Addressing Mechanism

The IEEE 802.11 addressing mechanism is complicated due to the

involvement of intermediate stations (APs)

There are 4 cases defined by the value of “To DS” and “From DS”
flags in the FC field:
To DS From DS Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Address 4
0 0 Destination Source BSS ID N/A
station station
0 1 Destination Sending AP Source N/A
station station
1 0 Receiving Source Destination N/A
AP station station
1 1 Receiving Sending AP Destination Source
AP station station

Address 1 is always the address of the next device

Address 2 is always the address of the previous device
Address 3 is the address of the final destination station if it is not defined by Address 1
Address 4 is the address of the original source station if it is not the same as Address 2 1

Case 1 (“To DS” = 0 & “From DS” = 0)
o The frame is not going to a distribution system and is not
coming from a distribution system
o Instead, it is going from one station in a BSS to another without
passing through the distribution system
o The ACK frame should be sent to the original sender

BSS-ID

B A
ADDR ADDR ADDR ADDR
1 2 3 4
A B

BSS
2

Case 2 (“To DS” = 0 & “From DS” = 1)
o The frame is coming from a distribution system (via an AP) and
going to a station
o The ACK frame should be sent to the AP
o Address 3 contains the original sender of the frame (in another
BSS)
BSS
B AP A
ADDR ADDR ADDR ADDR
1 2 3 4

A AP
Distribution B
system

3

Case 3 (“To DS” = 1 & “From DS” = 0)
o The frame is going to a distribution system (from a station to an
AP)
o The ACK frame is sent to the original station
o Address 3 contains the final destination of the frame (in another
BSS)
BSS
AP B A
ADDR ADDR ADDR ADDR
1 2 3 4

AP A
B Distribution
system
4

Case 4 (“To DS” = 1 & “From DS” = 1)
o The frame is going from one AP to another AP in a wireless
distribution system
o Four addresses are required to define the original sender, the
final destination, and 2 intermediate APs

Wireless
distribution system

AP2 AP1 B A
ADDR ADDR ADDR ADDR
AP1 1 2 3 4 AP2
A B

BSS BSS
5
IEEE 802.11 Implementation

This IEEE 802.11 standard defines the media access control (MAC)
and physical (PHY) layers for a LAN with wireless connectivity.

IEEE 802.11 standards mapped to the OSI reference model

6
Physical Medium

Infrared :
o limited to a single room as infrared light cannot penetrate opaque
walls

Spread spectrum:
o 802.11: frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), direct
sequence spread spectrum(DSSS)
o Operate in the 2.4GHz ISM [Industrial, Scientific and Medical]
bands, so that no licensing is required
o 802.11a: Using OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing) in 5GHz ISM band
o 802.11b: Using HR-DSSS (high rate DSSS) in 2.4GHz ISM band
o 802.11g: Using OFDM in 2.4GHz ISM band

7
Access Modes

DCF(Distributed coordination Function)

o In this mode there is no central control, and stations compete
for air time, just as they do with Ethernet.
o DCF uses a contention algorithm (CSMA/CA) to provide
access to all traffic
o In some circumstances, the DCF may use the CTS/RTS
clearing technique to further reduce the possibility of collisions

PCF(Point Coordination Function)
o PCF provides contention free service and is built on top of
DCF and exploits features of DCF to assure access for its users
(for time sensitive transmission).
o The base station polls the other stations (one after another),
asking them if they have any frames to send

8

Another interframe space has been defined: PIFS (PCF IFS)

PIFS is shorter than DIFS so that the base station using PCF has
higher priority over other station using DCF

For e.g., if a station wants to use DCF and an AP wants to use
PCF, the AP has priority since its waiting time is shorter (PIFS <
DIFS)

Due to its lower priority, stations using DCF may not gain access
to the medium

For networks with both PCF and DCF traffic, a repetition interval
has been designed

Each repetition interval consists of a contention-free period and
contention period

Each interval starts with a special control frame known as a
beacon frame

9

When other stations sense the beacon frame, they start their NAV for
the duration of the contention free period.

At the end of the contention-free period, the AP a CF (contention-free)
end frame to allow the contention-based stations to used the medium.

