Download the IEEE 802.3 Standard for Free!!
The term Ethernet refers to the family of local-area network (LAN) products covered by the IEEE 802.3 standard. Four data rates are currently defined for operation over optical fiber and/or twisted-pair cables:
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10 Mbps - 10Base-T Ethernet
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100 Mbps - Fast Ethernet
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1000 Mbps - igabit Ethernet
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10,000 Mbps - Ten Gigabit Ethernet
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is the LAN access method used in Ethernet. When a device wants to gain access to the network, it checks to see if the network is free. If the network is not free, the device waits a random amount of time before retrying. If the network is free and two devices access the line at exactly the same time, their signals collide. When the collision is detected, they both back off and wait a random amount of time before retrying.
| Ethernet Standard | Description |
|---|---|
| Exp. Ethernet | 2.94 Mbit/s over coaxial cable cable bus |
| Ethernet II | 10 Mbit/s over thin coax (thinnet) |
| IEEE 802.3 | 10BASE5 10 Mbit/s over thick coax |
| 802.3a | 10BASE2 10 Mbit/s over thin Coax |
| 802.3b | 10BROAD36 |
| 802.3c | 10 Mbit/s repeater specs |
| 802.3d | FOIRL (Fiber-Optic Inter-Repeater Link) |
| 802.3e | 1BASE5 |
| 802.3i | 10BASE-T 10 Mbit/s over twisted pair |
| 802.3j | 10BASE-F 10 Mbit/s over Fiber-Optic |
| 802.3u | Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbit/s w/Auto-Negotiation |
| 802.3x | Full Duplex and flow control |
| 802.3y | 100BASE-T2 100 Mbit/s over low quality twisted pair |
| 802.3z | 1000BASE-X Ethernet over Fibre-Optic at 1 Gbps |
| 802.3-1998 | A revision of base standard incorporating all amendments |
| 802.3ab | 1000BASE-T Ethernet over twisted pair at 1 Gbps |
| 802.3ac | Max frame size extended for 802.1Q VLAN and 802.1p priority information. |
| 802.3ad | Link aggregation for parallel links |
| 802.3-2002 | A revision of base standard incorporating the prior amendments and errata |
| 802.3ae | 10 Gbps Ethernet over fiber |
| 802.3af | Power over Ethernet |
| 802.3ah | Ethernet in the First Mile |
| 802.3ak | 10GBASE-CX4 10 Gbps Ethernet over twin-axial cable |
| 802.3-2005 | A revision of base standard incorporating prior amendments and errata. |
| 802.3an | 10GBASE-T 10 Gbps Ethernet over UTP |
| 802.3ap | Ethernet 1 and 10 Gbps over printed circuit boards) |
| 802.3aq | 10 Gbps Ethernet over multimode fiber |
| 802.3ar | Congestion management |
| 802.3as | Frame expansion |
A drawing of the first Ethernet system
Ethernet Tutorial from Yale University