The Basics of Ethernet

Overview

Ethernet has become the predominant method for connecting devices in home
and office environments over the last decade. Originally developed in the 1970’s
by XEROX, it has become an IEEE standard 802.3 (http://www.ieee802.org/3/).
Below is a picture drawn on a napkin of the original concept.

Fast data transfer rates, ease of implementation, and interoperability coupled

with a continuing decline in the price curve have all led to the market domination
of Ethernet products. These factors have served to drive Ethernet into more
broad-based applications such as the white goods and Industrial markets as the
drive for standardization continues.

Discussed in this document are the four basic elements of Ethernet:

1) Framing – Takes the user data, adds additional information required

to direct the packet to another station on the same Local Area
network.
2) Media Access Control (MAC) – an agreed upon set of rules governing
how any particular station may access the network.
3) Signaling Components – responsible for encoding and converting
packet bits into electrical signals for the network medium.
4) Physical Medium – the actual physical media (e.g. coaxial cable,
twisted pair or fiber)

These four elements in combination provide a working Ethernet network.

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The Ethernet Frame

The frame is the “heart” of an Ethernet system. All the hardware and cabling that
have been developed are there to move the Ethernet frame (information) over
the Ethernet highway.

The frame is constructed as shown in the following figure:

64 bits 48 bits 48 bits 16 bits 46 to 1500 bytes 32 bits

Frame
Preamble Destination Source Type DATA Check
Address Address Length Sequence

Figure 1

Preamble

Marks the beginning of a packet and serves to synchronize the Ethernet

system that a frame is about to be delivered when operating at 10Mbs.

Destination Address

As the title implies, this is no different than sending a letter to a friend. You
must have an address so the letter gets to the right destination. The same
is true for Ethernet. A destination address must be supplied so that the
packet is delivered to the correct destination.

Source Address

The source address acts like the return address on a letter in case
delivery cannot be made. In the case of Ethernet, the sending node will be
informed if the frame was not delivered correctly and a re-try will occur (in
CDMA/CD see below)

Type or Length

As the title implies, this data lets the Ethernet system know what high level
protocol is being used, for example TCP/IP (Type interpretation is
>1536bytes). The length of the information portion of the frame can also
be designated in this field (Length interpretation <1536bytes).

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 Data

The data contained in the Ethernet frame can be from 46 to 1500 bytes.
However it cannot be less than 46 bytes or a special procedure called
“padding” has to be employed. In this case, the frame is padded with blank
data so that it adds up to 46 bytes.

Frame Check Sequence (CRC)

This last portion of the Ethernet frame serves as a data integrity check to
ensure the data that was transmitted was not corrupted.

The Media Access Control Protocol

Now that the construction of the frame has been explained, the next step is to
send data to the desired recipient.

Prior to sending a packet, a station “listens” for activity on the medium (wire) and
if no activity is detected sends the frame. The data to be sent will be sent to
every station over the shared signal medium. This is known as a broadcast
delivery since every station receives the same information. Each station reads
the second frame to decode the destination address, which is compared to the
station’s address. If the two addresses match, the frame (also referred to as a
packet) is accepted, “read” and forwarded to the appropriate networking software
resident on the computer.

It may seem inefficient to broadcast to every station, but other stations discard
the packet when the destination address in the frame does not match their
address. They do not process any additional information in the frame.

Equal access to broadcasts on the network is made possible by the Media

Access Controller (MAC), which is embedded into every Ethernet interface at
each station. The MAC uses the Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision
Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol to direct data traffic on the Ethernet medium.

How the CSMA/CD Protocol Works

The first portion of the protocol, Carrier Sense is the function of “listening” for
activity and only broadcasting when there is no activity sensed. The function of
CSMA/CD is to ensure that all nodes within the same network have an equal
chance to transmit. This equality in accessing the medium is called Multiple
Access. If two stations start broadcasting at the same instant, the protocol
senses a collision, called Collision Detection, and tells each station to wait a
random amount of time and then re-send the data. This waiting period is referred
to as a “back off” algorithm.

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Collisions are resolved in microseconds and no data is lost since the station will
re-broadcast the entire packet. It should be noted that CSMA/CD operates only in
half-duplex mode (In this mode only one station can send data at any given time).

Full-duplex mode allows two stations to communicate simultaneously (transmit

and receive) effectively doubling the throughput. Full-duplex mode is not detailed
in this overview.

Ethernet Hardware

The diagram below illustrates a simple 2 station 10/100 Ethernet network using a
repeater.

10/100BASE-T
Repeater HUB
8-PIN RJ-45
Connector

On Board MAC On Board MAC &

& Transceiver Transceiver

Figure 2

This network consists of signaling and receiving components, which send and
receive data. There is a MAC and a transceiver internal to the computer. The
transceiver is known as a physical layer device (PHY) and converts the Ethernet
packets into electrical signals. These signals are sent over the wire (most
commonly twisted pair) to a second station, which is linked through a repeater.
The Ethernet connection in both computers is directly comprised of the twisted
pair wire connected via an 8 pin RJ-45 connector connected to the PHY.

The function of the repeater is to move Ethernet signals from one segment of a
network to other multiple network segments. For simplicity, additional network
segments connected to the repeater are not shown. Repeaters allow multiple
segments to be connected together and function as a single network. One thing
to remember regarding network segments, however, is that they cannot be
connected in a loop, since this would cause the packet to circulate endlessly and
eventually saturate the system with traffic.

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Media Components

The cables and other physical devices used to actually carry the signal (frame or
packet) are referred to as the “physical” media.

Depending on the application’s requirements, different combinations of

components will be used to create the desired network. Ethernet networks can
be constructed using twisted pair (most common),coaxial cable or fiber optic
cable. Network segments can use any of these physical media and still be
combined into a single network through the use of repeaters. There is a limitation
on the number of repeaters that can be used in a network. This can limit the size
of the resulting network.

There is another way to connect network segments, however which is using a

switch.

A Repeater is designed to extend half-duplex Ethernet systems by using multiple

Ethernet ports. Each port can connect to other individual segments to create a
larger network working on a single LAN (Local Area Network).

A Switch allows multiple network segments to function as independent LAN’s by

reading the packet address and routing that packet to the appropriate network
segment. This is illustrated in Figure 3 below.

Switching HUB

10/100BASE-T 10/100BASE-T
Repeater HUB Repeater HUB

Figure 3 Ethernet LAN Ethernet LAN

Due to the continuing reduction of the cost of switches, this has become the most
prevalent way to connect 10/100Mbit network segments. The major advantage

5
over repeaters is that stations can be connected point-to-point and therefore do
not have to share the Ethernet channel with other computers.

Summary

This tutorial was developed with the idea of introducing some basic Ethernet
concepts and the associated components required to construct a complete
network from the FRAME to the MAC functions to the hardware and cabling
options. This tutorial can be used as the building block for developing a deeper
understanding of Ethernet network concepts.

Appendix
Spurgeon, Charles E.. Ethernet The Definitive Guide.

First edition Copyright © 2000 O’Reilly & associates, Inc.