Ubiquitous Ethernet and Its Many Protocols (Download)

Read this article online.

IEEE 802.3 has been around for 50+ years. These days, Ethernet can be found everywhere, from cars to drones to cloud servers. It now operates at from 10 Mb/s to 800 Gb/s and supports connectivity regardless of the speeds involved through the help of Ethernet switches.

The technology started with 10-Mb/s coax cabling (10BASE5). Twisted-pair and RJ45 connectors quickly replaced that, while fiber optics was implemented for high-speed, long-distance communication. Currently, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) makes up most Ethernet traffic. These common protocols enable a 10-Mb/s device to communicate transparently with cloud servers running at 800 Gb/s with Ethernet adapters.