 m in a full-duplex configuration. The cable length can be extended to 5000 m if a very thin (10 µm)
single mode fiber is used.
2. 1000Base-SX: Short wavelength laser (850 nm) multi-mode optical fiber. The maximum cable length is 275 m on a 62.5
µm fiber cable. With a 50 µm fiber cable a length of 316 m in a half-duplex configuration or 550 m in a full-duplex
configuration can be reached.
3. 1000Base-CX: Shielded twisted pair. Maximum cable length is 25 m.
4. 1000Base-T: Four pairs of 100 Ohm unshielded twisted pair, category 5. The maximum cable length is 100 m.