Autonegotiation

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Autonegotiation is an Ethernet procedure by which two connected devices choose
common transmission parameters, such as speed, duplex mode, and flow control. In this
process, the connected devices first share their capabilities as for these parameters and then
choose the highest performance transmission mode they both support. In the OSI model,
autonegotiation resides in the physical layer.
Autonegotiation was originally defined as an optional component in the fast Ethernet
standard. It is backwards compatible with 10BASE-T. The protocol was significantly
extended in the gigabit Ethernet standard, and is mandatory for 1000BASE-T gigabit
Ethernet over copper.[1]

Contents
[hide]

1 Overview
2 Electrical signals

3 The base link code word

4 Message and unformatted next page

5 Priority

6 Interoperability problems

7 Duplex mismatch

8 History

9 Patents

10 See also

11 References

12 External links

[edit] Overview
In 1995, a standard was released to allow connected network adapters to negotiate the best
possible shared mode of operation. The initial autonegotiation standard contained a

mechanism for detecting the speed but not the duplex setting of Ethernet peers that did not
use autonegotiation.[citation needed]
Autonegotiation can be used by devices that are capable of different transmission rates
(such as 10 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s), different duplex modes (half duplex and full duplex),
and/or different standards at the same speed (though in practice only one standard at each
speed is widely supported). Every device declares its technology abilities, that is, its
possible modes of operation. The two devices then choose the best possible mode of
operation that are shared by the two devices, where higher speed (100 Mbit/s) is preferred
over lower speed (10 Mbit/s), and full duplex is preferred over half duplex at the same
speed.
Parallel detection is used when a device that is capable of autonegotiation is connected to
one that is not. This happens if the other device does not support autonegotiation or
autonegotiation is administratively disabled. In this condition, the device that is capable of
autonegotiation can determine and match speed with the other device. This procedure
cannot determine the presence of full duplex, so half duplex is always assumed.
The standards for 1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-TX require autonegotiation to be always
present and enabled. Other than speed and duplex mode, autonegotiation is used to
communicate the port type (single port or multiport) and the master-slave parameters
(whether it is manually configured or not, whether the device is master or slave if this is the
case, and the master-slave seed bit otherwise).

[edit] Electrical signals

A sequence of normal link pulses, used by 10BASE-T devices to establish link integrity.
Autonegotiation is based on pulses similar to those used by 10BASE-T devices to detect the
presence of a connection to another device. These pulses are sent by a device when it is not
sending or receiving any data. They are unipolar positive-only electrical pulses of a
duration of 100 ns nominally with a maximum pulse width of 200 ns[2], generated at
intervals of 16 ms (with a tolerance of 8 ms). These pulses were called link integrity test
(LIT) pulses in the 10BASE-T terminology, and are referred to as normal link pulses
(NLP) in the autonegotiation specification.
A device detects the failure of the link (which can be due either to a failure of the
transmission medium or of the other device) if neither a packet nor one of the pulses are
received for 50-150 ms. The presence of a valid link is signaled by the receipt of a valid

frame or two consecutive link integrity test pulses. For this to work, devices send link
integrity test pulses even when not receiving any.

Three trains of fast link pulses, used by autonegotiating devices to declare their capabilities.
Autonegotiation uses similar pulses. These are still unipolar, positive-only, and of the
duration of 100 ns, but each one is replaced by a train of at most 33 pulses. Each such train
is called a fast link pulse (FLP) burst. The time interval between the start of each burst is
the same as the distance between normal link pulses, that is, 16 ms with a tolerance of 8 ms.
The fast link pulse burst is made as follows: there are 17 pulses at distance 125 s (with
tolerance of 14 s). In the middle between each set of two consecutive pulses, another pulse
may or may not be present. The presence of a pulse represents a logical 1, the absence a
logical 0. As a result, every burst represents a logical word of 16 bits. This word is called a
link code word (LCW). The 17th pulse of the LCW is always present and is used as a
clock, while the previous 16 pulses of each LCW may or may not be present and represent
the actual information that is transmitted. The bits of the link code word are numbered from
0 to 15, where bit 0 corresponds to the first possible pulse in time and bit 15 to the last.

How a link code word (a 16 bit word) is encoded in a fast link pulse burst
A fast link pulse burst is not recognized as a valid normal link pulse. Therefore, a 10BASET device receiving it from an autonegotiation device will detect a failure of the link. A link
with an autonegotiating device can however still be established via the parallel device
function: the 10BASE-T device keeps sending normal link pulses or transmitting packets.
The autonegotiation device, upon receiving them, switches to 10BASE-T half-duplex
mode. A duplex mismatch results if the 10BASE-T device is operating in full-duplex mode.

[edit] The base link code word

Every fast link pulse burst transmits a word of 16 bits known as a link code word. The first
such word is known as a base link code word, and its bits are used as follows:

04: selector field: it indicates which standard is used between IEEE 802.3 and
IEEE 802.9;
512: technology ability field: this is a sequence of bits that encode the possible
modes of operations among the 100BASE-T and 10BASE-T modes;

13: remote fault: this is set to one when the device is detecting a link failure;

14: acknowledgement: the device sets this to one to indicate the correct reception of
the base link code word from the other party; this is detected by the reception of at
least three identical base code words;

15: next page: this bit is used to indicate the intention of sending other link code
words after the base link code word;

The technology ability field is composed of eight bits. For IEEE 802.3, these are as follows:

bit 0: device supports 10BASE-T

bit 1: device supports 10BASE-T in full duplex

bit 2: device supports 100BASE-TX

bit 3: device supports 100BASE-TX in full duplex

bit 4: device supports 100BASE-T4

bit 5: pause

bit 6: asymmetric pause for full duplex

bit 7: reserved

The acknowledgement bit is used to signal the correct reception of the base code word. This
corresponds to having received three identical copies of the base code word. Upon
receiving these three identical copies, the device sends a link code word with the
acknowledge bit set to one from six times to eight times.
The link code words are also called pages. The base link code word is therefore called a
base page. The next page bit of the base page is 1 when the device intends to send other
pages, which can be used to communicate other abilities. These additional pages are sent
only if both devices have sent base pages with a next page bit set to 1. The additional pages
are still encoded as link code words (using 17 clock pulses and up to 16 bit pulses).

