FIBER DISTRIBUTED DATA

INTERFACE (FDDI)

ADNAN MASOOD
ECE DEPT
EMAIL: AM98@DREXEL.EDU
 INTRODUCTION
• SHARED MEDIA NETWORK LIKE ETHERNET
(IEEE 802.3) & IBM TOKEN RING (IEEE 802.5)
• 100 Mbps SPEED
• RUNS ON OPTICAL FIBER
• AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARDS
INSTITUTE (ANSI) STANDARD

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SEQUENCE OF PRESENTATION
• INTRODUCTION
• TIMELINE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF FDDI
• FDDI BASIC PRINCIPLE
• FDDI PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
• FDDI ARCHITECTURAL MODEL
• FDDI - II
• BENEFITS & LIMITATIONS
• APPLICATIONS
• COMPARISON WITH OTHER NETWORKS

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 TIMELINE FOR FDDI
• PROJECT INITIATED IN OCTOBER 1982 BY JAMES
HAMSTRA AT SPERRY (NOW UNISYS)
• TWO PROPOSALS FOR MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL
(MAC) & PHYSICAL (PHY) LAYERS SUBMITTED IN
JUNE 1983
• FDDI MAC BECAME AN ANSI STANDARD IN LATE 1986
• FDDI PHY WON ANSI STANDARDIZATION IN 1988
• FDDI - II PROPOSAL WAS MADE IN EARLY 1986
• FIRST PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS AT ADVANCED
MICRO DEVICES (AMD) IN 1989

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 FDDI BASIC PRINCIPLE
• TOKEN RING NETWORK LIKE IEEE 802.5
• TOKEN: A SPECIAL SEQUENCE OF BITS
• TOKEN CIRCULATES AROUND THE RING
• A STATION REMOVES THE TOKEN FROM RING
BEFORE TRANSMISSION
• AFTER TRANSMISSION, THE STATION RETURNS THE
TOKEN TO THE RING
• COLLISIONS ARE PREVENTED AS THERE IS ONLY
ONE TOKEN IN THE RING

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 TOKEN RING NETWORK
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 FDDI BASIC PRINCIPLE
• TOKEN RING NETWORK LIKE IEEE 802.5
• TOKEN: A SPECIAL SEQUENCE OF BITS
• TOKEN CIRCULATES AROUND THE RING
• A STATION REMOVES THE TOKEN FROM RING
BEFORE TRANSMISSION
• AFTER TRANSMISSION, THE STATION RETURNS THE
TOKEN TO THE RING
• COLLISIONS ARE PREVENTED AS THERE IS ONLY
ONE TOKEN IN THE RING

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 FDDI PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
• DUAL-COUNTER-ROTATING TOKEN RING
ARCHITECTURE
• ONE RING IS PRIMARY AND THE OTHER SECONDARY
• UP TO 500 STATIONS WITH A MAXIMUM DISTANCE OF 2
KM BETWEEN ANY PAIR OF STATIONS FOR MULTIMODE
FIBER
• WITH SINGLE-MODE FIBER THE DISTANCE CAN BE UP
TO 40 KM
• MAXIMUM RING LENGTH IS 100 KM (TOTAL FIBER
LENGTH IS 200 KM FOR TWO RINGS)
• USES 4B/5B ENCODING

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 FDDI DUAL RINGS

FDDI DUAL RING ARCHITECTURE

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 OPERATION ON FAILURE OF THE PRIMARY RING
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FDDI ARCHITECTURAL MODEL
• ACCORDING TO THE OSI-RM, FDDI SPECIFIES
LAYER 1 (PHYSICAL LAYER) AND PART OF
LAYER 2 (DATA LINK CONTROL LAYER)
• THE PHYSICAL LAYER HANDLES THE
TRANSMISSION OF RAW BITS OVER A
COMMUNICATIONS LINK
• THE DATA LINK CONTROL (DLC) LAYER IS
RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE
INTEGRITY OF INFORMATION EXCHANGED
BETWEEN TWO POINTS

