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Appendix
As the demand for desktop video, multimedia development, imaging, and
other speed-intensive applications continues to rise, the need for high per-
formance, fault tolerant LAN technology will become more critical.
Standard Ethernet, which has been the most popular networking technology
to date with a maximum data throughput of 10Mbps (Megabits per second),
is becoming insufficient to handle the latest video, multimedia, and other
speed-intensive client/server LAN applications.
Among the solutions to the problem of network speed, Fast Ethernet has
emerged as the most viable and economical. Capable of sending and receiv-
ing data at 100Mbps, it is more than fast enough to handle even the most
demanding video and other real-time applications.
Although there are a number of different competing Fast Ethernet implemen-
tations, 100BaseTX is by far the most popular. Operating on two pairs of
Category 5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cabling, 100BaseTX supports high
speed signaling and is relatively inexpensive. Because it uses four wires for
data transmission and the same packet format, packet length, error control,
and management information as 10BaseT, 100BaseTX can be made to com-
municate with slower 10BaseT equipment when routed through a switch.
This backwards compatibility is one of 100BaseTX's major advantages over
other forms of Fast Ethernet; it allows critical, speed-dependent network seg-
ments to be upgraded to 100BaseTX speeds as needed without re-wiring,
refitting, and retraining an entire site. Networks can now mix both slow and
fast network segments for different users or departments. Publishing, R&D,
video, multimedia, or accounting departments can enjoy a 100Mbps pace,
while other corporate segments can operate at slower and more affordable
10Mbps speeds.
109
Layer 2 Management 4-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch
ProConnect II
®
Series
BRIDGE GROUPS SUPPORTED
The Switch supports the following four groups of Bridge MIB (RFC1493):
• The dot1dBase Group a mandatory group that contains the objects appli-
cable to all types of bridges.
• The dot1dStp Group contains the objects that denote the bridge's state,
with respect to the Spanning Tree Protocol. If a node does not implement
the Spanning Tree Protocol, this group will not be implemented. This group
is applicable to any transparent only, source route, or SRT bridge that imple-
ments the Spanning Tree Protocol.
• The dot1dTp Group contains objects that describe the entity's transparent
bridging status. This group is applicable to transparent operation only and
SRT bridges.
• The dot1dStatic Group contains objects that describe the entity's destina-
tion-address filtering status. This group is applicable to any type of bridge
which performs destination-address filtering.
108
About Fast Ethernet