10BASE2 10BASE2 (also known as cheapernet, thin Ethernet, thinnet, and thinwire) is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin

coaxial cable (RG-58A/U or similar, as opposed to the thicker RG-8 cable used in 10BASE5 networks), terminated with BNC connectors. For many years this was the dominant 10 Mbit/s Ethernet standard, but due to the immense demand for high speed networking, the low cost of Category 5 Ethernet cable, and the popularity of 802.11 wireless networks, both 10BASE2 and 10BASE5 have become obsolete. The name 10BASE2 is derived from several characteristics of the physical medium. The 10 comes from the maximum transmission speed of 10 Mbit/s (millions of bits per second). The BASE stands for baseband signalling, and the 2 represents the maximum segment length of 200 meters, however when the 10Base2 standard arrived it was found that 200 meters was a bit too long, and the maximum was then lowered to 185 meters. Network design In a 10BASE2 network, each segment of cable is connected to the transceiver (which is usually built into the network adaptor) using a BNC T-connector, with one segment connected to each female connector of the T. At each physical end of the network a 50-ohm terminator is required. This is most commonly connected directly to the Tconnector on a workstation though it does not technically have to be. A few devices such as Digital's DEMPR and DESPR had a built-in terminator and so could only be used at one physical end of the cable run. The maximum practical number of nodes that can be connected to a 10BASE2 segment is limited to 30. When wiring a 10BASE2 network, special care has to be taken to ensure that cables are properly connected to all T-connectors, and appropriate terminators are installed. One, and only one, terminator must be connected to ground via a ground wire. Bad contacts or shorts are especially difficult to diagnose, though a time-domain reflectometer will find most problems quickly. A failure at any point of the network cabling tends to prevent all communications. For this reason, 10BASE2 networks could be difficult to maintain and were often replaced by 10BASE-T networks, which (provided category 5 cable or better was used) also provided a good upgrade path to 100BASE-TX. An alternative reliable connection has been established by the introduction of EAD-sockets. Comparisons to 10BASE-T 10BASE2 networks cannot generally be extended without breaking service temporarily for existing users and the presence of many joints in the cable also makes them very vulnerable to accidental or malicious disruption. There were proprietary wallport/cable systems that claimed to avoid these problems (e.g. SaferTap) but these never became widespread, possibly due to a lack of standardization.

10BASE2 systems do have a number of advantages over 10BASE-T. They do not need the 10BASE-T hub, so the hardware cost is very low, and wiring can be particularly easy since only a single wire run is needed, which can be sourced from the nearest computer. These characteristics mean that 10BASE2 is ideal for a small network of two or three machines, perhaps in a home where easily concealed wiring may be an advantage. For a larger complex office network the difficulties of tracing poor connections make it impractical. Unfortunately for 10BASE2, by the time multiple home computer networks became common, the format had already been practically superseded. As a matter of fact, it is becoming very difficult to find 10BASE2compatible network cards as distinct pieces of equipment, and integrated LAN controllers on motherboards don't have the connector, although the underlying logic may still be present. Cabling Twisted-pair Ethernet standards are such that the majority of cables can be wired "straight-through" (pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2 and so on), but others may need to be wired in the "crossover" form (receive to transmit and transmit to receive). 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX only require two pairs to operate, located on pin 1 + 2, and pin 3 + 6. Since 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX need only two pairs and Category 5 cable has four pairs, it is possible, but not standards compliant, to run two network connections (or a network connection and two phone lines) over a Cat 5 cable by using the normally 'unused pairs' (pins 45, 78) in 10 and 100 Mbit/s configurations. In practice, great care must be taken to separate these pairs as most 10/100 Mbit/s hubs, switches and PCs internally hardwire pins 45 together and pins 78 together, thereby creating a short-circuit across each 'unused' pair. Moreover, 1000BASE-T requires all four pairs to operate, pins 1 and 2, 3 and 6 as well as 4 and 5, 7 and 8. It is conventional to wire cables for 10 or 100 Mbit/s Ethernet to either the T568A or T568B standards. Since these standards differ only in that they swap the positions of the two pairs used for transmitting and receiving (TX/RX), a cable with T568A wiring at one end and T568B wiring at the other is referred to as a crossover cable. The terms used in the explanations of the 568 standards, tip and ring, refer to older communication technologies, and equate to the positive and negative parts of the connections. A 10BASE-T or 100BASE-T node such as a PC also called MDI that transmits on pin 1 and 2 and receives on pin 3 and 6 to a network device uses a "straight-through" cable in the "MDI" wiring pattern. A straight-through cable is usually used to connect a node to its network device. In order for two network devices or two nodes to communicate with each other (such as a switch to another switch or computer to computer) a crossover cable is often required at speeds of 10 or 100 Mbit/s. If available, connections can be made with a straight-through cable by means of an "MDI-X" port, also known as an internal crossover or embedded crossover connection. Hub and switch ports with such internal crossovers are usually labelled as such, with "uplink" or X. For example, 3Com usually labels their ports 1X, 2X, and so on. In some cases a button is provided to allow a port to act as either a normal or an uplink port.

