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Ethernet Turns 40

Posted by timothy on from the it's-thinking-about-that-optical-sportscar dept.

alancronin writes "Four decades ago the Ethernet protocol made its debut as a way to connect machines in close proximity, today it is the networking layer two protocol of choice for local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and everything in between. For many people Ethernet is merely the RJ45 jack on the back of a laptop, but its relative ubiquity and simplicity belie what Ethernet has done for the networking industry and in turn for consumers and enterprises. Ethernet has in the space of 40 years gone from a technology that many in the industry viewed as something not fit for high bandwidth, dependable communications to the default data link protocol."

4 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Token ring ... by Lennie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You might think so, but Token Ring based technolgies are still coming up every now and then, like FCoTR in 2010.

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    New things are always on the horizon
  2. The name Ethernet is 40 years old... by rafial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...but what happens to the bits is almost completely different. The original layer 1 (physical) layer stuff has evolved from the original idea of a shared broadcast medium (thick and thin coax up through the age of hubs) to nowadays being a point-to-point network managed through a centralized intelligent switch. And the layer 2 stuff (data link) evolved from the original spec of 1973 to the notably different 802.2 spec in 1983. In some ways, the great success of Ethernet is that it became the name we gave to whatever technology won out.

    1. Re:The name Ethernet is 40 years old... by evilviper · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In some ways, the great success of Ethernet is that it became the name we gave to whatever technology won out.

      No, ethernet remained relevant because it was able to improve, while maintaining backwards compatibility along the way, so your investment was never wasted.

      10Base-T cards still had BNC connectors on them, letting you transition smoothly from one to the other.

      100Base-Tx was backwards compatible with 10Mbps hubs & NICs.

      Gigabit offered backward compatibility with 100Base-Tx.

      Switching between fiber and copper is just a matter of swapping the GBIC/SFP transceivers in a switch, with the underlying device having no clue that the media is different.

      Newer standards retained backward compatibility with older, less robust cabling... From CAT-3 to CAT-5, to CAT-5e/6, to CAT-6a.

      Even though ethernet of today doesn't look like it did, originally. The upgrade path was always simple, smooth, and inexpensive, so it is very much an unbroken chain back to the beginning, and hooking up a modern PC to one of the first ethernet devices is a simple matter of physical-layer conversion.

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      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  3. Unbreakable BNC Connections by MrSteveSD · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Those BNCs were pretty tough connectors. When I first got an IT job, the network consisted of two 486s connected via a BNC cable dangled over the carpet across the room. A clumsy co-worker tripped over it and both machines flew off the desks, hit each other in mid air like conkers and crashed onto the floor. The BNC cable and connectors were completely undamaged though.