Trendnet TEG-160WS [9/44] Gigabit ethernet technology

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the features of the 16-Port 10/100/1000Mbps

Gigabit Ethernet Web Smart Switch and some background

information about Ethernet/Fast Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet switching

technology.

Gigabit Ethernet Technology

Gigabit Ethernet is an extension of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet utilizing the

same packet structure, format, and support for CSMA/CD protocol,

full duplex, flow control, and management objects, but with a tenfold

increase in theoretical throughput over 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet and a

hundredfold increase over 10-Mbps Ethernet. Since it is compatible

with all 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps Ethernet environments, Gigabit

Ethernet provides a straightforward upgrade without wasting a

company’s existing investment in hardware, software, and trained

personnel.

The increased speed and extra bandwidth offered by Gigabit Ethernet

is essential to coping with the network bottlenecks that frequently

develop as computers and their busses get faster and more users use

applications that generate more traffic. Upgrading key components,

such as your backbone and servers to Gigabit Ethernet can greatly

improve network response times as well as significantly speed up the

traffic between your subnets.

Gigabit Ethernet enables fast optical fiber connections to support

video conferencing, complex imaging, and similar data-intensive

applications. Likewise, since data transfers occur 10 times faster than

Fast Ethernet, servers outfitted with Gigabit Ethernet NIC’s are able to

perform 10 times the number of operations in the same amount of time.