To connect two computers directly together without a switch, an Ethernet crossover cable is often used. Although many modern Ethernet host adapters can automatically detect another computer connected with a straight-through cable and then automatically introduce the required crossover, if needed; if neither of the computers have this capability, then a crossover cable is required. If both devices being connected support 1000BASE-T according to the standards, they will connect regardless of the cable being used or how it is wired. To connect two hubs or switches directly together, a crossover cable can be used, but some hubs and switches have an uplink port used to connect network devices together, or have a way to manually select MDI or MDI-X on a single port so that a straight-through cable can connect that port to another switch or hub. Most newer switches have automatic crossover ("auto MDI-X" or "auto-uplink") on all ports, eliminating the uplink port and the MDI/MDI-X switch, and allowing all connections to be made with straight-through cables. A 10BASE-T transmitter sends two differential voltages, +2.5 V or 2.5 V. 100BASE-TX follows the same wiring patterns as 10BASE-T but is more sensitive to wire quality and length, due to the higher bit rates. A 100BASE-TX transmitter sends 3 differential voltages, +1 V, 0 V, or 1 V[1]. 1000BASE-T uses all four pairs bi-directionally and the standard includes auto MDI-X; however, implementation is optional. With the way that 1000BASE-T implements signaling, how the cable is wired is immaterial in actual usage. The standard on copper twisted pair is IEEE 802.3ab for Cat 5e UTP, or 4D-PAM5; four dimensions using PAM (pulse amplitude modulation) with five voltages, 2 V, 1 V, 0 V, +1 V, and +2 V [2] While +2 V to 2 V voltage may appear at the pins of the line driver, the voltage on the cable is nominally +1 V, +0.5 V, 0 V, 0.5 V and 1 V[3]. Unlike earlier Ethernet standards using broadband and coaxial cable, such as 10BASE5 (thicknet) and 10BASE2 (thinnet), 10BASE-T does not specify the exact type of wiring to be used but instead specifies certain "characteristics" which a cable must meet. This was done in anticipation of using 10BASE-T in existing twisted pair wiring systems that may not conform to any specified wiring standard. Some of the specified characteristics are attenuation, characteristic impedance, timing jitter, propagation delay, and several types of noise. Cable testers are widely available to check these parameters to determine if a cable can be used with 10BASE-T. These characteristics are expected to be met by 100 meters of 24-gauge unshielded twisted-pair cable, and 100 meters is the stated maximum length for baseband signal runs. However, with high quality cabling, cable runs of 150 meters or longer are often obtained and are considered viable by most technicians familiar with the 10BASE-T specification, though as with all CSMA/CD network environments the absolute limit on run length is determined by the size of the collision domain and cable quality. In reality, what meets the standards may not work, and those that do not meet the standards might work.

