Spring 2003 CS 461 1

Switching and Forwarding

Outline
Store-and-Forward Switches
Bridges and Extended LANs
Cell Switching
Segmentation and Reassembly
Spring 2003 CS 461 2
Scalable Networks
Switch
forwards packets from input port to output port
port selected based on address in packet header





Advantages
cover large geographic area (tolerate latency)
support large numbers of hosts (scalable bandwidth)
Input
ports
T3
T3
STS-1
T3
T3
STS-1
Switch
Output
ports
Spring 2003 CS 461 3
Source Routing
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
3 0 1
3 0 1
3 0 1
Switch 3
Host B
Switch 2
Host A
Switch 1
Spring 2003 CS 461 4
Virtual Circuit Switching
Explicit connection setup (and tear-down) phase
Subsequence packets follow same circuit
Sometimes called connection-oriented model
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
5
11
4
7
Switch 3
Host B
Switch 2
Host A
Switch 1
Analogy:
phone call

Each switch
maintains a VC
table
Spring 2003 CS 461 5
Datagram Switching
No connection setup phase
Each packet forwarded independently
Sometimes called connectionless model
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
0
1 3
2
Switch 3
Host B
Switch 2
Host A
Switch 1
Host C
Host D
Host E
Host F
Host G
Host H
Analogy: postal
system

Each switch
maintains a
forwarding
(routing) table
Spring 2003 CS 461 6
Example Tables
Circuit Table
(switch 1, port 2)
Forwarding Table
(switch 1)
Address Port
A 2
C 3
F 1
G 1

VC In VC Out Port Out
5 11 1
6 8 1


Spring 2003 CS 461 7
Virtual Circuit Model
Typically wait full RTT for connection setup before
sending first data packet.

While the connection request contains the full address for
destination, each data packet contains only a small
identifier, making the per-packet header overhead small.

If a switch or a link in a connection fails, the connection is
broken and a new one needs to be established.

Connection setup provides an opportunity to reserve
resources.
Spring 2003 CS 461 8
Datagram Model
There is no round trip delay waiting for connection setup; a
host can send data as soon as it is ready.

Source host has no way of knowing if the network is
capable of delivering a packet or if the destination host is
even up.

Since packets are treated independently, it is possible to
route around link and node failures.

Since every packet must carry the full address of the
destination, the overhead per packet is higher than for the
connection-oriented model.
Spring 2003 CS 461 9
Bridges and Extended LANs
LANs have physical limitations (e.g., 2500m)
Connect two or more LANs with a bridge
accept and forward strategy
level 2 connection (does not add packet header)





Ethernet Switch = Bridge on Steroids
A
Bridge
B C
X Y Z
Port 1
Port 2
Spring 2003 CS 461 10
Learning Bridges
Do not forward when unnecessary
Maintain forwarding table
Host Port
A 1
B 1
C 1
X 2
Y 2
Z 2

Learn table entries based on source address
Table is an optimization; need not be complete
Always forward broadcast frames
A
Bridge
B C
X Y Z
Port 1
Port 2
Spring 2003 CS 461 11
Spanning Tree Algorithm
Problem: loops





Bridges run a distributed spanning tree algorithm
select which bridges actively forward
developed by Radia Perlman
now IEEE 802.1 specification
B3
A
C
E
D
B2
B5
B
B7
K
F
H
B4
J
B1
B6
G
I
Spring 2003 CS 461 12
Algorithm Overview
Each bridge has unique id (e.g., B1, B2, B3)
Select bridge with smallest id as root
Select bridge on each LAN closest to root as
designated bridge (use id to break ties)
B3
A
C
E
D
B2
B5
B
B7
K
F
H
B4
J
B1
B6
G
I
Each bridge forwards frames
over each LAN for which it
is the designated bridge
Spring 2003 CS 461 13
Algorithm Details
Bridges exchange configuration messages
id for bridge sending the message
id for what the sending bridge believes to be root bridge
distance (hops) from sending bridge to root bridge
Each bridge records current best configuration
message for each port
Initially, each bridge believes it is the root
Spring 2003 CS 461 14
Algorithm Detail (cont)
When learn not root, stop generating config messages
in steady state, only root generates configuration messages
When learn not designated bridge, stop forwarding config
messages
in steady state, only designated bridges forward config messages
Root continues to periodically send config messages
If any bridge does not receive config message after a period
of time, it starts generating config messages claiming to be
the root
Spring 2003 CS 461 15
Broadcast and Multicast
Forward all broadcast/multicast frames
current practice
Learn when no group members downstream
Accomplished by having each member of
group G send a frame to bridge multicast
address with G in source field
Spring 2003 CS 461 16
Limitations of Bridges
Do not scale
spanning tree algorithm does not scale
broadcast does not scale
Do not accommodate heterogeneity

