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Fast Ethernet Overview

"Speed Limit: 100 Megabits per second!"

Full motion video for video conferencing requires, typically, at least 25 Mb/sec. That means that a legacy Ethernet, at 10 Mb/sec, can only deliver poor quality real-time video. With 100 Mb/sec, however, you can be watching a broadcast presentation in one window while you're in conference with three people in three other windows (for a total of 100 megabits of bandwidth.

Consider a file server that requires .6 Mb/sec (6 million bits per second; 60% utilization on a 10 Mb/sec Ethernet). With a 100 Mb/sec Ethernet this server can now utilize interface hardware that can pump data down the pipe at a greatly increased rate.

It seems clear that the evolution of the industry is away from 10 Mb/sec Ethernet and towards the 100 Mb/sec (or higher) rates of data transfer. This section of the compendium discusses 100 Mb/sec Ethernet technology.

Topics In This Discussion

• Introduction To Fast Ethernet
• Differences Between 100 Mb/sec and 10 Mb/sec Ethernet
• Integration Of 100 Mb/sec Ethernet Into Existing 10 Mb/sec networks
• Migration from 10 Mb/sec to 100 Mb/sec Ethernet
• Data Encoding
• Troubleshooting
• Signal Encoding