Fast Ethernet (FE) is the term for Ethernet in computer networking, which provides a transfer rate of 100Mbps. The IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-T Fast Ethernet standard was officially introduced by the IEEE in 1995, and the transmission rate of fast Ethernet was previously 10Mbps. The Fast Ethernet standard includes three sub-categories: 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-TX, and 100BASE-T4. 100 indicates the transmission rate of 100Mbit/s. "BASE" means baseband transmission; The letter after the dash refers to the transmission medium carrying the signal, "T" stands for twisted pair (copper), "F" stands for optical fiber; The last character (letter "X", number "4", etc.) refers to the line code method used. The following table shows the common fast Ethernet types.
Compared to fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet (GE) can provide a transfer rate of 1000Mbps in a computer network. The Gigabit Ethernet standard (known as the IEEE 802.3ab standard) was officially published by IEEE in 1999, only a few years after the advent of the Fast Ethernet standard, but it was not widely used until around 2010. Gigabit Ethernet adopts the frame format of IEEE 803.2 Ethernet and the CSMA/CD media access control method, which can work in half duplex and full duplex mode. Gigabit Ethernet has similar cables and devices to Fast Ethernet, but it is more versatile and economical. With the continuous development of Gigabit Ethernet, more advanced versions have appeared, such as 40G Ethernet and 100G Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet has different physical layer standards, such as 1000BASE-X, 1000BASE-T, and 1000BASE-CX.