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 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FDDI AND OSI-RM
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 THE PMD LAYER
• PMD LAYER DEFINES THE TYPE OF MEDIA
INTERCONNECTION AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS SUCH
AS TRANSMITTER POWER, FREQUENCIES, RECEIVER
SENSITIVITIES, BIT ERROR RATES (BER), OPTICAL
COMPONENTS ETC.
• PMD-MMF: MULTIMODE (62.5 MICRON CORE DIAMETER)
FIBER
• PMD-SMF: SINGLE-MODE (8-10 MICRON CORE
DIAMETER) FIBER
• ALSO DEFINES STP, UTP AS MEDIA AND FDDI ON SONET

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 THE PHY LAYER
• PROVIDES THE MEDIA INDEPENDENT FUNCTIONS
ASSOCIATED WITH THE OSI PHYSICAL LAYER
• RECEPTION: DECODES THE RECEIVED BIT
STREAM FROM PMD INTO A SYMBOL STREAM FOR
USE BY THE MAC LAYER
• TRANSMISSION: ENCODES THE DATA AND
CONTROL SYMBOLS PROVIDED BY MAC USING
4B/5B ENCODING FOR THE PMD LAYER
• ALSO PROVIDES SMT THE SERVICES REQUIRED
FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF
THE FDDI RING (BY CONTINUOUSLY LISTENING TO
THE INCOMING SIGNAL)

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 THE MAC LAYER
• PROVIDES FAIR & DETERMINISTIC ACCESS
• FAIR: NO NODE HAS ADVANTAGE OVER ANOTHER IN
ACCESSING THE MEDIUM
• DETERMINISTIC: UNDER ERROR-FREE CONDITIONS, THE
TIME A NODE HAS TO WAIT TO ACCESS THE MEDIUM CAN
BE PREDICTED
• MEDIUM ACCESS IS CONTROLLED BY A TOKEN
• TOKEN PERMITS THE NODE THAT RECEIVES IT TO
TRANSMIT FRAMES
• THE MAC LAYER OF THE NODE THAT GENERATED THE
FRAME IS RESPONSIBLE FOR REMOVING THE TOKEN

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 THE SMT LAYER
• A SOPHISTICATED, BUILT-IN NETWORK
MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY
• SMT IS NOT AN OSI-RM SPECIFICATION
• MAKING USE OF THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY PMD,
PHY, AND MAC, IT CARRIES OUT MANY FUNCTIONS
SUCH AS NODE INITIALIZATION, BYPASSING
FAULTY NODES, COORDINATION OF NODE
INSERTION AND REMOVAL, FAULT ISOLATION AND
RECOVERY
• SMT IS MOST COMMONLY IMPLEMENTED AS A
SOFTWARE PROCESS RUNNING ON THE FDDI
DEVICE

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 FDDI - II
• ENHANCED FDDI THAT HANDLES DATA, VOICE, AND VIDEO
• SAME FEATURES AS BASIC FDDI (FDDI - I), INCLUDING
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MODES, 100 MBPS DATA TRANSFER
BIT RATE, AND THE DUAL RING
• DEFINES THE PHYSICAL LAYER AND THE LOWER HALF OF
THE DATA LINK LAYER SIMILAR TO FDDI-I
• FDDI-I SUPPORTS ONLY PACKET MODE (SYNCHRONOUS
AND ASYNCHRONOUS) TRAFFIC, FDDI-II SUPPORTS BOTH
PACKET DATA AS WELL AS ISOCHRONOUS DATA TRAFFIC
(IN FDDI ISOCHRONOUS INDICATES A CLASS OF TRAFFIC
FOR VOICE AND VIDEO
• THE SIMULTANEOUS SUPPORT OF BOTH PACKET AND
ISOCHRONOUS TRAFFIC IS CALLED THE HYBRID MODE OF
OPERATION

