Ethernet physical layer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 7

Ethernet physical layer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ethernet physical layer is the name
given to component of TCP/IP which makes
use of the Ethernet standard.
The Ethernet physical layer evolved over a
considerable time span and encompasses quite
a few physical media interfaces and several
magnitudes of speed. The speed ranges from 3
Mbit/s to 10 Gbit/s in speed while the physical
medium can range from bulky coaxial cable to
twisted pair to optical fiber. In general,
network protocol stack software will work
identically on most of the following types.
The following sections provide a brief
summary of all the official Ethernet media
types (section numbers from the IEEE 802.3-
2002 standard are parenthesized). In addition
to these official standards, many vendors have
implemented proprietary media types for
various reasons—often to support longer
distances over fiber optic cabling.
The five-layer TCP/IP model
5. Application layer
DHCP • DNS • FTP • Gopher • HTTP • IMAP4 •
IRC • NNTP • XMPP • POP3 • SIP • SMTP •
SNMP • SSH • TELNET • RPC • RTP • RTCP •
RTSP • TLS/SSL • SDP • SOAP • BGP • PPTP •
L2TP • GTP • STUN • NTP • ...
4. Transport layer
TCP • UDP • DCCP • SCTP • RSVP • ...
3. Network/Internet Layer
IP (IPv4 • IPv6) • IGMP • ICMP • OSPF • ISIS •
IPsec • ARP • RARP • RIP • ...
2. Data link layer
802.11 • WiFi • WiMAX • ATM • DTM • Token
Ring • Ethernet • FDDI • Frame Relay • GPRS •
EVDO • HSPA • HDLC • PPP • ...
1. Physical layer

Many Ethernet adapters and switch ports Ethernet physical layer • ISDN • Modems • PLC •
support multiple speeds, using autonegotiation SONET/SDH • G.709 • OFDM •Optical Fiber •
to set the speed and duplex for the best values Coaxial Cable • Twisted Pair • ...
supported by both connected devices. If auto-
negotiation fails, a multiple speed device will sense the speed used by
its partner, but will assume half-duplex. A 10/100 Ethernet port
supports 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX. A 10/100/1000 Ethernet port
supports 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-T.

IEEE photograph of a diagram

Contents with the original terms for
describing Ethernet drawn by
Robert M. Metcalfe around
„ 1 Physical layers 1976.
„ 1.1 Xerox experimental Ethernet
„ 1.2 Early implementations (10 Mbit/s and 1 Mbit/s)
„ 1.3 Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit/s)
„ 1.4 Gigabit Ethernet
„ 1.5 10 gigabit Ethernet
„ 1.6 100 gigabit Ethernet
„ 2 Ethernet over twisted-pair cable
„ 3 Ethernet Minimum Cable Lengths

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„ 4 See also
„ 5 References
„ 6 External links

Physical layers
Xerox experimental Ethernet

Name Description
Xerox The original, 3 Mbit/s Ethernet implementation, which had a frame format different
Ethernet from the production forms of Ethernet.

Early implementations (10 Mbit/s and 1 Mbit/s)

Name Standard Description

10 Mbit/s, Manchester coded signaling, copper RG-8X (expensive) coaxial
10BASE5 802.3 (8)
cabling, bus topology with collision detection (aka Thick Ethernet)
802.3 10 Mbit/s, Manchester coded signaling, copper RG-58 (cheap) coaxial
10BASE2
(10) cabling, bus topology with collision detection (aka Thin Ethernet)
10 Mbit/s, scrambled NRZ signaling modulated (PSK) over high
802.3
10BROAD36 frequency carrier, broad bandwidth coaxial cabling, bus topology with
(11)
collision detection
802.3 1 Mbit/s, Manchester coded signaling, copper twisted pair cabling, star
1BASE5
(12) topology
10 Mbit/s, Manchester coded signaling, copper twisted pair cabling, star
StarLAN 10
topology - evolved into 10BASE-T
802.3 10 Mbit/s, Manchester coded signaling, copper twisted pair cabling, star
10BASE-T
(14) topology - direct evolution of 1BASE-5
FOIRL Fiber-optic inter-repeater link; the original standard for Ethernet over fiber
(also called 10BASE-FX) -- A generic term for the family of 10 Mbit/s
802.3 Ethernet standards using fiber optic cable: 10BASE-FL, 10BASE-FB and
10BASE-F
(15) 10BASE-FP. Of these only 10BASE-FL is in widespread use. 10 Mbit/s,
Manchester coded signaling, fiber pair
802.3
10BASE-FL an updated version of the FOIRL standard
(15)
802.3 intended for backbones connecting a number of hubs or switches; it is now
10BASE-FB
(15) obsolete
802.3
10BASE-FP a passive star network that required no repeater, it was never implemented
(15)

Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit/s)

For more details on this topic, see Fast Ethernet.

