Gigabit or 1000-Mb Ethernet is the 1998 IEEE 802.3z standard that includes the Gigabit Ethernet MAC and three
physical layers. Gigabit uses 8B/10B encoding and encompasses three physical standards: 1000BASE-SX Fiber
(horizontal fiber), 1000BASE-LX Fiber (vertical or campus backbone), 1000BASE-CX Copper (Copper-Twinax
cabling), and 1000BASE-T.

  • Increased bandwidth for higher performance and elimination of bottlenecks
  • Broad deployment capabilities without re-wiring, using 1000BASE-T Gigabit over Category 5 copper cabling
  • Aggregate bandwidth to 16Gbps through IEEE 802.3ad and Intel® Link Aggregation using Intel server adapters and switches
  • Full-duplex capacity, allowing data to be transmitted and received at the same time so that the effective bandwidth is virtually doubled
  • Quality of Service (QoS) features which can be used to help eliminate jittery video or distorted audio
  • Low cost of acquisition and ownership

Compatibility and Support

Gigabit Ethernet is fully compatible with the large installed base of Ethernet and Fast Ethernet nodes. It employs all of the same specifications defined by the original Ethernet standard, including:

CSMA/CD protocol
Ethernet frame or “packet” format
Full duplex
Flow control
Management objects as defined by the IEEE 802.3 standard

Because it’s part of the Ethernet suite of standards, Gigabit Ethernet also supports traffic management techniques that deliver Quality of Service over Ethernet, such as:

IEEE 802.1p Layer 2 prioritization
ToS coding bits for Layer 3 prioritization
Differentiated Services
Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)

Gigabit Ethernet can also take advantage of 802.1Q VLAN support, Layer 4 filtering, and Layer 3 switching at Gigabit speeds. In addition, bandwidth up to 16Gbps can be achieved by trunking either several Gigabit switch ports or Gigabit server adapters together using IEEE 802.3ad or Intel Link Aggregation.

All of these popular Ethernet technologies, which are deployed in a variety of network infrastructure devices, are applicable to Gigabit Ethernet.