History: Multiport Repeaters

￿Demand for structured cabling (voice-grade twisted-pair)

￿10BaseT (Cat3, Cat4, ...)

￿Multiport repeater ("Hub") created

￿Still one collision domain ("CSMA/CD in a box")

(C) Herbert Haas 2005/03/11

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Later, Ethernet devices supporting structured cabling were created in order to reuse the voice-grade twisted-pair cables already installed in buildings. 10BaseT had been specified to support Cat3 cables (voice grade) or better, for example Cat4 (and today Cat5, Cat6, and Cat7).

Hub devices were necessary to interconnect several stations. These hub devices were basically multi-port repeaters, simulating the half-duplex coax-cable, which is known as "CSMA/CD in a box". Logically, nothing has changed, we have still one single collision and broadcast domain.

Note that the Ethernet topology became star-shaped.

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