Usually, DCF is used for ad hoc networking and PCF is used for
networking with base station or access point.
10
Interframe Spacing (IFS)

Interframe spacing plays a large role in coordinating access to the

transmission medium.

Varying interframe spacings create different priority levels for
different types of traffic: high-priority traffic doesn't have to wait
long after the medium has become idle (it grabs the network before
low-priority frames have a chance to try )

SIFS (Short IFS): The shortest IFS, used for all immediate
response actions: acknowledgement (ACK), clear to send (CTS),
poll response.

PIFS (PCF IFS): A midlength IFS, used in contention-free
operation (base station when issuing polls)

DIFS (DCF IFS): The longest IFS, is the minimum medium idle
time for contention-based services.

11
 DIFS

PIFS
Contention window
Frame
Busy SIFS
... transmission

Other stations buffer Time

Backoff slots
and defer frames

12
Wired Equivalent Privacy

The 802.11 standard includes a security protocol called Wired

Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

WEP provides authentication and encryption between a device and
an AP.

The encryption algorithm uses a 40-bit secret key (every product on
the market supports at least 104-bit keys now) and append a 24-bit
initialization vector to create a 64-bit key (128-bit key if 104-bit keys
are used)

It uses different initialization vector, thus different encryption key
for each frame.

The protocol does not specify a key exchange algorithm (the keys
must be agree upon prior to any exchange)

13

The encryption uses an algorithm known as RC4 (a secret-key
stream cipher ):

A number of flaws have been discovered (see

www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html)

Solutions:
i. Dynamic WEP Keying
ii. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
14
Connecting LANs

Several reasons for dividing one LAN into multiple LANs:

Reliability – If all devices are connected to a single network, a fault
on the network may disable communication for all devices. Bridges
allow the network to be partitioned

Performance – Performance of LAN declines with increase number
of devices or length of cable. A number of smaller LANs will often
give improved performance where devices can be clustered so that
intranetwork traffic significantly exceeds internetwork traffic

Security – The establishment of multiple LANs may improve
security where different types of traffic [e.g., accounting, personnel]
that require different security needs are located on physically
separate media

15

Geography – For the case of interconnecting the devices in two
different geographical locations, it may be more feasible to implement
two LANs and use a microwave bridge to link them than to string
coaxial cable to implement a single LAN
B

Token ring LAN connector

Token ring LAN

connector

Token ring LAN

server
connector

C
Ethernet LAN
server
A server

Interconnecting networks
16
Connecting Devices

There are 5 types of connecting devices: repeaters, hubs,

bridges, routers and switches (two- and three-layer)

Repeaters and hubs operate in the 1st layer

Bridges and two-layer switches operate in the first two layers

Routers and three-layer switches operate in the first three layers
Network Network
Bridge

Data link Data link Data link Data link Data link Data link

Physical Physical
Physical Repeater Physical Physical Physical

Layer 1 connection Layer 2 connection

Transport Transport
Router

Network Network Network Network

Data link Data link Data link Data link

Physical Physical
Physical Physical

Layer 3 connection
17
Layer 1 Connections

Repeater

It operates only in the physical layer

A repeater is a regenarator, not an amplifier

It receives a signal and regenerates the original bit pattern before it
becomes too weak (attenuation) and corrupted

It extends the physical length of a LAN (10Base5 & 10Base2)

A repeater does not connect two LANs; it connects 2 segments of
the same LAN (still form one single LAN)

It is not a device to connect two LANs of different protocols

A repeater forwards every frame; it has not filtering capability

Repeater

Segment 1 Segment 2

18
Hub

A hub is actually a multiport repeater

It is used to create connections between stations in a star topology

Hubs can also be used to create multiple levels of hierarchy

Use of hubs removes the length limitation of 10Base-T (100m)
Backbone
hub

Hub Hub Hub

Collision domain

19
Layer 2 Connections

Bridge

A bridge operates in both physical and data link layers

At the physical layer, it regenerates the signal it receives

The bridge is able to check the physical (MAC) addresses contained
in a frame (as it is also operating in the data link layer)

A bridge has filtering capability: it can check the destination address
of a frame and decide if the frame should be forwarded (to a port) or
dropped

