UNIT III

• Medium Access sub layer: Channel

allocation problem, MAC Protocols:
ALOHA, CSMA, CSMA/CD, MAC
addresses, IEEE 802.X, Standard
Ethernet, Wireless LANS. Bridges, Types
of Bridges.
 OSI
Application
Presentation
Session LOGICAL LINK sublayer

Transport Framing
Network Error
control
Data Link
Flow
control
Physical

MEDIA ACCESS sublayer

Transmission/reception of
frames
 The Medium Access Sub layer

deals with

BROADCAST NETWORKS AND THEIR

PROTOCOLS

Broadcast channels are sometimes referred to

as multi-access channels or random access
channels.
 Medium/Multiple Access
 Problem: When two or more nodes transmit at the same time, their
frames will collide and the link bandwidth is wasted during collision
 How to coordinate the access of multiple sending/receiving nodes
to the shared link???
• Solution: We need a protocol to coordinate the transmission of the
active nodes
• These protocols are called Medium or Multiple Access Control
(MAC) Protocols belong to a sublayer of the data link layer called
MAC (Medium Access Control)
• What is expected from Multiple Access Protocols:
– Main task is to minimize collisions in order to utilize the bandwidth by:
• Determining when a station can use the link (medium)
• what a station should do when the link is busy
• what the station should do when it is involved in collision
 Channel Allocation Problem
• Channel allocation is a process in which a
single channel is divided and allotted to
multiple users in order to carry user specific
tasks.
• Channel allocation problem can be solved by
two schemes:
– Static Channel Allocation in LANs and MANs
– Dynamic Channel Allocation in LANs and MANs
Static Channel Allocation in LANs and
MANs:
• It is the classical or traditional approach of allocating a
single channel among multiple competing users. it
uses Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM).
• If there are N users, the bandwidth is divided into N
equal sized portions each user being assigned one
portion. since each user has a private frequency band,
there is no interference between users.
• If the number of users are small and have heavy load,
then Frequency Division Multiplexing can be used as it
is a simple and efficient channel bandwidth allocating
technique.
• Problem is When the number of senders are
large and traffic becomes bursty.
– If the spectrum is cut up into N regions and fewer
than N users communicate. Then large piece of
valuable spectrum is wasted.
– If more than N users want to communicate, some
will be denied permission for lack of bandwidth.
– However even if number of users are held
constant at N, dividing the single available channel
into static channel is inefficient. This is because if
some uses are quiescent, their bandwidth is
simply lost.
 Dynamic Channel Allocation in LANs and MANs

Five key assumptions:

1.Station Model: The model consists of N independent
stations, each with a program or user that generates
frames for transmission. Once a frame has been
generated, the station is blocked and does nothing until
the frame has been successfully transmitted.
2.Single Channel Assumption: A single channel is
available for all communication. All stations can
transmit on it and all can receive from it. As far as the
hardware is concerned, all stations are equivalent,
although some protocol software may assign priorities
to them.
3.Collision Assumption: If two frames are transmitted
simultaneously, they overlap in time and the resulting
signal is distorted. This event is called a collision.
All stations can detect collisions. A collided frame
must be transmitted again later. There are no errors
other than those generated by collisions.
4a.Continuous Time: Frame transmission can begin at
any instant. There is no master clock dividing time
into discrete intervals.
4b.Slotted Time: Time is divided into discrete intervals
(slots). Frame transmissions always begin at the start
of a slot. A slot may contain 0, 1, or more frames,
corresponding to an idle slot, a successful
transmission, or a collision, respectively.
• 5a.Carrier Sense: (LAN) Stations can tell if the
channel is in use before trying to use it. If the channel
is sensed as busy, no station will attempt to use it
until it goes idle.
• 5b. No Carrier Sense:(Satellite) Stations cannot
sense the channel before trying to use it. They just go
ahead and transmit. Only later can they determine
whether or not the transmission was successful.
 Multiple Access Protocols