[edit] Message and unformatted next page

The base page (the base link code word) is sufficient for devices to advertise which ones
among the 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX and 100BASE-T4 modes they support. For gigabit
Ethernet, two other pages are required. These pages are sent if both devices have sent base
pages with a next page bit set to one.

The additional pages are of two kinds: message pages and unformatted pages. These pages
are still 16-bit words encoded as pulses in the same way as the base page. Their first eleven
bits are data, while their second-to-last bit indicates whether the page is a message page or
an unformatted page. The last bit of each page indicates the presence of an additional page.
The 1000BASE-T supported modes and master-slave data (which is used to decide which
of the two devices acts as the master, and which one acts as the slave) are sent using a
single message page, followed by a single unformatted page. The message page contains:

half duplex capability

whether the device is single port or multiport

whether master/slave is manually configured or not

whether the device is manually configured as master or slave

The unformatted page contains a 10-bit word, called a master-slave seed value.

[edit] Priority
Upon receipt of the technology abilities of the other device, both devices decide the best
possible mode of operation supported by both devices. The priority among modes specified
in the 2002 edition of 802.3 is as follows:

1000BASE-T full duplex

1000BASE-T half duplex

100BASE-T2 full duplex

100BASE-TX full duplex

100BASE-T2 half duplex

100BASE-T4

100BASE-TX half duplex

10BASE-T full duplex

10BASE-T half duplex

In other words, among the modes that are supported by both devices, each device chooses
the one that is the topmost in this list.

[edit] Interoperability problems

The first version of the autonegotiation specification, IEEE 802.3u, was open to different
interpretations. Although most manufacturers implemented this standard in one way, some

others, including network giant Cisco, implemented it in a different way. Autonegotiation

between devices that implemented it differently failed. This led many network
administrators to not depend on autonegotiation and instead manually set the speed and
duplex mode of each network interface card. Even Cisco recommended its customers not to
use autonegotiation. However, the use of manually set configuration often led to duplex
mismatches, in particular when two connected devices are:

One manually set to half duplex and one manually set to full duplex
One set to autonegotiation and one manually set to full duplex

Both sides manually set to full duplex where one side still expects an
autonegotiating link partner and the other side has autonegotiation completely
disabled (the side that expects an autonegotiating link partner will fall back to half
duplex because it does not detect a partner capable of full duplex)[citation needed]

Duplex mismatch problems are difficult to diagnose because the network is apparently
working, and simple programs used for network tests such as ping report a valid
connection; however, the network is much slower than expected.
The debatable portions of the autonegotiation specifications were eliminated by the 1998
release of 802.3. This was later followed by the release of IEEE 802.3ab in 1999. The new
standard specified that gigabit Ethernet over copper wiring requires autonegotiation.
Currently, all network equipment manufacturersincluding Cisco[3]recommend to use
autonegotiation on all access ports.
In some large installations that have had to deal with negotiation issues, network staff may
believe that "autonegotiation doesn't work", and consider turning it off a best-practice. This
should be avoided - once autonegotiation is turned off, it will not work by definition,
creating a self-enforcing problem.

[edit] Duplex mismatch

Main article: Duplex mismatch
A duplex mismatch occurs when two connected devices are configured in different duplex
modes. This may happen for example if one is configured for autonegotiation while the
other one has a fixed mode of operation that is full duplex (no autonegotiation). In such
conditions, the autonegotiation device correctly detects the speed of operation, but is unable
to correctly detect the duplex mode. As a result, it sets the correct speed but starts using the
half duplex mode.
When a device is operating in full duplex while the other one operates in half duplex, the
connection works at a very low speed if both devices attempt to send frames at the same
time. This is because data can be sent in both directions at the same time in full duplex
mode, but only in one direction at a time in half duplex mode. As a result, a full duplex
device may transmit data while it is receiving. However, if the other device is working in

half duplex, it does not expect to receive data (because it is currently sending); therefore, it
senses a collision and attempts to resend the frame it was sending. Depending on timing the
half duplex device may sense a late collision, which it will interpret as a hard error rather
than a normal consequence of CSMA/CD and will not attempt to resend the frame. On the
other hand, the full duplex device does not detect any collision and does not resend the
frame, even if the other device has discarded it as corrupted by collision. Still, the full
duplex device, not expecting incoming frames to be truncated by collision detection, will
report frame check sequence errors. This combination of late collisions reported at the halfduplex end and FCS errors reported by the full duplex end can be used as an indication that
a duplex mismatch is present.
This packet loss happens when both devices are transmitting at the same time. This may
happen even when the link is used, from the user's perspective, in one direction only. A
TCP stream requires all packets sent to be acknowledged by the receiving device. As a
result, even if actual data is sent in one direction only, collision may be generated with
acknowledgement packets traveling in the other direction.

[edit] History
The protocol that became IEEE 802.3 clause 28 was developed from a patented technology
by National Semiconductor known as NWay. The company gave a letter of assurance for
anyone to use their system for a one time license fee.[4] Another company has since bought
the rights to that patent.[5]