A similar argument held sway against the use of Layer 3/IP34 routers in LANs. IP
routers became commonplace beyond the LAN, mainly due to their scalability and
resiliency benefits. In fact, most networking applications including the Internet
were (and continue to be) built using IP routers. However, these advantages were
not as significant in geographically smaller LANs. They were complex to set up,
required the enterprise to relinquish some control,35 and the Ethernet ports employed
in routers were significantly more expensive (up to 10 times) than the corresponding
ones in Layer 2 devices. Thus IP??™s appeal was significantly diminished
against Ethernet.
Basically, these technologies (ATM/IP) had to be unnaturally forced-fit to LAN
environments and consequently were less than optimal36 in terms of the ever important
criteria of price and simplicity.
Interestingly Ethernet??™s origins in the LAN actually better positioned it in
(Service Provider) networks beyond the LAN vis-? -vis ATM/IP. This will be evident
from the next section, ???Ethernet: Evolution Beyond the LAN.???
22 Chapter 1
?– Resource and information sharing Information located in different places
could be acquired easily.
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