what is the difference between Ethernet, Token Ring, FIDDI and wireless?

Answer 1

Ethernet is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs). The name comes from the physical concept of the ether. It defines a number of wiring and signaling standards for the physical layer, through means of network access at the Media Access Control (MAC)/Data Link Layer, and a common addressing format.

Ethernet is standardized as IEEE 802.3. The combination of the twisted pair versions of Ethernet for connecting end systems to the network, along with the fiber optic versions for site backbones, is the most widespread wired LAN technology. It has been in use from the 1990s to the present, largely replacing competing LAN standards such as token ring, FDDI, and ARCNET. In recent years, Wi-Fi, the wireless LAN standardized by IEEE 802.11, is prevalent in home and small office networks and augmenting Ethernet in larger installations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet ~

Fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) provides a standard for data transmission in a local area network that can extend in range up to 200 kilometers (124 miles). Although FDDI protocol is a token ring network, it does not use the IEEE 802.5 token ring protocol as its basis; instead, its protocol is derived from the IEEE 802.4 token bus timed token protocol. In addition to covering large geographical areas, FDDI local area networks can support thousands of users. As a standard underlying medium it uses optical fiber (though it can use copper cable, in which case one can refer to CDDI). FDDI uses a dual-attached, counter-rotating token ring topology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_distributed_data_interface ~

Token ring local area network (LAN) technology was conceived in the late 1960s by Olof Söderblom, then working for IBM [1]). US Patents were awarded in 1981 and Token-Ring was developed and promoted by IBM in the early 1980s and standardized as IEEE 802.5 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Initially very successful, it went into steep decline after the introduction of 10BASE-T for Ethernet and the EIA/TIA 568 cabling standard in the early 1990s. A fierce marketing effort led by IBM sought to claim better performance and reliability over Ethernet for critical applications due to its deterministic access method, but was no more successful than similar battles in the same era over their Micro Channel architecture. IBM no longer uses or promotes token ring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_ring ~

The term wireless is normally used to refer to any type of electrical or electronic operation which is accomplished without the use of a "hard wired" connection. Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires".[1] The distances involved may be short (a few meters as in television remote control) or very long (thousands or even millions of kilometers for radio communications). When the context is clear the term is often simply shortened to "wireless". Wireless communications is generally considered to be a branch of telecommunications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless ~

Wi-Fi (pronounced wye-fye, IPA: /ˈwaɪfaɪ/), also unofficially known as Wireless Fidelity, is a wireless technology brand owned by the Wi-Fi Alliance intended to improve the interoperability of wireless local area network products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards.

Common applications for Wi-Fi include Internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and network connectivity for consumer electronics such as televisions, DVD players, and digital cameras.

Answer 2

Whopping big one....

Ethernet comes in 5 common flavors. 10base-T, 10base-5, 10base-2, 100base-T, and 1000base-T. All but 10base-2 and 10-base-5 use common Ethernet cables you see everywhere. 5 and 2 types are no longer used. They were common in 80s and 90s, and used coax cables. Ethernet uses collision detection technology where all cards can transmit when they want to, and if the traffic collides, they wait predetermined time and try again. As such, it can be inefficient on a large network.

Token Ring is a IBM proprietary technology and is no longer used. They used a special cable and the cards were quite expensive. They use a technology where it doesn't use the actually inefficient collision detection method that Ethernet uses. But it was phased out as it was proprietary and expensive.

FIDDI is a fiberglass cable based network. It is used where connecting multiple buildings are part of the requirement. They are used as a backbone to connect multiple smaller networks together. This is probably the most costly network technology available today.

Wireless is where wire is not used and uses radio wave to transmit the network data for short distance.

This is a type of question I can actually write a book about. It would be impossible to fully explore each one in a small space provided here. For home use, the only ones that are viable are Ethernet and Wireless. All else were/are for business.

Answer 3

Token Ring Definition

Answer 4

Token bus is as far as I know the theory that token ring's transmission is based on. Both physical layers of networking, can be said that they were two competing set of networking technology, both initial members of IEEE 802.x networking family. Token ring is based on passing packets along a track from one station to another like a passenger in a train, for fail-safe redundancy there were 2 duplicate tracks can be thought as one clockwise one counter-clockwise in a ringed/circular arrangement. Ethernet is rather about shooting packets from source to destination. If there is another packet being shot a collision is this, the packets are lost and shooters agree to re-shoot at a random time hopefully and likely so avoid the collision again, but if it happens again do it again and again...

Answer 5

Ethernet is a physical layer topology defined by IEEE standard 802.3. It uses a technology called Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection usually abbreviated as CSMA/CD. Carrier sense means that the network interface looks for the base Ethernet signaling on the wire. Multiple Access means that multiple hosts can listen on the same wire. Collision detection means that the host listens for data collisions after sending data. A host listens on the wire for a period of silence and then sends data in the blind. Then it listens for a collision. If it hears a collision it waits a period of time and resends the data. If it hears no collision it sends the next frame of data. When listening for inbound traffic, a host ignores traffic on the wire that is destined for any other host. In a full-duplex switched Ethernet network Collision Detection is turned off as it is not needed.

Token ring is a physical layer topology defined by IEEE standard 802.5. It uses a continuous ring as the name implies. Hosts are inserted in the ring when connected to the network. All traffic on the ring is passed sequentially from host to host. Hosts strip and copy data addressed to themselves and pass along any other traffic to the downstream neighbor. A token preceeds all traffic. A host is not allowed to transmit unless it has the token. Once it receives the token it releases any data that it has onto the wire for a predetermined length of time and then passes the token to its downstream neighbor. Because of the token only one host is able to transmit data and data collisions are avoided.

FDDI (not FIDDI) is a physical layer topology that is also a token-passing method similar to Token Ring but is based upon the IEEE 802.4 Token Bus standard. A token bus is similar to Token Ring but is not arranged in a ring topology. The token is passed from one end of the bus to the other back and forth.

Wireless is a vague term that refers to any of a dozen or so means of transferring data without wires. The most common type by far today is Wireless Ethernet as defined by IEEE standard 802.11 although there are any number of proprietary and standards based wireless data transmission methods.

Try googling any of the IEEE standards mentioned for a more complete discussion. Entire books have been written about all of them.

Answer 6

An enthernet cable is something you plug into you modem, or ..

A wireless one is something like linksys which sends binary over wi fi.