History and Origins of Ethernet
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| Ethernet Drawing |
- Pre-1976 - Xerox was interested in finding a way to share their expensive
printers between workstations
- 1976 - Dr. Robert Metcalfe (also David Boggs?) at PARC was tasked with
creating a shared communications mechanism for this purpose. Dr. Metcalfe
wrote a paper circa called "Ethernet Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks"
- 1973 - Dr. Metcalfe aquired patent #4,063,220 for his Ethernet.
- Ethernet was originally called the Alto Aloha Network protocol (later renamed Ethernet to indicate multi-platform compatibility)
- 1979 - DEC and Intel joined forces with Xerox write
a standard for ethernet. This was referred to as the DIX standard, and the publication was called the Ethernet
Bluebook. Ethernet is defined as a 10 Mbps protocol running over coaxial cable and using CSMA/CD for transmission (thicknet).
- 1983 - The IEEE released their version of the Ethernet standard in in the document IEEE 802.3. IEEE 802.3 was based largely on the DIX standard
but with significant changes in frame format. However it was still backwards compatible with the DIX standard.
- 1985 - IEEE 802.3a "Thinnet" (10 Mbps) - lower cost than thicknet.
- 1987 - IEEE 802.3d "FOIRL" - Fibe Optic Inter-Repeater Link
(10Mbps at 1000 meters)
- 1990 - IEEE 802.3i - "10bT" - Category 3 Unshielded Twisted pair compatible cabling. Allowed use of existing telephony wiring.
- 1993 - IEEE 802.3j - 10bF - 2000' range over fiber
- 1995 - IEEE 802.3u - Defines the modern-day 100bT standard.
- 1997 - IEEE 802.3x - Full duplex operation