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Name Standard Description

A term for any of the three standards for 100 Mbit/s Ethernet over twisted
100BASE-
pair cable up to 100 meters long. Includes 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-T4 and
T
100BASE-T2. All of them use a star topology.
100BASE- 802.3
4B5B MLT-3 coded signaling, CAT5 copper cabling with two twisted pairs.
TX (24)
8B6T PAM-3 coded signaling, CAT3 copper cabling (as used for 10BASE-
100BASE- 802.3
T installations) with four twisted pairs (uses all four pairs in the cable). Now
T4 (23)
obsolete, as Cat-5 cabling is the norm. Limited to half-duplex.
No products exist. PAM-5 coded signaling, CAT3 copper cabling with two
twisted pairs, star topology. Supports full-duplex. It is functionally
100BASE- 802.3
equivalent to 100BASE-TX, but supports old telephone cable. However,
T2 (32)
special sophisticated digital signal processors are required to handle
encoding schemes required, making this option fairly expensive.
4B5B NRZI coded signaling, two strands of multi-mode optical fiber.
100BASE- 802.3
Maximum length is 400 meters for half-duplex connections (to ensure
FX (24)
collisions are detected) or 2 kilometers for full-duplex.
100 Mbit/s Ethernet over multi-mode fiber. Maximum length is 300 meters.
100BASE-
TIA Unlike 100BASE-FX using lasers as light sources, 100BASE-SX uses
SX
LEDs, so it is cheaper.
100 Mbit/s Ethernet bidirectionally over a single strand of single-mode
100BASE- optical fiber. A multiplexer is used to split transmit and receive signals into
802.3
BX10 different wavelengths allowing them to share the same fiber. Supports up to
10 km.
100BASE-
802.3 100 Mbit/s Ethernet up to 10 km over a pair of single mode fibers.
LX10
Standardized by a different IEEE 802 subgroup, 802.12, because it used a
different, more centralized form of media access ("Demand Priority").
100Base-
802.12 Championed by only HP, 100VG-AnyLAN (as was the marketing name)
VG
was the earliest in the market. It needed four pairs of Cat-3 cables. Now
obsolete (802.12 has been "inactive" since 1997).

Gigabit Ethernet

For more details on this topic, see Gigabit Ethernet.

All of these use a star topology.

Name Standard Description

PAM-5 coded signaling, CAT5/CAT5e/CAT6 copper cabling with four
1000BASE-T 802.3 (40)
twisted pairs (used in both directions)
1000BASE-TX TIA 854 over only Cat-6 copper cabling. Unimplemented.
1000BASE-SX 802.3 8B10B NRZ coded signaling, multi-mode fiber (up to 550 m).
8B10B NRZ coded signaling, multi-mode fiber (up to 550 m) or single-

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mode fiber (up to 2 km; can be optimized for longer distances, up to 10

1000BASE-LX 802.3
km).
multi-
1000BASE-LH over single-mode fiber (up to 100 km). A long-haul solution.
vendor
1000BASE- 8B10B NRZ coded signaling, balanced shielded twisted pair (up to 25
802.3
CX m) over special copper cable. Predates 1000BASE-T and rarely used.
1000BASE-
802.3 up to 10km. Bidirectional over single strand of single-mode fibre.
BX10
1000BASE-
802.3 Up to 10 km over a pair of single-mode fibres.
LX10
1000BASE- downstream (from head-end to tail-ends) over single-mode fiber using
802.3
PX10-D point-to-multipoint topology (supports at least 10 km).
1000BASE- upstream (from a tail-end to the head-end) over single-mode fiber using
802.3
PX10-U point-to-multipoint topology (supports at least 10 km).
1000BASE- downstream (from head-end to tail-ends) over single-mode fiber using
802.3
PX20-D point-to-multipoint topology (supports at least 20 km).
1000BASE- upstream (from a tail-end to the head-end) over single-mode fiber using
802.3
PX20-U point-to-multipoint topology (supports at least 20 km).

10 gigabit Ethernet

For more details on this topic, see 10 gigabit Ethernet.

Description
Name Standard

10 designed to support short distances over deployed multi-mode fiber cabling,

GBASE- 802.3ae it has a range of between 26 m and 82 m depending on cable type. It also
SR supports 300 m operation over a new 2000 MHz.km multi-mode fiber.
10 uses wavelength division multiplexing to support ranges of between 240 m
GBASE- 802.3ae and 300 m over deployed multi-mode cabling. Also supports 10 km over
LX4 single-mode fiber.
10
GBASE- 802.3ae supports 10 km over single-mode fiber
LR
10
GBASE- 802.3ae supports 40 km over single-mode fiber
ER
10
A variation of 10 GBASE-SR using the WAN PHY, designed to
GBASE- 802.3ae
interoperate with OC-192 / STM-64 SONET/SDH equipment
SW
10
A variation of 10 GBASE-LR using the WAN PHY, designed to
GBASE- 802.3ae
interoperate with OC-192 / STM-64 SONET/SDH equipment
LW

