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Ethernet
Article Table of contents

Introduction to Ethernet
Ethernet (also known as IEEE 802.3 standard) is a data transmission standard for local
area networks based on the following principle:
All machines on an Ethernet network
are connected to the same communication line,
made up of cylindrical cables

Different variants of Ethernet technologies are distinguished according to the type and
diameter of the cables used:

10Base2: The cable used is a thin coaxial cable, called thin Ethernet,
10Base5: The cable used is a thick coaxial cable, called thick Ethernet,
10Base-T: The cable used is a twisted pair (the T means twisted pair), the speed
achieved is around 10 Mbps,
100Base-FX: Makes it possible to achieve a speed of 100Mbps by using
multimode fibre optic (F stands for Fibre).
100Base-TX: Like 10Base-T, but with a speed 10 times greater (100Mbps),
1000Base-T: Uses a double twisted pair of category 5 cables and allows a speed
of a Gigabit per second.
1000Base-SX: Based on multimode fibre optic using a short wavelength signal (S
stands for short) of 850 nanometres (770 to 860 nm).
1000Base-LX: Based on multimode fibre optic using a long wavelength signal (L
stands for long) of 1350 nm (1270 to 1355 nm).

Abbreviation

Name

Cable
Connector Speed
Coaxial cable (50 Ohms) with a
10Base2
Thin Ethernet
BNC
10 Mb/s
thin diameter
Coaxial cable with a thick
10Base5
Thick Ethernet
BNC
10Mb/s
diameter (0.4 inch)
Standard
10Base-T
Twisted pair (category 3)
RJ-45
10 Mb/s
Ethernet
Double twisted pair (category
100Base-TX Fast Ethernet
RJ-45
100 Mb/s
5)
Multimode fibre optic (type
100Base-FX Fast Ethernet
100 Mb/s
62.5/125)
1000Base-T Gigabit
Double twisted pair (category RJ-45
1000

Ports
185m
500m
100m
100m
2 km
100m

Ethernet
Gigabit
1000Base-LX
Ethernet
Gigabit
1000Base-SX
Ethernet
10Gigabit
10GBase-SR
Ethernet
10Gigabit
10GBase-LX4
Ethernet

5)
Monomode or multimode fibre
optic
Multimode fibre optic

Mb/s
1000
Mb/s
1000
Mbit/s

550m
550m

Multimode fibre optic

10 Gbit/s 500m

Multimode fibre optic

10 Gbit/s 500m

Ethernet is a widely used network technology because the cost of such a network is not
very high

Transmission principle
All the computers on an Ethernet network are connected to the same transmission line,
and communication is carried out using a protocol called CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense
Multiple Access with Collision Detect which means that it is a multiple access protocol
with carrier monitoring (Carrier Sense) and collision detection).
With this protocol any machine is authorised to transmit over the line at any time and
with no concept of priority between machines. This communication is conducted simply:

Each machine verifies that there is no communication on the line before

transmitting
If two machines transmit simultaneously, then there is a collision (i.e. several data
frames are located on the line at the same time)
The two machines interrupt their communication and wait for a random time
period, then once the first has exceeded this time delay it can then retransmit

This principle is based on several limitations:

The data packets must have a maximum size

there must be a waiting time between two transmissions

The waiting time varies depending on the frequency of collisions:

After the first collision a machine waits for a unit of time

After the second collision the machine waits for two units of time
After the third collision the machine waits for four units of time
... with of course a small amount of additional random time

Switched Ethernet

Until now, the Ethernet topology described has been that of the shared Ethernet (any
message transmitted is heard by all connected machines, available bandwidth is shared by
all machines).
Over several years a significant development has taken place: that of the Switched
Ethernet.
The physical topology remains a star, but is organised around a switch. The switch uses a
filtering and switching mechanism very similar to that used by gateways where these
techniques have been used for a long time.
It inspects the source and destination addresses of messages, draws up a table which then
allows it to know which machine is connected on which port of the switch (in general this
process is done by self-learning, i.e. automatically, but the switch manager can carry out
additional adjustments).
Knowing the recipient port, the switch will only transmit the message on the appropriate
port, the other ports remaining free for other transmissions which can be carried out
simultaneously.
The result is that each exchange can be carried out at nominal speed (greater division of
the bandwidth), without collisions, with a noticeable increase in the network bandwidth
as a result (also at nominal speed).
As for knowing whether all the ports on a switch can communicate at the same time
without loosing messages, that depends on the quality of the switch (non blocking
switch).
Since switching makes it possible to avoid collisions and the 10/100/1000 base T(X)
technologies have separate circuits for transmission and reception (a twisted pair per
transmission direction), the majority of modern switches make it possible to deactivate
collision detection and move into full-duplex mode on the ports. In this way, the
machines can transmit and receive at the same time (which again contributes to network
performance).
Full-duplex mode is particularly interesting for servers which must serve several clients.
Modern Ethernet switches also detect the transmission speed used by each machine
(autosensing) and if the machine supports several speeds (10 or 100 or 1000
megabits/sec) begin by negotiating with it to choose a speed as well as the semi-duplex or
full-duplex mode of the transmission. This makes it possible to have a store of machines
with different performances (for example a set of computers with various hardware
configurations).
As the traffic transmitted and received is no longer transmitted over all ports, it becomes
much more difficult to sniff what is happening. This contributes to the general security of
the network, which is a highly sensitive subject today.

To finish, the use of switches makes it possible to build geographically larger networks.
On shared Ethernet, a message must be able to wait for any other machine on the network
for a specified time period (slot time) without which the collision detection mechanism
(CSMA/CD) does not work correctly.
This no longer applies with Ethernet switches. The distance is no longer limited except by
the technical limits of the medium used (fibre optic or twisted pair, strength of signal
transmitted and sensitivity of the receiver,...).