LAN Technology Scorecard (You can't tell the players without a program!) John Wobus, jmwobus@syr.edu, 9/2/1994 (corrections welcome) Technology Rate Dist Packet Wiring As Of Standard Products ---------- --------- ---- ------- ------------ ----- ------------ ---------- 4Mb Token 4Mbps 300m TokenR4 Type1/C3/Fib 11/93 IEEEdone Out 16Mb Token 16Mbps 300m TokenR16 Type1/C4/Fib 11/93 IEEEdone Out ARCNET 2.5Mbps 100f ARCNET RG62 7/94 ANSIdone Out TCNS 100Mbps 100m ARCNET RG62A/U 7/94 Proprietary Out TCNS 100Mbps 150m ARCNET Type1 7/94 Proprietary Out TCNS 100Mbps 900m ARCNET Fiber 7/94 Proprietary Out TCNS 100Mbps 100m ARCNET 4PC5 7/94 Proprietary ? ThinWire 10Mbps 185m Ethern ThinWire 12/93 IEEEdone Out ThickWire 10Mbps 500m Ethern ThickWire 12/93 IEEEdone Out 10BASE-T 10Mbps 100m Ethern 2PC3 11/93 IEEEdone Out FOIRL 10Mbps 1km Ethern Multimode 12/93 IEEEdone Out 10BASE-FL 10Mbps 2km Ethern Multimode 2/94 IEEEdone Out 10BASE-FB 10Mbps 2km* Ethern Multimode 2/94 IEEEdone Out 10BASE-FP 10Mbps 500m Ethern Multimode 2/94 IEEEdone ? PMD 100Mbps 2km FDDI Multimode 11/93 ANSIdone Out oldCDDI 100Mbps ? FDDI UTP 11/93 Propriet/Obs Out oldTP-FDDI 100Mbps ? FDDI STP 3/94 Obsel ? SDDI 100Mbps ? FDDI STP 3/94 ? ? SMF-PMD 100Mbps 40km FDDI Singlemode 2/94 ANSIdone Out LCF-PMD 100Mbps 500m FDDI Multimode 2/94 ANSIindev ? TP-PMD 100Mbps 250m FDDI 2PC5/Type1/2 2/94 ANSIdraft Out old4T+ 100Mbps 100m Ethern 4PC3/4/5 11/93 IEEEstarting Late 93/94 old100B-X 100Mbps 100m Ethern 2PC5/Type1/Fib 1/94 IEEEsubmtd Out 100BASE-TX 100Mbps 100m Ethern 2PC5/Type1 7/94 IEEEballot Out 100BASE-FX 100Mbps 2km Ethern Multimode 8/94 IEEEballot Out 100BASE-T4 100Mbps 100m Ethern 4PC3/4/5 7/94 IEEEballot ? 100VG-AnyL 100Mbps 100m Eth/To 4PC3/4/5 8/94 IEEEballot Out 100VG-AnyL 100Mbps 150m Eth/To 2PC5/Type1 7/94 IEEEballot Late 94 100VG-AnyL 100Mbps 2km Eth/To Sing/Mult 7/94 IEEEballot Late 94 T100 50Mbps ? Ethern 2PC3 6/94 Proprietary Out T100 100Mbps ? Ethern 4PC3 6/94 Proprietary Out WaveBus 100Mbps 5km Ethern Multimode 8/94 Proprietary Out SwEthern 10Mbps 100m Ethern 2PC3 11/93 No change Out FDSE 10MbpsFD 100m Ethern 2PC3 6/94 Proposed Out FDFastE 100Mbps 100m Ethern 2PC5/Type1 8/94 ? 94 FDFastE 100Mbps 2km Ethern Multimode 8/94 ? 94 isoENET 16Mbps 100m? Ethern 2PC3/Type1/Mul 9/94 IEEEdraft 12/94 SwToken 16Mbps 300m TokenR16 Type1/C4 7/94 No change Out FDToken 16MbpsFD 300m TokenR16 Type1/C4 2/94 ? Mid 94 SwFDDI 100MbpsFD 10km FDDI Multimode 12/93 No change Out FDFDDI 100MbpsFD 10km FDDI Multimode 4/94 ? 5/94 HIPPI-PH32 800Mbps 25m HIPPI-FP 100Pair 8/94 ANSIdone Out HIPPI-PH64 1.6Gbps 25m HIPPI-FP 100Pair 8/94 ANSIdone Out FibreChan 100Mbps 1.5km FibreChn Mult/Cx/TP 8/94 ANSIdone Out? FibreChan 200Mbps 10km FibreChn Sing/Mult/Cx/TP8/94 ANSIdone Out FibreChan 400Mbps 10km FibreChn Sing/Mult/Cx 8/94 ANSIdone Out? FibreChan 800Mbps 10km FibreChn Sing/Mult/Cx 8/94 ANSIdone Out? FC-EP 4Gbps? 10km? FibreChn Sing/Mult/Cx 8/94 ANSIproposed Late 94 Myrinet 640Mbps 25m Myrinet Copper 8/94 Proposed Out STS3cUNI 155Mbps ? Cell Sing/Mult 12/93 AFpublished Out DS3UNI 45Mbps ? Cell ? 12/93 AFpublished Out E3UNI ? ? Cell ? 4/94 ? Out 100MbpsUNI 100Mbps ? Cell Multimode 12/93 AFpublished Out 155MbpsUNI 155Mbps 2km Cell Multimode 12/93 AFpublished ? 155MbpsUNI 155Mbps 100m Cell Type1/Type2 12/93 AFpublished ? 155MbpsUNI 155Mbps ? Cell C5 4/94 AFapproved ? TAXI/140 140Mbps ? Cell Multimode 11/93 AF? Out SONET/OC1 51Mbps ? Cell Sing/Mult 11/93 Done ? SONET/OC12 600Mbps ? Cell Sing/Copper 4/94 AFproposed ? SONET/OC48 2.4Gbps ? Cell ? 11/93 Done? ? ATMT1 1.5Mbps ?6Km Cell UTP 4/94 AFapproved ? ATMFrm13 13Mbps ? Cell UTP 12/93 AFproposed ? ATM25 25Mbps 100m Cell C3/4/5/Type1 8/94 AFrejected 7/94 51MbpsUNI 51Mbps 100m Cell C3/4/5/STP 8/94 AFballot ? ATMFrm100? 