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Home > Archive > CCNA > February 2001 > MSAU ?
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| i hadn't come across this term until i got to doing some practice questions.
am i right in thinking that multi station access unit (MSAU) is a hardware and it is used exclusively for Token Ring. and if it is, does it act like a hub and just forward everything?
anyone?
rain.
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| Hello rain
Arrrghhh!!!! Token Ring. You are right, an MSAU is token ring hardware. The theory in token ring is that users are connected to the token ring hub, but not like an ethernet hub. In token ring, an attached station grabs the 'token' and forwards it to the destination by putting the 'token' back into the ring. The token travels in one direction around the ring, stopping at all stations on route until it finds its destination. With an ethernet hub, a transmitting station puts its frame out onto the medium in all directions and the destination station grabs it by recognising the MAC address. Hubs don't forward frames, they act as concentrators, routers do forwarding onto other network.
Tut, tut; What were IBM thinking of. First, TTY, then Token Frame.
Cheers
Hippo.
(Of course, I could be wrong) | |
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| Yes, it's Token Ring hardware.
No, it's not like a hub, although it looks like one. Internally, a MSAU creates the ring required by TR. When you plugin a station, you insert it in the ring. Think of two stations, A and B, plugged in to a MSAU; A transmits a frame. The frame goes from A, through the cable (I think it's called a lobe cable), into the MSAU, on the internal ring until it finds B's cable, onto that cable to B, B reads or ignores the frame, back on B's cable to the MSAU, again on the internal ring until it finds A's cable, onto A's cable to A, which removes the frame.
(TR gurus: am I right, or am I fantasizing?)
HTH
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| quote:
Originally posted by rain:
i hadn't come across this term until i got to doing some practice questions.
am i right in thinking that multi station access unit (MSAU) is a hardware and it is used exclusively for Token Ring. and if it is, does it act like a hub and just forward everything?
An MSAU, called a MAU by everyone except Microsoft, is basically a token ring hub. It does not use RJ45 connectors; a MAU that has RJ45's on it is usually called a token ring hub. "Forward everything" wouldn't be the best choice of words in the token ring world, but you have the right idea.
HTH,
doctorcisco
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Silicon is made from sand; nothing made from sand is allowed to wreck my day! | |
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| thanks you for taking the time,
i think i get the picture on how it works. for obvious reason, i guess it is easy to imagine a RING and picture the data being sent around til it gets to its destination.
rain. |
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