Assess Your Needs With Gigabit Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet describes the various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. This technology supports transfer rates and is currently being used as the backbone in many enterprise networks.

Gigabit Ethernet is carried primarily on optical fiber with very short distances possible on copper media. Gigabit Ethernet increases speed tenfold over Fast Ethernet to 1000 Mbps and dominates the high-speed local area network and server connectivity. Since Gigabit Ethernet significantly leverages on Ethernet, customers will be able to leverage their existing knowledge base to manage and maintain gigabit networks.

Most decisions to upgrade a network follow the overall reduction in performance of the network. Bottlenecks can occur at the backbone, servers, server connections and the connection to the Internet. Network managers should assess their bandwidth needs based on the following:

• Shared Files – Large or numerous data systems have a serious impact on the overall performance of the network.

• Shared Storage – Users must access the network to store or retrieve files, impacting network traffic.

• Large Server/Printer Farms – Servers, print servers and other network resources must be taken into account in order to determine their individual bandwidth needs and evaluate their impact on the network.

• Video and Audio over Ethernet – Improved video and audio technologies have increased users’ abilities to see and hear movies and music, increasing the strain on the network. Also, businesses use these technologies for online training, meetings and teleconferencing.

• Websites as Intranet/Internet Tools – Companies today use websites as a powerful sales and marketing tool, and internal websites sometimes replace the corporate server as a place to post company information. Interaction between the corporate intranet and the Internet add substantial traffic on the network backbone. Quick and reliable access to web and ftp servers is vital to workers and customers. Since these systems are most often connected directly to the network backbone, ensuring enough bandwidth.