Gigabit Ethernet and Expanding Network Environments

Gigabit Ethernet

and

Expanding Network Environments

Table of Contents

Ethernet Background 1

Technical Description 2

Gig-E and Network Environments 3

Physical Media and Growing Ranges 3

Media Access Protocols and Changing Traffic Patterns 4

Synchronous Optical Network vs. Gigabit Ethernet 5

SONet, the Incumbent 6

The Costs of Networking 6

System Performance 9

Long Haul Shortcomings 10

Gigabit Ethernet As an End-to-End Solution 11

Local Area Network Deployment 11

Metro Area Network Deployment and Beyond 12

Works Cited 14

Ethernet Background

Nearly thirty years ago, Robert Metcalfe, David Boggs, and a team of Xerox researchers

began developing a means of interconnecting graphical computers at their Palo Alto Research

Center (PARC) in California (10GigE Technology, 9/01). Envisioned as a way for computers

within a single building or campus to share data among each other, this technology soon became

known as the Ethernet, so named because it created a network of computers seemingly

interconnected through the "ether." While the coaxial cable design was relatively simplistic, the

idea of interconnecting computers within a network architecture was nevertheless powerful and,

over time, attracted the attention of several influential companies, including Xerox, Intel, and

Digital Equipment Corporation. During the early 1980's, these companies formed a consortium

to promote the technology as a local area network (LAN) implementation that delivered

relatively high performance at a minimal cost (GigE Equipment, 2001). Around the same time,

Ethernet gained additional substantiation when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers (IEEE) announced the 802.3 standard for the technology.

Since that time, Ethernet technology and its associated 802.3 standards have evolved

substantially (Table 1).

With the introduction of

different physical media,

topologies, ranges, and

speeds, Ethernet has

gained significant improvements in functionality and has expanded its network scope beyond the

original local area environment. In fact, the newest versions of the technolo gy, Gigabit Ethernet

and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, are now attempting to expand into the larger scale network markets of

Configuration Medium Max Length (m) IEEE Standard

10Base-T Cat 3/4 TP 802.3i

100Base-TX Cat 5 TP 802.3u

1000Base-SX Short l MM Fiber 550 (new) / 220 (old) 802.3z

1000Base-LX Long l MM Fiber 550 802.3z

1000Base-LX Long l SM Fiber 5000 802.3z

1000Base-CX Cat 5e STP 25 802.3z

1000Base-T 4-pair Cat 5e UTP 100 802.3ab

10Gbase-LX? MM Fiber 350+ 802.3ae

10GBase-LX? SM Fiber 40,000+ 802.3ae

Table 1 - Ethernet Choices

Metro Area Networks (MAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN). With corporate backing from

industry leaders like 3Com, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Intel, Nortel, and Sun

Microsystems, Gigabit Ethernet, or Gig- E, as it has come to be called, promises levels of

operability to successfully compete with legacy