8-Port 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Switch User Guide
AirLink+ 5
Introduction
This section describes the features of the 5-Port 1000BASE-T
Gigabit Ethernet Switch, as well as providing some
background information about Gigabit Ethernet and
switching technology.

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 100Mbps Fast Ethernet and a
hundredfold increase over 10Mbps Ethernet. Since it is
compatible with all 10Mbps and 100Mbps 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. Likewise,
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