A table is used by the bridge to map addresses to port

A bridge does not change the physical address in a frame
00:2B:52:3A:E7:21 00:2B:52:3A:E7:32 00:3A:57:45:12:90 00:3A:57:45:12:75
Address Port
00:2B:52:3A:E7:21 1

` ` 1 2 ` ` 00:2B:52:3A:E7:32 1
Bridge
00:3A:57:45:12:75 2
00:3A:57:45:12:90 2

LAN 1 LAN 2

20

A bridge should be able to connect LANs using different protocols at
the data link layer, such as Ethernet LAN to a wireless LAN (access
point)

Many issues to consider:
o Frame format. Each type of LAN has its own frame format.
o Maximum data size. If the incoming frame is too large for the
destination LAN, it must be fragmented into several frames.
Some protocols at the data link layer does not support
fragmentation and reassembly of frames. Thus the bridge must
discard any frame that is too large.
o Data rate. Each type of LAN has its own data rate. The bridge
must buffer the frame to compensate for the difference.
o Bit order. Different types of LAN may send data in different
order (MSB transmitted first or LSB transmitted first)

21
 o Security. Some LANs (e.g. Wifi) implement security
measures in the data link layer which often involve encryption.
The data must be decrypted by the bridge if it is forwarding it to
a LAN without security (e.g. Ethernet).
o Multimedia support. Some LANs support multimedia and
the quality of services needed for this type of communication.

Transparent bridges

These are the bridges that create and update their own routing tables
(IEEE 802.1d specifications)

The stations are completely unaware of the bridge’s existence

If a station is added or removed from the network, the bridges learn
this and update their routing table accordingly (i.e. does not require
manual modification of the table)

This capability to update the routing table is called route learning or
address learning
22
Two-layer Switch

A two-layer switch is a multiport bridge that allows better (faster
performance)

A bridge can connect a few LANs together

A switch may allocate a unique port to each station, with each station on
its own independent entity (no contention and no collision)
Mail File
Switch
server server

Hub Hub Hub

Collision domain Collision domain Collision domain

23
Virtual LANs

A station is considered part of a LAN if it is physically belongs to that

LAN (configured by physical wiring)

A virtual local area network is a LAN configured by software

In a switched LAN, changes in the workgroup mean physical changes
in the network configuration (rewiring)

24

In VLAN, a LAN is divided into logical segment

The group membership in VLANs is defined by software (stations can
be logically moved between VLANs)

VLAN even allows the grouping of stations connected to different
switches in be grouped into the same VLAN

25

VLAN groups stations belonging to one or more physical LANs into
broadcast domains

All members belonging to the same VLAN can receive broadcast
messages sent to that particular VLAN

The stations in a VLAN communicate with each other as though
they belonged to a physical segment

Vendors define membership using different characteristic such as
port numbers, MAC addresses, IP addresses, IP multicast address to
a combination of these

Stations can be configured into different VLANs using:
i. Manual configuration using VLAN software to manually
assign stations into different VLANs. Subsequent migration is
also done manually
ii. Automatic configuration using criteria defined by the network
administrator (e.g. project number)
26
 iii. Semiautomatic configuration where initialization is done
manually with migration done automatically.

IEEE 802.1 subcommittee passes a standard called 802.1Q in 1996 that
defines frame tagging (allowing switches to exchange the membership
information of stations in other switches) and enables the use of
Switch β
multivendor equipment in VLANs

Switch α

H [VLAN 1]
E [VLAN 2]
G [VLAN 2]

A [VLAN 1] F [VLAN 1]

D [VLAN 2]
B [VLAN 1]
C [VLAN 2]
27
Advantages of VLAN

Cost and Time Reduction

VLANs reduce the migration cost of stations going from one group to
another as physical reconfiguration takes time and costly
It is easier and quicker to move a station to another segment or switch
using software

Creating Virtual Workgroups
VLANs allow the creation of virtual workgroups allowing stations to
send broadcast messages to one another without the necessity of
belonging to the same physical network

Security
VLANs provide an extra measure of security where station belonging
to the same VLAN can send broadcast messages with the guarantee
assurance that stations in other VLAN will not receive these messages

28