Gigabit Ethernet Switches- 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switches-DSLAMS-
Frame Relay Switches-Frame Relay Switches-Ethernet Switches-Wideband Gigabit Ethernet
Switches- 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switches- 16 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switches-Cisco
Routers- Terrabit Switches- VDSL Switches-Terabyte Switches- CSU/DSU-Rasiecom Switches
Raisecom Switches!
American
Data Supply Carries a variety of gigabit ethernet switches, 10 gigabit ethernet switches,DSLAMS, Frame Relay Switches, FRADS,Gigabit Ethernet
switches, carrier- grade switches, VDSL Switches, fiber optic switches, IP switches,
and gigabit & terabyte Switches.
Raisecom proudly presents more than 10 telecom access product lines including Carrier Ethernet, Ethernet Demarcation Device, GEPON, Ethernet Switch, and legacy PDH, SDH and PCM Multiplxer equipment to fulfill Carrier's and Service Provider's requirement for telecom access network.
Through years of researching and working with world major carriers and industry expertises, Raisecom has developed an entire set of Carrier-Class Ethernet access and transportation technology to deliver Carrier Ethernet services for both coporate and individual customers.Ethernet is becoming the transport network technology rather than the original LAN technology, and customers are looking forward to carrying Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic on Carrier Ethernet. Raisecom introduces state-of-the-art functionalities.Raisecom introduces state-of-the-art functionalities such as traffic management, Ethernet Ring (50ms convergence time), auto configuration (DHCP option82), Quality of Service, selective QINQ, L2 to L7 Access Control List, VLAN stacking and rewriting.
Gigabit Ethernet Switches
The exacting demands of IP telephony deployments, enterprise aggregation, corporate data centers and network backbones, and Metro Ethernet provider Points of Presence (POPs) require solutions that combine consistent performance, carrier-class availability, enhanced security, and simplified management. The BlackDiamond® series of chassis-based switches from Extreme Networks® are designed and built to deliver these critical capabilities. The most advanced member of the BlackDiamond series is the BlackDiamond 10808 (BD10K). Designed from the ground up to support a high-density 10 gigabit infrastructure, the BlackDiamond 10K is based on Extreme Networks® fourth generation of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) technology. These ASICs have a number of new enhancements, including longest prefic match (LPM) routing for IPv4 and IPv6, programmable packet parsing and editing, robust multicast performance, and the revolutionary CLEAR-Flow security infrastructure. These features enhance routing performance, allow support of new network protocols without disruptive hardware upgrades, enable seamless voice and video distribution, and enable real-time response to day-zero network Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Features such as Quality of Service (QoS), Access Control Lists (ACLs), and statistics gathering can be enabled without affecting packet throughput, even at 10 gigabit data rates.
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Part Number |
ISCOM2110A-MA-AC ISCOM2110A-MA-DC |
ISCOM2110A-MA-PWR4-AC |
ISCOM2126EA-MA-AC ISCOM2126EA-MA-DC |
ISCOM2126F-MA-AC/S ISCOM2126F-MA-AC/D ISCOM2126F-MA-DC/S ISCOM2126F-MA-DC/D |
ISCOM2852-AC-S ISCOM2852-AC-D ISCOM2852-DC-S ISCOM2852-DC-D |
ISCOM2828F-AC-S ISCOM2828F-AC-D ISCOM2828F-DC-S ISCOM2828F-DC-D |
ISCOM2824G-AC-S ISCOM2824G-AC-D ISCOM2824G-DC-S ISCOM2824G-DC-D |
ISCOM2812GF-AC-S ISCOM2812GF-AC-D ISCOM2812GF-DC-S ISCOM2812GF-DC-D |
ISCOM2924GF-AC-S ISCOM2924GF-AC-D ISCOM2924GF-DC-S ISCOM2924GF-DC-D |
PORTS |
ISCOM |
FE / GE USER PORTS |
GE USER PORTS |
10/100Base-T |
8 |
8 |
24 |
- |
