Gigahertz Ethernet
Local area networks have been dominated by Ethernet for many years. With the ever-increasing demand for higher speeds in all areas of technology including networking, this popular standard has been enhanced to run at 100 Mbps. Accordingly, it was named Fast Ethernet. Today, further evolution of the Ethernet standard is being completed which will change the speed to 1000 Mbps. This is the Gigabit Ethernet. This paper describes how Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet work, respectively. In addition, both standards are compared, and the differences are analyzed for their significance. The overall purpose of the article is to determine if the changes to the original Ethernet are minor, and if it is valid to still call it Ethernet, or if it should be regarded as something completely different. Comparison of Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet Ethernet is the world's most widespread networking technology. It is estimated that in 1996, 82% of all networking equipment shipped was Ethernet [1]. In 1995, the Fast Ethernet Standard was approved by the IEEE. Fast Ethernet provided 10 times higher bandwidth, and other new features such as full duplex operation, and auto negotiation. This established Ethernet as a
Local area networks are dominated by Ethernet. However, the growth of LAN traffic is pushing network administrators to look for faster network technologies. Gigabit Ethernet is one of the best available high-speed technologies. Gigabit Ethernet is the third generation Ethernet technology offering a speed of 1000 Mbps. It is fully compatible with existing Ethernets, and promises to offer seamless migration to higher speeds. Existing networks will be able to upgrade their performance without having to greatly change existing wiring, protocols or applications. Gigabit Ethernet is expected to give existing high speed technologies such as ATM and FDDI a very strong competition. In addition to the protocol changes, areas such as cabling, switch and router hardware, and network topology also require adaptations. Category 5 copper wiring will support short connections of 20 meters or less, but companies will need fiber to link the data center to wiring closets or wiring closets to each other [2]. Also, the protocol stacks, recently tuned for 100 Mbps throughput, will need to be modified to support gigabit speeds. However, the most significant change might be in the network’s topology. The rollout of 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps switches began a migration from hierarchical router-based networks to flatter switch-based ones, but gigabit Ethernet hastens that need. David Delaney, chairman of Plaintree Systems Inc., an Ethernet switch company, said “Look for routing functions to move into switches. Devices that forward at both Layer 2 and Layer 3, in hardware, will be necessary to maintain gigabit speeds” [2].
Some topics in this essay:
Gigabit Ethernet,
Fast Ethernet,
CSMA/CD MAC,
Carrier Extension,
Collision Detect,
Ethernet CSMA/CD,
ETHERNET IEEE,
gigabit ethernet,
Detect Ethernet,
Detection CSMA/CD,
Ethernet Ethernet,
carrier extension,
fast ethernet,
packet bursting,
csma/cd protocol,
original ethernet,
ethernet gigabit ethernet,
ethernet standard,
512 bytes,
ethernet gigabit,
physical layer,
extension packet bursting,
carrier extension packet,
hardware network topology,
gigabit ethernet faster,
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Approximate Word count = 2793
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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