!!!Chapter 4 The Medium Access Control Sublayer

Network links can be divided into two categories:

• Point-to-point connections
• Broadcast channels (It's also known as)
  
  • multiaccess channels
  • random access channels

MAC: Medium Access Control

• determine who goes next on a multiaccess channel
• a sublayer of the data link layer

4.3 Ethernet (IEEE 802.3)

4.3.1 Classic Ethernet

Each version of Ethernet has a maximum cable length per segment over which the signal will propagate. To allow larger networks, multiple cables can be connected byrepeaters.A repeater is a physical layer device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits signals in both directions.

Classic Ethernet MAC Sublayer Protocol (P 300)

Station source addresses are globally unique, assigned centrally by IEEE to ensure that no two stations anywhere in the world have the same address. To do this, the first 3 bytes of the address field are used for anOU1(Organizationally Unique Identifier).Value for this field are assigned by IEEE and indicate a manufacturer.

4.3.4 Switched Ethernet

The classic Ethernet use a single long cable, which is hard to find the break or loose connection.

A better solution is hub(集线器). A hub simply connects all the attached wires electrically.

The heart of switched Ethernet is switch(交换机). A switch containing a high-speed backplane that connects all of the ports.

4.4 Wireless LANs

802.11 Architectures

• AP(Access Point)
• ad hoc network

802.11协议栈

• MAC 子层决定信道的分配
• LLC 子层负责为网络层隐蔽802系列各个协议的不同之处

IEEE 802 protocol: wiki

4.8 Data Link Layer Switching

We could join the LANs together to make a larger LAN through bridge(网桥).

• 网桥：工作在数据链路层，用于连接不同类型的LANs。
• 工作原理：连接k个不同的LAN的网桥有k个相应的不同的MAC子层和物理层 工作在链路层，知道MAC帧结构。根据MAC帧的目的地址对收到的帧进行转发。当一个单播帧到达时，网桥并不是向所有的端口转发此帧，而是先检查其目的MAC地址，然后再确定将该帧转发到哪一个端口。当一个广播帧帧到达时，网桥向所有的端口转发此帧。网桥只适合于用户数不太多(不超过几百个)和通信量不太大的局域网，否则有时还会产生较大的广播风暴。路由器可以阻断广播风暴。
  站表（转发表）与路由表不同，其目的地址是MAC地址，后者的目的地址是IP地址。