Caution: beware of transparency
Spring 2003 CS 461 17
Cell Switching (ATM)
Connection-oriented packet-switched network
Used in both WAN and LAN settings
Signaling (connection setup) Protocol: Q.2931
Specified by ATM forum
Packets are called cells
5-byte header + 48-byte payload
Commonly transmitted over SONET
other physical layers possible
Spring 2003 CS 461 18
Variable vs Fixed-Length Packets
No Optimal Length
if small: high header-to-data overhead
if large: low utilization for small messages
Fixed-Length Easier to Switch in Hardware
simpler
enables parallelism
Spring 2003 CS 461 19
Big vs Small Packets
Small Improves Queue behavior
finer-grained preemption point for scheduling link
maximum packet = 4KB
link speed = 100Mbps
transmission time = 4096 x 8/100 = 327.68us
high priority packet may sit in the queue 327.68us
in contrast, 53 x 8/100 = 4.24us for ATM
near cut-through behavior
two 4KB packets arrive at same time
link idle for 327.68us while both arrive
at end of 327.68us, still have 8KB to transmit
in contrast, can transmit first cell after 4.24us
at end of 327.68us, just over 4KB left in queue
Spring 2003 CS 461 20
Big vs Small (cont)
Small Improves Latency (for voice)
voice digitally encoded at 64KBps (8-bit samples at 8KHz)
need full cells worth of samples before sending cell
example: 1000-byte cells implies 125ms per cell (too long)
smaller latency implies no need for echo cancellers
ATM Compromise: 48 bytes = (32+64)/2
Spring 2003 CS 461 21
Cell Format
User-Network Interface (UNI)


host-to-switch format
GFC: Generic Flow Control (still being defined)
VCI: Virtual Circuit Identifier
VPI: Virtual Path Identifier
Type: management, congestion control, AAL5 (later)
CLPL Cell Loss Priority
HEC: Header Error Check (CRC-8)

Network-Network Interface (NNI)
switch-to-switch format
GFC becomes part of VPI field
GFC HEC (CRC-8)
4 16 3 1 8
VPI VCI CLP Type Payload
384 (48 bytes) 8
Spring 2003 CS 461 22
Segmentation and Reassembly
ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL)
AAL 1 and 2 designed for applications that need
guaranteed rate (e.g., voice, video)
AAL 3/4 designed for packet data
AAL 5 is an alternative standard for packet data
AAL
A TM
AAL
A TM

Spring 2003 CS 461 23
AAL 3/4
Convergence Sublayer Protocol Data Unit (CS-PDU)


CPI: commerce part indicator (version field)
Btag/Etag:beginning and ending tag
BAsize: hint on amount of buffer space to allocate
Length: size of whole PDU
CPI Btag BASize Pad 0 Etag Len
8 16 0 24 8 8 16 < 64 KB 8
User data
Spring 2003 CS 461 24
Cell Format
Type
BOM: beginning of message
COM: continuation of message
EOM end of message
SEQ: sequence of number
MID: message id
Length: number of bytes of PDU in this cell
ATM header Length CRC-10
40 2 4
SEQ MID Ty pe Pay load
352 (44 by tes) 10 6 10
Spring 2003 CS 461 25
AAL5
CS-PDU Format


pad so trailer always falls at end of ATM cell
Length: size of PDU (data only)
CRC-32 (detects missing or misordered cells)
Cell Format
end-of-PDU bit in Type field of ATM header
CRC-32
< 64 KB 0 47 by tes 16 16
Reserv ed Pad Len
32
Data