Ethernet Technology- Things You Should Know

Posted by tomgreen on September 3, 2010

Ethernet technology is the very first and still most widely used for networking. The concept of Ethernet was formed when Xerox PARC, now known simply as PARC or Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, proposed to develop a form of system that would allow computers and devices to be connected with one another via the use of coaxial cables. Three years later, a partial draft version was finished and prepared for testing. With an astonishing data transmission rate of 3 megabytes (3 million bytes) every second, and a fixed fortunate conjunction of two computers, the once just a proposition became an ideal venture.

Ethernet technology has many benefits, learn more today!

The name Ethernet came from the combination of words Ether and Net. Ether, meaning “light-bearing”, stands for the use of light as a means of data carrying medium. Net is an abbreviation for network, the community of link computers. Ethernet was the reason LAN (Local Area Network) came to be, because it materialized the possibility of computers being interconnected with each other.

Ethernet functions by attaching cables to the needed devices and computers. These cables don’t directly connect computers to each other, instead they lead to a connector. A connector may be in form of a hub, repeater, or a switch. These connectors are classified depending on their performance in terms of data relaying. Ethernet fundamentally relies on “Domino Effect”. Firstly, a computer will summon a signal where it embeds a message. With the help of cables, the signal travels from its origin to the connector and then from the connector to the accepting computer. When the assigned computer catches the signal, it will transmit its own back to the sender and react according to the prompted information. With normal networks, any member computer has access rights identical with other members. With wider networks, however, only those computers that are entitled to be used by higher authorities have the right to manage all intercommunication.

In the present, the Ethernet technology is available in many versions. The earliest ones are the 10BASE5 (the very first standard), 10BROAD36 (the first standard that allowed long-distance connections), 10BASE2 (also known as the Cheapernet) and 1BASE5 (said to be a failure but started the following developments in Ethernet technology). The versions that were published later on provided wider choices for different speed choices. The 10 megabit Ethernet was the first to step out of the previous 1Mbit/second rating. Following was the 100 megabit Ethernet or the Fast Ethernet, named accordingly because of its ten times performance efficacy. And from megabytes, the technology moved into gigabytes with the creation of the Gigabit Ethernet having 1Gbit per second speed. Now, 1Gbit/second speed seems slow because a version was created with ten more times capacity, the 10 Gigabit Ethernet. And as of the present time, more advanced versions 40 and 100 Gigabit are expected to be published.

All contributions of Ethernet technology definitely makes it hard to think what it would be like if it didn’t existed. Everything would be troublesome as all normal day-to-day activities will have to be done by hands. And so, we would always have to be thankful that Ethernet was formalized and born into our world.