100Mbps ? Cell Copper 2/94 AFproposed ? ---------- --------- ---- ------- ------------ ----- ------------ ---------- Technology Rate Dist Packet Wiring As Of Standard Products Key: Technology - Some don't have short names so I had to improvise. Rate - The raw rate: note that the raw rate of the transmission media is often not the bottleneck, and in at least one case (HIPPI) represents a maximum possible raw rate rather than a fixed rate. Dist - Maximum distance from a hub to a user station through the given technology. Sometimes there are other limits, e.g. the distance limitations imposed by CSMA/CD. Note that 10BASE-FB is not actually used to connect user stations. Packet - what type of packets it transmits. Important in determining whether bridging between this technology and others needs either encapsulation or translation. Kinds: Cell, Ethernet, FDDI, TokenRing Cell refers to ATM cells. Wiring - Type of wire or fiber supported. "As Of" - the date of the source of the latest information incorporated for the line. Standard - current state of the standard Products - current state of products Technology Key: 4Mb Token - 4 Mbps Token Ring: IEEE 802.5 4 Mbps. 16Mb Token - 16 Mbps Token Ring: IEEE 802.5 16 Mbps. ARCNET - ANSI 878.1. Developed by Datapoint. Aside from RG62, also runs on twisted pair through baluns. Uses Token Bus access method. TCNS - Proprietary LAN technology developed by Thomas-Conrad as a drop-in replacement for ARCNET offering 100Mbps. Also uses Token Bus access method. ThinWire - ThinWire Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 10BASE2. ThickWire - "ThickWire" Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 10BASE5. 10BASE-T - IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T. FOIRL - IEEE 802.3 FOIRL: "Fiber Optic Inter-Repeater Link". Note that the standard is a bit vague on whether this can be used to connect a station to a repeater. 10BASE-FL - IEEE 802.3 10BASE-FL: replacement for FOIRL. 10BASE-FB - IEEE 802.3 10BASE-FB: part of the new IEEE 802.3 10BASE-F spec: "Synchronous Ethernet" which is a special-purpose link for linking repeaters that allows the limit on segments & repeaters to be enlarged. Note that it doesn't quit fit the above chart because it is only for inter-repeater links rather than links to individual stations. 10BASE-FP - IEEE 802.3 10BASE-FP: part of the new IEEE 802.3 10BASE-F spec: support for a passive star configuration. PMD - FDDI "Physical Lay Medium Dependent" part. When "PMD" is used by itself, it usually refers to the usual kind of FDDI physical layer that uses multimode fiber. Note that FDDI also uses it as a more generic term, referring to different FDDI PMD's. Operates at 125Mhz using a 4B/5B NRZI encoding. oldCDDI - CDDI: Proprietary technology developed by Crecendo. FDDI-like technology adapted to unshielded twisted pair. Efforts to standardize it have yielded TP-PMD. Crecendo now uses the term CDDI to mean their own brand of TP-PMD. oldTP-FDDI - "Twisted Pair-FDDI": Technology to run FDDI over twisted pair proposed by 11 companies that have now joined in with TP-PMD. SDDI - "Shielded Distributed Data Interface". Proposal to run FDDI over shielded twisted pair. SMF-PMD - FDDI "Single-Mode Fiber" PMD. Runs further than PMD. LCF-PMD - FDDI "Low-Cost Fiber" PMD. Less expensive than PMD. I don't believe it is common nor is it finished as a standard. TP-PMD - FDDI "Twisted Pair Physical Layer Medium". ANSI specification for FDDI-like service over UTP. Being standardized by ANSI X3T12. Was X3T9/93-130 X3T9.5/93-022 TP-PMD/306 Rev 2.0, now there is a Rev 2.1. Operates at 125Mhz using a 4B/5B encoding, but uses MLT-3 encoding (a three-state encoding) instead of CDDI & PMD's NRZI encoding to reduce emissions. old4T+ - 4T+: old name for 100BASE-T4. It may be that some prestandard equipment was released under the name 4T+. old100B-X - 100BASE-X: old name for 100BASE-TX & 100BASE-FX which now would refer to pre-standard equipment. 100BASE-T - 100Mbps CSMA/CD 802.3/Ethernet-like LAN also known as Fast Ethernet. There are three flavors: 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-FX, and 100BASE-T4 (see individual descriptions below). Repeaters or hubs would be necessary to adapt and there will be a media-independent interface which NICs can support so that an external adaptor determines which flavor can be attached. Packets are identical to 802.3 packets (with bit-times 1/10 the time), but the nature of CSMA/CD requires that the overall radius of the net be limited to 1/10 the size of 10Mbps Ethernet. A typical maximal system would be hubs on a very short backbone (up to 10 meters), the (repeating) hubs supporting links up to 100 meters. Extension of the net beyond this would require a switch, router, or bridge. Fiber links employing the CSMA/CD but with no hubs can run 450 meters, and full-duplex links (i.e., with CSMA/CD "disabled") can run 2km. It is obvious that without (at minimum) switches, that this technology will be limited to connecting a few offices to a server at most. All three are being defined by IEEE 802.3 in the IEEE P802.3u/D2 Supplement. 