11/17/2009

GRNE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Department of Computer Engineering

CEN 410 Computer Networks

Part 4 CRC, Ethernet Switching

Instructor: Dr. Tamer TULGAR

Part 4 Ethernet Switching

Bridges

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 addresses and do not
affect the logical or Layer 3 addresses. A bridge will divide a collision domain but has
no effect on a logical or broadcast domain. If a network does not have a device that
works with Layer 3 addresses, such as a router, the entire network will share the
same logical broadcast address space. A bridge will create more collision domains
but will not add broadcast domains.
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CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR

11/17/2009

Part 4 Ethernet Switching

Switches

A switch is essentially a fast, multi-port bridge that can contain dozens of ports.
Each port creates its own collision domain. In a network of 20 nodes, 20 collision
domains exist if each node is plugged into its own switch port. If an uplink port is
included, one switch creates 21 single-node collision domains. A switch dynamically
builds and maintains a content-addressable memory (CAM) table, which holds all of
the necessary MAC information for each port.
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CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR

Part 4 Ethernet Switching

Switch Operations
SIMPLEX
Only Transmit or receive
HALF-DUPLEX
Transmit and Receive but not at the same time
FULL DUPLEX
Transmit and Receive at the same time

CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR

11/17/2009

Part 4 Ethernet Switching

Switching Modes (Cut-Through)

DO NOT WAIT FOR THE COMPLETE FRAME
FORWARD AS SOON AS DESTINATION
ADDRESS IS RECEIVED

A switch can start to transfer the frame as soon as the destination MAC address is
received. This is called cut-through packet switching and results in the lowest
latency through the switch. However, no error checking is available.
When cut-through packet switching is used, the source and destination ports must
have the same bit rate to keep the frame intact. This is called symmetric switching. If
the bit rates are not the same, the frame must be stored at one bit rate before it is
sent out at the other bit rate. This is known as asymmetric switching.
Store-and-forward mode must be used for asymmetric switching.
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CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR

Part 4 Ethernet Switching

Switching Modes (Store and Forward)

WAIT FOR THE COMPLETE FRAME
FORWARD IT IF THE LENGTH AND FSC
ARE MATCHING

The switch can also receive the entire frame before it is sent to the destination port.
This gives the switch software an opportunity to verify the Frame Check Sequence
(FCS) If the frame is invalid
(FCS).
invalid, it is discarded at the switch
switch. Since the entire frame is
stored before it is forwarded, this is called store-and-forward packet switching.
A compromise between cut-through and store-and-forward packet switching is the
fragment-free mode. Fragment-free packet switching reads the first 64 bytes, which
includes the frame header, and starts to send out the packet before the entire data
field and checksum are read.
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CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR

11/17/2009

Part 4 Ethernet Switching

CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR

READING ASSIGNMENT
PETERSON-COMPUTER NETWORKS
FINISH ALL CHAPTER 2

COMING NEXT :
1 IP Addressing
1.IP
2.Internetworking
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CEN 410 Computer Networks Instr.:Dr. Tamer TULGAR