LAN Basics
High-Speed Ethernet Options
- Fast Ethernet
- Fast EtherChannel®
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Gigabit EtherChannel
We’ve mentioned that Ethernet also
has high speed options that are currently available. Fast
Ethernet is used widely at this point and provides customers
with 100 Mbps performance, a ten-fold increase. Fast EtherChannel
is a Cisco value-added feature that provides bandwidth up
to 800 Mbps. There is now a standard for Gigabit Ethernet
as well and Cisco provides Gigabit Ethernet solutions with
1000 Mbps performance.
Let’s look more closely at Fast EtherChannel and Gigabit
Ethernet.
What Is Fast EtherChannel?
Grouping of multiple Fast Ethernet interfaces
into one logical transmission path
- Scalable bandwidth up to 800+ Mbps
- Using industry-standard Fast Ethernet
- Load balancing across parallel links
- Extendable to Gigabit Ethernet
Fast EtherChannel provides a solution for network managers who require higher
bandwidth between servers, routers, and switches than Fast Ethernet technology
can currently provide.
Fast EtherChannel is the grouping of multiple Fast Ethernet interfaces into one
logical transmission path providing parallel bandwidth between switches, servers,
and Cisco routers. Fast EtherChannel provides bandwidth aggregation by combining
parallel 100-Mbps Ethernet links (200-Mbps full-duplex) to provide flexible, incremental
bandwidth between network devices.
For example, network managers can deploy Fast EtherChannel consisting of pairs
of full-duplex Fast Ethernet to provide 400+ Mbps between the wiring closet and
the data center, while in the data center bandwidths of up to 800 Mbps can be
provided between servers and the network backbone to provide large amounts of
scalable incremental bandwidth.
Cisco’s Fast EtherChannel technology builds upon standards-based 802.3 full-duplex
Fast Ethernet. It is supported by industry leaders such as Adaptec, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard,
Intel, Micron, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, and Xircom and is scalable
to Gigabit Ethernet in the future.
What Is Gigabit Ethernet?
In some cases, Fast EtherChannel technology
may not be enough.
The old 80/20 rule of network traffic (80 percent of traffic
was local, 20 percent was over the backbone) has been inverted
by intranets and the World Wide Web. The rule of thumb today
is to plan for 80 percent of the traffic going over the backbone.
Gigabit networking is important to accommodate these evolving
needs.
Gigabit Ethernet builds on the Ethernet protocol but increases
speed tenfold over Fast Ethernet, to 1000 Mbps, or 1 Gbps.
It promises to be a dominant player in high-speed LAN backbones
and server connectivity. Because Gigabit Ethernet significantly
leverages on Ethernet, network managers will be able to leverage
their existing knowledge base to manage and maintain Gigabit
networks.
The Gigabit Ethernet spec addresses three forms of transmission
media though not all are available yet:
- 1000BaseLX: Long-wave (LW) laser over single-mode
and multimode fiber
- 1000BaseSX: Short-wave (SW) laser over multimode fiber
- 1000BaseCX: Transmission over balanced shielded 150-ohm
2-pair STP copper cable
- 1000BaseT: Category 5 UTP copper wiring Gigabit Ethernet
allows Ethernet to scale from 10 Mbps at the desktop, to 100
Mbps to the workgroup, to 1000 Mbps in the
data center. By leveraging the current Ethernet standards
as well as the installed base of Ethernet
and Fast Ethernet switches and routers, network managers do
not need to retrain and relearn a new technology
to provide support for Gigabit Ethernet.
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