100BASE-TX - One of the three proposed flavors of 100BASE-T proposed to IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network by the Fast Ethernet Alliance. Basically a renaming of the twisted-pair variant of 100BASE-X. Borrows the physical characteristics of FDDI's TP-PMD, but uses Ethernet framing & CSMA/CD. A Media Independent Interface will allow a single interface card to use either this or the other flavors of 100BASE-T, just as the AUI allows a 10Mbps 802.3 controller to use any of its several types. See also 100BASE-T above. 100BASE-FX - One of the three proposed flavers of 100BASE-T proposed to IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network by the Fast Ethernet Alliance. Basically a renaming of the fiber variant of 100BASE-X. Borrows the physical characteristics of FDDI's normal fiber PMD, but uses Ethernet framing & CSMA/CD. A Media Independent Interface will allow a single interface card to use either this or the other flavors of 100BASE-T, just as the AUI allows a 10Mbps 802.3 controller to use any of its several types. See also 100BASE-T above. 100BASE-T4 - One of the three proposed flavers of 100BASE-T proposed to IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network by the Fast Ethernet Alliance. Basically a renaming of 4T+. Uses 8B6T (three-state: 8 bits encoded into 6 trits) encoding and 25MHZ clocking, and in addition to the two pairs traditionally used in the manner of 10BASE-T, also has two pair used in bidirectional half-duplex fashion. Among other things, this means that this particular kind of Ethernet cannot be made full duplex without the use of more pair. A Media Independent Interface will allow a single interface card to use either this or the other flavors of 100BASE-T, just as the AUI allows a 10Mbps 802.3 controller to use any of its several types. See also 100BASE-T above. 100VG-AnyL - "100VG-AnyLAN" (VG means "Voice Grade"): Originally a proposal to IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network, later relegated to IEEE 802.12. Formerly known as 100BASE-VG. Uses Demand Priority media access method and when using 4 pair, Quartet Signalling. Operates at 30Mhz, using a 5B/6B encoding which keeps emissions low by using only relatively balanced ratios of the two states. The spec will indicate that the 4-pair version will operate at 100m on C3 or 150m on C5. Under good conditions, 200m on C3 and 350m on C5 have been accomplished. My impression is that this is over 4 pair using Quartet signalling. I've seen the net radius quoted at 600m for C3 and 122m for C5. T100 - Proprietary high-speed Ethernet scheme that runs 50Mbps on 2 pair C3 or 100Mbps on 4 pair C3. Developed & sold exclusively by LAN Performance Labs. WaveBus - Proprietary high-speed Ethernet scheme that runs 100Mbps on multimode fiber. SwEthernet - Switched Ethernet: really the same as Ethernet as far as standards go: acts like a very fast multiport Ethernet bridge giving an Ethernet to each client. Presumably based on 10BASE-T for most clients. FDSE - Full Duplex Ethernet: a variant of Switched Ethernet which does not use CSMA/CD, but uses slightly-modified network interface cards to send & receive packets simultaneously. Presumably based on 10BASE-T for most clients, and cannot be based on ThinWire or ThickWire Ethernet. Since the distance limitations imposed by CSMA/CD are eliminated, the only problem is how far a line can be driven. There have been proposals to support up to 50km on single mode fiber. FDFastE - Full Duplex Fast Ethernet: 100BASE-T4 will not be able to support this while 100BASE-FX and 100BASE-TX will, given suitable electronics. isoENET - isochronous Ethernet. An adaptation of 10BASE-T to support another 6Mbps synchronous channel along with the 10Mbps CSMA/CD. Proposed by National Semiconductor. Uses 4B/5B encoding instead of 1B/2B encoding to get more data through. Carries ISDN channels over the wire along with Ethernet, i.e.: 96B+D+E (for Ethernet). Being standarized by IEEE 802.9. I've also heard that ITU H.320 is involved with standardizing the use of the 6Mbps channel. SwToken - analog of Switched Ethernet: each client gets a separate ring that interconnects it with a high-speed packet switch. FDToken - IBM scheme to add switching to token-ring hubs that would allow full-duplex linking to individual computers