CHAPTER 13 - Local Area Networks: Ethernet
Review Questions
1. How is the preamble field different from the SFD field?
The preamble is a 56-bit field that provides an alert and
timing pulse. It is added to the frame at the physical
2. What is the purpose of an NIC?
An NIC provides an Ethernet station with a 6-byte physical
address. Most of the physical and data-link layer duties are
done by the NIC.
3. What is the difference between a unicast, multicast, and
broadcast address?
A multicast address identifies a group of stations; a
broadcast address identifies all stations on the network. A
unicast address identifies one of the addresses in a group.
4. What are the advantages of dividing an Ethernet LAN with a
bridge?
A bridge can raise the bandwidth and separate collision
domains.
5. What is the relationship between a switch and a bridge?
A layer-2 switch is an N-port bridge with additional
sophistication that allows faster handling of packets.
6. Why is there no need for CSMA/CD on a full duplex Ethernet
LAN?
In a full-duplex Ethernet, each station can send data
without the need to sense the line.
7. Compare the data rates for Standard Ethernet, Fast Ethernet,
Gigabit Ethernet, and Ten Gigabit Ethernet
Standard Ethernet: 10 Mbps
Fast Ethernet: 100 Mbps
Gigabit Ethernet: 1 Gbps
Ten-Gigabit Ethernet:10 Gbps
8. What are the common Standard Ethernet implementations?
The common traditional Ethernet implementations are
10Base5, 10Base2, 10-Base-T, and 10Base-F.
9. What are the common Fast Ethernet implementations?
The common Fast Ethernet implementations are 100Base-
TX, 100Base-FX, and 100Base-T4.
10. What are the common Gigabit Ethernet implementations?
The common Gigabit Ethernet implementations are
1000Base-SX, 1000Base-LX, 1000Base-CX, and 1000Base-T.
11. What are the common Ten Gigabit Ethernet
implementations?
The common Ten-Gigabit Ethernet implementations are 10GBase-S,
10GBase-L,and 10GBase-E.
Exercises
12. What is the hexadecimal equivalent of the following
Ethernet address?
01011010 – 00010001- 01010101- 00011000 -10101010 – 00001111
We interpret each four-bit pattern as a hexadecimal digit. We
then group the hexadecimal digits with a colon between the pairs:
5A:11:55:18:AA:0F
13. How does the Ethernet address lA : 2B : 3C : AD : 5E : 6F
appear on the line in binary?
The bytes are sent from left to right. However, the bits in
each byte are sent from the least significant (rightmost) to the
most significant (leftmost). We have shown the bits with spaces
between bytes for readability, but we should remember that
that bits are sent without gaps. The arrow shows the direction of
movement.
01011000 -11010100 - 00111100 - 11010010 - 01111010 – 11110110
14. If an Ethernet destination address is 07 01 02 03 04 05 what
is the type of the address ( multicast, or broadcast)?
The first byte in binary is 00000111. The least significant bit is 1.
This means that the pattern defines a multicast address
15. The address 43 : 7B : 6C : DE : 10 : 00 has been shown as
the source address in an Ethernet frame The receiver has
discarded the frame Why?
first byte in binary is 01000011. The least significant bit is 1. This
means that the pattern defines a multicast address. A multicast
address can be a destination address, but not a source address.
Therefore, the receiver knows that there is an error, and discards
the packet.
16. An Ethernet MAC sublayer receives 42 bytes of data from
the upper layer How many bytes of padding must be added to
the data?
The minimum data size in the Standard Ethernet is 46
bytes. Therefore, we need to add 4 bytes of padding to the
data (46 - 42 = 4)
17. An Ethernet MAC sublayer receives 1510 bytes of data
from the upper layer Can The data be encapsulated in one
frame? If not, how many frames need to be sent? What is the
size of the data in each frame?
The maximum data size in the Standard Ethernet is 1500
bytes. The data of 1510 bytes, therefore, must be split between
two frames. The standard dictates that
the first frame must carry the maximum possible number of bytes
(1500);
the second frame then needs to carry only 10 bytes of data (it
requires padding).
The following shows the breakdown:
Data size for the first frame: 1500 bytes
Data size for the second frame: 46 bytes (with padding)
18. What is the ratio of useful data to the entire packet for the
smallest Ethernet frame ? What is the ratio for the largest frame?
The smallest Ethernet frame is 64 bytes and carries 46 bytes of
data (and possible padding). The largest Ethernet frame is 1518
bytes and carries 1500 bytes of data. .
The ratio is (data size) / (frame size) in percent. We can then answer
the question as follows:
Smallest Frame Frame size = 64 Data size ≤ 46 Ratio ≤ 71.9%
Largest Frame Frame size =1518 Data size = 1500 Ratio = 98.8%
19. Suppose the length of a 10-Base5 cable is 2500 m If the
speed of propagation in a thick coaxial cable is 200 000 000
m/s, how long does it take for a bit to travel from the beginning
to the end of the network? Assume there are 10 /ls delay in the
equipment
We can calculate the propagation time as
t = (2500 m) / (200,000.000) = 12.5 μs.
To get the total delay, we need to add propagation delay in the
equipment (10 μs). This results in T = 22.5 μs.
20. What is the maximum packet rate which can be handled
by a 16 port 10-Gigabit Ethernet Switch?
The smallest frame is 64 bytes or 512 bits. With a data rate of
10 Mbps, we have Tfr = (512 bits) / (10 Mbps) = 51.2 μs
This means that the time required to send the smallest frame is the
same at the maximum time required to detect the collision.
