Fast Ethernet Vs Gigabit Ethernet: Their Differences Analyzed in Detail

1. FAST ETHERNET VS GIGABIT ETHERNET Fast Ethernet (FE): Introduced in 1995, Fast Ethernet has a transmission speed of 100 Mbps. Covered under 802.3u standard, a few Fast Ethernet types include 100 Base-FX, 100 Base-T4, and 100 Base-TX. The “100” is common to all and it indicates the transmission speed of the network, which is 100 Mbps. Base refers to the baseband signaling. In this, T stands for twisted pair cable, and F stands for fiber – both referring to the type of cable used for signal carrying. The term 4 or X refers to the line code signal used. FE supports both - full-duplex and half-duplex modes. Autonegotiation was introduced along with FE, which enables two devices to transmit data through a commonly shared connection. FAST ETHERNET 100 Base EX 100 Base T4 100BASE-TX: 100BASE-FX Types of Fast Ethernet? Fast Ethernet refers to Ethernet standards that offer data transfer speeds of 100 Mbps (Megabits per second). 1. 100BASE-TX: This type of Fast Ethernet uses Category 5 (Cat5) or higher twisted-pair copper cables for data transmission. It operates over two pairs of wires (pins 1-2 and 3-6) in the Ethernet cable and supports full- duplex mode for simultaneous data transmission and reception. 100BASE-FX: This type of Fast Ethernet utilizes fiber optic cables for data transmission. It operates over two optical fibers and supports full-duplex mode as well. 100BASE-FX is commonly used for long-distance connections, where copper cables might have limitations. 2. 3. www.versitron.com/

2. Gigabit Ethernet (GE): Introduced in 1999, Gigabit Ethernet has a transmission speed of 1000 Mbps. It is today one of the widely used Ethernet types. It supports full-duplex and half-duplex modes and is covered under the framework of 803.2. It was first introduced over fiber optic cables in 1999 and twisted pair cables were introduced later. There are different layer standards of GE such as 1000Base – SX, 1000Base-LX, 1000Base- CX, and 1000Base-T. Of these 1000 Base-SX and 1000-Base LX use fiber optics cable and 1000Base –CX uses 2 pairs of STP and 1000Base-T uses 4 pairs of STP. Types of Gigabit Ethernet? Gigabit Ethernet refers to Ethernet standards that offer data transfer speeds of 1 Gbps (Gigabit per second). There are several types of Gigabit Ethernet: 1. 1000BASE-T: Also known as Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair copper cables, is the most common type of Gigabit Ethernet. It operates over Category 5e (Cat5e) or higher twisted-pair copper cables and supports full-duplex mode for simultaneous data transmission and reception. 1000BASE-SX: This type of Gigabit Ethernet utilizes multi-mode fiber optic cables for data transmission. It is commonly used for short-distance connections, such as within a data center or campus network. 1000BASE-LX: 1000BASE-LX also utilizes fiber optic cables but is designed for longer-distance connections compared to 1000BASE-SX. It is suitable for connections spanning several kilometers. 1000BASE-ZX: This type of Gigabit Ethernet is designed for even longer- distance connections, often reaching up to 70 kilometers or more. It is commonly used in metropolitan and wide-area networks. 1000BASE-CX: This type of Gigabit Ethernet utilizes balanced copper cables with specialized connectors for short-distance connections within data centers or between networking equipment. 1000BASE-TX: This is a less common type of Gigabit Ethernet that uses Category 6 (Cat6) or higher twisted-pair copper cables for data transmission. It is backward compatible with 100BASE-TX and supports full-duplex mode. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. www.versitron.com/