IEEE 802.3 | IEEE Ethernet Standards 802.3 family
This page describes IEEE 802.3 family of ethernet standards.It covers all the versions of IEEE 802.3 standards.
As we know ethernet physical layer is used in local area networks for communication between the nodes. IEEE 802.3 standard family defined various ethernet physical layers used for data communication. The table below mentions basic descriptions of each of these IEEE 802.3 standards.
Physical layer sits at layer-1 of the OSI stack. Refer OSI vs TCPIP layers for functions of each of the OSI layers. MAC resides on layer-2 of the OSI stack.
IEEE 802.3 specifications are produced by the working group and IEEE community. It defines PHY and MAC layers. In the LAN, physical connections between various nodes and other networking devices such as router, switches and Hubs are made using either copper cable or fiber optic cable.
| IEEE 802.3 version | Description |
|---|---|
| 802.3a-1988 | 10BASE2 thin Ethernet |
| 802.3c-1985 | 10 Mbps repeater specifications |
| 802.3d-1987 | 10 Mbps fiber link |
| 802.3i-1990 | 10BASE-T twisted-pair |
| 802.3j-1993 | 10BASE-F fiber optic |
| 802.3u-1995 | 100BASE-T Fast Ethernet and Auto-Negotiation |
| 802.3x-1997 | Full-duplex standard |
| 802.3y-1998 | 100BASE-T2 100Mbps over low quality twisted pair |
| 802.3z-1998 | 1000BASE-X Gigabit Ethernet |
| 802.3ab-1999 | 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair |
| 802.3ac-1998 | Frame size extension to 1522 bytes for VLAN tag |
| 802.3ad-2000 | Link aggregation for parallel links |
| 802.3ae-2002 | 10 Gbps Ethernet |
| 802.3af-2003 | Power over Ethernet ("DTE Power via MDI") |
| 802.3ah-2004 | Ethernet in the first Mile ("DTE Power via MDI") |
| 802.3ak-2004 | 10GBASE-CX4 10 Gigabit Ethernet over short-range coaxial cable |
| 802.3an-2006 | 10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair |
| 802.3as-2006 | Frame expansion to 2,000 bytes for all tagging |
| 802.3aq-2007 | 10GBASE-LRM 10 Gigabit over long-range fiber optic |
| 802.3az-2010 | Energy-efficient Ethernet |
| 802.3ba-2010 | 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps Ethernet |
As mentioned each of the IEEE 802.3 sub-standard has speed and medium type associated with them. Refer Ethernet tutorial which describes ethernet frame types (DIX,802.3), CSMA/CD protocol, topologies, Ethernet testing and more.
ETHERNET LINKS
Ethernet tutorial Thicknet vs Thinnet Broadband vs Baseband LAN Ethernet over copper Ethernet Business LAN vs WAN vs MAN What is MAC Address Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY 40 Gigabit Ethernet PHY 100 Gigabit Ethernet PHY