Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
26.10 Comparison of fast Ethernet other technologies
Table 26
.4
compares fast Ethernet with other types of networking technologies.
Table 26.4
Comparison of fast Ethernet with other networking technologies
Feature
100VG-AnyLAN
(Cat 3, 4, or 5)
100BASE-T
(TX/FX/T4)
FDDI
ATM
Gigabit
Ethernet
(802.3z)
Maximum
segment
length
100 m
100 m (Cat-5)
412 m (Fibre)
2000 m
200 m (Cat-5)
2000 m (Fibre)
100 m (Cat 5)
1k m (Fibre)
Maximum
network
diameter with
repeater(s)
6000 m
320 m
100 km
N/A
To be
determined by
the standard
Bit rate
100 Mbps
100 Mbps
100 Mbps
155 Mbps
1 Gbps
Media access
method
Demand priority
CSMA/CD
Token
passing
PVC/SVC
CSMA/CD
Maximum
nodes on each
domain
1024
Limited by hub
500
N/A
To be
determined
Frame type
Ethernet and
Token Ring
Ethernet
802.5
53-byte cell
Ethernet
Multimedia
support
9
FDDI-I (
_
)
FDDI-II (
9
)
9
YES (with
802.1p)
_
Integration
with
10BASE2
Yes with
bridges, switches
and routers
Yes with
switches
Yes with
routers and
switches
Yes with
routers or
switches
Yes with
10/100 Mbps
switching
Relative cost
Low
Low
Medium
High
Medium
Relative
complexity
Low
Low
Medium
High
Low
26.10.1 Switching technology
A switch uses store-and-forward packets to switch between ports. The main technologies
used are:
•
Shared bus - this method uses a high-speed backplane to interconnect the switched
ports. It is frequently used to build modular switches that give a large number of ports,