using modified token-ring adaptors. Has the same wiring characteristics as token ring. SwFDDI - Switched FDDI: really the same as FDDI as far as standards go: acts like a very fast multiport FDDI bridge. Basically the DEC GIGAswitch. FDFDDI - Full Duplex FDDI: Cabletron is planning to offer some sort of full duplex FDDI. DEC offers it on their GIGAswitch. I don't know if they are complatible or what the compatiblity issues might be. Note that it can use all the PMD's for FDDI, thus for example can run 100m on 2PC5. One thing I remain confused on: the original FDDI standard included the ability to operate a counterrotating ring as two rings, giving more throughput to DAS-connected devices. I assume that Cabletron is offering some kind of modified FDDI that uses both sides of a SAS connection. I'm not certain about what DEC is doing. HIPPI-PH32 - ANSI HIPPI with a 32-bit-wide data transfer. Standardized by ANSI X3T11. HIPPI-PH64 - ANSI HIPPI with a 64-bit-wide data transfer. Standardized by ANSI X3T11. FibreChan - Fibre Channel: an ANSI standard for high-speed data transfer over fiber designed to do what HIPPI can do and more. It can be made to emulate HIPPI as well as various disk buses (SCSI, IPI, Block Mux) and can also carry LAN protocols, (IP, etc). Being standardized by ANSI X3T11 as ANSI X3.230.199x. FC-EP - Fibre Channel Enhanced Physical Interface: ANSI proposal for a faster version of Fibre Channel: 4Gbps or 16Gbps. Myrinet - Developed by Myricom. Full-duplex 640Mbps channels connecting hosts and switches. Uses 0.4" shielded, multiconductor cable (type CL2(?)). STS3cUNI - ATM Forum SONET STS-3c UNI, 155.52Mbps. Also called OC3? DS3UNI - ATM Forum DS3 UNI, 44.236Mbps. It borrows the Physical Layer Convergence Protocol from IEEE 802.6. E3UNI - Something like DS3 UNI only using the European equivalent to DS3? I assume it borrows the Physical Layer Convergence Protocol from IEEE 802.6. 100MbpsUNI - ATM Forum 100Mbps multimode fiber private UNI. Same as Fore's TAXI. Borrows optical characteristics & basic encoding of FDDI. 155MbpsUNI - ATM Forum 155Mbps private UNI. In two flavors: multimode and shielded twisted-pair. The multimode version is incomplatible with STS3cUNI. This version is for private networks only and presumably will be less expensive. I heard that a C5 version has been proposed. TAXI/140 - ATM Forum UNI specification developed by Fore. Similar to 100MbpsUNI but with a higher clock rate. SONET/OC1 - ATM variant using fiber. SONET/OC3 - ATM Forum SONET/SDH UNI specification with OC3c/STM-1 framing. Variants use different media: multimode, single mode (short reach or long reach). SONET/OC12 - ATM variant using fiber. SONET/OC48 - ATM variant using fiber. ATMT1 - I don't know the actual name for a T1-based ATM Forum UNI. It borrows the Physical Layer Convergence Protocol from IEEE 802.6. E1 is also presumably supported similarly. ATMFrm13 - I don't know the actual name for this ATM Forum proposal for 13Mbps UNI over UTP. Will be framed the same as STS-1, but at half the clock rate. ATM25 - I don't know the actual name. 25Mbps private UNI proposed to ATM Forum by IBM, but not accepted. Borrows some of Token Ring's signalling characteristics. I've read the statement that the ATM Forum doesn't support this proposal. Will be framed the same as STS-1, but at one quarter the clock rate. 51MbpsUNI - I don't know the actual name. ATM Forum 51Mbps UNI for Catagory 3 UTP. Uses AT&T's 16-CAP (a 16 constellation modem-type modulation scheme) line coding to transmit the signal. The transmission convergence layer (framing) conforms to the STS-1 SONET standard. I've also read that it can go twice as far (200m) at half the speed. ATMFrm100? - I don't know the actual name. ATM Forum UNI for 100Mbps over some sort of copper cable. I believe it is just 100MbpsUNI making use of FDDI's TP-PMD rather than the older fiber PMD. Packet Types Key: ARCNET - An ARCNET packet. 1-508 bytes (excluding 254-256). Cell - An ATM 53-byte cell. Note: there are various proposals for how typical packets will be broken into cells and restored. Ethern - An Ethernet packet: 64-1518 bytes. Eth/To - Ethernet or Token Ring style packet. FDDI - An FDDI packet: ?-4500 bytes. FibreChn - A Fibre Channel packet. 128-2112 bytes. HIPPI-FP - Not really a packet: the framing specific to HIPPI. Myrinet - A Myrinet packet. To 8,368 bytes. TokenR - A Token Ring packet. Allows longer packets than Ethernet, among other things. 