48 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
10/100/1000Base-T |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
20 |
- |
- |
100Base-FX |
- |
- |
- |
24 |
- |
24 FE(SFP) |
- |
- |
- |
1000Base-X |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
2 GE(SFP) |
- |
8 GE(SFP) |
20 GE(SFP) |
Expansion (1000Base-LX/BX/FX) |
2 GE(SFP-X/T) |
2 GE(SFP-X/T) |
2 GE(SFP) |
2 GE(SFP) |
4 GE(SFP) |
2 Combo Port GE(SFP/Base T) |
4 Combo Port GE(SFP/BaseT) |
4 Combo Port GE(SFP/BaseT) |
4 Combo Port GE(SFP/BaseT) |
COMPLIANCE |
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Switching fabric |
5.6 Gbps |
5.6 Gbps |
8.8 Gbps |
8.8 Gbps |
19.6 Gbps |
12.8 Gbps |
48 Gbps |
24Gbps |
48 Gbps |
SDRAM |
16MB |
32MB |
64MB |
64MB |
64MB |
64MB |
64MB |
64MB |
64MB |
Flash |
4MB |
4MB |
4MB |
4MB |
8MB |
8MB |
8MB |
4MB |
8MB |
Switch Buffer |
128KB |
128KB |
384KB |
384KB |
32MB |
32MB |
1MB |
32MB |
2M |
Max frame size (bytes) |
1522/1632 |
1522/1632 |
1522/2048 |
1522/2048 |
9000 |
9000 |
10240 |
9000 |
9000 |
MAC addresses / static |
8K / 100 |
8K / 100 |
8K / 100 |
8K / 100 |
16K / 100 |
16K / 100 |
16K / 100 |
16k / 100 |
16K / 100 |
IGMP groups |
255 |
255 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
255 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
Rate limiting per port |
0-1M 64Kbps 1-100M 1Mbps 100-1000M 10Mbps |
0-1M 64Kbps 1-100M 1Mbps 100-1000M 10Mbps |
0-1M 64Kbps 1-100M 1Mbps 100-1000M 10Mbps |
0-1M 64Kbps 1-100M 1Mbps 100-1000M 10Mbps |
64Kbps increments |
64Kbps increments |
64Kbps increments |
64Kbps increments |
64Kbps increments |
Multicast - IGMP v1/v2/v3 |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
MVR - Multicast VLAN Registration |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.3 10Base-T |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.3u 100Base-T |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.1x |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.3x |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
ACL |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
IP / VLAN / SMAC / DMAC / PORT |
802.1p CoS |
4 queues / DSCP PRI / SP/WRR/SP+WRR |
4 queues / DSCP PRI / SP/WRR/SP+WRR |
4 queues / TOS /DSCP PRI / SP / WRR/ SP+WRR |
8 queues / DSCP PRI / SP / WRR / SP+WRR |
8 queues / TOS /DSCP PRI / SP / WRR/ SP+WRR |
8 queues / DSCP PRI / SP / WRR / SP+WRR |
8 queues / DSCP PRI / SP / WRR |
8 queues / TOS / DSCP PRI / SP / WRR / SP+WRR |
8 queues / TOS /DSCP PRI / SP / WRR/ SP+WRR |
802.1Q VLAN |
4K & Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q Flexible Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q Flexible Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q, Flexible Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q |
4K & Q-in-Q |
802.1D Spanning Tree |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.1w - RSTP |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.1s - MSTP |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
? |
P |
802.3ah - OAM |
P (Master mode) |
P (Master mode) |
P (Master mode) |
P (Master mode) |
P |
P |
P |
P (Master mode) |
P |
802.1ag - CFM |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.1ad Link Aggregation |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
802.3af PoE with RFC 3621 |
N/A |
P (On Port 1-4) |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
LACP |
6 trunk groups |
5 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
6 trunk groups |
Radius / TACACS+ |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
Y / Y |
PPPoE+ |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
Port mirror |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
Y - Separate Ingress & Egress |
SNTP |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
SNMP v1/v2c/v3 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
RMON groups 1,2,3 & 9 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