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10
A variation of 10 GBASE-ER using the WAN PHY, designed to
GBASE- 802.3ae
interoperate with OC-192 / STM-64 SONET/SDH equipment
EW
10
designed to support short distances over copper cabling, it uses InfiniBand
GBASE- 802.3ak
4x connectors and CX4 cabling and allows a cable length of up to 15 m.
CX4
10
802.3an Uses unshielded twisted-pair wiring.
GBASE-T
10
draft
GBASE- Extend to 220 m over deployed 500 MHz.km multimode fiber
802.3aq
LRM

„ 10 gigabit Ethernet is still fairly new and it remains to be seen which of the standards will gain
commercial acceptance in consumer markets. 10 GBASE-LR/ER are the most common usage in
the Carrier/ISP market.
„ Note that both IEEE 802.2ae and IEEE 802.3ak have been incorporated into IEEE 802.3-2005.

100 gigabit Ethernet

For more details on this topic, see 100 gigabit Ethernet.

Name Standard Description

100 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group. 100 Gbit/s up to 100 m or 10 km using MMF
GBASE-? HSSG or SMF optical fiber respectively

Ethernet over twisted-pair cable

Several varieties of Ethernet were specifically designed to run over 4-pair copper structured cabling
already installed in many locations. ANSI recommends using Category 6 cable for new installations .

RJ-45 Wiring (TIA/EIA-568-B T568A)

10BASE- 100BASE- 1000BASE- PoE PoE
Pin Pair Color telephone
T TX T mode A mode B

1 3 - TX+ z bidi 48V out -

white/green
2 3 green - TX- z bidi 48V out -
48V
3 2 - RX+ z bidi -
white/orange return
4 1 blue ring - - bidi - 48V out

5 1 tip - - bidi - 48V out

white/blue
48V
6 2 orange - RX- z bidi -
return

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48V
7 4 - - - bidi -
white/brown return
48V
8 4 brown - - - bidi -
return

Combining 10Base-T (or 100BASE-TX) with "IEEE 802.3af mode A" allows a hub to transmit both
power and data over only two pairs. This was designed to leave the other two pairs free for analog
telephone signals[1] (http://www.zytrax.com/tech/layer_1/cables/mixed.html).

The pins used in "IEEE 802.3af Mode B" supplies power over the "spare" pairs not used by 10BASE-T
and 100BASE-TX.

In a departure from both 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T uses all four cable pairs for
simultaneous transmission in both directions through the use of echo cancellation. (Telephones also use
echo cancellation to simultaneously transmit in both direction over a single cable pair).

Ethernet Minimum Cable Lengths

All copper Ethernet segments that run the Collision Detect (CD) portion of CSMA/CD have a minimum
cable length to function properly because of reflections[1]. This applies only to 10BASE-T and
100BASE-TX standards; The 1000BASE-TX standard is covered at the end of this section.

Fiber connections have minimum cable lengths due to level requirements on received signals[2].

Fiber ports designed for long-haul wavelengths require a signal attenuator if used within a building[3].
Industrial Ethernet applications uses a star topology with no collisions, therefore no minimum cable
length is required[4].
1000BASE-TX supports half-duplex mode, making collisions possible. Consequently, the 1000BASE-
TX standard requires a minimum cable length for collision detection to function properly; to avoid this
in Gigabit Ethernet, small frames are padded into the transmission in half-duplex mode[5].

See also
„ Ethernet
„ physical layer
„ IEEE 802.3

References
1. ^ Computer Technology Documentation Project
(http://www.comptechdoc.org/independent/networking/guide/nethwethernet.html), undated, URL retrieved
on 1 June 2007
2. ^ Cisco 100BASE-FX SFP Fast Ethernet Interface Converter on Gigabit SFP Ports
(http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps5455/products_data_sheet0900aecd801ba88e.html),
undated, URL retrieved on 1 June 2007

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3. ^ Extreme Network Consolidated Hardware Guide

(http://apps.extremenetworks.com/services/documentation/ConsolidatedHWRev2-Chapter1.asp), undated,
URL retrieved on 1 June 2007
4. ^ Contemporary Controls Ethernet Media Converter Manual (http://www.ccontrols.com/pdf/NWSL61.pdf),
undated, URL retrieved on 1 June 2007
5. ^ Intel Network Connectivity Solutions Guide
(http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/resources/doc_library/white_papers/solutions/copper_guide/gig_
undated, URL retrieved on 1 June 2007

External links
„ Get IEEE 802.3 (http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/802.3.html)
„ IEEE 802.3 (http://www.ieee802.org/3/)
„ How to make an Ethernet cable (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Network-Cable)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_physical_layer"

Categories: Cleanup from December 2006 | All pages needing cleanup | Articles to be merged since
February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since
February 2007 | Physical layer protocols | Ethernet

„ This page was last modified 14:05, 24 July 2007.

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