Figure 2.5: Components of a typical DAQ system
- 4 Modern Networking Technologies
This section describes the basics of the adopted networking
technologies.
- 4 .1 Ethernet
Ethernet, a physical layer local area network (LAN) technology,
is nearly 30 years old. In the last three decades, it has become the most
widely used LAN technology because of its speed, low cost, and relative
ease of installation [2 7 ]. This is combined with wide computer-market
acceptance and the ability to support the majority of network protocols.
Ethernet has gone through four generations: Standard Ethernet (l 0 t Mbps),
Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps), Gigabit Ethernet (l Gbps), and Ten-Gigabit
Ethernet (l0 Gbps). Ethernet was not designed nor destined to be a
proprietary system. It would soon become a worldwide standard. Figure 2.6
show Ethernet evolution [2 7 ], refer to Appendix-A 1.
Figure 2.6: Ethernet evolution through four generations
- 2 Using Fiber Optic in Ethernet
Increasingly, networks are being converted from copper to
optical fiber. As a result, network design procedures need to be adjusted to
