Ethernet
- Most important data link layer standard
- Capable of running on variety of network media
- Offers excellent throughput at reasonable cost
- Most popular network tech used on modern LANs
- Ethernet II is current standard
- Adds both header and trailer to payload
- Creates frame around payload
- Header and FCS make up 18 byte "frame" around data
- Data portion of an Ethernet frame may contain 46 - 1500 bytes
- MTU
- Maximum transmission unit
- Largest size that routers in a message's path will allow at network layer
- Exceptions on Ethernet frame size limitations:
- On a VLAN can have an extra 4 byte field between source address field and type field
- Some special purpose networks use proprietary version of Ethernet allowing for a jumbo frame
- MTU can be as high as 9198 bytes (depends on Ethernet architecture used)
Networking Computer Science