this sublayer.
Logical Link Control (LLC) Responsible for identifying Network layer protocols and then encapsulating them. An LLC header tells the Data Link layer what to do with a packet once a frame is received. It works like this: a host receives a frame and looks in the LLC header to find out where the packet is destined – for instance, the IP protocol at the Network layer. The LLC can also provide flow control and sequencing of control bits.
The switches and bridges I talked about near the beginning of the chapter both work at the Data Link layer and filter the network using hardware (MAC) addresses. I’ll talk about these next.
Switches and Bridges at the Data Link Layer
Layer 2 switching is considered hardware-based bridging because it uses specialized hardware called an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). ASICs can run up to high gigabit speeds with very low latency rates.
Bridges and switches read each frame as it passes through the network. The layer 2 device then puts the source hardware address in a filter table and keeps track of which port the frame was received on. This information (logged in the bridge’s or switch’s filter table) is what helps the machine determine the location of the specific sending device. Figure 1.17 shows a switch in an internetwork and how John is sending packets to the Internet and Sally doesn’t hear his frames because she is in a different collision domain. The destination frame goes directly to the default gateway router, and Sally doesn’t see John’s traffic, much to her relief.
FIGURE 1.17 A switch in an internetwork
The real estate business is all about location, location, location, and it’s the same way for both layer 2 and layer 3 devices. Though both need to be able to negotiate the network, it’s crucial to remember that they’re concerned with very different parts of it. Primarily, layer 3 machines (such as routers) need to locate specific networks, whereas layer 2 machines (switches and bridges) need to eventually locate specific devices. So, networks are to routers as individual devices are to switches and bridges. And routing tables that “map” the internetwork are for routers as filter tables that “map” individual devices are for switches and bridges.
After a filter table is built on the layer 2 device, it will forward frames only to the segment where the destination hardware address is located. If the destination device is on the same segment as the frame, the layer 2 device will block the frame from going to any other segments. If the destination is on a different segment, the frame can be transmitted only to that segment. This is called transparent bridging.
When a switch interface receives a frame with a destination hardware address that isn’t found in the device’s filter table, it will forward the frame to all connected segments. If the unknown device that was sent the “mystery frame” replies to this forwarding action, the switch updates its filter table regarding that device’s location. But in the event the destination address of the transmitting frame is a broadcast address, the switch will forward all broadcasts to every connected segment by default.
All devices that the broadcast is forwarded to are considered to be in the same broadcast domain. This can be a problem because layer 2 devices propagate layer 2 broadcast storms that can seriously choke performance, and the only way to stop a broadcast storm from propagating through an internetwork is with a layer 3 device – a router!
The biggest benefit of using switches instead of hubs in your internetwork is that each switch port is actually its own collision domain. Remember that a hub creates one large collision domain, which is not a good thing! But even armed with a switch, you still don’t get to just break up broadcast domains by default because neither switches nor bridges will do that. They’ll simply forward all broadcasts instead.
Another benefit of LAN switching over hub-centered implementations is that each device on every segment plugged into a switch can transmit simultaneously. Well, at least they can as long as there’s only one host on each port and there isn’t a hub plugged into a switch port! As you might have guessed, this is because hubs allow only one device per network segment to communicate at a time.
The Physical Layer
Finally arriving at the bottom, we find that the Physical layer does two things: it sends bits and receives bits. Bits come only in values of 1 or 0 – a Morse code with numerical values. The Physical layer communicates directly with the various types of actual communication media. Different kinds of media represent these bit values in different ways. Some use audio tones, while others employ state transitions– changes in voltage from high to low and low to high. Specific protocols are needed for each type of media to describe the proper bit patterns to be used, how data is encoded into media signals, and the various qualities of the physical media’s attachment interface.
The Physical layer specifies the electrical, mechanical, procedural, and functional requirements for activating, maintaining, and deactivating a physical link between end systems. This layer is also where you identify the interface between the data terminal equipment (DTE) and the data communication equipment (DCE). (Some old phone-company employees still call DCE “data circuit-terminating equipment.”) The DCE is usually located at the service provider, while the DTE is the attached device. The services available to the DTE are most often accessed via a modem or channel service unit/data service unit (CSU/DSU).
The Physical layer’s connectors and different physical topologies are defined by the OSI as standards, allowing disparate systems to communicate. The Cisco exam objectives are interested only in the IEEE Ethernet standards.
Hubs at the Physical Layer
A hub is really a multiple-port repeater. A repeater receives a digital signal, reamplifies or regenerates that signal, then forwards the signal out the other port without looking at any data. A hub does the same thing across all active ports: any digital signal received from a segment on a hub port is regenerated or reamplified and transmitted out all other ports on the hub. This means all devices plugged into a hub are in the same collision domain as well as in the same broadcast domain. Figure 1.18 shows a hub in a network and how when one host transmits, all other hosts must stop and listen.
FIGURE 1.18 A hub in a network
Hubs, like repeaters, don’t examine any of the traffic as it enters or before it’s transmitted out to the other parts of the physical media. And every device connected to the hub, or hubs, must listen if a device transmits. A physical star network, where the hub is a central device and cables extend in all directions out from it, is the type of topology a hub creates. Visually, the design really does resemble a star, whereas Ethernet networks run a logical bus topology, meaning that the signal has to run through the network from end to end.
Topologies at the Physical layer
One last