15-1 CONNECTING DEVICES

In this section, we divide connecting devices into five

LECTURE 3.2 different categories based on the layer in which they
operate in a network.

Topics discussed in this section:

Passive Hubs
Active Hubs
Bridges
Chapter 15 Connecting LANs, Backbone Networks, and Virtual
LANs
Two-Layer Switches
(Forouzan, Data Communications and Networking, 4th Edition) Routers
Three-Layer Switches
Gateways
1 2

Figure 15.1 Five categories of connecting devices Figure 15.2 A repeater connecting two segments of a LAN

5 4 3 2
1

• Passive hub = physical connector that connect multiple

Up to 500m in 10Base5 Another 500m in 10Base5
wires together
• Active hub = multi-port repeater • Repeater re-generate electrical signal A repeater connects
• Bridge operates at both physical and data link layer — Extend physical length of a LAN segments of a LAN.
— Regenerate signal and check physical (MAC) address • Repeater do not connect multiple LAN together
3 — Just connect two segments of the same LAN 4
 Figure 15.3 Function of a repeater Figure 15.4 A hierarchy of hubs
Up to 100m
in 10BaseT

Another 100m
in 10BaseT

A repeater forwards every frame; it has no filtering capability.

A repeater is a regenerator, not an amplifier.

5 6

Figure 15.5 A bridge connecting two LANs

Transparent Bridge
A bridge does not change the physical (MAC)
addresses in a frame.
• No need to reconfigure when adding/deleting a
A bridge has a bridge or station
table used in —Include changing the MAC address or NIC
filtering decisions. Map address to port
• Must meet three criteria
—Frames must be forwarded
—Forwarding table is automatically created by
observing frame movement
• By inspecting source address
• Bridge has filtering capability (unlike repeater) —Prevent loop in the system
— Check frame’s destination address and decide if it should be
forwarded or dropped 7 8
 Figure 15.7 Loop problem in a learning bridge
Figure 15.6 A learning bridge and the process of learning
Address Port
A 1

• Bridge forwards
unknown frame to all
ports
— But record source
address and incoming
port in its table
• May cause problem if
there is redundant
bridge in the network

• Outgoing port of Destination D is unknown
Flooding

9 — Solve by using a spanning tree algorithm 10

Figure 15.8 A system of connected LANs and its graph representation

Spanning Tree • LAN and bridge
• Logical topology where each LAN can be are considered a
reached through one path only (no loop) node
• Cost is assigned
• Automatically created via software and BPDU to each arc
(Bridge protocol data unit)
• This example
—Automatically updated when new bridge is uses hop count
added/deleted — 1 from bridge to
LAN
— 0 from LAN to
bridge
1. Bridge with
smallest ID is
selected as root
11 bridge 12
Figure 15.9 Finding the shortest paths and the spanning Figure 15.10 Forwarding and blocking ports after using spanning
tree in a system of bridges tree algorithm

2. Find shortest path from

root bridge to everyone
else
3. Create shortest tree
4. Ports that are part of the
spanning tree is marked
“forwarding ports”
5. Other ports is marked
blocking port
• All frames coming from this
port is dropped
• Forwarding tree is not • Source routing bridge
created for these ports — Sending station defines the bridge that frame must visit
13 — Address of bridges are included in the frame 14

Figure 15.11 Routers connecting independent LANs and WANs

Bridge and Router
• Bridge can connect different LANs except where
—Frame size is too big for the intermediate LAN
—Data rate differences cause buffer overflow
• Bridge can also be called two-layer switch or
layer-two switch
—Switch normally have higher performance than bridge
• Router can also be called three-layer switch or
layer-three switch • Gateway operates at all 7 OSI layers
—Switch normally have higher performance than router —Read an application message and interpret it
—Normally use to connect LAN and WAN —Often used to provide security
—Routing table is also automatically updated
15 16
15-2 BACKBONE NETWORKS Figure 15.12 Bus backbone

A backbone network allows several LANs to be

connected. In a backbone network, no station is
directly connected to the backbone; the stations are
part of a LAN, and the backbone connects the LANs. In a bus backbone, the topology
of the backbone is a bus.

Topics discussed in this section:

Bus Backbone
Star Backbone
• Often used to connect different buildings
Connecting Remote LANs
• Bridge only forward frames destined to another LAN
17
• Bridge can also be replaced by a switch or router 18

Figure 15.13 Star backbone Figure 15.14 Connecting remote LANs with bridges

In a star backbone, the topology

of the backbone is a star; the
backbone is just one switch.
Leased telephone line
or ADSL
(Part of another WAN)

A point-to-point link acts as a

LAN in a remote backbone
• Often used to connect different floors inside a building connected by remote bridges.
— 1 LAN per floor
• Star backbone can also be called switch backbone
• Switch acts as both backbone and connection to LAN 19 20
15-3 VIRTUAL LANs Figure 15.15 A switch connecting three LANs

• Highly secure for intra-

We can roughly define a virtual local area network group communication
(VLAN) as a local area network configured by • Changes in group
software, not by physical wiring. membership require
physical changes in
network configuration

Topics discussed in this section:

Membership
Configuration
Communication between Switches
IEEE Standard
Advantages
21 22

Figure 15.16 A switch using VLAN software Figure 15.17 Two switches in a backbone using VLAN software

VLANs create
broadcast domains.

• Group (VLAN) arrangement is software configurable

• All VLAN members receive the same broadcast message23 24
 VLAN Configuration
• Stations in VLAN communicate as though they belong to the
same physical segment
• Stations can be grouped using many characteristics
— Port number: Most common and most secure
— MAC address or IP address
— Multicast IP address
• Different switch can exchange VLAN information via
— Periodically send out its membership table
— Tagging each frame with VLAN identification
— Dividing connecting trunk into multiple VLAN channels
• One TDM channel per VLAN
• IEEE 802.1Q standard ensure VLAN interoperability between
switch vendors
25