Linksys EF4116, EF4124, EF3124, EF3116 manual Appendix C Glossary

Instant EtherFast® Series

An Ethernet Switch’s autosensing feature gives you a key advantage over other forms of networking by upgrading speed-critical network segments to 100Mbps while allowing existing 10BaseT subnetworks to operate within it. Running 10BaseT and 100BaseTX hardware speeds alongside each other in an Ethernet Switch eliminates the need to purchase new hardware, rewire, and reconfigure an entire site all at once. This scalability factor ensures that Fast Ethernet will not fall obsolete to upgrades in speed standards and maintains use of all your old equipment until you decide to buy speedier replacements. Otherwise, throwing away all your older, slower equipment in an old-fashioned “forklift upgrade” is the only other alternative.

Scalability allows you to budget for your networking needs over time.

Now networks can custom-run fast and slow segments at the same time for dif- ferent users or departments. Publishing, R&D, video, and accounting depart- ments can enjoy a blazing 100Mbps transfer, while other corporate segments conserve bandwidth by operating at more economical 10Mbps speeds.

Switches also feature full duplex data transfer, meaning that all computers on the switch can “talk” to the switch at the same time. Plus, switches are able to send and receive data simultaneously to all connections, whereas a hub cannot. A hub simply works with one computer at a time, and only sends or receives data, since it cannot handle two way communication.

In addition to full duplex transfer, an Ethernet Switch surges your network with dedicated bandwidth to each node, devoting 100Mbps to every device and multiplying your bandwidth for each added node. For instance, if you connect five computers, capable of running at 100 Mbps, to an Ethernet Switch, then each computer will get a dedicated bandwidth of 200Mbps in full duplex trans- fer mode. If you run the same computers from a 100Mbps hub, then each com- puter would only share a part of the bandwidth, depending on how many other computers are running on the network, and how data-intensive the workload.

A network without a switch is called a shared network because every node on the network competes for a fraction of the total bandwidth. In a shared network, data packets are randomly broadcasted to all stations until they discover their intended destination. Consequently, considerable time and bandwidth is wast- ed on data packets traveling along network lines before they find their correct address. A switch, on the other hand, features a store-and-forward function which retains the address for each data packet and shoots them straight to the correct destination.

EtherFast® 16-Port and 24-Port 10/100 Ethernet Switches

Appendix C: Glossary

10BaseT - An Ethernet standard that uses twisted wire pairs.

100BaseTX - IEEE physical layer specification for 100 Mbps over two pairs of Category 5 UTP or STP wire.

Adapter - Printed circuit board that plugs into a PC to add to capabilities or connectivity to a PC. In a networked environment, a network interface card (NIC) is the typical adapter that allows the PC or server to connect to the intranet and/or Internet.

Backbone - The part of a network that connects most of the systems and net- works together and handles the most data.

Bandwidth - The transmission capacity of a given facility, in terms of how much data the facility can transmit in a fixed amount of time; expressed in bits per second (bps).

Bit - A binary digit. The value - 0 or 1-used in the binary numbering system. Also, the smallest form of data.

Bridge - A device that interconnects different networks together.

CAT 5 - ANSI/EIA (American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Association) Standard 568 is one of several standards that specify "categories" (the singular is commonly referred to as "CAT") of twisted pair cabling systems (wires, junctions, and connectors) in terms of the data rates that they can sustain. CAT 5 cable has a maximum throughput of 100 Mbps and is usually utilized for 100BaseTX networks.

CPU (Central Processing Unit) - The computing part of the computer. Also called the "processor," it is made up of the control unit and ALU.

Database - A database is a collection of data that is organized so that its con- tents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated.

Data Packet - One frame in a packet-switched message. Most data communi- cations is based on dividing the transmitted message into packets. For example, an Ethernet packet can be from 64 to 1518 bytes in length.

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