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 FDDI-II STATION ARCHITECTURAL MODEL

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 FDDI BENEFITS
• HIGH BANDWIDTH (10 TIMES MORE THAN ETHERNET)
• LARGER DISTANCES BETWEEN FDDI NODES
BECAUSE OF VERY LOW ATTENUATION ( 0.3 DB/KM)
IN FIBERS
• IMPROVED SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO BECAUSE OF
NO INTERFERENCE FROM EXTERNAL RADIO
FREQUENCIES AND ELECTROMAGNETIC NOISE
• BER TYPICAL OF FIBER-OPTIC SYSTEMS (10^-11) IS
SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER THAN THAT IN COPPER
(10^-5) AND MICROWAVE SYSTEMS (10^-7)
• VERY DIFFICULT TO TAP SIGNALS FORM A FIBER
CABLE

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 COMPARISON OF TRANSMISSION MEDIA
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 FDDI LIMITATIONS
• HIGH COST OF OPTICAL COMPONENTS
REQUIRED FOR TRANSMISSION/RECEPTION
OF SIGNALS (ESPECIALLY FOR SINGLE
MODE FIBER NETWORKS)
• MORE COMPLEX TO IMPLEMENT THAN
EXISTING LOW SPEED LAN TECHNOLOGIES
SUCH AS IEEE 802.3 AND IEEE 802.5

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 APPLICATIONS OF FDDI
• OFFICE AUTOMATION AT THE DESKTOP
• BACKBONES FOR FACTORY AUTOMATION
• BACKEND DATA CENTER APPLICATIONS
• CAMPUS LAN INTERCONNECTION
• INTERCAMPUS BACKBONES OR
METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORKS (MANs)
• INTERCONNECTION OF PRIVATE BRANCH
EXCHANGES (PBXS)
• WORKGROUP AND DEPARTMENTAL LANS
• INTEGRATED TRANSPORT FOR
MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS
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 A FDDI BACKBONE NETWORK EXAMPLE
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COMPARISON WITH OTHER NETWORKS
FEATURES FDDI ETHERNET TOKEN RING
TRANSMISSION 125 MBAUD 20 MBAUD 8 & 32 MBAUD
RATE
DATA RATE 100 MBPS 10 MBPS 4 & 16 MBPS

SIGNAL 4B/5B (80% MANCHESTER DIFFERENTIAL

ENCODING EFFICIENT) (50% MANCHESTER
EFFICIENT) (50% EFFICIENT)
MAXIMUM 100 KM 2.5 KM CONFIGURATION
COVERAGE DEPENDENT
MAXIMUM 500 1024 250
NODES
MAXIMUM 2 KM (MULTIMODE 2.5 KM 300 M
DISTANCE FIBER) (RECOMMENDED
BETWEEN 40 KM (SINGLE- 100 M)
NODES MODE FIBER)

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 REFERENCES
• SONU MIRCHANDANI & RAMAN KHANNA (EDITORS), FDDI
TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS, CHAPTERS 1,2,3,6,13,
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., 1992
• AMIT SHAH & G. RAMAKRISHNAN, FDDI: A HIGH SPEED
NETWORK, PTR PRENTICE HALL, 1994
• BERNHARD ALBERT & ANURA P. JAYASUMANA, FDDI AND
FDDI-II - ARCHITECTURE PROTOCOLS, AND
PERFORMANCE, ARTECH HOUSE, 1994
• LARRY L. PETERSON & BRUCE S. DAVIE, COMPUTER
NETWORKS: A SYSTEMS APPROACH, MORGAN
KAUFMANN, 2000
• HTTP://WWW.IOL.UNH.EDU/TRAINING/FDDI/HTMLS/
• HTTP://WWW.CISCO.COM/UNIVERCD/CC/TD/DOC/CISINTWK/
ITO_DOC/FDDI.HTM#XTOCID14
• HTTP://WWW2.RAD.COM/NETWORKS/1995/FDDI/FDDI.HTM

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