100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T both require a minimum of Category 5 cable (5e or 6 with 1000 Mbit/s) and also specify a maximum cable length of 100 meters. Furthermore while 10BASE-T is more tolerant of poor wiring such as split pairs, poor terminations and even use of short sections of flat cable, 100BASE-T is not as much so, and 1000BASE-T is less tolerant still. Since testing of cable is often limited to checking if it works with Ethernet, running faster speeds over existing cable is often problematic. This problem is made worse by the fact that Ethernet's autonegotiation takes account only of the capabilities of the end equipment, not of the cable in between. Fast Ethernet In computer networking, Fast Ethernet is a collective term for a number of Ethernet standards that carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s, against the original Ethernet speed of 10 Mbit/s. Of the 100 megabit Ethernet standards 100baseTX (T="Twisted" Pair Copper) is by far the most common and is supported by the vast majority of Ethernet hardware currently produced. Full duplex fast Ethernet is sometimes referred to as "200 Mbit/s" though this is somewhat misleading as that level of improvement will only be achieved if traffic patterns are symmetrical. Fast Ethernet was introduced in 1995[1] and remained the fastest version of Ethernet for three years before being superseded by gigabit Ethernet.[2] General Design A fast Ethernet adapter can be logically divided into a Media Access Controller (MAC) which deals with the higher level issues of medium availability and a Physical Layer Interface (PHY). The MAC may be linked to the PHY by a 4 bit 25 MHz synchronous parallel interface known as a Media Independent Interface (MII). Repeaters (hubs) are also allowed and connect to multiple PHYs for their different interfaces. The MII may (rarely) be an external connection but is usually a connection between ICs in a network adapter or even within a single IC. The specs are written based on the assumption that the interface between MAC and PHY will be a MII but they do not require it. The MII fixes the theoretical maximum data bit rate for all versions of fast Ethernet to 100 Mbit/s. The data signaling rate actually observed on real networks is less than the theoretical maximum, due to the necessary header and trailer (addressing and errordetection bits) on every frame, the occasional "lost frame" due to noise, and time waiting after each sent frame for other devices on the network to finish transmitting. Copper 100BASE-T is any of several Fast Ethernet standards for twisted pair cables, including: 100BASE-TX (100 Mbit/s over two-pair Cat5 or better cable), 100BASE-T4 (100 Mbit/s over four-pair Cat3 or better cable, defunct), 100BASE-T2 (100 Mbit/s over two-pair Cat3 or better cable, also defunct). The segment length for a 100BASE-T cable is limited to 100 metres (328 ft) (as with 10BASE-T and gigabit Ethernet). All are or were standards under IEEE 802.3 (approved 1995).

In the early days of Fast Ethernet, much vendor advertising centered on claims by competing standards that "ours will work better with existing cables than theirs." In practice, it was quickly discovered that few existing networks actually met the assumed standards, because 10-megabit Ethernet was very tolerant of minor deviations from specified electrical characteristics and few installers ever bothered to make exact measurements of cable and connection quality; if Ethernet worked over a cable, it was deemed acceptable. Thus most networks had to be rewired for 100megabit speed whether or not there had supposedly been CAT3 or CAT5 cable runs. The vast majority of common implementations or installations of 100BASE-T are done with 100BASE-TX. Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second, as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. Half-duplex gigabit links connected through hubs are allowed by the specification but in the marketplace full-duplex with switches are normal. History The result of research done at Xerox Corporation in the early 1970s, Ethernet has evolved into the most widely implemented physical and link layer protocol today. Fast Ethernet increased speed from 10 to 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s). Gigabit Ethernet was the next iteration, increasing the speed to 1000 Mbit/s. The initial standard for gigabit Ethernet was produced by the IEEE in June 1998 as IEEE 802.3z. 802.3z is commonly referred to as 1000BASE-X, where -X refers to either -CX, -SX, -LX, or (non-standard) -ZX. IEEE 802.3ab, ratified in 1999, defines gigabit Ethernet transmission over unshielded twisted pair (UTP) category 5, 5e, or 6 cabling and became known as 1000BASE-T. With the ratification of 802.3ab, gigabit Ethernet became a desktop technology as organizations could utilize their existing copper cabling infrastructure. IEEE 802.3ah, ratified in 2004 added two more Gigabit fiber standards, 1000BASELX10 (which was already widely implemented as vendor specific extension) and 1000BASE-BX10. This was part of a larger group of protocols known as Ethernet in the First Mile. Initially, gigabit Ethernet was deployed in high-capacity backbone network links (for instance, on a high-capacity campus network). In 2000, Apple's Power Mac G4 and PowerBook G4 were the first mass produced personal computers featuring the 1000BASE-T connection.[1] It quickly became a built-in feature in many other computers. As of 2009 Gigabit NIC's (1000BASE-T) are included in almost all desktop and server computer systems. Faster 10 gigabit Ethernet standards have become available as the IEEE ratified a fiber-based standard in 2002, and a twisted pair standard in 2006. As of 2009 10Gb Ethernet is replacing 1Gb as the backbone network and has just begun to migrate down to high-end server systems.

