What Are the Benefits of Ethernet Protocol?
In its early phases, Ethernet was designed as a mechanism to connect hundreds of computers in the same building. It had to be fast and allow multiple computers to communicate without creating a wiring problem. When it was first developed, a 10-Megabit per second network was considered to be as fast as anyone would need. Since then, the speeds of Ethernet have gone up and the prices have gone down. Ethernet is now a universal standard.
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Allowing Multiple Computers to Communicate
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Coaxial cable was used originally. The original vision of Ethernet was to allow multiple computers to communicate over a single wire. The protocol allowed for any computer to transmit data frames. All computers would receive the frames. The frames have source and destination addresses in the header. Computers will process the frame if the destination address matches their address. If two computers did transmit at the same time, they would detect and resolve the collision. If there were too many computers on the network, collisions would start to congest the network. This was called one-collision domain. Modern networks use switches separate computers into different collision domains, while still getting the benefits of allowing multiple computers to communicate.
Bridging and Switching
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An Ethernet switch. Bridging and switching were introduced to segment the network into separate collision domains. Each computer connects to a switch which will buffer and forward the Ethernet frames as required. Ethernet now has the advantage of being able to run at high speeds on dedicated links to an Ethernet switch.
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High Speed and Low cost
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Ethernet is now faster than other techologies. The biggest advantage of Ethernet is the ability to run at high speed at low cost. Ethernet has become a universal standard so the cost of interfaces has dropped to the point where they are included on every computer being built. Speeds of 1 Gigabit per second are standard on most PCs and work continues to make 10 Gigabit, 100 Gigabit and Terabit Ethernet available at low cost. Because Ethernet is a universal standard, choices of manufacturer and product abound.
Multiple Protocols
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Mulitple channels can use Ethernet. Ethernet allows multiplexing protocols over a single wire. Although the most-common protocol to run on Ethernet is IP, other protocols can use Ethernet. Ethernet permits multiple high-speed connections between computers.
Fibre Optic and Long Distances
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Distance limitations have been removed. The early versions of Ethernet were constrained to 2.5 Km or about 1.5 miles. At higher speeds this distance is reduced. The introduction of switching allowed for full-duplex communication. With full-duplex communication the theoretical distance limitations have been removed. It is common now to see Ethernet products that will work 40 Km or 25 miles.
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