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Congratulations on your purchase of the 8-Port 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet Switch with
4-Port PoE. This Switch integrates 100Mbps Fast Ethernet and 10Mbps Ethernet
network capabilities in a highly flexible package. And this switch’s Port-1 to Port-4 are
Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports, and it will automatically detects the presence of IEEE
802.3af-compliant powered device (PD) and provides power through the Port-1 to
Port-4. The switch provides up to 15.4 W for PoE port and can be used to WLAN
access point, IP phone, video camera and other PD devices. The Switch will
automatically detect the network appliance’s requirements, and the switch will supplies
the required power current to each appliance.
In this guide, the term “Switch” (first letter upper case) refers
to your 8-Port 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet Switch with 4-Port
PoE and “switch” (first letter lower case) refers to other
Ethernet switches.
1.
Introduction
This chapter describes the features of the Switch and some background information
about Ethernet/Fast Ethernet switching technology.
1.1
Fast Ethernet Technology
The growing importance of LANs and the increasing complexity of desktop computing
applications are fueling the need for high performance networks. A number of high-
speed LAN technologies have been proposed to provide greater bandwidth and
improve client/server response times. Among them, 100BASE-T (Fast Ethernet)
provides a non-disruptive, smooth evolution from the current 10BASE-T technology.
The non-disruptive and smooth evolution nature, and the dominating potential market
base, virtually guarantee cost effective and high performance Fast Ethernet solutions
in the years to come.
100Mbps Fast Ethernet is a new standard specified by the IEEE 802.3 LAN committee.
It is an extension of the 10Mbps Ethernet standard with the ability to transmit and
receive data at 100Mbps, while maintaining the CSMA/CD Ethernet protocol. Since the
100Mbps Fast Ethernet is compatible with all other 10Mbps Ethernet environments, it
provides a straightforward upgrade and takes advantage of the existing investment in
hardware, software, and personnel training.