• ALOHA
• Carrier Sense Multiple Access Protocols(CSMA)
• Collision-Free Protocols
• Limited-Contention Protocols
• Wavelength Division Multiple Access Protocols
• Wireless LAN Protocols
 ALOHA

• In 1970 Norman Abramson and his colleagues

at university of Hawaii devised a new and
elegant method to solve the channel
allocation problem.
• It was designed for a radio (wireless) LAN, but
it can be used on any shared medium.
• The main problem in shared media is collision
when more than one station want to transmit
simultaneously
 ALOHA
• Versions
 Pure ALOHA (Mr. Norman Abramson in 1970s)
 Slotted ALOHA (Mr. Roberts in 1972)
The basic difference between the two is with respect
to timing
 Pure ALOHA does not require global time for
synchronization
 Slotted ALOHA does
 Pure ALOHA
– All frames from any station are of fixed length (L bits)
– A station that has data can transmit at any time
– There will be collisions and if collision detected the
corresponding frames are destroyed.
– After transmitting a frame, the sender waits for an
acknowledgment for an amount of time
– If no ACK was received, sender assumes that the frame or
ACK has been destroyed and resends that frame after it
waits for a random amount of time
– If station fails to receive an ACK after repeated
transmissions, it gives up
– Systems in which multiple users share a common channel
in a way that can lead to conflicts are widely known as contention
system.
In pure ALOHA, frames are transmitted at completely arbitrary times.
Pure ALOHA

In pure ALOHA, frames are transmitted at completely arbitrary times.

Critical time for pure ALOHA protocol

Tfr= Frame Transmission time

Slotted aloha :
 Time is divided into slots equal to a frame
transmission time (Tfr)
 A station can transmit at the beginning of a slot only
 If a station misses the beginning of a slot, it has to
wait until the beginning of the next time slot.
 A central clock or station informs all stations about
the start of a each slot
Random Access – Slotted ALOHA
In danger time for slotted ALOHA protocol
Efficiency of Aloha

G = offered load rate= new frames+ retransmitted

= Total frames presented to the link per
the transmission time of a single frame

Fig. Throughput versus offered traffic for ALOHA

systems
Note

The throughput ( S) for pure ALOHA is

S = G × e −2G .
The maximum throughput
Smax = 0.184 when G= (1/2).
G = Average number of frames generated by the
system (all stations) during one frame transmission
time
Note

The throughput for slotted ALOHA is

S = G × e−G .
The maximum throughput
Smax = 0.368 when G = 1.
 Differences Between Pure ALOHA and Slotted
ALOHA

Pure ALOHA Slotted ALOHA

When a first frame arrives, the When a node has a fresh frame to
node immediately transmits send, it waits until the beginning
of the next slot

Nodes can transmit frames at Nodes can transmit frames in

Random Times. their respective slot boundaries
only at the beginning of the Slot.

Does not require Synchronization Requires synchronization

of slots of any nodes. between slots of nodes.

Mode of Transfer is Continuous. Mode of transfer is Discrete

 Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)

• To minimize the chance of collision and, therefore,

increase the performance, the CSMA method was
developed.
•The chance of collision can be reduced if a station
senses the medium before trying to use it.
•Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) requires that
each station first listen to the medium (or check the
state of the medium) before sending.
•In other words, CSMA is based on the principle
"sense before transmit" or "listen before talk."
 CSMA: Carrier Sense Multiple Access
Advantage:
 Minimize the chance of collision
 Increases the performance.

CSMA Methods
 1-persistent CSMA
 non-persistent CSMA
 p-persistent CSMA
1-persistent
 When a station has data to send, it first listens to channel to see
if any one else is transmitting at that moment.
 If the channel is busy, the station continuously senses until it
becomes idle.
 When the station detects an idle channel, it transmits a frame.
 If a collision occurs, the station waits a random amount of time
and starts all over again.
 The station transmits with a probability of 1 whenever if finds
the channel idle.
 Performance
 1-persistent stations are selfish
 If two or more stations becomes ready at the same time,
collision guaranteed
1-persistent

• Propagation delay and zero propagation delay.