Telnet / SSH /Web |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
P/ P / P |
Dimension |
(W) 11.4" (D) 8.47" (H) 1.724" |
(W) 11.4" (D) 8.65" (H) 1.724" |
(W) 17.4" (D) 10.47" (H) 1.724" |
(W) 17.4" (D) 10.47" (H) 1.724" |
(W) 17.4" (D) 10.47" (H) 1.724" |
(W) 17.4" (D) 10.47" (H) 1.724" |
(W) 17.4" (D) 10.47" (H) 1.724" |
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(W) 17.4" x (D) 10.47" x (H) 1.724" |
Power Supply |
AC: 90-264V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-264V @ 47-63Hz |
AC: 90-264V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-265V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-265V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-265V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-265V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-265V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
AC: 90-265V @ 47-63Hz DC: 36-72V |
Redundant power supply |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Optional |
Optional |
Optional |
Optional |
Optional |
Power consumption (Max Load) |
£ 10W |
£ 90W |
£ 13.8W |
£ 13.8W |
£ 70W |
£ 33W |
£ 40W |
£ 60W |
£ 40W |
Operating Temp |
-20-70°C 5-90% RH |
0-50°C 10-90% RH |
0-50°C 5-90% RH |
0-50°C 5-90% RH |
0-50°C 5-90% RH |
0-50°C 5-90% RH |
0-50°C 5-90% RH |
-20-70°C 5-90% RH |
0-50°C 5-90% RH |
FCC CLASS A / CE / UL |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
P / P / P |
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Raptor 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switches |
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Layer
3 Managed Gigabit Switches |
Ether-Raptor ER-1010
The ER-1010 is designed as a team player, scaling from 2 to 16 interconnected members, creating one distributed fabric. These 1U member elements provide unparalleled performance and reliability throughout its distributed environment. An ER-1010 fully loaded has six 10Gb ports, which can talk to the outside world as 10Gb Ethernet or as 10Gb RAST connecting to other ER-1010s. This RAST connected switch cluster acts as one switch and can scale up to 384 1GbE ports (soon to 1536 1GbE ports) distributed between floors of a data center or between buildings in a campus of a large enterprise. Each ER-1010 can be separated up to 10km from other members and maintain all of its single-fabric capabilities.
- Affordable Enterprise Core Performance
- Future Proof with modular construction
- Layer 2/3/4 Switch Cluster Element
- Data Classification Layer 2-7
- Six 10Gb Ports (10Gb Ethernet or 10Gb RAST)
- 24 1Gb Ethernet ports (copper or fiber)
- Distributed up to 40km between elements
- Up to 384 Gigabit Ethernet ports (soon 1536 ports)
- Low latency for Voice and Video applications
- Aggregate Switching Bandwidth of 160Gbps
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Extreme Alpine VOIP Switches The award-winning Alpine 3800 chassis switches support the scalability, flexibility, security and management features required to build complete enterprise wide networks, including large campuses, branch offices, data centers and wiring closets. The Alpine 3800 series switches enable enterprise networks to adopt new technologies, such as wireless and Voice-over-IP (VoIP), by offering intelligent security and availability features to keep network convergence simple and manageable.
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Telco Systems VOIP Switches The Access200 family is a diverse line of VoIP ATAs designed for service providers who need to deliver high-quality VoIP, video, and data (triple play) services to their residential and small office/home office (SOHO) using traditional analog telephones and fax machines.
The line offers a cost-efficient means for service providers to migrate their customers? traditional analog telephones and faxes onto IP-based networks. |
Now
you can enjoy full Layer 3 Gigabit switch functionality at an affordable price.
