Computer Busses

26

Ethernet

26.1 Introduction

Most of the computers in business now connect through a LAN and the most commonly used LAN is Ethernet. DEC, Intel and the Xerox Corporation initially developed Ethernet and the IEEE 802 committee has since defined standards for it, the most common of which are Ethernet 2.0 and IEEE 802.3. This section discusses Ethernet technology and the different types of Ethernet.

In itself Ethernet cannot make a network and needs some other protocol such as TCP/IP to allow nodes to communicate. Unfortunately, Ethernet in its standard form does not cope well with heavy traffic, but this is offset by the following:

• Ethernet networks are easy to plan and cheap to install.

• Ethernet network components, such as network cards and connectors, ...