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NP3005 - 5 Port Gigabit Switch
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 busses 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, complex imaging, and similar data-intensive
applications and, 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
amount of time.
Switching Technology
Another key development pushing the limits of Ethernet technology is in the field of switching
technology. A switch bridges Ethernet packets at the MAC address level of the Ethernet
protocol transmitting among connected Ethernet or fast Ethernet LAN segments.
Switching is a cost-effective way of increasing the total network capacity available to users on a
local area network. A switch increases capacity and decreases network loading by making it
possible for a local area network to be divided into different segments which don't compete with
each other for network transmission capacity, giving a decreased load on each.
The switch acts as a high-speed selective bridge between the individual segments. Traffic that
needs to go from one segment to another is automatically forwarded by the switch, without
interfering with any other segments. This allows the total network capacity to be multiplied,
while still maintaining the same network cabling and adapter cards.
Switching LAN technology is a marked improvement over the previous generation of network
bridges, which were characterized by higher latencies. Routers have also been used to segment
local area networks, but the cost of a router and the setup and maintenance required make
routers relatively impractical. Today's switches are an ideal solution to most local area network
congestion problems.
