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Gigabit Ethernet Technology
Gigabit Ethernet is an extension of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet utilizing the same
packet structure, format, and support for CSMA/CD protocol, full duplex, flow
control, and management objects, but with a tenfold increase in theoretical
throughput over 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet and a hundredfold increase over
10-Mbps Ethernet. Since it is compatible with all 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps
Ethernet environments, Gigabit Ethernet provides a straightforward upgrade
without wasting a company’s existing investment in hardware, software and
trained personnel.
The increased speed and extra bandwidth offered by Gigabit Ethernet is
essential to coping with the network bottlenecks that frequently develop as
computers and their bus speeds get faster and more users use applications that
generate more traffic. Upgrading key components, such as your backbone and
servers to Gigabit Ethernet can greatly improve network response times as well
as significantly speed up the traffic between your subnets.
Gigabit Ethernet supports video conferencing, comple x imag ing and simila r
data-intensive applications. Like wise, since data transfers occur 10 times faster
than Fast Ethernet, servers outfitted with Gigabit Ethernet NIC’s are able to
perform 10 times the number of operations in the same a mount of t ime.
