Module 7

Chapter 6
Ethernet Technologies
 10-Mbps Ethernet
• Legacy Ethernet
– 10BASE5, 10BASE2, and 10BASE-T

• Four common features of Legacy Ethernet

– Timing parameters
– Frame format
– Transmission process
– Basic design rule
 10-Mbps Ethernet
10BASE5

Single thick coaxial cable bus Cable is large and heavy

Primary benefit was length (500m) Only in half-duplex

Inexpensive Sensitive to signal reflection

No configuration Not for new installations

Components are difficult to find Difficult to install

 10-Mbps Ethernet
10BASE2

Uses half-duplex Compared to 10Base5

Components are difficult to find Low cost

No need for hubs Smaller size, lighter weight

Greater flexibility
Not for new installations

Installation easier
Thin net
 10-Mbps Ethernet
10BASE-T
Cheaper and easier to install Extended Star

Category 3 Originally half-duplex protocol

Category 5 Full-duplex features added

later

Category 5e New installations Cat5e or

better
10 Mbps in half-duplex mode
Uses a hub

Star topology 20 Mbps in full-duplex mode   

 Wiring and Architecture
• 5-4-3 rule
– No more than five segments
– Separated by no more than four repeaters.
– No more than three populated segments between any two
distant stations

• Hubs or repeaters merely extend the length of a

network segment within a single collision domain
• Bridges and switches divide a segment into separate
collision domains
 Manchester Encoding

• Manchester encoding is used in 10 Mbps systems

• The direction of the edge transition in the middle of the timing
window determines the binary value
 100-Mbps Ethernet

• 100-Mbps Ethernet is also known as Fast Ethernet

– 100BASE-TX is copper UTP
– 100BASE-FX is multimode optical fiber

• Three common characteristics:

– Timing parameters
– Frame format
– Parts of the transmission process
 100-Mbps Ethernet
• Timing parameters
– One bit time in 100-Mbps Ethernet is 10nsec
• Frame format
– 100-Mbps frame format is the same as the 10-Mbps
frame
• Parts of the transmission process
– Two separate encoding steps are used
• The first part of the encoding uses a technique called
4B/5B
• The second part of the encoding is the actual line
encoding specific to copper or fiber
 100-Mbps Ethernet

• 100BASE-TX uses 4B/5B encoding which is then scrambled

• Converted to multi-level transmit-3 levels or MLT-3.
• Half-duplex = 100 Mbps
• Full-duplex = 200 Mbps
 Fast Ethernet Architecture

• Fast Ethernet links consist of a connection

between a station and a hub or switch
– Hubs are considered multi-port repeaters

– Switches are considered multi-port bridges

– These are subject to the 100 m UTP distance limitation

 Fast Ethernet Architecture

• Class I repeater
– Any repeater that changes between one Ethernet
implementation and another
– 140 bit-times of latency

• Class II repeater
– 92 bit-times latency
– Cable between Class II repeaters may not exceed 5 meters
 Fast Ethernet Architecture
• Signaling scheme is inherently full duplex
– Half duplex are not uncommon
– Half duplex is undesirable

• Switches have made the 100m limitation less

important
• Workstations are located within 100m of the switch

• 100 m distance starts over at the switch

 1000-Mbps Ethernet
• 1000-Mbps Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet Transmission
– Fiber and copper media  

• The 1000BASE-X IEEE 802.3z

– Specifies 1 Gbps full duplex over optical fiber

• 1000BASE-TX, 1000BASE-SX, and 1000BASE-LX

– Timing parameters
• 1 nanosecond or 1 billionth of a second bit time.

– Frame Format
• Same format used for 10 and 100-Mbps Ethernet

– Transmission
• Depending on the implementation
 1000-Mbps Ethernet
• 1000BASE-T (IEEE 802.3ab) was developed to
provide additional bandwidth for:
– Intra-building backbones
– Inter-switch links
– Server farms
– Connections for high-end workstations
– Supports both half-duplex and full-duplex

• Fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-X)

– Uses 8B/10B encoding (similar to 4B/5B)
– This is followed by Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) line encoding
 1000Base-LX/SX
• Common to all versions of 1000 Mbps
– Timing
– Frame format
– Transmission

• NRZ signals are pulsed into the fiber

– Short-wavelength (1000BASE-SX )
– Long-wavelength (1000BASE-LX)

• Media Access Control

– Link as point-to-point

• Separate fibers
– Transmitting (Tx)
– Receiving (Rx)
– Inherently full duplex
 Gigabit Ethernet

• Gigabit Ethernet is the dominant

technology for:
– Backbone installations,
– High-speed cross-connects
– General infrastructure
 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ae, governs the 10GbE family
• Provide increased bandwidth
• Interoperable with existing infrastructure
• Implementations being considered:
– 10GBASE-SR

– 10GBASE-LX4

– 10GBASE-LR and 10GBASE-ER

– 10GBASE-SW, 10GBASE-LW, and 10GBASE-EW

 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• 10GBASE-SR –
– short distances, supports a range between 26 m to 82 m

• 10GBASE-LX4 –
– Uses wide wavelength division multiplexing (WWDM)
– 240 m to 300 m over multimode fiber
– 10 km over single-mode fiber

• 10GBASE-LR and 10GBASE-ER –

– Support 10 km and 40 km over single-mode fiber

• 10GBASE-SW, 10GBASE-LW, and 10GBASE-EW –

– Known collectively as 10GBASE-W
– Works with OC-192 synchronous transport module
 Future of Ethernet
• The future of networking media is three-fold:
1. Copper (up to 1000 Mbps, perhaps more)
2. Wireless (approaching 100 Mbps, perhaps more)
3. Optical fiber (currently at 10,000 Mbps and soon to be more)

• Copper and wireless media have certain physical and

practical limitations
• Limitations on optical fiber are:
– Electronics technology
• emitters and detectors
– Fiber manufacturing processes

• Developments in Ethernet
– Heavily weighted towards Laser light sources
– Single-mode optical fiber
 The End
Break Time