– The propagation delay has an important effect on the
performance of the protocol.
– There is a small chance that just after a station begins
sending, another station will become ready to send and
sense the channel. If the first station's signal has not yet
reached the second one, the latter will sense an idle
channel and will also begin sending, resulting in a collision
– Even if the propagation delay is zero, there will still be
collisions. If two stations become ready in the middle of a
third station's transmission, both will wait politely until the
transmission ends and then both will begin transmitting
exactly simultaneously, resulting in a collision.
Non-persistent CSMA

 A station that has a frame to send it senses the line.

 If the line is idle, it sends immediately.
 If the line is not idle, it waits a random amount of time and
then senses the line again.
 This algorithm should lead to better channel utilization and
longer delays than 1-persistant CSMA
 Performance:
 Random delays reduces probability of collisions because two
stations with data to be transmitted will wait for different amount
of times.
 Bandwidth is wasted if waiting time (backoff) is large because
medium will remain idle following end of transmission even if
one or more stations have frames to send
P-persistent CSMA
 Time is divided to slots where each Time unit (slot).
 Station wishing to transmit listens to the medium:
1. If medium idle,
 transmit with probability (p), OR
 wait one time unit (slot) with probability (1 – p), then
repeat 1.
2. If medium busy, continuously listen until idle and repeat
step 1
Performance
 Reduces the possibility of collisions like nonpersistent
 Reduces channel idle time like 1-persistent
Flow diagram for three persistence methods
Persistent and Nonpersistent CSMA

Comparison of the channel utilization versus load for various random access
protocols.
CSMA with Collision Detection
• In this method a station monitors the medium after
it sends a frame it check if the transmission was
successful.
• station aborts their transmissions as soon as they
detect a collision . To save time and bandwidth.
• If collision occurs a special signal has to be send,so
that other stops transmitting the data .this signal is
called jamming signal
 CSMA/CD Protocol
• Use one of the CSMA persistence algorithm
(non-persistent, 1-persistent, p-persistent) for
transmission
• If a collision is detected by a station during its transmission
then it should do the following:
– Abort transmission and
– Transmit a jam signal to notify other stations of collision so that
they will discard the transmitted frame also to make sure that the
collision signal will stay until detected by all the station
– After sending the jam signal, backoff (wait) for a random amount
of time, then
– Transmit the frame again
 of its own
signal, it means collision occurred
CSMA with Collision Detection

CSMA/CD can be in one of three states: contention, transmission, or idle.

Figure 12.14 Flow diagram for the CSMA/CD

12.42
Wired LANs: Ethernet

13-43
 MAC Sublayer
• In Standard Ethernet, the MAC sublayer governs
the operation of the access method.
• It also frames data received from the upper layer
and passes them to the physical layer.
• Frame Format
– The Ethernet frame contains seven fields: preamble,
SFD, DA, SA, length or type of protocol data unit
(PDU), upper-layer data, and the CRC
– It does not provide any mechanism for acknowledging
received frames, making it what is known as an
unreliable medium.
IEEE 802.3 MAC FRAME FORMAT:

