Ethernet - Scalable High Bandwidth Platform

Confirm Ethernet availability, cost and bandwidth scalability

Ethernet quite simply is, plugging your network directly into a telecom provider's network. When you bypass the local phone company you cut out an expensive transport step. Having direct access to customers is a carrier's goal as it allows them to control the user's experience from end to end while reducing cost. These savings are passed on to you.

The growing number of complex, mission-critical applications of today need more and more bandwidth than that offered by existing network configurations. The typical 10 Mbps Ethernet LAN becomes inadequate because it cannot maintain acceptable performance for the Client/Server environment. As audio and streaming video becomes increasingly important, the networked world needed to find a faster technology to accommodate bandwidth demands. Even though Fast Ethernet, which runs at at 100 Mbps, arrived at the networking arena in the mid 1990's, the existence of Fiber Optics or FDDI (100 Mbps) running at the carriers backbone level. Thus, the evolution of Gigabit Ethernet took place, providing a technology solution to the increasing bandwidth problem.

The reason why Ethernet is chosen over the other technologies is due to its many benefits:

• Price Reduction
• Scalability
• Interoperability
• Ease of Use
• Monitoring Capabilities
• Reliability
• Established Standards