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Cell Relay Retreat>List Archive>month:1996-Dec> msg00231



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Re: Ethertype in ATM Driver

  • From: alagu@mailman.apple.com (Alagu Periyannan)
  • Date: 21 Dec 1996 01:59:18 GMT

In article <32B6F091.6B41@tid.es>
David Castells i Rufas <dcr@tid.es> writes:

> Now I am working with the Ethernet maximum packet size (MTU), which is
> 1536.
> All the documentation I have read indicate to use a MTU size of 9180.
> If I used this MTU I could get a packet of 0x0806 bytes and therefore I
> wouldn't be able to determine wether the packet was a ARP message or an
> IP packet of length 0x0806.


Since RFC1577 uses LLC/SNAP encapsulation, if you receive a packet
over the network with 0x0806 in its length field it is most certainly
an IP (or some other packet) of length 0x0806.

All packets will start with 0xAAAA03 followed by the 5-byte SNAP.
This 5-byte SNAP is 0x0000000800 for IP and 0x0000000806 for ARP.
So you can always distiguish between IP and ARP.

In other direction things may be more tricky. I don't know much
about how NT's IP and ARP layers bind to drivers. Do they bind
using "ethertypes"?

If this is the case then a packet with 0x0806 in the length field is
probably an ARP packet and can not be a packet of length 0x0806.
The only way you will know the length of the packet is through
the actual length of the data buffer passed to you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alagu Periyannan                              Internet: alagu@apple.com
Communications Products & Technology
Apple Computer, Inc.