Summary There are four different physical layer standards for gigabit Ethernet using optical fiber (1000BASE-X), twisted pair cable (1000BASE-T), or balanced copper cable (1000BASE-CX). The IEEE 802.3z standard includes 1000BASE-SX for transmission over multi-mode fiber, 1000BASE-LX for transmission over single-mode fiber, and the nearly obsolete 1000BASE-CX for transmission over balanced copper cabling. These standards use 8b/10b encoding, which inflates the line rate by 25%, from 1000 Mbit/s to 1250 Mbit/s to ensure a DC balanced signal. The symbols are then sent using NRZ. IEEE 802.3ab, which defines the widely used 1000BASE-T interface type, uses a different encoding scheme in order to keep the symbol rate as low as possible, allowing transmission over twisted pair. Ethernet in the First Mile later added 1000BASE-LX10 and -BX10. 1000BASE-T 1000BASE-T (also known as IEEE 802.3ab) is a standard for gigabit Ethernet over copper wiring. Each 1000BASE-T network segment can be a maximum length of 100 meters (328 feet), and must utilize "Category 5" cabling at a minimum. Category 5e cable or Category 6 cable may also be used and is often recommended. 1000BASE-T requires all four pairs to be present and is far less tolerant of poorly installed wiring than 100BASE-TX. If two Gigabit devices are connected through a non-compliant Cat5 cable with four pairs, many FCS errors and retransmissions may occur. If two Gigabit devices are connected through a non-compliant Cat5 cable with two pairs only, negotiation takes place on two pairs only, so the devices successfully choose 'gigabit' as the Highest Common Denominator (HCD), but the link never goes up. Most gigabit physical devices have a specific register to diagnose this behaviour. Some drivers offer an "Ethernet@Wirespeed" option where this situation leads to a slower yet functional connection[6]. Autonegotiation is a requirement for using 1000BASE-T[7] according to the standard. At least clock source has to be negotiated, as one has to be Master and the other Slave. Several physical layer devices and drivers will allow you to force 1000 Mbit/s full duplex to eliminate autonegotiation issues. In this non-standard use, the designer must assure only one peer is configured as the clock master. Forcing duplex settings or turning off autonegotiation can become a permanent choice in a large installation, because the forced node is now non-compliant. When deployed, this arrangement will mean that any future ethernet switch must be forced as well. A proper solution would

be to realign or remove the non-compliant nodes rather than making newly-added nodes non-compliant. [edit] 1000BASE-T details In a departure from both 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T uses all four cable pairs for simultaneous transmission in both directions through the use of echo cancellation and a 5-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-5) technique. The symbol rate is identical to that of 100BASE-TX (125 Mbaud) and the noise immunity of the 5level signaling is also identical to that of the 3-level signaling in 100BASE-TX, since 1000BASE-T uses 4-dimensional Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM) to achieve a 6 dB coding gain across the 4 pairs. The data is transmitted over four copper pairs, eight bits at a time. First, eight bits of data are expanded into four 3-bit symbols through a non-trivial scrambling procedure based on a linear feedback shift register; this is similar to what is done in 100BASET2, but uses different parameters. The 3-bit symbols are then mapped to voltage levels which vary continuously during transmission. One example mapping is as follows: Symbol : 000-111 Line Signal Level : 0, 1, 2, -1, 0, 1, 2, -1