If Fast Ethernet Is Good, Even Faster Is Better: Gigabit Ethernet

If Fast Ethernet Is Good, Even Faster Is Better: Gigabit Ethernet

Yep, 100 Mbps is fast, but 1000 Mbpsalso known as 1 gigabit per second (Gbps)is even faster. So, the IEEE eventually created even faster Ethernet, using 802.3 working groups 802.3z and 802.3ab. What do you call really super fast Ethernet that runs at 1 Gbps? Well, the IEEE got smart this time, avoiding the pitfalls of the laundry detergent industry, and cleverly called this one Gigabit Ethernet (GigE).

By the way, in case you were wondering, the 802.3z working group defined how to do GigE over optical cable, and the 802.3ab working group defined how to do GigE over copper cabling. Optical cabling uses glass fibers instead of copper wire. The devices that are attached to an optical cable send light across the cable, instead of electricity, to encode 0s and 1s. As it turns out, the physics behind optical signals over optical glass-fiber cabling allow for higher speeds, longer distances, fewer errors, and better security, but at a higher cost than copper wiring.

The optical version of GigE(802.3z) came out first, with the copper version (802.3ab) coming out a little later. And because each standard required different types of engineering effort based on whether optical or electrical cabling was used, the IEEE created two working groups to create the standards.