Fast Ethernet

Fast Ethernet refers to a set of specifications developed by the IEEE 802.3 committee to provide a low cost, Ethernet-compatible LAN operating at 100Mbps. The blanket designation for these standards is 100BASE-T. The committee defined a number of alternatives to be used with different transmission media. All of the 100BASE-T options use the IEEE 802.3 MAC protocol and frame format. 100BASE-T refers to a set of options that use two physical links between nodes; one for transmission and one for reception. 100BASE-TX makes use of shielded twisted pair (STP) or high quality.

IEEE 802.3 (100 Mbps)

100BASE-X

100BASE-T4

100BASE-TX

100BASE-FX

Unshielded twisted pair(UTP). 100BASE-FX uses optical fiber. For all of these schemes the distance involved between hubs and stations is on the order of a maximum of 100 to 200 m.

In many buildings any of the 100 BASE-x requires the installations of new cable. To minimize costs for buildings that do not have the required cable in place, 100BASE-T4 defines a lower cost alternative that do not have the required cable in grade UTP to achieve the 100Mbps data rate over Lower quality cable, 100BASE-T4 dictates the use of four pairs in one direction at a time. 100BASE-X For all of the transmission media specified 100BASE-X, A unidirectional data rate of 100Mbbs is achieved transmitting over a single Link (Single twisted pair , single optical fiber ).For all these media , an efficient and effective signal encoding schema is required . The one chosen is referred to as 4B/5B-NRZI.These encoding technique is more efficient then the Manchester technique used for 10Mbps Ethernet and is therefore desirable at the higher data rate.

The 100BASE-X designation includes two physical median specifications: One for twisted pair known as 100BASE-TX , and one for optical fiber, known as 100BASE-FX. 100BASE-TX make use of two pair of twisted pair cables , one pair used for transmission and one for reception. Both STP and category 5UTP are allowed. 100BASE-FX makes use of two optical fiber cables , one for transmission and one for reception .

100BASE-T4 100BASE-T4 is designed to produce a 100Mbps data rate over lower-quality category 3 cables, Thus taking advantages of the large installed base of category 3 cables in office buildings. The specifications also indicates that the use of category 5 cables is optional. Foe 100BASE-T4 using voice-grade category 3 cable, it is not reasonable to expect to achieve 100Mbps on a single twisted pair. Instead, 100Base-T4 specifies that the data stream to be transmitted is split into three data stream, each with an effective rate of 33 1/3 Mbps. Four twisted pair are used. Data are transmitted using three pairs and received using three pairs. Thus two of the pairs must be configured for Bi-directional transmission. Configurations and Operations In its simplest form, a 100BASE-T network is configured in a star-wire topology, with all stations connected directly to a central point referred to as a multiport repeater. In these configurations, the repeater has the responsibilities for detecting collisions, rather than attached stations. the repeater functions as follows : A valid signal appearing on any single input is repeated on all output link If two inputs occurred at the same time, a Jam signal is transmitted on all links.

The term collision domain is used to define a single CSMA/CD Network. These mean that if two stations transmit at the same time, a collision will occur. Stations separated by a simple multiport repeater are within the same collision domain where as stations separated by bridges are in different collision domain. Figure 5.6 illustrates this difference. The bridge operates in a store-and-forward fashion and therefore participates in two CSMA/CD algorithms, one for each of the two collision domains that it connects, The 100BASE-T standard defines two types of repeaters. A class I repeaters can support unlink physical media segments, such as 100BASE-T4 and 100BASE-TX. In this case, there is likely tp be increased internal delay in repeater to handle the conversion from one signaling scheme to another. Therefore only single class I repeater is used in collision domain. A class II repeater is limited to a single physical media type, and there may be two class II repeater used in single collision domain

Full duplex operation: A traditional Ethernet is half duplex; a station can either transmit or receive a frame , but it cannot do both simultaneously. With full duplex operation, a station can transmit and receive simultaneously with 100mbps Ethernet ran in full duplex mode , the theoretical rate would becomes 200mbps. Several changes are needed to half rate in full duplex mode. The attached stations must have full duplex rather than half duplex adapter cards the central point in the star wire cannot be a simple multiport repeater but rather must be a switched hub, in this case each station constitutes a separate collision domains. In fact there are no collisions and CSMA/CD algorithm is no longer needed. However the same 802.3 MAC frame format is used and attached stations can continue to execute the CDMA/CD algorithm even though no collision can ever be detected Mixed configuration: One of the strength of the fast Ethernet approach is that it readily supports a mixer of existing 10mbps LANs and newer 100mbps LANs .100mbps technology is used as backbone LAN many of the station attached to 10mbps hubs using the 10BASE-T standard these hubs are , in turn , connected to switching hubs that conform to 10BASE-T and that can support 10mbps and 100mbps links. Additional high capacity work stations and servers attach directly to this 10/100 switches. This mixed capacity switches or in turn connected to 100mbps hubs using 100mbps links the 100mbps hubs provide a building backbone and are also connected to a router that provide connection to an outside WAN.