From the course: CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) Cert Prep

Gigabit Ethernet and 10-gigabit Ethernet

From the course: CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) Cert Prep

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Gigabit Ethernet and 10-gigabit Ethernet

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- In the 1990s, the Ethernet powers that be came up with Gigabit Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet really changed things in that it took us from 100 megabits per second to 1,000 megabits per second. So when we're talking about Gigabit Ethernet, traditionally what we're talking about is 1000-base something. Now, there are four Gigabit Ethernet standards that you're going to see on the Network+ exam. First of all is a very old one and a weird one called 1000BaseCX. 1000BaseCX is weird because it's a copper standard, but it uses a very strange coaxial cable called twinax, and it was a whopping 25 meters between your switch and the individual nodes. Now, there actually is some 1000BaseCX out there. I've seen a few installations, but it's, for the most part, rare and weird. The other three use more traditional fiber optic or UTP type cabling. On the fiber optic side you have two, you have 1000BaseSX, which uses multimode fiber optic cable and can have distances up to about 500 meters. Then you have 1000BaseLX, which uses single-mode and has distances up to about five kilometers. For good old unshielded twisted pair, we have just 1000BaseT. 1000BaseT originally was designed to work with CAT 5E, but we really use CAT 6, and it has a traditional distance of about 100 meters. So you need to know about all, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, get back here. (chuckling) Look, I know some of these facts are a little dull, but it's important because they are on the Network+ and you should be aware of these standards. So stay with me here, okay? Alright, great. So let's go ahead and talk about the next guy in line, 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Now, with 10 Gigabit Ethernet, you have a number of very strange standards. The reason they're strange is because you have standards that are designed to work with a different type of networking technology, which is the backbone of the internet called SONET. So these types of standards come in two versions, the type to work with Ethernet LANs and the type that work with these SONET, high-end, tier one internet kind of things. So to give you an example, let's talk about, well, first of all, the most simple one, which is good old 10GBaseT. So you need to understand this nomenclature. So we say 10GBaseT. So that is designed to work really on either CAT 6 or CAT 6A. If it's running on CAT 6, you can only have distances of 55 meters. If you run on CAT 6A, the way you should, it'll run the more traditional 100 meters that you see for all the versions of unshielded twisted pair Ethernet. Now, there are three main versions of fiber optic that we use for 10 Gigabit. The most basic one is 10GBaseSR. 10GBaseSR runs on multimode cable and its length is a little bit variable, depending on a number of different factors like the type of multimode cable you use. So it can run from anywhere as low as 26 meters up to about 400 meters. The other two versions run on single-mode, but the difference is, is the light wavelength, believe it or not, that they use. So the first one is 10GBaseLR. 10GBaseLR, long range, runs on single-mode, but it runs on, you ready? 1310 nanometer single-mode fiber, and it can run up to 10 kilometers. Now, then there's 10GBaseER. Now, 10GBaseER is also single-mode, but it has 1550 nanometer single-mode cable and it can run up to 40 kilometers. Now, for each one of these standards, 10GBaseSR, ER, or LR, there is an equivalent SW, LW, or EW version. These W versions have the exact same values I just gave you, but they're designed to work on these old school SONET networks. So for example, if I were to say Tommy has a 10GBaseLW network, how long can the cables run? It's still 10 kilometers. It doesn't change anything. So you just need to be aware of these. These are very, very important, and Net+ has an obsession about asking you the minutiae of the different 10 Gigabit Ethernet standards.

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