Concept Exercise Chapter 7 Name:
Date: Class:
Cisco Exercises - Semester 1 - Networking Fundamentals
Chapter 7 Layer 2: Technologies
Introduction
Ethernet was developed by Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. Ethernet is the most popular LAN standard today. There are millions of devices or nodes on Ethernet LANs. The early LANs required very little bandwidth to perform the simple network tasks required at that time-sending/receiving e-mail, transferring data files, and handling print jobs. In 1980, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) released the IEEE 802.3 specification for which Ethernet was the technological basis. Shortly thereafter, Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel Corporation, and Xerox Corporation jointly developed and released an Ethernet specification (Version 2.0) that is substantially compatible with IEEE 802.3. Together, Ethernet and IEEE 802.3 currently maintain the greatest market share of any LAN standard. An Ethernet LAN is used to transport data between network devices, such as computers, printers, and file servers. Ethernet is known as a shared-medium technology; that is, all the devices are connected to the same delivery media. Delivery media refers to the method of transmitting and receiving data. For example, a handwritten letter can be sent (transmitted) using one of many delivery methods, such as the U.S. postal service, Federal Express, or fax. Electronic data can be transmitted via copper cable, thick coaxial cable, thinnet, wireless data transfer, and so on.
Concept Questions
Demonstrate your knowledge of these concepts by answering the following questions in the space provided.
Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), and Token Ring are widely used LAN technologies that account for virtually all deployed LANs. LAN standards specify cabling and signaling at the physical and data link layers of the OSI reference model. Because they are widely adhered to, this book covers the Ethernet and IEEE 802.3 LAN standards. Why do you suppose that Ethernet technology is so heavily used?
When it was developed, Ethernet was designed to fill the middle ground between long-distance, low-speed networks and specialized, computer-room networks carrying data at high speeds for very limited distances. Ethernet is well-suited to applications in which a local communication medium must carry sporadic, occasionally heavy traffic at high-peak data rates. Why is Ethernet so well suited to this kind of traffic?
Today, the term standard Ethernet is used refer to all networks using Ethernet (a shared-medium technology) that generally conform to Ethernet specifications, including IEEE 802.3. In order to use this shared-medium technology, Ethernet uses the carrier sense multiple access collision detection (CSMA/CD) protocol to allow the networking devices to negotiate for the right to transmit. What are the major benefits of Ethernet?