4-megabit Token Ring allows 4500 byte packets, 16-megabit token ring allows 17800 byte packets. Wiring Key: ?P - ? Pairs 100Pair - HIPPI 100pair cable. Coax or Cx - some sort of coax: don't know which kind Copper - some sort of copper connection C3 - Category 3 Unshielded Twisted Pair C4 - Category 4 Unshielded Twisted Pair C5 - Category 5 Unshielded Twisted Pair Multimode - fiber Singlemode - fiber STP - Shielded Twisted Pair ThickWire - Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 Normal "Thick" Coax. ThinWire - Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 ThinWire Coax. Type1 - IBM Type 1 STP. Type2 - IBM Type 2 STP. UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair Vendor support/products: 4Mb Token: IBM, etc 16Mb Token: IBM, etc ARCNET: Thomas-Conrad TCNS: Thomas-Conrad ThinWire: DEC, etc ThickWire: DEC, Intel, Xerox, etc 10BASE-T: many vendors FOIRL: many vendors 10BASE-FL: NCR, many vendors 10BASE-FB: Chipcom, IBM 10BASE-FP: Codenoll PMD: many vendors oldCDDI: Crescendo oldTP-FDDI: SDDI: IBM, 3Com, Madge, Network Peripherals, SysKonnect SMF-PMD: DEC LCF-PMD: TP-PMD: SynOptics, National Semiconductor, DEC, Cisco, NPI, 3Com, SysKonnect, UB, ODS, Cabletron, IBM, Team Advanced Systems, Alfa, Chipcom, Distributed Systems International, Gambit, Proteon, Interphase, Memorex, Network Peripherals, NetWorth, Raylan, Rockwell, Xyplex, Xylan old4T+: old100B-X: Grand Junction 100BASE-T: SynOptics, Intel, Accton, Sun, DEC, 3Com, National Semiconductor, ODS, Cisco, Thomas-Conrad, Plexcom, TI, Compaq 100BASE-TX: Grand Junction, National Semiconductor, Sun, SynOptics, David, Intel, DEC, 3Com, Cabletron, Wellfleet, Chipcom, Racal-Datacom, SMC, NCR (See list for Fast Ethernet Alliance) 100BASE-FX: SynOptics, Plexcom 100BASE-T4: 3Com, ATT, DEC, SynOptics, Intel, NCR (See list for Fast Ethernet Alliance) 100VG-AnyL: HP, ATT (Regatta 100 chip set), IBM, Proteon, Ungermann-Bass, SMC, ODS, DEC, D-Link, Asante, Andrew, Racore, Racal InterLan, Thomas-Conrad, 3Com, Alfa, TI, Compaq T100: LAN Performance Labs WaveBus: Plaintree SwEthern: Kalpana, Artel, Alantec, Grand Junction, LANNET, Cabletron, 3Com, SynOptics, Synernetics, Hughes, Calios, SMC, Nbase, Netwiz, IBM, Xedia, HP, Lannet, Matrox, Plaintree, Chipcom FDSE: Cabletron, Kalpana, IBM, 3Com, Compaq, National Semiconductor, NCR, SEEQ, Texas Instruments, Cogent, HP, ODS, Sun, SynOptics, NBase, Netwiz, DEC, Hughes, Lannet, Alantec, Grand Junction FDFastE: SynOptics, Intel, Kalpana isoENET: National Semiconductor, Ascom-Timeplex, Apple, IBM, ATT, Ericsson, Microsoft, Pacific Bell, Siemens AG, Zydacron SwToken: IBM, Netwiz, Ace North Hills, Madge, Chipcom, Centillion Networks, Bytex, ODS, SMC, SynOptics FDToken: IBM SwFDDI: DEC, Centillion Networks FDFDDI: DEC, Cabletron HIPPI-PH32: Cray, Thinking Machines, Essential Communications, Convex, IBM, KSR, Intel, Network Systems, Avika, NetStar, Broadband Communications Products, Sun, HP, Silicon Graphics, Maximum Strategy, PsiTech, Ancor, AMCC, CNT, Aptec, Texas Memory, Zitel, Myriad Logic, TRW, BTS, E-Systems, StorageTek HIPPI-PH64: Cray, Network Systems, Broadband Communications Products, PsiTech FibreChan: Ancor, HP, IBM, Sun, Western Digital FC-EP: Myrinet: Myricom ATM (general): Fore, Newbridge, GTE, Fujitsu, ATT, Alcatel, General DataComm, Hughes, LightStream, NEC, NET, Network Systems, Northern Telecom, ODS, StrataCom, SynOptics, Telematics, TRW, ADC Kentrox, Cabletron, Cascade, Cisco, DEC, FastComm, Interphase, NetEdge, Efficient, , ZeitNet, First Virtual, Agile Whitetree, PMC-Sierra (PM7345 chip), Connectware, Thomas-Conrad, ATML, RADCOM, Tricord, Astarte, Philips, IBM, Mikroelektronik Anwendungszentrum Hamburg, Brooktree, National Semiconductor, TI, TransSwitch, Cypress, Raytheon (chip), Integrated Telecom Technology (chip), Xylan, HP, Silicon Graphics STS3cUNI: Fore, SynOptics, Sun, TI (chip), NetEdge(FiberCom), Hughes, Cisco, 3Com, TransSwitch (chip), Alcatel, ATT, Fujitsu, General DataComm, GTE, Hughes, LightStream, NEC, NET, Network Systems, Newbridge, Northern Telecom, Telematics, TRW, DEC, Digital Link, Interphase, Network Peripherals, Odetics, Xyplex, PMC-Sierra (PM5346 chip), Olicom, Chipcom, Centillion Networks, RADCOM, AMCC (chip), Cypress (chip) DS3UNI: Fore, Cisco, Wellfleet, NetEdge(FiberCom), 3Com, TranSwitch (chip), Alcatel, Fujitsu, General