 Preamble SFD DA SA Length Data CRC

Or
Type
7bytes 1 byte 6bytes 6 bytes 2bytes 4bytes

Preamble: The first field of the 802.3 frame Contain 7bytes (56
bits) of alternating 0’s and 1’s.that alerts the receiving system to
the coming frame and enables it to synchronize.
The preamble is actually added at the physical layer and is not
formally part of the frame.
IEEE 802.3 MAC FRAME FORMAT:
•Start frame delimiter (SFD). The second field (l byte: 10101011) signals the
beginning of the frame. The SFD warns the station or stations that this is the
last chance for synchronization. The last 2 bits is 11 and alerts the receiver
that the next field is the destination address.
•Destination address (DA). The DA field is 6 bytes and contains the physical
address of the destination station or stations to receive the packet.
•Source address (SA). The SA field is also 6 bytes and contains the physical
address of the sender of the packet.
•Length or type. This field is defined as a type field or length field. The original
Ethernet used this field as the type field to define the upper-layer protocol
using the MAC frame. The IEEE standard used it as the length field to define
the number of bytes in the data field. Both uses are common today.
•Data. This field carries data encapsulated from the upper-layer protocols. It is
a minimum of 46 and a maximum of 1500 bytes
•CRC. The last field contains error detection information, in this case a CRC-32
 FRAME LENGTH
• Ethernet has imposed restrictions on both the
minimum and maximum lengths of a frame
 Addressing
• Each station on an Ethernet network (such as a PC,
workstation, or printer) has its own network interface card
(NIC). The NIC fits inside the station and provides the station
with a 6-byte physical address.
 Addressing
• Ethernet address in hexadecimal notation

• The least significant bit of the first byte defines the type of address.
If the bit is 0, the address is unicast; otherwise, it is multicast
• The broadcast destination address is a special case of the multicast
address in which all bits are 1s

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 Unicast, Multicast & Broadcast Addressing

• Source Address is always Unicast means, frame comes from only one
station.
• Destination Address can be Unicast, Multicast , Broadcast
• Unicast Addressing : Defines only one recipient. Sender & Receiver
relationship is one-one.
• Multicast Addressing: Defines a group of addresses. Sender &
Receiver relationship is one-many.
• Broadcast Addressing: Defines a special case of Multicast Address in
which destination address is forty eight 1’s .

50
 Standard Ethernet
• The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox’s Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC). Since then, it has gone through four
generations

13-51
Physical Layer: Ethernet

13-52
Figure 12-9

WCB/McGraw-Hill  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998

The transceiver is responsible for transmitting, receiving, and
detecting collisions.
The transceiver is connected to the station via a transceiver
cable that provides separate paths for sending and receiving.
This means that collision can only happen in the coaxial cable.
The maximum length of the coaxial cable must not exceed 500
m, otherwise, there is excessive degradation of the signal. If a
length of more than 500 m is needed, up to five segments,
each a maximum of 500-meter, can be connected using
repeaters.
NIC - Network Interface Card
The NIC fits inside the station and provides the station with a
link-layer address.
Figure 12-9-continued
10BASE5

NIC - Network Interface Card

WCB/McGraw-Hill  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998

Figure 12-11

WCB/McGraw-Hill  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998

• The second implementation is called lOBase2, thin
Ethernet, or Cheapernet.
• IOBase2 also uses a bus topology, but the cable is much
thinner and more flexible.
• The cable can be bent to pass very close to the stations. In
this case, the transceiver is normally part of the network
interface card (NIC), which is installed inside the station.
• Note that the collision here occurs in the thin coaxial cable.
Installation is simpler because the thin coaxial cable is very
flexible. However, the length of each segment cannot
exceed 185 m (close to 200 m) due to the high level of
attenuation in thin coaxial cable.
Figure 12-11-continued
10BASE2

WCB/McGraw-Hill  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998

Figure 12-12

WCB/McGraw-Hill  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998

• The third implementation is called lOBase-T or
twisted-pair Ethernet. 1OBase-T uses a
physical star topology.
• The stations are connected to a hub via two
pairs of twisted cable
• Note that two pairs of twisted cable create
two paths (one for sending and one for
receiving) between the station and the hub.
Any collision here happens in the hub.
 10BASE -F
• Although there are several types of optical
fiber lO-Mbps Ethernet, the most common is
called 10Base-F.
• lOBase-F uses a star topology to connect
stations to a hub.
• The stations are connected to the hub using
two fiber-optic cables
 Fast Ethernet
• Under the name of IEEE 802.3u
• Upgrade the data rate to 100 Mbps
• Make it compatible with Standard Ethernet
• Keep the same 48-bit address and the same frame format
• Keep the same min. and max. frame length

