Compaq Netelligent Repeater and Switch Products
C
OMPAQ
N
ETELLIGENT
R
EPEATER AND
S
WITCH
P
RODUCTS
(cont’d.)
4
041A/0996
C
OMPETING
T
ECHNOLOGIES
Two main high-speed networking technologies currently compete with Fast Ethernet but are
radically different in architecture and implementation: Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). The following comparison describes the main
characteristics of each technology.
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
FDDI is a proven and well-understood technology that delivers 100 Mb/s bandwidth with little
overhead. Based on Token Ring, FDDI was developed as a backbone technology and offers many
advanced features. Consequently, FDDI adapters and hubs are complex and expensive. Also,
FDDI runs on fiber and twisted-pair cable (Category 5 only), while many installations use
Category 3 twisted-pair.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATM is a relatively new type of high-speed technology that uses
cell-switching
to achieve
throughput from speeds of 150 Mb/s up to 640 Mb/s on a single fiber-optic circuit. Although
industry analysts view ATM as a long-term strategic technology primarily in backbones and wide
area networks (WANs), a lack of standards presents major concerns about its interoperability.
Also, because ATM is such a radical departure from today’s LAN technology, it requires
expensive, complex, and time-consuming upgrades and learning curves.
N
ETELLIGENT
R
EPEATER AND
S
WITCH
O
VERVIEW
The Compaq Netelligent product line offers a wide variety of innovative, standards-based shared
media repeaters and switches.
Shared media Ethernet repeaters, which consist of one or more independent network segments,
allow devices such as file servers, disk servers, workstations, and printers to share a common
network (segment) so that they can communicate with each other. All devices connected to a
particular segment share the bandwidth available on that segment.
Ethernet switches provide each network connection a dedicated 10 Mb/s or 100 Mb/s of
bandwidth. In other words, each part is its own network segment. A switch transfers data traffic
from each individual segment to its destination without affecting traffic on other segments.
Shared media repeaters and switches can be managed or unmanaged. All managed repeaters
support industry-standard SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) agents and hub
specific MIB (Management Information Base) extensions.
Compaq Netelligent repeaters and switches address the unique needs of workgroup and
departmental client/server computing while allowing for future expansion to larger, enterprise-
level networks.
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