Ethernet Switching for netwoking systems

networking

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Module 8:
Ethernet Switching
James Chen
[email protected]

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Outline
8.1 Ethernet Switching
Layer 2 bridging
Layer 2 switching
Switch operation
Latency
Switch modes
Spanning-Tree Protocol
8.2 Collision Domains and Broadcast Domains
Shared media environments
Collision domains
Segmentation
Layer 2 broadcasts
Broadcast domains
Introduction to data flow
What is a network segment?

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8.1 Ethernet Switching

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Layer 2 bridging
Ethernet is a shared media.
Only one node can transmit data at a time.
Within Ethernet physical segment
more nodes
more contention
more retransmissions
Break the large segment into parts and
separate it into isolated collision domains.

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Layer 2 bridging (cont.)
Example :
Host A is pinging Host B.
The address of Host A is added to its
bridge table.
The address of Host B has not been
recorded yet as only the source
address of a frame is recorded.
Host B processes the ping request and
transmits a ping reply back to Host A.
The address of Host B is added to its
bridge table.
Host A is now going to ping Host C.
The address of Host C has not been recorded yet as only
the source address of a frame is recorded.
Host C processes the ping request and transmits a ping
reply back to Host A.
The address of Host C is added to its bridge table.
When Host D transmits data, its MAC address will also be
recorded in the bridge table.

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Layer 2 bridging (cont.)

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Layer 2 switching
Generally, a bridge has only two
ports and divides a collision
domain into two parts.
All decisions made by a bridge
are based on MAC or Layer 2
addressing and do not affect the
logical or Layer 3 addressing.
A switch dynamically builds and
maintains a Content-Addressable
Memory (CAM) table, holding all
of the necessary MAC
information for each port.
A bridge will divide a collision
domain but has no effect on a
logical or broadcast domain.

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Switch operation
A switch is essentially a multi-port bridge.
When only one host is connected to a switch port, the two nodes
(the switch port & host) share this small segment, or collision
domain. The small physical segment is called microsegment.
Most switches are capable of supporting full duplex.
No contention for the full duplex media.
The bandwidth is doubled when using full duplex.
Content-addressable memory (CAM) is memory that essentially
works backwards compared to conventional memory.
Entering data into the memory will return the associated address.
Using CAM allows a switch to directly find the port that is
associated with a MAC address without using search algorithms.
Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) -> speed up

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Latency
Latency is the delay between the time a frame first starts to
leave the source device and the time the first part of the frame
reaches its destination.
A wide variety of conditions can cause delays as a frame travels
from source to destination:
Media delays caused by the finite speed (10/100/1000Mbps)
that signals can travel through the physical media.
Circuit delays caused by the electronics that process the
signal along the path.
Software delays caused by the decisions that software must
make to implement switching and protocols.

Delays caused by the content of the frame.

For example, a device cannot route a frame to a destination
until the destination MAC address has been read. (RARP in
routers)

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Switch modes
How a frame is switched to the destination port is a trade off between latency and
reliability.
Cut-through
A switch can start to transfer the frame as soon as the destination MAC address is
received.
Store-and-forward
The switch receives the entire frame before sending it out the destination port.
To verify the Frame Check Sum (FCS).
Fail > it is discarded.
Fragment-free
The switch reads the first 64 bytes (frame header).
This mode verifies the reliability of the addressing and Logical Link Control (LLC)
protocol information to ensure the destination and handling of the data will be
correct.

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Switch modes (cont.)
Synchronous switching
Both the source port and destination port must be operating
at the same bit rate.
cut-through
Asynchronous switching
The bit rates of both sides are not the same, the frame must
be stored at one bit rate before it is sent out at the other bit
rate.
store-and-forward
Asymmetric switching
It provides switched connections between ports of unlike
bandwidths.
It is optimized for client/server traffic flows in which multiple
clients simultaneously communicate with a server, requiring
more bandwidth dedicated to the server port to prevent a
bottleneck at that port.

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Spanning-Tree Protocol
To prevent switch loops and broadcast storms.
Usually caused by design errors or accident.
redundant paths ： to provide for reliability and fault tolerance
Each switch in a LAN using STP sends special messages called Bridge
Protocol Data Units (BPDUs) out all its ports to let other switches know
of its existence and to elect a root bridge for the network.
The switches then use the Spanning-Tree Algorithm (STA) to resolve
and shut down the redundant paths.
Each port on a switch using Spanning-Tree Protocol exists in one of the
following five states:

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Spanning-Tree Protocol(cont.)

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8.2 Collision Domains and Broadcast Domains

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Shared media environments
Layer 1 media and topologies :
Shared media environment
Extended shared media environment

Accommodate for multiple access or longer cable distances.
Point-to-point network environment

dialup network connections.
Collisions only occur in a shared environment.

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Collision domains
Collisions cause the network to be inefficient.
All transmission stops for a period of time.
The length of this period of time without transmissions
varies and is determined by a backoff algorithm for
each network device.
 

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Collision domains (cont.)
Layer 1 devices do not break up collision domains,
Layer 2 and Layer 3 devices do break up collision domains.
Breaking up, or increasing the number of collision domains with
Layer 2 and 3 devices is also known as segmentation.
 

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Collision domains (cont.)
In a small network a single collosion domain can work just fine
as there is little contention for the network media. This type of
network is fine for an isolated network that does not require
much data transmission.
But as the network starts to grow, the contention for the line
becomes greater and a larger number of collisions start to
occur.
As the network continues to grow, the contention for the line
becomes greater and even starts to effect the performance of
the computers on the network.
Finally when the collision domain becomes too big and network
transmission demands become too great. The number of
collisions practically shuts the network down.

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Collision domains (cont.)
The round-trip delay calculation
must be within certain limits
otherwise all the workstations will
not be able to hear all the collisions
on the network.
Repeater latency, propagation
delay, and NIC latency all contribute
to the four repeater rule.
A late collision is when a collision
happens after the first 64 bytes (512
bits) of the frame are transmitted.
The chipsets in NICs are not
required to retransmit automatically
when a late collision occurs.
The 5-4-3-2-1 rule :
5 segments of network media
4 repeaters or hubs
3 host segments of the network
2 link sections (no hosts)
1 large collision domain

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Round_Trip Delay

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Segmentation
Layer 2 devices segment or divide collision domains.
Keep tracking of the MAC addresses and which segment they
are on.
Layer 3 devices, like Layer 2 devices, do not forward collisions.
Layer 3 devices and their functions will be covered in more depth
in the section on broadcast domains.
 

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Layer 2 broadcasts
Destination MAC address 0xFFFFFFFFFFFF
Layer 2 devices must flood all broadcast and multicast traffic.

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Layer 2 broadcasts (cont.)
Because the NIC must interrupt the CPU to process each broadcast
or multicast group it belongs to (no discard), broadcast radiation
affects the performance of hosts in the network.
Workstations broadcast an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
request every time they need to locate a MAC address that is not in
the ARP table.

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Broadcast domains
Broadcasts are forwarded by Layer 2 devices.
Broadcast domains are controlled at Layer 3 because routers do not forward broadcasts.
Layer 3 forwarding is based on the destination IP address and not the MAC address.
Use router to segment broadcast domains.

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Introduction to data flow
Layer 1 devices do no filtering, so everything that is received is passed on
to the next segment.
Layer 2 devices filter data frames based on the destination MAC address.
Layer 3 devices filter data packets based on IP destination address.
Data flow through a routed IP based network.

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What is a network segment?

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END