• MAC Sublayer
• CSMA/CD for the half-duplex approach
• No need for CSMA/CD for full-duplex Fast Ethernet

• Autonegotiation: allow two devices to negotiate the mode or data rate

of operation

Data Communications, Kwangwoon

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 Fast Ethernet: Physical Layer
• Topology

• Implementation

Data Communications, Kwangwoon

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 Gigabit Ethernet
• Under the name of IEEE 802.3z
• Upgrade the data rate to 1 Gbps
• Make it compatible with Standard or Fast Ethernet
• Keep the same 48-bit address and the same frame format
• Keep the same min. and max. frame length
• Support autonegotiation as defined in Fast Ethernet
• MAC Sublayer
• Most of all implementations follows full-duplex approach
• In the full-duplex mode of Gigabit Ethernet, there is no collision;
the maximum length of the cable is determined by the signal
attenuation in the cable.
• Half-duplex mode (very rare)
• Traditional: 0.512 μs (25m)
• Carrier Extension: 512 bytes (4096 bits) min. length
• Frame bursting to improve the inefficiency of carrier extension
Data Communications, Kwangwoon
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Gigabit Ethernet: Physical Layer
• Topology

Data Communications, Kwangwoon

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Gigabit Ethernet: Physical Layer
• Implementation

Data Communications, Kwangwoon

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Gigabit Ethernet: Summary

Data Communications, Kwangwoon

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 Ten-Gigabit Ethernet
• Under the name of IEEE 802.3ae
• Upgrade the data rate to 10 Gbps
• Make it compatible with Standard, Fast, and Giga Ethernet
• Keep the same 48-bit address and the same frame format
• Keep the same min. and max. frame length
• Allow the interconnection of existing LANs into a MAN or WAN
• Make Ethernet compatible with Frame Relay and ATM

• MAC Sublayer: Only in full-duplex mode  no CSMA/CD

Data Communications, Kwangwoon

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WIRELESS LANS
 IEEE 802.11 : WIRELESS LANS
• The transmission techniques:
- Infrared
-FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
-DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum).
-OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)
- HR-DSS (High Rate Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum)
The 802.11 Protocol Stack
The 802.11 MAC Sublayer Protocol
(a) The hidden station problem.
(b) The exposed station problem.
 Hidden Station Problem
• Wireless stations have transmission ranges
and not all stations are within radio range of
each other.
• C transmits to B.
• If A “senses” the channel, it will not hear C’s
transmission and falsely conclude that A can
begin a transmission to B.
 Exposed station Problem
• This is the inverse problem.
• B wants to send to C and listens to the
channel.
• When B hears A’s transmission, B falsely
assumes that it cannot send to C.
 Wireless LAN Protocols
• MACA (Medium Access with Collision
Avoidance)
• MACAW( Medium Access with Collision
Avoidance for Wireless)
 Wireless LAN Protocols

• MACA (Medium Access with Collision

Avoidance) protocol solved hidden and exposed
terminal problems:
– Sender broadcasts a Request-to-Send (RTS) and the
intended receiver sends a Clear-to-Send (CTS).
– Upon receipt of a CTS, the sender begins transmission
of the frame.
– RTS, CTS helps determine who else is in range or busy
(Collision Avoidance).
– Can a collision still occur?
Computer Networks: Wireless Networks 79
The MACA protocol. (a) A sending an RTS to B. (b)
B responding with a CTS to A.
 Wireless LAN Protocols

• MACA protocol is fine tuned to improve the

performance and new protocol is renamed as
MACAW (MACA for Wireless)
• MACAW - new features
– added ACKs,
– Carrier Sense and
– Back off algorithm runs for every stream and not per
station.

