A. frame format, A.1. ethernet frame, Appendix a. frame format – Altera 10-Gbps Ethernet MAC MegaCore Function User Manual
Page 153: Appendix a, frame format

February 2014
Altera Corporation
10-Gbps Ethernet MAC MegaCore Function User Guide
A. Frame Format
A.1. Ethernet Frame
Figure A–1
shows the Ethernet frame format.
The Ethernet frame comprises the following fields:
■
Inter-packet gap (IPG)—an average inter-frame length of 12 octets and is
represented with the Idle control character which consists of data value 0x07.
■
Preamble—inserted by the MAC or the client. MAC-inserted preamble is a
maximum of 7 octets of data with value 0x55.
■
Start frame delimiter (SFD)—a 1-octet fixed value of 0xD5 which marks the
beginning of a frame.
■
Destination and source addresses—6 octets each. The least significant byte is
transmitted first.
■
Length or type—a 2-octet value equal to or greater than 1536 (0x600) indicates a
type field. Otherwise, this field contains the length of the payload data. The most
significant byte of this field is transmitted first.
■
Payload Data and Pad—variable length data and padding.
■
Frame check sequence (FCS)—a 4-octet cyclic redundancy check (CRC) value for
detecting frame errors during transmission.
■
End frame delimiter (EFD)—a 1-octet fixed value of 0xFD which marks the end of
a frame.
Figure A–1. Ethernet Frame Format
Pad (Optional)
Frame Check Sequence
Destination Address
Source Address
MAC Client Length/Type
Payload Data
7 Octets
1 Octets
2 Octets
0..1500/9600 Octets
1 Octets
6 Octets
6 Octets
4 Octets
0..46 Octets
End Frame Delimiter (EFD)
Start Frame Delimite (SFD)
Preamble
Inter-Packet Gap (IPG)
12 Octets
F
rame Length