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Concept
Ethernet frame
Summary
In computer networking, an Ethernet frame is a data link layer protocol data unit and uses the underlying Ethernet physical layer transport mechanisms. In other words, a data unit on an Ethernet link transports an Ethernet frame as its payload.
An Ethernet frame is preceded by a preamble and start frame delimiter (SFD), which are both part of the Ethernet packet at the physical layer. Each Ethernet frame starts with an Ethernet header, which contains destination and source MAC addresses as its first two fields. The middle section of the frame is payload data including any headers for other protocols (for example, Internet Protocol) carried in the frame. The frame ends with a frame check sequence (FCS), which is a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check used to detect any in-transit corruption of data.
Physical Coding Sublayer
A data packet on the wire and the frame as its payload consist of binary data. Ethernet transmits data with the most-significant octet (byte) first; within each octet, however, the least-significant bit is transmitted first.
The internal structure of an Ethernet frame is specified in IEEE 802.3. The table below shows the complete Ethernet packet and the frame inside, as transmitted, for the payload size up to the MTU of 1500 octets. Some implementations of Gigabit Ethernet and other higher-speed variants of Ethernet support larger frames, known as jumbo frames.
The optional 802.1Q tag consumes additional space in the frame. Field sizes for this option are shown in brackets in the table above. IEEE 802.1ad (Q-in-Q) allows for multiple tags in each frame. This option is not illustrated here.
Syncword
An Ethernet packet starts with a seven-octet (56-bit) preamble and one-octet (8-bit) start frame delimiter (SFD). The preamble bit values alternate 1 and 0, allowing receivers to synchronize their clock at the bit-level with the transmitter. The preamble is followed by the SFD which ends with a 1 instead of 0, to break the bit pattern of the preamble and signal the start of the actual frame.
Official source
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