• These changes improved the fairness of the

protocol.
81
 THE 802.11 MAC SUBLAYER
PROTOCOL
• 802.11 Supports 2 modes of operations to
deal with problems.
• The two modes are :
* DCF (Distributed Coordination Function)
-does not use any kind of central control
* PCF( Point Coordination Function)
-uses the base station to control all activity in its cell.
 Distribute Coordination Function (DCF)

• Uses CSMA/CA (CSMA with Collision

Avoidance).
– Uses one of two modes of operation:
• virtual carrier sensing
• physical carrier sensing
• The two methods are supported:
1. MACAW (Multiple Access with Collision
Avoidance for Wireless) with virtual carrier
sensing.
2. 1-persistent physical carrier sensing.

Computer Networks: Wireless Networks 83

 1-Persistent Physical Carrier Sensing

• The station senses the channel when it wants to

send.
• If idle, the station transmits.
– A station does not sense the channel while
transmitting.
• If the channel is busy, the station defers until idle
and then transmits (1-persistent).
• Upon collision, wait a random time using binary
exponential backoff algorithm.

Computer Networks: Wireless Networks 84

 Virtual Channel Sensing in CSMA/CA

• In this example, A wants to send to B. C is a station within range of A

(and possibly within range of B, but that does not matter). D is a
station within range of B but not within range of A.
• C (in range of A) receives the RTS and based on information in RTS
creates a virtual channel busy NAV(Network Allocation Vector).
• D (in range of B) receives the CTS and creates a shorter NAV.
 Fragmentation in 802.11

• High wireless error rates  long packets have less

probability of being successfully transmitted.
• Solution: MAC layer fragmentation with stop-and-
wait protocol on the fragments.

Computer Networks: Wireless Networks 86

• To deal with the problem of noisy channels, 802.11
allows frames to be fragmented into smaller pieces,
each with its own checksum.
• The fragments are individually numbered and
acknowledged using a stop-and-wait protocol (i.e., the
sender may not transmit fragment k +1 until it has
received the acknowledgment for fragment k).
• Once the channel has been acquired using RTS and CTS,
multiple fragments can be sent in a row, sequence of
fragments is called a fragment burst.
• The NAV mechanism keeps other stations quiet only
until the next acknowledgement
 PCF( Point Coordination Function)

• PCF mechanism uses base station to control all activity in its

cell.
• Base station polls the other station asking them if they have
any frame to send.
• In PCF, as it is centralized, no collision will occur.
• In polling mechanism, the base station broadcasts a beacon
frame periodically (10 to 100 times per second).
• Base station can tell another station to sleep to save on
batteries and base stations holds frames for sleeping station.
 DCF and PCF Co-Existence
• Distributed and centralized control can co-exist using
InterFrame Spacing.
• SIFS (Short IFS) :: is the time waited between packets
in an ongoing dialog (RTS,CTS,data, ACK, next frame)
• PIFS (PCF IFS) :: when no SIFS response, base station
can issue beacon or poll.
• DIFS (DCF IFS) :: when no PIFS, any station can attempt
to acquire the channel.
• EIFS (Extended IFS) :: lowest priority interval used to
report bad or unknown frame.

Computer Networks: Wireless Networks 89

Interframe Spacing in 802.11.

