Book excerpt: A logical extension of the well - known Ethernet technology, Gigabit Ethernet provides the capacity required for bandwidth - hungry servers, campus backbone networks, and next - generation workstations. The author explains the technology in clear and understandable terms, and explores the implications for its application and operation in real - world networks. You & ’ll find essential information on full duplex operation and its implications for network design, the automatic link configuration mechanism, modifications made to the Ethernet Medium Access Control (MAC) algorithms to support 1000 Mb/s operation, and the differences among Gigabit Ethernet hubs, including repeaters, switches, routers, and buffered distributors. Gigabit Ethernet contains a convenient summary of the IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet standard, and to give you a perspective on Gigabit Ethernet & ’s role relative to other high - performance LANs, Seifert compares Gigabit Ethernet to such alternative technologies as Fibre Channel, FDDI, HIPPI, and ATM.