Desktop Connectivity with Ethernet
This area provides a analysis of the assorted “flavors” of Ethernet and their appliance in a
campus network. Recall how the bandwidth requirements for anniversary articulation of the arrangement are
determined by the types of applications in use, the cartage flows aural the network, and the size
of the user association served. Ethernet scales to abutment accretion bandwidths, and should be
chosen to bout the charge at anniversary point in the campus network. As arrangement bandwidth
requirements grow, the links amid access, distribution, and amount layers can be scaled to
match the load.
Other arrangement media technologies accessible accommodate Fiber Administration Data Interface (FDDI),
Copper Administration Data Interface (CDDI), Token Ring, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM). Although these media are frequently used, Ethernet is arising as the best popular
choice in installed networks. Ethernet is called because of its low cost, availability, and
scalability to college bandwidths. Token Ring is discussed after in this chapter, while ATM is
covered in Affiliate 6, “Trunking with ATM LANE.”