4

Can someone enlighten me the difference between Giant Frame and Jumbo Frame?

From what I hear, Giant frame is a frame with the size greater than 1518 Bytes excluding Preamble, Frame Delimiter and Inter-Frame Gap.

On the other hand, Jumbo frame is a frame with a payload greater than the standard maximum transmission unit (MTU) of 1500 bytes.

So, are they referring the payload as in the Ethernet frame? If so, does it mean that Giant Frame and Jumbo Frame are the same?

2 Answers 2

14

Generally, a giant frame is a frame that is too large for the receiving interface. As a malformed frame it is dropped.

A jumbo frame is a frame that is larger than the standard allows (1518 bytes for Ethernet w/o tags, or 1500 bytes L3 payload (= L3 PDU = L2 SDU) plus L2 overhead). It may still be acceptable, depending on the interface configuration.

For an interface with standard configuration, any jumbo frame is a giant frame.

Preamble, frame delimiter and IPG belong to the physical layer (L1) and are never counted against the frame size (L2), as you've pointed out.

1
  • 4
    To add to the confusion, there are switches (I dare to add: ... based on older architectures) which have the notion of and support for "baby giants", referring to frame sizes in the ~1530-1600 bytes range. Example: Cisco's Catalyst 4000 and 4500 series switches (cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/…). May 7, 2019 at 12:17
-1

In computer networking, jumbo frames are Ethernet frames with more than 1500 bytes of payload, the limit set by the IEEE 802.3 standard.Conventionally, jumbo frames can carry up to 9000 bytes of payload, but variations exist and some care must be taken using the term. Many Gigabit Ethernet switches and Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards can support jumbo frames. Some Fast Ethernet switches and Fast Ethernet network interface cards can also support jumbo frames.

Reference Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_frame

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.