Whitepapers

By far, the most widely used networking technology in Wide Area Networks (WANs) is SONET/SDH. With the growth of Ethernet now into Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) there is a growing need to interconnect Ethernet LANs and MANs to these prevalent SONET networks. With the advent of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, the commonality of line rates between…

Ethernet technology is ubiquitous. More than 85 percent of all installed network connections were Ethernet by the end of 1997 according to IDC. This represents over 118 million interconnected PCs, workstations and servers. The remaining network connections are a combination of Token Ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and other protocols.…

As 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) is introduced into networks the physical limitations and properties of optical fiber introduce new challenges for a network designer. Due to the increased data rate, fiber effects, such as dispersion (intermodal, chromatic or polarization), become a factor in the achievable distances of 10GbE links. This leaves the network designer with…

Running Gigabit Ethernet over Copper INTRODUCTION When network managers decide on a cabling system, they make a decision that is basic to the network infrastructure and long term in its horizon. With the ratification of 1000BASE-T in June 1999 (IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Standard for Gigabit Ethernet on Category 5 copper), network managers are asking hard…

Introduction Ethernet has become the most popular networking protocol for local area networks (LANs). It is inexpensive and offers plugandplay implementation. As networking has grown in popularity, Ethernet network link speeds have also been increasing. The growth of Ethernet from 10 Mbit/s to 10 Gbit/s has surpassed the growth of microprocessor performance in mainstream servers…

Under the International Standards Organization’s Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, Ethernet is fundamentally a Layer 2 protocol. 10 Gigabit Ethernet uses the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) protocol, the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame format, and the minimum and maximum IEEE 802.3 frame size. Just as 1000BASE-X and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) remained true to…

Ethernet Transport and its Service Technology To understand why Ethernet is a viable transport for the WAN, it’s important to note the various technology that surrounds and supports Ethernet. Figure 1 shows Ethernet’s circle of technology. At the core, Ethernet is supported within fiber, copper, and even wireless media. In addition, bandwidth support for Ethernet…

Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) is becoming more and more popular. The accelerating growth of LAN traffic is pushing network administrators to look to higher-speed network technologies to solve the bandwidth crunch. These administrators—who typically have either Ethernet or FDDI backbones today—have several alternatives to choose from. Although each network faces different issues, Gigabit Ethernet meets several…

Please note this paper may be partially outdated (Revision 2, Draft A • April 2002) From its origin more than 25 years ago, Ethernet has evolved to meet the increasing demands of packet-switched networks. Due to its proven low implementation cost, its known reliability, and relative simplicity of installation and maintenance, its popularity has grown…

Introduction to iSCSI As Ethernet begins to enter into the Storage world a new protocol has been getting a lot of attention. The Internet Small Computer Systems Interface or iSCSI, is an end-to-end protocol for transporting storage I/O block data over an IP network. The protocol is used on servers (initiators), storage devices (targets), and…

Under the auspices of the IEEE 802.3 Working Group, Ethernet has developed into one of the most widely deployed networking technologies in the world. Ethernet’s unrelenting advances have allowed it to become the dominant technology for Enterprise networking. Data rates have increased from 10Mbps to Gigabit speeds. Links have gone from half to full duplex.…

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction The Case for a Copper Gigabit Ethernet Solution 1000BASE-T Overview Standards Development Process Interoperability How Does It Work? The Cabling Issue The Design Approach GigE bandwidth quotes GIGABIT ETHERNET OVER 4-PAIR 100 OHM CATEGORY 5 CABLING Introduction With the dramatic increases in desktop computing power driven by Intranet-based operations and the…