It presented a very attractive option since it
possessed several advantages over the traditional LAN Ethernet. It provided much
more sophisticated traffic management and could support both packet-oriented
and circuit-switched services (hence touted as the convergent platform); at that
time, its speeds were also higher (OC-3 or 155M) than Fast Ethernet (100M). Given
Figure 1.7 Ethernet??™s path to dominance
Bandwidth (Log)
Price/Bit (Log)
10M 100M 1000M 10000M
1985 1995 2000 2003
Ethernet in the LAN
Demand Increases
Price Decreases
Performance Improves
Feature
Functionality
Introduced
Ethernet in
LAN
1998
Ethernet: From LAN to the WAN 21
Ethernet: Evolution Beyond the LAN
The need to network37 between distant locations in the same metropolitan area or to
even more far-flung areas was a natural evolution. The benefits were significant for
enterprises (actually for anyone who wanted to network) and included the following [7]:
?– Unprecedented means of remote communication Now a user at a workstation
in one office could communicate with a colleague or customer or supplier
half way around the globe. With the advent of globalization, and communication
applications such as e-mail, the importance of such communications became even
more pronounced and productivity in the enterprise increased significantly.
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