Summary

Summary

Although many of you use a number of different LAN technologies, the market still has a preponderance of legacy Ethernet deployed. A lot of 10 Mbps systems still exist with varied media options such as copper and fiber. You should expect to encounter this type of connection method for at least another few years. This chapter covered the basics of how legacy Ethernet functions.

Because of the limitations that legacy Ethernet can cause some applications, higher speed network technologies had to be developed. The IEEE created Fast Ethernet to meet this need. With the capability to run in full-duplex modes, Fast Ethernet offers significant bandwidth leaps to meet the needs of many users. This chapter discussed the media options available for Fast Ethernet and some of the operational characteristics of it.

And for real bandwidth consumers, Gigabit Ethernet offers even more capacity to meet the needs of trunking switches together and to feed high performance file servers. This chapter covered some of the attributes of Gigabit Ethernet and choices available to you for media.