Gigabyte 41000BASE-T User Manual

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I
NTRODUCTION
 
This 
section describes the features of the 5-Port 
10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Switch, as well as providing 
some background information about Gigabit Ethernet and 
switching technology. 
Gigabit Ethernet Technology 
Gigabit Ethernet is an extension of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet utilizing 
the same packet structure, format, and support fo r 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 enables fast optical fiber connections to 
support video conferencing, complex imaging, and similar 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.