DataComm, GTE, Hughes, LightStream, NEC, NET, Network Systems, Newbridge, Northern Telecom, StrataCom, SynOptics, Telematics, TRW, ADC Kentrox, Cascade, DEC, Digital Link, ODS, RADCOM, Brooktree (Chip), PMC (chip) E3UNI: TranSwitch (chip), Alcatel, Hughes, LightStream, Network Systems, Newbridge, Northern Telecom, StrataCom, Telematics, ADC Kentrox, Cisco, RADCOM, Brooktree (chip), PMC (chip) 100MbpsUNI: Fore, SynOptics, AMD (chip), Cisco, IBM, NET, General DataComm, Alcatel, General DataComm, GTE, LightStream, NEC, Newbridge, Cabletron, Digital Link, Interphase, NetEdge, Retix, Connectware, Chipcom, RADCOM 155MbpsUNI (Multimode): Sun? 155MbpsUNI (Type1/Type2): 155MbpsUNI (C5): Micro Linear Corp (chip), SynOptics, Sun, Network Peripherals, Northern Telecom?, Connectware, Interphase TAXI/140: Fore, AMD, GTE SONET/OC1: Telco Systems, Cypress (chip) SONET/OC12: Fujitsu, PMC (Chip), AMCC (chip), TI (chip) SONET/OC48: ATMT1: NEC, StrataCom, Telematics, FastComm, RADCOM ATMFrm13: ATM25: IBM, Chipcom, TranSwitch (ALI-25 chip), National Semiconductor, HP, ATM Limited, Cellware GmbH, Centillion Networks, Integrated Device Technology, LSI Logic, Madge, Olicom, Silcom, Whitetree, Fujitsu 51MbpsUNI: ATT, Newbridge, Northern Telecom?, Interphase ATMFrm100?: Glossary: ATM "Asynchronous Transfer Mode" - a communications protocol that transmits data in 53-byte cells using switches and various line transmission technologies operating at different speeds. DXI "Data Exchange Interface" - ATM Forum term. HIPPI - "High Performance Parallel Interface", Interface in the draft stage, being defined by ANSI X3T11. HSSI "High Speed Serial Interface" - a 52Mbps interface between routers and DSUs, originally defined by Cisco and T#systems. It is also an ANSI standard. MAN "Metropolitan Area Network". OC-x "Optical Carrier level x" - A SONET term for an optically transmitted SONET signal at some particular speed. The base rate is 51.84Mbps. OC-1 runs at the base rate, OC-3 runs at 3 times the base rate, etc. Commonly planned rates are OC-1, OC-3 (155.52Mbps), OC-12 (622.08Mbps), and OC-48 (2.488Gbps). PLCP "Physical Layer Convergence Protcool". SONET "Synchronous Optical Network" - A set of standard fiber-optic-based serial standards planned for use with ATM in North America. Developed by Bellcore. SDH "Synchronous Digital Hierarchy" - Similar to SONET, but used outside North America. Some of the SDH and SONET standards are identical. Standardized by the CCITT. STM - an SDH term. STS-x "Synchronous Transport Signal level x" - a SONET term for an electrically transmitted SONET signal at some particular speed. Each STS level corresponds to an OC level (see OC-x above). TAXI "Transparent Asynchronous Transmitter-Receiver Interface" - name attached to two interfaces developed by Fore UNI "User to Network Interface" - ATM Forum term. Organizations: ANSI - American National Standards Institute ANSI X3 - ANSI group developing standards for information processing. ANSI X3T9 - old ANSI group within X3 that was developing standards for I/O interfaces. ANSI X3T9.3 Committee - old name for ANSI X3T11 when it was part of X3T9. ANSI X3T9.5 Committee - old name for ANSI X3T12 when it was part of X3T9. ANSI X3T11 Committee - ANSI group standardizing HIPPI and Fibre Channel. ANSI X3T12 Committee - ANSI group within X3T9 that standarized FDDI, PMD, SMF-PMD, and is standardizing TP-PMD and LCF-PMD. IEEE - Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers IEEE 802 Group within IEEE that standardizes LAN technologies. IEEE 802.3 - Group within IEEE 802 that standardizes CSMA/CD LANs. IEEE 802.6 - Group within IEEE 802 that standardizes DQDB MANs. IEEE 802.9 - Group within IEEE 802 working on isoENET. IEEE 802.12 - Group within IEEE 802 working on 100VG-AnyLAN. ATM Forum - Non-profit international industry consortium chartered to accelerate ATM acceptance & interoperability. Fast Ethernet Alliance - Group of vendors working on the three variants of 100BASE-T. They subnet their proposals for approval by the IEEE for a new set of 802.3 standards called 100BASE-T. Members include: 3Com, Cabletron, DAVID, DEC, Grand Junction, Intel, LANNET, National Semiconductor, SEEQ, SMC, Sun, SynOptics, Du Pont, Exar, IMC, JLP, LMC, Microlinear, NEC, Olympic Technology, SEEQ, Unisys, NetWorth, CNet, Cray, Hughes, Hyundai, Interphase, Montrose, Network General, Novell, Packet Engines Inc., Wellfleet, ODS. Full