IEEE 802 Standards,Ethernet Media Standards

The IEEE 802 Standards comprises a family of networking standards that cover the physical layer specifications of technologies. The following tables show the most popular IEEE 802 Standards.

Standard	Description
802.1	Internetworking
802.2	Logical link control
802.3	Ethernet
802.4	Token bus
802.5	Token ring
802.6	Metropolitan area network (MAN)
802.7	Broadband technology
802.8	Fiber-optic technology
802.9	Voice and data integration
802.10	Network security
802.11	Wireless networking
802.12	Demand priority networking

Ethernet Standards

Standard	Description
802.3	Ethernet CSMA /CD (10 Mbps)
802.3u	Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps)
802.3z	Gigabit Ethernet over fiber-optic cabling or coaxial cabling
802.3ab	Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair cabling
802.3ae	10-Gigabit Ethernet

                                                               

Ethernet Media Standards

     Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, are identified by three-part names, which is also known as Media Standard. An example of Media Standard is 10BASE-T. The first part of the Media Standard specifies the transmission speed (10, in this case specifies 10 Mbps)

The second part of the name "BASE" specifies that the Ethernet signal is a Baseband signal.

The final part of the Ethernet Media Standard specifies the kind of cable used. Here T specifies twisted-pair cable. The following table shows the common Ethernet Media Standards.

Media Standard	Cable Type	Bandwidth Capacity	Maximum Length
10Base2	Coax	10 Mbps	185m
10Base5	Coax	10 Mbps	500m
10BaseT	UTP (CAT 3 or higher)	10 Mbps	100m
100BaseTX	UTP (CAT 5 or higher)	100 Mbps	100m
10BaseFL	Fibre Optic	10 Mbps	2Km
100BaseFX	Fibre Optic	100 Mbps	HD 400m/FD 2km
1000BaseT	UTP (CAT 5e or higher)	1 Gbps (1000 Mbps)	100m
1000BaseSX	Fibre Optic	1 Gbps (1000 Mbps)	MMF 550m
1000BaseLX	Fibre Optic	1 Gbps (1000 Mbps)	MMF 500m/SMF 10km
1000BaseCX	Fibre Optic	1 Gbps (1000 Mbps	100m
10GbaseSR	Fibre Optic	10 Gbps	300m
10GbaseLR	Fibre Optic	10 Gbps	SMF 10km

Note: X represents a higher grade of connection, and 100BaseTX is twisted-pair cabling that can use either UTP or STP at 100 Mbps. With fibre-optic cable such as 100BaseFX, the speed is quicker than standard 10BaseF. The “L” stands for “Long” in long wave length lasers and "S" stands for Short Wave Length.

Related Topics...

• Network Access Methods - CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA and Token Passing

• LAN Technologies - Ethernet

• Lan Technologies - Token Ring

• Lan Technologies - Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)

• IEEE 802 Standards