Module 4

Switching Concepts

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Summary
LAN congestion and its effect on network performance Advantages of LAN segmentation in a network Advantages and disadvantages of using bridges, switches, and routers for LAN segmentation Effects of switching, bridging, and routing on network throughput Fast Ethernet technology and its benefits
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CSMA/CD prevents multiple devices from transmitting at the same time.

The Ethernet/802.3 Interface

Ethernet is known as a sharedmedium technology all the devices are connected to the same delivery media. Ethernet media uses a data frame broadcast method of transmitting and receiving data to all nodes on the shared media.
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 Standard Ethernet using Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) and a shared medium can support data transmission rates of up to 10 megabits per second (Mbps). Goal of Standard Ethernet is to provide a best effort delivery service and allow all devices on the shared medium to transmit on an equal basis.
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Performance of a shared media Ethernet/802.3 LAN can be negatively effected by several factors.
y The data frame broadcast delivery nature of Ethernet/802.3 LANs y CSMA/CD access methods allow only one station to transmit at a time. y Network congestion due to increased bandwidth demands from multimedia applications such as video and the Internet. y Normal latency (propagation delay) of frames as they travel across the LAN layer 1 media and pass through layer 1, 2 and 3 networking devices.
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y Extending the distances of the Ethernet/802.3 LANs using Layer 1 repeaters.

Half-Duplex Design
Transmit

Tx
Ethernet Controller
Collision Detection Loopback

Tx
Loopback Collision Detection

Ethernet Controller

Rx

Receive

Rx

Ethernet NIC

Ethernet NIC

Ethernet physical connector provides several circuits Most important are receive (RX), transmit (TX), and collision detection

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Half-Duplex Ethernet Design (Standard Ethernet)

The most important of these circuits are the receive (RX), transmit (TX) and collision detection. The transmit (TX) circuit is active at the transmitting station. The receive (RX) circuit is active at the receiving station.
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 To the network this appears as a single one way bridge. Both devices are contending for the right to use the single shared medium. The collision detection circuit on each node contends for the use of the network when the two nodes attempt to transmit at the same time. When a collision occurs, a host will first listen to see if the network is in use before trying to retransmit. It will resume transmitting based on the backoff algorithm.
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Congestion and Bandwidth

To relieve network congestion more bandwidth is needed or the available bandwidth must be used more efficiently. Throwing bandwidth at the problem. Attacking the symptom and not always the problem (illness), i.e. Could be broadcasts, chatty protocols, applications traffic, etc.
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Propagation Delay
Latency is also known as propagation delay. Propagation delay is the time a frame or packet of data takes to travel from the source station or node to its final destination on the network. The greater the number of devices the greater the latency or propagation delay adding hosts simply increases collisions, increases jam signals, and throughput will decrease
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Ethernet Transmission Times

Each Ethernet bit has a 100ns window for transmission. A byte is equal to eight bits. Therefore, one byte takes a minimum of 800ns to transmit (8 bits at 100ns per equals 800ns).

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 A 64 byte frame takes 51,200ns or 51.2 microseconds to transmit (64 bytes at 800ns equals 51,200ns, 51,200ns/1000 equals 51.2 microseconds).

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Extending Shared Media LANs using Repeaters

Signal attenuation the signal weakens as it travels through the network from the resistance found in the medium. An Ethernet repeater to extend the distance of a LAN is that a single network can cover a greater distance and more users can share that same network. (Coverage Area)
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Improving LAN Performance

The performance of a network can be improved in a shared media LAN such as Ethernet by using one or more of the following solutions:
y Segmenting the network using Bridges, Routers, or LAN Switches y Move to full duplex transmitting y Upgrade to the Fast Ethernet Standard
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Why Segment LANs?

A Cisco Segment A network can be divided in smaller units called segments. Each segment uses the (CSMA/CD) protocol and maintains traffic between users on the segment. By using segments in a network less users/devices are sharing the same 10Mbps when communicating to one another within the segment. Each segment is considered its own collision domain.
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Why Segment LANs?

In a segmented Ethernet LAN data passed between segments is transmitted on the backbone of the network using a bridge, switch, or router. The backbone network is its own collision domain and uses CSMA/CD to provide a best effort delivery service between segments.
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Segmentation with Bridges

Bridges are different than routers because they are Layer 2 devices, independent of Layer 3 protocols they pass on data frames regardless of which Layer 3 protocol is being used and are transparent to the other devices on the network. Bridges increase the latency (delay)in a network by 10-30%. Why?
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 A bridge is considered a store and forward device because it must examine the destination address (MAC) field in the frame and determine which interface to forward the frame. If there is no match in the table, the frame is flooded out all other interfaces Bridges "learn a networks" segmentation by building address tables that contain the (MAC) address of each network device and which segment to use to reach that device. Smaller collision domains are created, not broadcast domains.

