There are a number of technologies available to interconnect
devices in the campus network. Some of the more common technologies are listed.
The interconnection technology selected will be based on the amount of traffic
the link must carry. A mixture of copper and fiber optic cabling will likely be
used based on distances, noise immunity requirements, security and other
business requirements.
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Fast Ethernet (100-Mbps Ethernet) – This LAN specification (IEEE
802.3u) operates at 100 Mbps over twisted-pair cable. The Fast Ethernet
standard raises the speed of Ethernet from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps with only
minimal changes to the existing cable structure. A switch with port functioning
at both 10 and 100 Mbps can move frames between ports without protocol Layer 2
protocol translation.
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Gigabit Ethernet – An extension of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard,
Gigabit Ethernet increases speed tenfold over Fast Ethernet, to 1000 Mbps, or 1
gigabit per second (Gbps). IEEE 802.3z specifies operations over fiber optics
and IEEE 802.3ab specifies operations over twisted-pair cable.
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10 Gigabit Ethernet – 10 Gigabit Ethernet was formally ratified as
an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard in June 2002. This technology is the next step
for scaling the performance and functionality of enterprise. With the
deployment of Gigabit ethernet becoming more common, 10 Gigabit will become the
norm for uplinks.
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EtherChannel – This feature provides link aggregation to aggregate
bandwidth over Layer 2 links between two switches. EtherChannel bundles
individual Ethernet ports into a single logical port or link providing
aggregate bandwidth of 1600 Mbps (8-100Mbps links, full duplex) or 16 Gbps
(8-Gigabit links, full duplex) between two Catalyst switches. All interfaces in
each EtherChannel bundle must be configured with similar speed, duplex and VLAN
memberships.