Lo, soul! seest thou not God's purpose from the first? The earth to be spann'd, connected by net-work From Passage to India! Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass", 1900. The Internet is growing at a tremendous rate today. New services, such as telephony and multimedia, are being added to the pure data-delivery framework of yesterday. Such high demands on capacity could lead to a "bandwidth-crunch" at the core wide-area network resulting in degra dation of service quality. Fortunately, technological innovations have emerged which can provide relief to the end-user to overcome the In ternet's well-known delay and bandwidth limitations. At the physical layer, a major overhaul of existing networks has been envisaged from electronic media (such as twisted-pair and cable) to optical fibers - in the wide area, in the metropolitan area, and even in the local area set tings. In order to exploit the immense bandwidth potential of the optical fiber, interesting multiplexing techniques have been developed over the years. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is such a promising tech nique in which multiple channels are operated along a single fiber si multaneously, each on a different wavelength. These channels can be independently modulated to accommodate dissimilar bit rates and data formats, if so desired. Thus, WDM carves up the huge bandwidth of an optical fiber into channels whose bandwidths (1-10 Gbps) are compati ble with peak electronic processing speed.

In a local area network (LAN) or intranet, there are many pieces of hardare trying to gain access to the network transmission media at the same time (i.e., phone lines, coax, wireless, etc.). However, a network cable or wireless transmission frequency can physically only allow one node to use it at a given time. Therefore, there must be some way to regulate which node has control of the medium (a media access control, or MAC, protocol). Ethernet is a MAC protocol; it is one way to regulate physical access to network tranmission media. Ethernet networking is used primarily by networks that are contained within a single physical location. If you need to design, install, and manage a network in such an envronment, i.e., home or small business office, then Ethernet Networking for the Small Office and Professional Home Office will give you an in-depth understanding of the technology involved in an Ethernet network. One of the major goals of this book is to demystify the jargon of networks so that the reader gains a working familiarity with common networking terminology and acronyms. In addition, this books explains not only how to choose and configure network hardware but also provides practical information about the types of network devices and software needed to make it all work. Tips and direction on how to manage an Ethernet network are also provided. This book therefore goes beyond the hardware aspects of Ethernet to look at the entire network from bottom to top, along with enough technical detail to enable the reader to make intelligent choices about what types of transmission media are used and the way in which the various parts of the network are interconnected. Explains how the Ethernet works, with emphasis on current technologies and emerging trends in gigabit and fast Ethernet, WiFi, routers, and security issues Teaches how to design and select complementary components of Ethernet networks with a focus on home and small business applications Discuses the various types of cables, software, and hardware involved in constructing, connecting, operating and monitoring Ethernet networks