Duplex Switched Ethernet Consortium - Group of vendors that are working out the details of FDSE. Members include: Cabletron, Compaq, IBM, Kalpana, National Semiconductor, NCR, SEEQ, and Texas Instruments. Fibre Channel Systems Initiative (FCSI) - Group of vendors trying to accelerate Fibre Channel acceptance & interoperability. Members include: HP, IBM, Sun. 100VG-AnyLAN Forum - Group of vendors trying to accelerate 100VG-AnyLAN acceptance & interoperability. Charter members include ATT, HP, IBM, ODS, Proteon, UB, Wellfleet. Selected Major Vendors' Activities: (note: virtually all deal with 10BASE-T and older Ethernet styles and multimode PMD FDDI; Many are members of the ATM Forum, but I don't have a list of members) Computer vendors: IBM - primary proponent of 4Mb Token, 16Mb Token, SwToken, FDToken, ATM25; active in TP-PMD, 100VG-AnyL, SwEthern, FDSE, isoENET, 100MbpsUNI, 10BASE-FB, FibreChan; consortiums: Full Duplex Switched Etherent, Fibre Channel Systems Initiative, 100VG-AnyLAN Forum. DEC - primary proponent of SwFDDI; active in FDFDDI, SMF-PMD, TP-PMD, 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-T4, 100VG-Anyl, FDSE, STS3cUNI, DS3UNI; consortiums: Fast Ethernet Alliance. Sun - active in 100BASE-TX, FDSE, FibreChan, STS3cUNI, C5 155MbpsUNI, HIPPI-PH32; consortiums: Fast Ethernet Alliance; Fibre Channel Systems Initiative. Apple - active in isoENET. HP - primary proponent of 100VG-AnyL; active in FDSE, FibreChan, ATM25, HIPPI-PH32; consortiums: Fiber Channel Systems Initiative; 100VG-AnyLAN Forum. Compaq - active in FDSE, 100VG-AnyL, 100BASE-T; consortiums: Full Duplex Switched Ethernet Consortium. Software vendors: Microsoft - active in isoENET. Novell - consortium: Fast Ethernet Alliance. Datacomm equipment vendors: 3Com - active in TP-PMD, 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-T4, SwEthern, FDSE, STS3cUNI, DS3UNI, 100VG-AnyL; Consortiums: Fast Ethernet Alliance. SynOptics - active in TP-PMD, 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-T4, SwEthern, FDSE, FDFastE, STS3cUNI, 100MbpsUNI, 155MbpsUNI. Cabletron - active in FDFDDI, TP-PMD, 100BASE-TX, SwEthern, FDSE, 100MbpsUNI; consortiums: Fast Ethernet Alliance; Full Duplex Switched Ethernet Consortium. Cisco - primary proponent of TP-PMD; active in 100BASE-T, STS3cUNI, DS3UNI, E3UNI, 100MbpsUNI. Wellfleet - active in 100BASE-TX, DS3UNI; consortiums: Fast Ethernet Alliance; 100VG-AnyLAN Forum. Chip manufacturers: Intel - active in 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-T4, FDFastE; consortiums: Fast Ethernet Alliance. Motorola - ? Texas Instruments - active in 100BASE-T, 100VG-AnyL, STS3cUNI, FDSE; consortiums: Full Duplex Switched Ethernet Consortium. Some History: 100BASE-T: The idea spurred three proposals: HP's 100BASE-VG which doesn't use CSMA/CD, and two CSMA/CD proposals, 4T+ and 100BASE-X. Some IEEE 802.3 members objected to 802.3 working on a non-CSMA/CD proposal since "by definition", that group worked on standardizing CSMA/CD networks. That held up standardization efforts for a while, but finally a new group 802.9 was formed. All three proposals still live: 100BASE-VG was expanded to also carry Token-Ring style packets and renamed 100VG-AnyLAN; 100BASE-X is now called 100BASE-TX, and 4T+ is now called 100BASE-T4. TP-PMD: Several vendors introduced priorietary methods of running FDDI over coax & twisted-pair. Crescendo's CDDI was adopted by ANSI with modifications (of course) as TP-PMD and Cisco (who bought Crescendo) still uses the term CDDI for their current standard products. Other methods were DEC's methods for running it over STP and Ethernet ThinNet-style coax, IBM's SDDI for shielded twisted-pair, and the other UTP competitor: TP-FDDI. SDDI is still marketed. ATM: Proposals date back at least to mid-80s. The technology grew out of efforts for a new type of switching for both voice and data for nation-wide networks, and the famous 53-byte cell was originally proposed to be even smaller by those interested in voice transmission. Several vendors proposed it as a future LAN technology and then helped form the ATM Forum to push the technology. The ATM Forum seems to be a model for a new type of organization: not a standards organization, but a group of vendors who write "protocol definition documents" and propose them to the standards bodies, hoping to get them through without any signficant changes, and remaining