Switched, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet (3rd Edition)

Breyer, Robert; Riley, Sean

ISBN 10: 1578700736 ISBN 13: 9781578700738

Publisher: Sams, 1998

Synopsis

Switched, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet, Third Edition is the one and only solution needed to understand and fully implement this entire range of Ethernet innovations. Acting both as an overview of current technologies and hardware requirements as well as a hands-on, comprehensive tutorial for deploying and managing Switched, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernets, this guide covers the most prominent present and future challenges network administrators face.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter 3 - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet Standards:

This chapter discusses the theory and standards of the three versions of Ethernet around today: regular 10Mbps Ethernet, 100Mbps Fast Ethernet, and 1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet. The goal of this chapter is to educate you as a LAN manager or IT professional about essential differences between shared 10Mbps Ethernet and these newer technologies. This chapter focuses on aspects of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet that are relevant to you and doesn't get into too much technical detail.

Read this chapter and the following two (Chapter 4, "Layer 2 Ethernet Switching," and Chapter 5, "VLANs and Layer 3 Switching") together. This chapter focuses on the different Ethernet MAC and PHY standards, as well as repeaters, also known as hubs. Chapter 4 examines Ethernet bridging, also known as Layer 2 switching. Chapter 5 discusses VLANs, some basics of routing, and Layer 3 switching. These three chapters serve as a precursor to the second half of this book, namely the hands-on implementation in Chapters 8 through 12. After you understand the key differences between yesterday's shared Ethernet and today's Switched, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet, evaluating products and building a network with these products should be relatively straightforward.

The chapter is split into seven sections:

"Ethernet and the OSI Reference Model" discusses the OSI Reference Model and how Ethernet relates to the physical (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) layers of the OSI model.

The second section, "10Mbps Ethernet MAC and PHY Standards," delves into the 10Mbps Ethernet MAC in more detail and discusses the various Ethernet physical layer implementations available today: Thick, Thin, Twisted-Pair, and Fiber Ethernet. You can skip this section if you are very familiar with Ethernet. We included it as a refresher to set the stage for our discussion of the new Fast Ethernet standard and switching technology.

Ethernet was designed to be a shared-media, half-duplex technology. The third section of this chapter, "Half- and Full-Duplex Ethernet," discusses the transition from half-duplex to full-duplex transmission.

The fourth section of this chapter, "100BASE-T/Fast Ethernet," intro-duces the IEEE 802.3u Fast Ethernet standard and discusses how it differs from the regular 10Mbps Ethernet standard. This section explains the Fast Ethernet MAC and the four different PHY standards in more detail.

In the section "Gigabit Ethernet," you learn about the new Gigabit Ethernet MAC and PHY standard, as well as the new 1000BASE-T PHY for Category 5 or better UTP cable.

Next, we discuss the auto-negotiation standard. Auto-negotiation was first introduced as part of the Fast Ethernet standard. It is an automatic speed-selection method, connecting different devices together.

In the final section, "Ethernet Repeaters," we start explaining deployment by means of repeaters. In particular, this section discusses Ethernet and Fast Ethernet repeater standards, as well as the Gigabit Ethernet buffered distributor/repeater design specification. We also cover repeater design rules.

Chapter 6, "Cabling and More on Physical Layers," covers the Fast and Gigabit Ethernet physical layers and the corresponding encoding and cabling specifications in much more detail.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sams
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1578700736
• ISBN 13: 9781578700738
• Binding: Textbook Binding
• Number of pages: 400