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Segmentation with Routers

Routers operate at the network layer and base all of their forwarding decisions between segments on the Layer 3 protocol address. Because routers perform more functions than bridges they operate with a higher rate of latency. (Higher than other internetworking devices.)
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Routers:
Segment broadcast domains Forward packets based on destination network layer addresses Segment collision domains

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More collision domains, but more bandwidth for each user

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Segmentation with LAN Switches

A switch segments a LAN into microsegments creating collision free domains from one larger collision domain, not broadcast domains. With switched ethernet implementation the available bandwidth can reach closer to 100%.
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LAN Switch Latency

Each switch used on an Ethernet LAN adds latency to the network. However, the type of switching used can help overcome the built in latency of some switches.

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Full-Duplex Ethernet Overview

Full duplex Ethernet allows the transmission of a packet and the reception of a different packet at the same time. Requires two pairs of conductors and a switched connection between each node
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 Simultaneous transmission and reception of frames is called bidirectional traffic (both directions) and yields 20Mbps of throughput. The network interface cards (NICs) on both ends need to have full duplex capabilities.

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Full-Duplex Ethernet Design

TX
Tx
Full Duplex Ethernet Controller
Collision Detection Loopback

Tx
Loopback Collision Detection

RX

Rx

Rx

Full Duplex Ethernet Controller

Transmit circuit connects directly to receive circuit No collisions Significant performance improvement Eliminates contention on Ethernet point-to-point link Uses a single port for each full-duplex connection
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Using Full Duplex

Half Duplex Full Duplex

HUB

Node must
Be directly attached to a dedicated switched port Have installed network interface card that supports full duplex
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 Standard Ethernet normally can only use 50-60% of the 10Mbps available bandwidth. This is due to collisions and latency. Full duplex Ethernet offers 100% of the bandwidth in both directions. This produces a potential 20Mbps throughput 10Mbps TX and 10Mbps RX.
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Full-Duplex Ethernet Design

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 This virtual network circuit exists only when two nodes need to communicate. This is why it is called a virtual circuit it exists only when needed and is established within the switch. Allows multiple users to communicate in parallel via these virtual circuits.

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Source MAC address is used to build this table

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How a LAN Switch Learns Addresses

This means that as new addresses are read they are learned and stored in Content Address Memory (CAM). Each time an address is stored it is time stamped. This allows addresses to be stored for a set period of time.
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But more domains

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Benefits of Switching
A LAN switch allows many users to communicate in parallel through the use of virtual circuits and dedicated network segments in a collision free environment. Cost effective.

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Symmetric Switching
A symmetric switch is optimized through even distribution of network traffic across the entire network .

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before forwarding

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Asymmetric Switching
Asymmetric switching is optimized for client-server network traffic flows where multiple clients are simultaneously communicating with a server, requiring more bandwidth dedicated to the switch port that the server is connected to in order to prevent a bottleneck at that port.
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Memory Buffering
The area of memory where the switch stores the destination and transmission data is called the memory buffer. This memory buffer can make use of two methods for forwarding packets port based memory buffering or shared memory buffering.
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 Port based memory buffering packets are stored in queues that are linked to specific incoming ports.
Problem: One port may fill while another is empty.

Shared memory buffering deposits all packets into a common memory buffer that is shared by all the ports on the switch. (Better!)

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3 frame transmission modes in a switch (+ 1 variation)

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Three Switching Methods

Store and Forward - the entire frame is received before any forwarding takes place. Latency occurs while the frame is being received; the latency is greater with larger frames because the entire frame takes longer to read. Error detection is high because of the time available to the switch to check for errors while waiting for the entire frame to be received. CCNA version 3

 Cut-through the switch reads the destination address before receiving the entire frame. The frame is then forwarded before the entire frame arrives. This mode decreases the latency of the transmission and has poor error detection.

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Fragment-Free Switching
Switch reads the 1st 64 bytes of the incoming frame before forwarding it to the destination port

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Means the switch is in cut through mode

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Adaptive Cut Through

Combines cut through and store and forward The switch uses cut-through until there are a given number of errors Then the switch will change to store and forward method

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Emerging Trends: The Network Evolution

Shared to Switched
HUB The Old Wiring Closet The New Wiring Closet

HUB

VLAN System
HUB

HUB LAN Campus Switch The New Backbone

HUB

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Benefits of Switching

Number of collisions reduced Simultaneous, multiple communications High-speed uplinks Improved network response Increased user productivity
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Switching? Routing? Whats the difference?

In a switching network, you'll find the intermediate devices keeping track of - or remembering - qualities of the connection. In a pure routing network, the intermediate devices will be indifferent to anything but handing off packets to the next device, and they will not be distracted by any other information, upstream or downstream.
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Module 4
Switching Concepts

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