comfortable that they can sell it well enough to create a defacto standard if need be. An interesting result is that whereas standards bodies are very open in their standards-defining process, these organizations are private and do their writing & discussing in secret. The organizations are typically funded by membership fees, and few companies other than network equipment vendors are willing to put up the money. References: ATM Forum *ATM User-Network Interface Specification Version 3.0* (Prentice Hall, 1993, ISBN: 0-13-225863-3). Fast Ethernet Alliance *100Base-X Physical Layer Specification for Fast Ethernet* Version 1.0 (Fast Ethernet Alliance, October 15 1993). Fast Ethernet Alliance *100BASE-T 4T+ Physical Layer Specification for UTP Category 3/4/5 wiring, Section 1.0 Specification Overview* (Fast Ethernet Alliance, December 1993). HP Networking White Paper *100VG-AnyLAN: The Natural Evoluation of Ethernet and Token Ring* (Available through HP FIRST: 800-333-1917, number 7579, 2/1/94). HP Networking Backgrounder *100BASE-VG* (Available through HP FIRST: 800-333-1917, number 7509). HP Networking Application Note *100VG-ANYLAN: A Technical Overview* (Available through HP FIRST: 800-333-1917, number 7567, 2/1/94). 100VG-Forum *100VG-Forum A Technical Overview* (100VG-Forum Application Note, 8p., 5/94?). Same as the HP Network Application Note. Carl Symborski *comp.dcom.cell-relay FAQ: ATM, SMDS, and related technologies* (Usenet News FAQ Memo). Doug Barr *comp.dcom.lans.fddi FAQ* (Usenet News FAQ Memo). Issues: Factors that will decide the winners: (1) Customer demand for more speed at a lower price. Full-motion video is on the way & file servers remain popular. (2) How quickly various products are brought to market. (3) How quickly various standards stabilize. (4) Customers' installed wiring plants. Something that can run on any line currently running 10BASE-T will have some advantage. (5) Customers' installed NICs. A couple of the technologies require no change. (6) Cost of any new equipment or media that is needed. (7) Interoperability between existing customer equipment: If customers need to connect an X server to a Y client, and perhaps necessarily through a Z piece of networking equipment, they will need a technology supported by X and Y (and perhaps Z). (8) Packet formats: weighing the advantages over simplified bridging due to using a technology that uses a current packet technology. (9) Need for new network software, possibly up to application level. ATM might become "just another LAN technology" or might revolutionize everything and take over, eliminating traditional routers. The latter would require considerable change in a lot of software. Who's writing such software? Any real efforts to propogate it to as many end nodes as currently use 10BASE-T? (10) Distance limitations: high-speed CSMA/CD is OK for short distances, but CSMA/CD would have to be "disabled" to run higher speeds over some distances. In particular, 100mbps CSMA/CD with Ethernet-sized packets (512 bits minimum) has a radius (maximum distance) of 250 meters including two repeaters. Without repeaters, it can be extended to about 400 meters. (11) Ability to offer expensive technology only to needed locations efficiently: customer sites often have a relatively small percentage of users who need higher-speed technology, and they aren't always co-located. (12) Potential to integrate LANs and WANs. ATM has been projected to blur the distinction, making things easier. (13) Danger of integrating your LANs too closely with those of other organizations: do you want, in effect, your competition sharing your LAN? All the high-schools and colleges throughout the world? Lots of sites set up extra firewalling before attaching their LAN to the present Internet. (14) Customers' and vendors' desire to pick a long-term winner: customers listen to vendor announcements and vendors ask customers what they are likely to buy, both wait a while, and worry about what to commit to. Predicting the future is never easy, and never certain. The hypothetical perfect technology: (1) No translation bridging required (2) Uses current NICs (3) Supports large packets (4) No doubt of success & long future (5) Huge market & lots of vendors (6) Low cost (7) Runs long distances (8) Runs over 2PC3 (9) Runs over WANs as easy as LANs (10) No high-cost/high-maintenance routers acting as bottlenecks