LAN/MAN Protocol Family

The IEEE have produced and are producing a set of standards for link-layer and supporting protocols for Local Area Networks (LANs) and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs); these protocols are referred to as the IEEE 802.x protocols, ad they have protocol numbers that begin with "802." followed by a number and possibly one or more letters after the number. Many of those standards are available from the Get IEEE 802 site.

In addition, the FiberDistributedDataInterface or FDDI has also been used for LANs, although the FDDI standard came from ANSI, not the IEEE.

Protocols

The LAN/MAN family consists of (at least) the following protocols and sets of protocols (some link layers might have some additional protocols):

Link layer:

• Ethernet: IEEE 802.3 Ethernet

• FiberDistributedDataInterface: FDDI

• TokenRing: IEEE 802.5 Token Ring

• IEEE_802.11: IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs

It also includes:

• LLC: IEEE 802.2 Logical Link Control (also an ISO protocol standard, ISO 8802-2)

• STP: IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol

• GARP: Generic Attribute Registration Protocol

• GMRP: GARP Multicast Registration Protocol

• IEEE 802.1H Bridging of Ethernet V2.0 frames on non-Ethernet LANs/MANs
• IEEE 802.1w Rapid Reconfiguration for bridges

• VLAN: IEEE 802.1Q Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks

• GVRP: GARP VLAN Registration Protocol

• IEEE 802.1X Port-Based Network Access Control

• TTEthernet: Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE)

History

XXX - add a brief description of Ethernet, 802.x, and FDDI protocol history?

External links

• the IEEE Get 802 site, for 802.x standards

• IEEE 802.x working groups

Discussion