The NETGEAR Layer 3 Managed Gigabit Switch provides maximum throughput and flexibility
for demanding networks, with all the Gigabit Managed Layer 3 features you expect.
This 10/100/1000 gigabit managed switch addresses today's high-performance requirements,
while providing the control you need and the future proofing you want.
The GSM7324 is ideal as a backbone for 10/100 switches, Gigabit servers, or as
the robust core of a demanding, all-Gigabit network. Now you can enjoy full Layer
3, Gigabit functionality at an affordable price. The NETGEAR Managed Gigabit Switch
provides maximum throughput and flexibility for demanding networks, with all the
Layer 3 features you expect. This 10/100/1000 switch addresses today's high-performance
requirements, while providing the control you need and the future proofing
you want. The GSM7312 is ideal as a backbone for 10/100 switches, Gigabit servers,
or as the robust core of a demanding, all-Gigabit network. |
Business Needs
Converged Ethernet/IP networks-which enable voice, data and video to share the same infrastructure-are becoming a reality. They're also changing the rules and requirements for enterprise and service provider networks. To protect delay sensitive voice applications, quality connections, which exhibit very low levels of latency and jitter, are a must. Voice-class availability is also essential, as is an infrastructure that supports truly converged networking. Security is growing importance as well, as networks grow inseparable from an organization's strategic goals and revenue streams. Meanwhile, as networks deliver a more complex mix of applications and services, network management must be become simpler and more straightforward.
The Solution
In order to meet these business needs, you have to design your network to:
- Provide quality connections with low jitter and latency
- Achieve voice-class availability throughout the network
- Deliver a truly converged architecture
- Meet security and compliance requirements
- Simplify management
Extreme Networks Product Portfolio
A new Gigabit Ethernet Switch from Wideband
allows your company to get gigabit ethernet speeds on your LAN without re-wiring
your building. You can get gigabit ethernet speeds just by changing out the NIC
card and the layer 2 Wideband Gigabit Ethernet Switch. WideBand products are made
in the USA to the highest quality standards and possess a uniquely robust signal
that allows full Gigabit bandwidth even on less than perfect installs of Category
5 and 5e cabling. WideBand can deliver Gigabit connections up to 200 meters on
Category 5 cable and 100 meters over Category 3 cable. To show signal headroom,
WideBand Gigabit products are even demonstrated working over barbed wire! Acheive
Gigabit Ethernet Speeds Without Rewiring - WideBand has been a leading manufacturer
of Gigabit-over-copper networking since 1994 and was a developer of the first
pre-standard products. When the standard began to be formed, WideBand president
Dr. Roger E. Billings was an active member of the steering committee that developed
the technologies found in todays IEEE 802.3ab Gigabit Ethernet. Many of
the underlying technologies of the standard, including the method for full duplex
transmission and the elimination of data collisions, were originally developed
at WideBand !
Extreme Networks Offerings
The Extreme Networks® offering includes Summit® fixed configuration switches, Alpine™ and BlackDiamond® modular switches, wireless products, Sentriant™ security appliance, ExtremeWare® operating systems and EPICenter® management software. Our products can help you implement the solution to meet your business needs
Call (866) 342-3721 Or Click On The Chat Button At The Top Of The Page To Talk To One Of Our Representatives
Extreme Switches
Alpine |
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Operating Systems |
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EPICenter Management Software |
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The exacting demands of IP telephony deployments, enterprise aggregation, corporate data centers and network backbones, and Metro Ethernet provider Points of Presence (POPs) require solutions that combine consistent performance, carrier-class availability, enhanced security, and simplified management. The BlackDiamond® series of chassis-based switches from Extreme Networks® are designed and built to deliver these critical capabilities.
