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Lesson 2
Selecting Data-Link Layer Protocols
1-21
a typical Fast Ethernet LAN can have only two. Gigabit Ethernet supports
only a single
hub on a network.
Selecting an Ethernet Variant
Choosing a variant of the Ethernet protocol for your network is primarily a
matter of
selecting a cable type and a transmission speed. Table 1-1 lists the
Ethernet variants
that are currently in common use.
Table 1-1
Ethernet Variants
Ethernet
Maximum Segment
Type
Designation
Cable Type
Speed
Length
Standard
10Base-T
Category 3 UTP
10 Mbps
100 meters
Ethernet
Fast
100Base-TX
Category 5 UTP
100 Mbps
100 meters
Ethernet
Fast
100Base-FX
62.5/125 multimode
100 Mbps
412 meters at half
Ethernet
fiber optic
duplex and 2,000
meters at full duplex
Gigabit
1000Base-LX
9/125 single-mode
1000 Mbps
3 kilometers
Ethernet
fiber optic
Gigabit
1000Base-LX
50/125 or 62.5/125
1000 Mbps
550 meters
Ethernet
multimode fiber optic
Gigabit
1000Base-SX
50/125 multimode
1000 Mbps
500 meters
Ethernet
fiber optic (400 MHz)
Gigabit
1000Base-SX
62.5/125 multimode
1000 Mbps
220 meters
Ethernet
fiber optic (160 MHz)
Gigabit
1000Base-T
Category 5 (or 5E)
1000 Mbps
100 meters
Ethernet
UTP
Using Token Ring
Token Ring is a data-link layer protocol that doesn’t support as many media
types as
Ethernet, and at 16 Mbps it does not run as fast, either. However, there is
one advan-
tage to Token Ring that makes it a popular solution for some network
engineers. The
primary difference between Token Ring and Ethernet is that they use
different media
access control mechanisms. Media access control (MAC) is a sublayer of the
data-link
layer and is the method the computers on a LAN use to indicate they want to
use the
network to transmit data. If two computers transmit data at the same time, a
conflict
occurs called a collision, and both transmissions are lost. To prevent
collisions, data-
link layer protocols have a procedure that enables one computer at a time to
take pos-
session of the network so that it can transmit its data without difficulty.
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