Ethernet is a system of LAN used to connect the multiple systems to develop a LAN (Local Area Network). Currently ethernet can be divided into four levels: Ethernet(10 Mbit/s), Fast ethernet(100 Mbit/s), Gigabit ethernet(1000 Mbit/s) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet(10000 Mbit/s).
What is fast ethernet?
Fast Ethernet is a local area network (LAN) transmission standard that provides 100 Mbit/s data transfer rate (100BASE-T). Workstations with Ethernet cards at 10 Mbps (10BASE-T) can connect to Fast Ethernet. (100 MB per second is a shared data rate; the input to each workstation is limited by 10 Mbps cards.)
What is gigabit ethernet?
Similar to fast ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet is another term of Ethernet in computing network, it provides 1Gbit/s(1000 Mbit/s) data transfer rate.
What’s the difference between gigabit and fast ethernet?
The biggest difference between the two different types of Ethernet is of course in data speed. Gigabit Ethernet is more advanced technology than Fast Ethernet having speed of 1000 Mbit/s, 10 times more than speed of Fast Ethernet, which is 100 Mbit/s. And it improves on available bandwidth and interference to give improved performance in all areas.
In addition to data speed, there are other aspects of the difference, as shown in the table following.
|
Item |
Fast Ethernet |
Gigabit ethernet |
|
Introduced year |
In 1995 |
In 1999 |
|
Data speed |
100 Mbit/s |
1000 Mbit/s |
|
IEEE standard |
802.3u |
802.3z |
|
Cables |
Cat 5 or Cat 5e cables |
Cat 5e or Cat 6e cables |
|
Cost |
Expensive |
Cost-effective |
|
Supported network |
Every network |
Specific network* |
*Every network can support 100 Mbit/s but cannot support 1000 Mbit/s. So, specific network is required that can support the Gigabit Ethernet.
The same reason, gigabit Ethernet requires specifically designed network devices that can support the standard 1000Mbps data rate. Fast Ethernet requires no specific network devices.