The most advanced member of the BlackDiamond series is the BlackDiamond 10808 (BD10K). Designed from the ground up to support a high-density 10 gigabit infrastructure, the BlackDiamond 10K is based on Extreme Networks® fourth generation of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) technology. These ASICs have a number of new enhancements, including longest prefic match (LPM) routing for IPv4 and IPv6, programmable packet parsing and editing, robust multicast performance, and the revolutionary CLEAR-Flow security infrastructure. These features enhance routing performance, allow support of new network protocols without disruptive hardware upgrades, enable seamless voice and video distribution, and enable real-time response to day-zero network Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Features such as Quality of Service (QoS), Access Control Lists (ACLs), and statistics gathering can be enabled without affecting packet throughput, even at 10 gigabit data rates.
The BlackDiamond 10K chassis was designed to meet stringent carrier-class standards, with front-to-back cooling, redundant PSUs, fans, and controllers, and a passive backplane. Integrated error checking and correction protects the packet data path, and independent control and data planes ensure that network data and management traffic never interfere.
Why
Wideband Routers over Cisco? SEE THE TEST COMPARISON: Provide
Gigabit Ethernet Without CAT 5e or CAT 6- Even Use Barbed Wire!!!
CLICK
HERE FOR 8 Port- 16 Port Ethernet Switch CISCO-Wideband COMPARISON-
1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet
Lists resources specific to the 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet system (IEEE 802.3z).
Gigabit Ethernet Overview
Presents a survey of Gigabit Ethernet technology.Gigabit Ethernet Tutorials and Resources
Good collection of links to Gigabit Ethernet documents, including papers, tutorials, and articles. This page is hosted by the InterOperability Lab at the University of New Hampshire.
IEEE Gigabit Ethernet Information
Working documents of the group developing the IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet standard.
Gigabit Ethernet Switches Set To Take On The Enterprise
By Joel Conover
The long wait is over. On June 25, the IEEE approved the 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet standard--nearly two years after its birth. With the eagerly anticipated standard ratified, vendors finally can deliver products to satisfy the tremendous interest that's been building for Gigabit Ethernet technology.
These are auspicious times for companies looking for faster network performance. Because of competition among vendors that are steadily increasing their 1000Base-T switch offerings, Gigabit Ethernet is more affordable and easier to deploy than ever. Unfortunately, assessing which Gigabit Ethernet solution is best suited to your needs isn't always easy. Vendors advertise their switches with the customary performance claims and glossy marketing brochures, but neither gives you a definitive idea of how a certain switch will perform in your particular environment, much less how easy it is to set up and manage. To help you get some inkling of what to expect from the latest 1000Base-T switches, I brought some of them into the Windows & .NET Magazine Lab for a test drive.
At the time of writing, at least a dozen vendors offered a wide range of Gigabit Ethernet switches. To narrow the field, I looked only at managed switches that offer native 1000Base-T ports or can accommodate a Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) module for uplink ports. I also looked for switches that represent a cross-section of price and functionality. And because I wanted to simulate a typical network-upgrade scenario between a server room and a remote wiring closet, I looked for vendors that could deliver Fast Ethernet to the desktop with 1000Base-T uplinks that I could pair with a 1000Base-T backbone or aggregation switch. My search led me to the most recent Gigabit Ethernet switch offerings from 3Com, Cisco Systems, and Dell. For those looking for a chassis solution, I tested a Hewlett-Packard (HP) chassis switch with Gigabit and Fast Ethernet switch modules.
The testing was fairly simple. I first conducted a baseline test on the Lab network, in which I performed routine administrative tasks (e.g., software-application deployment) while monitoring latency-sensitive streaming-media applications. I next installed Gigabit Ethernet NICs in the network's servers and in some desktop machines and went through the usual regimen of performance tuning. To simulate an upgrade scenario, I then replaced older Fast Ethernet switches in the Lab's test network with each vendor's Gigabit Ethernet offerings. As I worked with each vendor's switches, I noted how easy they were to configure and manage from basic setup to advanced features such as Virtual LAN (VLAN) configuration, routing, and cost-of-service configuration. Finally, I performed the same tasks and ran the same software as I had in the baseline test to check for a performance improvement.
