Characteristics of Ethernet Communications...

• There is no central control that governs data transmission
• The network is multi-access and all nodes have equal ability to transmit on the network
• Data units are transmitted as encapsulated
• Each transmitted packet contains addresses of the sending and receiving nodes
• Packet addressing includes the ability to specify one node, multiple nodes, or all nodes on the network
• The packets reach every network node
• It is the responsibility of the receiving or target node to recognize and accept packets with its address as the destination
• Data transmission is relatively high speed at 10 or 100 Mbps
• Efficient error detection reduces transmission delays to a minimum
• The communication specification discourages the implementation of special features that might lead to incompatible network variations

ATM Compared to Bus Architectures...

• ATM switching enables data to be transmitted at access speeds appropriate to the type of data sent
• ATM permits use of higher bandwidths
• Each ATM connection (communication session) has its own dedicated bandwidth
• Connection processes are more clearly defined with ATM, since they are handled by switch from point-to-point

Characteristics of Thick Coaxial Cable for Ethernet

• Device attachments possible every 2.5 meters
• Maximum cable length is 500 meters
• Maximum cable length with repeaters is 2500 meters
• Transmission speed on the cable equals 10 Mbps
• Up to 100 nodes can be attached per segment
• Minimum Vp of .77c
• Maximum Medium Delay per segment is 2165 ns
• Cable is RG-8
• Uses 50-ohm terminators