What is a gigabit ethernet connection and what is it for?

What is a Gigabit Ethernet connection?

Gigabit Ethernet is a version of Ethernet technology widely used in local area networks (LAN) to transmit Ethernet frames or frames at 1 Gbps. It is used as a backbone in many networks, particularly those of large organizations.

Gigabit Ethernet is an extension of the previous 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps 802.3 Ethernet standards. It supports a bandwidth of 1, 000 Mbps and maintains full compatibility with the base of around 100 million installed Ethernet nodes.

When it was first developed, some thought that achieving Gigabit speeds with Ethernet would require the use of fiber optics or other special network cable technology. However, that is only necessary for long distances.

Gigabit Ethernet usually uses fiber optic connection to transmit information at very high speed over long distances. For short distances, copper cables and twisted pair connections are used (specifically, the CAT5e and CAT6 cabling standards) similar to the older and more widely used 100/1000 Mbps Fast Ethernet (which works from CAT5 cables).

The first Gigabit Ethernet standard

The Gigabit Ethernet standard was developed by Dr. Robert Metcalf and introduced by Intel, Digital and Xerox in the early 1970s. It quickly developed into a larger LAN technology system for sharing information and data worldwide. In 1998, the first Gigabit Ethernet standard, named 802.3z, was certified by the IEEE 802.3 Committee.

Ethernet was released to users in 1980, and back then it had a peak throughput of 10 megabits per second. 15 years passed and in 1995 an Ethernet update was released, which they called “Fast Ethernet” (also known as “10/100”), which offered a performance of 100 megabits per second.

However, three years later, an even newer version appeared, whose name was "Gigabit Ethernet" or "10/100/1000". This new standard has a maximum performance of 1, 000 megabits (or 1 gigabit) per second, which gave rise to its name.

Today, we are faced with faster interfaces, among which we can mention 10 GbE (10 Gigabit Ethernet), although its use in consumer products has not yet become general. But there is an interface that will be even faster: Terabit Ethernet, which will provide 1, 000 gigabits per second and is in full development.

Advantages of Gigabit Ethernet over Ethernet

Here we leave some of the advantages over Gigabit Ethernet to the ancient Ethernet.

Transmission speed is 100 times faster. Reduces bottleneck problems and improves bandwidth capacity, resulting in superior performance. Offers full-duplex capacity, which can provide nearly twice the bandwidth. Offers cumulative bandwidth for faster speed by employing gigabit adapters and switches. Quality of Service (QoS) reduces latency problems and offers better video and audio services. Highly affordable. Compatible with already installed Ethernet nodes in home routers and new buildings. Transfer large amounts of data quickly.

How fast is Gigabit Ethernet in practice?

Due to factors such as network protocol overhead and retransmissions due to collisions or other transient failures, devices cannot transfer data at the full 1 Gbps (1250 MBps) rate.

However, under normal conditions, effective data transfer over the cable can reach 900 Mbps, if only for short periods of time.

On PCs, disk drives can greatly limit the performance of a Gigabit Ethernet connection. Traditional hard drives spin at speeds between 5, 400 and 9, 600 RPM revolutions per second, so they can only handle a data transfer rate of between 25 and 100 megabytes per second.

Finally, some home routers with Gigabit Ethernet ports may have CPUs that cannot handle the load necessary to support incoming or outgoing data processing at maximum network connection speeds. The more client devices and simultaneous sources of network traffic, the less likely it is that a router processor will be able to support maximum speed transfers on any particular link.

There's also the bandwidth factor that limits the connection, as even if an entire home network can achieve 1Gbps download speeds, even just two simultaneous connections would immediately halve the available bandwidth for both devices.

Gigabit Ethernet Compatible Devices

You can't usually tell just by looking at the physical device whether it supports Gigabit Ethernet. Network devices provide the same type of RJ-45 connection whether their Ethernet ports support 10/100 (Fast) and 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) connections.

Network cables often have screen printed information about the standards they support. These marks help confirm whether a cable is capable of operating at Gigabit Ethernet speeds, but they do not indicate whether the network is actually configured to operate at that speed.

To check the speed of an active network connection, open the connection settings on the client device.

In Microsoft Windows, for example, go to the Network and Sharing Center> Change adapter settings window. From there, you can right-click a connection to see its status.

Slow devices connected to Gigabit Ethernet

What if your device only supports, for example, 100 Mbps Ethernet but connects it to a Gigabit compatible port? Does this instantly update the device to use Gigabit?

No, he does not do it. All broadband routers (for many years) are compatible with Gigabit Ethernet along with other conventional computer network equipment, but Gigabit Ethernet also offers compatibility with older 100 Mbps and 10 Mbps Ethernet devices.

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Connections to these devices operate normally, but operate at the lowest rated speed. In other words, you can connect a slow device to a fast network and it will only work as fast as the lowest rated speed. The same is true if you connect a Gigabit capable device to a slow network; it will only work as fast as the slowest network.