The Link Layer

Tom Kelliher, CS 325

May 5, 2008

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Assignment

Read 6.1-6.3.

Projects due Wednesday. Not accepted after Friday at 2:30 pm.

From Last Time

Routing.

Outline

  1. Introduction.

  2. Multiple Access protocol -- CSMA/CD.

  3. Link layer addressing.

  4. Ethernet.

  5. Link layer switches.

Coming Up

Wireless networking.

Introduction

Link layer exists between hosts on either side of a single link:

\includegraphics[width=5in]{Figures/fig05_01.eps}

Unit of exchange is a packet/frame/datagram. Physical layer exchanges individual bits.

Example technologies: Ethernet, ATM, 802.11.

Error detection/correction codes appended frame:

\includegraphics[width=4in]{Figures/fig05_04.eps}

Link layer services:

  1. Framing -- encapsulation.

  2. Link access -- protocols for shared access links.

  3. Reliable delivery -- important for media with high error rates (802.11).

    Error detection/correction.

  4. Flow control.

  5. Duplex -- half or full?

Multiple Access Protocol -- CSMA/CD

How do you control transmission in a shared access medium?:

\includegraphics[width=4in]{Figures/fig05_09.eps}

A number of possible ideas:

  1. Take turns: fixed intervals, or a request protocol.

    Time division multiplexing.

  2. Partition the bandwidth.

    Frequency division multiplexing.

  3. Code division multiplexing.

  4. Random access protocols:
    1. Listen. If no stations sending, begin to send.

      If a station is sending, wait a random amount of time, then listen again.

    2. Possible for two senders to begin sending. Action upon detection of collision?

      Is it always possible to detect a sending collision?

  5. CSMA/CD -- Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection:
    1. Sense media for idle state. If idle, begin transmitting.

      If media isn't idle, backoff for a randomly chosen unit of time.

    2. How can collisions occur?

      \includegraphics[width=4in]{Figures/fig05_14.eps}

Link Layer Addressing

  1. Each network adapter has an eight byte MAC address:
    bluebird:~/Class/Cs325/Lectures
    % ifconfig eth0
    eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1A:A0:16:65:8B  
              inet addr:10.67.1.26  Bcast:10.67.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
              inet6 addr: fe80::21a:a0ff:fe16:658b/64 Scope:Link
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
              RX packets:295533 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:173558 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
              RX bytes:139988511 (133.5 MiB)  TX bytes:31578020 (30.1 MiB)
              Interrupt:177
    
    MAC addresses are ``unique.''

  2. Each host on a network has an IP address and a MAC address:

    \includegraphics[width=5in]{Figures/fig05_17.eps}

    Why both?

    MAC addresses are not hierarchical, beyond vendor/adapter number designation.

  3. So you want to send a datagram to IP address w.x.y.z. At the link layer, you really need the MAC address. How do we get that?

    Use ARP!!

    An ARP cache:

    bluebird:~/Class/Cs325/Lectures
    % arp
    Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask  Iface
    10.67.1.1                ether   00:13:5F:C4:B8:0A   C           eth0
    shrike.goucher.edu       ether   00:08:74:92:71:6B   C           eth0
    goldfinch.goucher.edu    ether   00:0B:DB:A7:EC:2A   C           eth0
    

    ARP protocol screen capture. (On web site.) Ping of kingfisher from bluebird. Note multiple protocols:

    1. DNS -- A record lookup.

    2. ARP -- broadcast request, single destination response.

    3. DNS -- PTR record lookup.

    4. ICMP -- echo request/reply.

  4. Trace an IP datagram from one network to the next:

    \includegraphics{Figures/fig05_19.eps}

    Example: Send an HTTP request to a server on another subnet. (Resolver target on same subnet.)

Ethernet

  1. Originally, Ethernet was a shared access medium using thinwire (10B2) or thickwire (10B5) coaxial cabling:

    \includegraphics[width=4in]{Figures/fig05_20.eps}

  2. Then, we moved on to twisted-pair and hubs in a star topology:

    \includegraphics[width=3in]{Figures/fig05_21.eps}

    Hubs are physical layer devices (re-generate and broadcast) -- still a shared medium.

  3. Ethernet frame fields:

    \includegraphics{Figures/fig05_22.eps}

    1. Preamble (8 bytes): Used to synchronize receiver clocks with send clock.

      (Ethernet is asynchronous.)

    2. Type (2 bytes): Indicates which network layer protocol is contained in the frame's payload.

    3. Data: 46 to 1,500 bytes. Short frames are padded to 46 bytes. Padded bytes passed onto network layer.

      (IP uses datagram length to ignore padding.)

    4. CRC (4 bytes): error detection.

  4. Ethernet's CSMA/CD uses exponential backoff and random choice after back-to-back collisions:
    1. After 1st collision, wait $\{0, 1\} \times 512$ bit times.

    2. After 2nd, wait $\{0, 1, 2, 3\} \times 512$ bit times.

    3. After 3rd, wait $\{0, 1, \ldots, 7\} \times 512$ bit times.

    4. $\ldots$

    5. Maximum is $\{0, 1, \ldots, 1023\} \times 512$ bit times.

  5. Ethernet standards exist at both link and physical layers:

    \includegraphics[width=5in]{Figures/fig05_25.eps}

Link Layer Switches

\includegraphics[width=5in]{Figures/fig05_29.eps}

  1. Switches are intelligent, link layer devices.

    Store & forward.

    Eliminate collisions.

    Heterogeneous link speeds.

  2. Are transparent -- hosts aren't aware they're there.

    Don't have MAC addresses.

  3. Learn about the network, to eliminate broadcasting frames meant for one host.
    1. When a host first sends a frame, switch notes the source MAC address.

    2. Switch stores (MAC address, interface, timestamp) $n$-tuples in a table.

      Essentially, a small forwarding table.

      Multiple MAC addresses may be associated with the same interface. Why?

    3. On receipt of a frame, lookup the destination MAC address in the table.
      • If found, send the frame to the indicated interface.

      • Otherwise, broadcast the frame.

    4. Timestamp used to purge stale entries.



Thomas P. Kelliher 2008-05-01
Tom Kelliher