Ethernet, FastEthernet, Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and LRE

There are a lot of developments in the ethernet technology. According to Wikipedia “Ethernet is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs). The name came from the physical concept of the ether. It defines a number of wiring and signaling standards for the Physical Layer of the OSI networking model as well as a common addressing format and Media Access Control at the Data Link Layer.” Starting from the old 10 Mbps Ethernet, this technology has gained more speed to 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and even 10 Gbps. In this blog I will explain the progress of Ethernet.

The basic and slowest Ethernet is just the “Ethernet”. Ethernet is based on the 802.3 regulations and has only a 10 Mbps bandwidth. It uses a UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) cable and therefore has a length limit of only max 100 meters. Basic Ethernet is still found everywhere and is now commonly used in the access layers to connect a PC or end user devices to a switch/router.

A faster Ethernet (FE) is developed later called the “Fast Ethernet”. Fast Ethernet is based on the 802.3u regulations and has a speed up to 100 Mbps. It can even goes higher to 200 Mbps if full duplex is allowed. If you see a 10/100 port sign (and set it to mode auto), it means that it can transmit and receive speed up to 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps based on the Ethernet card. Fast Ethernet can use either UTP or fiber optic cabling.

A more advanced technology is the Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) which can send and receive data up to 1 Gbps. The cabling used for these technology is not UTP anymore but uses fiber optics because of its high speed. The improvement of this technology is 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE). 10Gb Ethernet can only be used when fiber optic cabling is used and is operated in full duplex mode.

Another technology related to Ethernet is the Long Range Ethernet. It is a proprietary technology developed by Cisco and can provide Ethernet service using pre-existing wiring such as telephone wires for distances up to 1.5 km and can provide speed from 5 Mbps to 15 Mbps. The available speed of LRE is dependant on the coverage. If the range is longer, the speed will be slower.

Hope this blog can help you differentiate between Ethernet, FE, GbE, 10 GbE and LRE from the speed, cabling and usage.