Considering The Move To GigE Networking

Posted by Cappadonna on Monday, November 1, 2010

By Tom Adams

Anybody who uses networked computer systems can understand the need for speed. The networks of yesteryear, with their slow-poke speeds, would take way too long to exchange the jumbo-sized data files that commonly get generated today. Gigabit Ethernet network technology can make things happen much faster. (GigE is the abbreviation that you'll commonly see.)

At the beginning, there were three principal contending standards for personal computer networking. Ethernet began with a maximum speed of ten Megabits per second, while Token Bus and Token Ring started with maximum speeds of four Megabits, which was later increased to 16 Megabits. But, Ethernet eventually became way more popular and pretty much put the Token technology out to pasture. Ethernet is still the primary networking technology.

Although these slow speeds worked great in a past era, they wouldn't work at all in today's networks. Now, you can pretty much count on every office worker having a networked computer, and data files can be very large. Transferring huge amounts of data between computers would just take entirely too long with those old networks.

Later on, 100 Megabit per second networking came on-line, along with a massive jump in speed. That was a tremendous help in the office. However, for certain other purposes, more was still needed. In the world of scientific computing, where enormously large data files get transferred routinely, and for high-performance clusters that can only work properly with near-instantaneous communications, Gigabit speed networks work quite well. Also, the old 100 Megabit technology isn't speedy enough to use for the Internet backbone.

The first Gigabit Ethernet standard came out in 1998, and was given the 1000BASE-X designation. While it may have been fine for either building out a brand-new network or for Internet backbone lines, its use of fiber optic cable made it impractical to upgrade existing twisted-pair wire networks in the office. So, the following year, the Gigabit twisted-pair wire standard was introduced, with the designation 1000BASE-T.

Most new computers are now sold with built-in Gigabit Ethernet adapters. For business use, Gigabit-type network equipment is available from multiple vendors. Switches with at least 24 ports are priced from several hundred to several thousand dollars. For home and small office use, switches with either five or eight ports can be had for anywhere from 35 to 60 dollars. This new equipment is backward compatible, so if you still need to use it with some older, slower-speed equipment, you can do so.

In 2002, the standard for 10 Gigabit fiber optic was introduced. Currently, it's still unaffordable for use in offices. So now, its main use is for upgrading the Internet backbone.

If you have a need for high-performance networking technology, you'll find lots of information on the World Wide Web. You can use your preferred search engine to look up GigE products.

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