Cabletron Systems bridges, switches manual Fast Ethernet Workgroup Devices

Chapter 7

Fast Ethernet

This chapter examines the decisions and selections that must be made when designing a Fast Ethernet workgroup solution.

Should a Fast Ethernet workgroup solution be selected, the Network Designer has a specific series of issues to resolve and decisions to make before selecting a Fast Ethernet device that meets the requirements of the network. This chapter identifies and discusses these issues and provides a series of examples for different Fast Ethernet network approaches.

Fast Ethernet Workgroup Devices

The following sections present and describe the various Cabletron Systems workgroup networking devices that may be used to implement a Fast Ethernet networking solution.

Shared Devices

The selection field of Fast Ethernet networking devices is much narrower than that available for Ethernet workgroups. The Fast Ethernet devices available from Cabletron Systems are all 100BASE-TX compliant Class I repeaters or switches. The currently-available Class I repeaters, which are shared Fast Ethernet devices, are listed in Table 7-1,below.

7-1