Computer Networks: Wireless Networks 90

The 802.11 Frame Structure
• The 802.11 data frame.
• First comes the Frame Control field. It itself has 11 subfields. The first of
these is the Protocol version, which allows two versions of the protocol to
operate at the same time in the same cell.
• Then come the Type (data, control,or management) and Subtype fields
(e.g., RTS or CTS). The To DS and From DS bits indicate the frame is going to
or coming from the intercell distribution system (e.g., Ethernet).
• The MF bit means that more fragments will follow. The Retry bit marks a
retransmission of a frame sent earlier. The Power management bit is used
by the base station to put the receiver into sleep state or take it out of
sleep state. The More bit indicates that the sender has additional frames
for the receiver.
• The W bit specifies that the frame body has been encrypted using the WEP
(Wired Equivalent Privacy) algorithm. Finally, the O bit tells the receiver
that a sequence of frames with this bit on must be processed strictly in
order.
• The second field of the data frame, the Duration field, tells
how long the frame and its acknowledgement will occupy
the channel. his field is also present in the control frames
and is how other stations manage the NAV mechanism.
• The frame header contains four addresses, all in standard
IEEE 802 format. The source and destination are obviously
needed. The other two addresses are used for the source
and destination base stations for intercell traffic.
• The Sequence field allows fragments to be numbered. Of
the 16 bits available, 12 identify the frame and 4 identify
the fragment. The Data field contains the payload, up to
2312 bytes, followed by the usual Checksum.
Connecting Devices and the OSI Model
 Bridges and its types
• LANs can be connected by devices called
bridges
• A bridge operates in both the physical and the
data link layer.
• As a physical layer device, it regenerates the
signal it receives.
• As a data link layer device, the bridge can
check the physical (MAC) addresses (source
and destination) contained in the frame
Figure 21-7

A Bridge

A bridge connecting two LANs

A bridge does not change the physical (MAC) addresses in a frame.

Figure 21-9

Multiport Bridge
• Filtering:
– A bridge has filtering capability. It can check the
destination address of a frame and decide if the
frame should be forwarded or dropped.
– If the frame is to be forwarded, the decision must
specify the port.
– A bridge has a table that maps addresses to ports.
Types of Bridges:
• Transparent Bridges.
• Source Routing Bridges.
 Transparent Bridges
• A transparent bridge is a bridge in which the stations are
completely unaware of the bridge's existence.
• If a bridge is added or deleted from the system,
reconfiguration of the stations is unnecessary.
• Basic Function:
– Forwarding: Frames must be forwarded from one station
to another.
– Learning: The forwarding table is automatically made by
learning frame movements in the network.
– Prevention of Looping: Loops in the system must be
prevented.
 Forwarding - 3 rules for forwarding the frame.
 If destination and source LANs are the same
discard the frame.
 If destination and source LANs are different ,
forward the frame.
 If the destination LAN is unknown, use flooding.
Learning:
• The earliest bridges had forwarding tables that were static.
If a station was added or deleted, the table had to be
modified manually.
• A better solution to the static table is a dynamic table that
maps addresses to ports automatically.
• To make a table dynamic, we need a bridge that gradually
learns from the frame movements.
• To do this, the bridge inspects both the destination and the
source addresses. The destination address is used for the
forwarding decision (table lookup); the source address is
used for adding entries to the table and for updating
purposes.
 A B

LAN 1
1 E
3
BRIDG

2 F
LAN 2

LAN 3
C D

ADDRESS PORT ADDRESS PORT ADDRESS PORT ADDRESS PORT

A 1 A 1 A 1
E 3 E 3
B 1
(a) original (b) If A to D (c) If E to A (d) If B to C
Prevention of Looping:
– Transparent bridges work fine as long as there are no
redundant bridges in the system.
– Systems administrators, however, like to have redundant
bridges (more than one bridge between a pair of LANs) to
make the system more reliable. If a bridge fails, another
bridge takes over until the failed one is repaired or
replaced.
– Redundancy can create loops in the system, which is very
undesirable
– To solve the looping problem, the IEEE specification
requires that bridges use the spanning tree algorithm to
create a loopless topology.
 Source Routing Bridges
• In source routing bridges, a sending station defines the
bridges that the frame must visit.
• The addresses of these bridges are included in the
frame.
• In other words, the frame contains not only the source
and destination addresses, but also the addresses of all
bridges to be visited.
• The source gets these bridge addresses through the
exchange of special frames with the destination prior
to sending the data frame.
• Token Ring networks mainly use source-routing
bridges.