共用架構之乙太網路交換機媒體控制器的設計

Abstract

由於（高速）乙太網路的歷史發展久遠，具有標準且眾多廠商支援，在所有網路技術中，它是最兼具經濟及效率的一種。（高速）乙太網路交換機打破了區域網路頻寬有限的瓶頸且其將區域網路的範圍更行擴大。在飛昇的網路頻寬需求下，（高速）乙太網路交換機成了網路環境中必要的一部份。所以如何用低成本製作高效率的交換機成為一個重要的議題。 媒體控制器是交換機中強制必備的部分。我們提出共享架構之媒體控制器來處理媒體控制的功能以獲得一個兼具經濟及效率之交換機。我們的提案不但完全和IEEE 802.3標準完全相容而且還提供了流量控制解決方案來使媒體使用率更加提高。又因為硬體共用的關係，成本因此而降低。這些特性使得整個交換機兼具經濟及效率。 在這論文中，我們舉一個四埠的媒介控制器為例，使用共享架構來實現我們的設計。由論文內容可知，相對於不共享式的架構，經由共享式架構我們可以得到31%的成本縮減。

Among many network technologies, (Fast) Ethernet is the most cost-effective one to connect our computer systems because it is evolutionary, standards based, and supported by a lot of vendors all over the world. The (Fast) Ethernet switch breaks the bandwidth bottleneck in the LAN environment and also expands the LAN to a larger area. As the rapid growth of network bandwidth requirement, the (Fast) Ethernet switch becomes an essential part of the network environment. Thus how to implement an efficient switch system with low cost becomes an important issue. Medium access controller (MAC) is a mandatory part of the switch system. In order to get a cost effective switch system, we propose a shared MAC architecture to deal with the MAC functions. The proposal not only is fully compliant to the IEEE 802.3 standards but also provides flow control solutions to efficiently improve the medium utilization. And because the hardware components are shared, the cost is reduced. These features help the switch system be a cost-effective design. In this thesis, MAC controller of a 4-port Ethernet switch using the proposed shared MAC architecture is implemented as an example. It will be seen that the cost is reduced about 31% of that in the non-shared case.