To view the Report cards on
1) Chassis-Based Gigabit Ethernet Switches
and
2) Fixed-Configuration Gigabit Ethernet Switches
2) Gigabit Ethernet NICs
While the IEEE was busy rubber stamping the 802.3z standard, Network Computing was putting Gigabit Ethernet switches and NICs from nearly every Gigabit Ethernet vendor--including Alteon Network, Bay Networks, Cabletron Systems, Cisco Systems, Compaq Computer Corp., Extreme Networks, Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Lucent Technologies, ODS Networks, Packet Engines, Silicon Graphics and 3Com Corp.--through one of the most rigorous test suites in the magazine's history.
Our expectations for this review were high. For the switch portion, only products with Gigabit Ethernet interfaces were eligible. We required each vendor to submit two or more units with a total of at least 96 10/100 ports. We put each switch through a battery of tests using Netcom Systems' Smartbits test equipment. Implementing one of the largest test setups we've ever created, we bit-blasted each device to determine how much traffic it could handle. Then we turned off the bit-blasters and focused on performance aspects that affect networks like yours. (For details about our tests, see "Speeds and Feeds," page 76, and "Real World, Real Fibers," page 82.)
We took each vendor's equipment into the wiring closets at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and tested it on real fibers, pushing the distance limitations of Gigabit Ethernet over multimode fiber. After testing each solution in the wiring closet, we moved the products to the labs of Neal Nelson & Associates (1 (312) 755-1000), where we used 96 PC connections to generate more than 5 Gbps of real-world application traffic. We stress-tested each switch for at least 24 consecutive hours using Neal Nelson's (1 (312) 755-1000) LAN benchmark. (For more on the Neal Nelson (1 (312) 755-1000) tests, see "From the Lab of Neal Nelson & Associates (1 (312) 755-1000)" page 88.)
Overview
Gigabit Ethernet is a networking technology ten times faster than current 100Mbps networks. Until recently, the high cost of gigabit Ethernet combined with multiple topology standards and the need for fibre optic cables has left gigibit speeds out of reach of home users. Things have changed.
IEEE 802.3ab Recent ‘gigabit over copper’ standards have been adopted that make gigabit Ethernet as easy to use as 100Mbps Ethernet. Gigabit ethernet can now utilize Cat5 or better twisted pair cabling and the same RJ-45 connectors that are used in 10/100Mbps networks. To achieve gigabit speeds, you must use ethernet cable with all 8 wires (four pairs) present. Many inexpensive cat5 Ethernet cables have only 4 wires and can not reach gigabit speeds.
Apple
Apple, as usual, is ahead of the rest of the market in bringing gigabit Ethernet to the home. They have put 10/100/1000 base-T network adapters in the PowerMac G4 series computers. Because of the high cost of gigabit Ethernet hubs and switches, Apple has ensured that connection two PowerMac G4’s is as simple as picking up a high quality Ethernet cable. Apples implementation of Gigabit Ethernet needs no crossover cable to connect two computers together. The adapter senses the other Mac and handles the crossover automatically.
Expectations for 2002
I expect the price of gigabit Ethernet to fall dramatically in 2002. I think we will see the price of gigabit Ethernet switched fall to about $40 per port by the end of the year and the price of network cards to fall to around $35 per NIC. I think we will also see gigabit Ethernet incorporated into broadband routers by companies trying to stand out from their competition in this over-crowded router market.
Current Pricing and Products
Asante’ and Addtron appear to be the market leaders in bringing Gigabit Ethernet to the home market. They have both released PCI network adapters that can be purchased for less that $60. Unfortunately, no company has yet released a gigabit Ethernet hub or switch that is within reach of the home network users. Expect to see gigabit Ethernet products on the market soon!
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Versus
10/100
Ethernet Switch Wideband-Cisco Comparison--
Gigabit
Ethernet Growth Projections up 50% over 2002 |