Appendix

What is Switch Ethernet ?

With a high-speed backplane, it is possible to have all ports communicating at wire speed with minimal latency and low packet loss

A-1. 100Base-T Technology Review

The 100BaseT standard retains 10BaseT's critical 100-meter maximum cable length between the hub and desktop. With 100BaseT, the maximum number of repeater Hubs is two. This is due to the accelerated Ethernet data rate, which requires a reduction in network diameter in order to detect collisions. Class II repeaters must be used to build a two-repeater-stack LAN. In a single-repeater-stack LAN, Class I or Class II repeaters can be used. Whether the repeater is Class I or Class II is determined by how much delay is added by the repeater. Most stackable repeaters are Class I, while non-stackable are usually Class II.

With 100BaseT,the maximum network diameter is approximately 205 meters with UTP cable and 412 meters with fiber cable. By contrast, a maximum of four repeater hubs is allowed for 10BaseT, providing a maximum network diameter of 500 meters on UTP.

The 100BaseT standard is comprised of five component specifications - Media Access Control (MAC) layer, Media Independent Interface (MII) layer and the three physical layers (100BaseTX, 100BaseT4 and 100Base FX). 100BaseTX use the same IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD MAC protocol layer as 10BaseT and a similar star topology. There are three distinct cabling variations in the 100BaseT standard.

They are: *100BaseTX for two-pair data grade Category 5 UTP or Type 1 STP