Gigabit Ethernet Technology

Gigabit Ethernet is an extension of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet utilizing the same packet structure, format, and support for CSMA/CD protocol, full duplex, flow control, and management objects, but with a tenfold increase in theoretical throughput over 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet and a hundredfold increase over 10-Mbps Ethernet. Since it is compatible with all 10-Mbps and 100- Mbps Ethernet environments, Gigabit Ethernet provides a straightforward upgrade without wasting a company's existing investment in hardware, software, and trained personnel.

The increased speed and extra bandwidth offered by Gigabit Ethernet is essential to coping with the network bottlenecks that frequently develop as computers and their busses get faster and more users use applications that generate more traffic. Upgrading key components, such as your backbone and servers to Gigabit Ethernet can greatly improve network response times as well as significantly speed up the traffic between your subnets.

Gigabit Ethernet supports video conferencing, complex imaging, and similar data-intensive applications and, since data transfers occur 10 times faster than Fast Ethernet, servers outfitted with Gigabit Ethernet NIC's are able to perform 10 times the number of operations in the same amount of time.

Switching Technology

Another key development pushing the limits of Ethernet technology is in the field of switching technology. A switch bridges Ethernet packets at the MAC address level of the Ethernet protocol transmitting among connected Ethernet or fast Ethernet LAN segments.

Switching is a cost-effective way of increasing the total network capacity available to users on a local area network. A switch increases capacity and decreases network loading by making it possible for a local area network to be divided into different segments which don't compete with each other for network transmission capacity, giving a decreased load on each.

The switch acts as a high-speed selective bridge between the individual segments. Traffic that needs to go from one segment to another is automatically forwarded by the switch, without interfering with any other segments. This allows the total network capacity to be multiplied, while still maintaining the same network cabling and adapter cards.

Switching LAN technology is a marked improvement over the previous generation of network bridges, which were characterized by higher latencies. Routers have also been used to segment local area networks, but the cost of a router and the setup and maintenance required make routers relatively impractical. Today's switches are an ideal solution to most local area network congestion problems.

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