What does 10/100/1000 Base-T mean?

What does 10/100/1000 Base-T mean?

Written by Don Schultz, trueCABLE Senior Technical Advisor, Fluke Networks Copper/Fiber CCTT, BICSI INSTC, INSTF Certified

Today let’s talk about speed. Not the speed of light, or how fast a car can go around a racetrack. We are going to discuss the speed of data or bandwidth. With the world we live in today, everything revolves around data speed. Your cell phone company boasts about 5G, or your internet service provider tells you about the latest turbo boost you can get from them. All of these things rely on how fast they can get data from point A to point B. All networks are built around speed standards and the one we are interested in today is 10/100/1000 Ethernet. First, however, we need to talk about Category in relation to the speed standards.

How Does Ethernet Speed Relate to Ethernet Category?

You may have some familiarity with the term Category (Cat) which is typically followed by 5e, 6, 6A, 7 or 8. So, Cat5e and Cat6 are different Categories of copper twisted pair Ethernet cable. Often called “Ethernet cable”, copper twisted pair Category cable was purpose designed to carry Ethernet data packets so we will continue to use the term “Ethernet” but only for simplicity. To be absolutely clear, Ethernet is actually a protocol defining how data is transmitted, not technically any kind of physical cable. So, technical nuances aside, each Category of cable is designed to carry different speeds of Ethernet data packets. As the Cat number goes higher, the more the Ethernet cable is capable of transmitting and thus the faster it goes. Fortunately, each Category is fully backwards compatible with previous Categories, or this discussion would get very complicated fast.

Previously, all Ethernet data communications over wire was via coaxial cable using “Thicknet” or “Thinnet” which used the 10BASE-5 and 10BASE-2 Ethernet protocols respectively. 10BASE-5 and 10BASE-2 Ethernet protocols operated at 10 Mbps speeds. Now, coaxial is a great “jack of all trades” but definitely not the right choice for certain applications. Data needs became greater as our world started getting more connected, and in order to get coaxial “up to speed” one would need to make it drastically thicker. Well, that was no good. Coaxial cable was already thick enough for most people and a huge pain to work with in quantity due to inflexibility and weight. See Coaxial vs Ethernet cable - What's the Difference? for more.

Something just as effective but lighter was needed, preferably a cable type that operated (at the time) at the same 10 Mbps speed but used telephone style cable and an Ethernet port similar to a telephone port. See What is an Ethernet Port? The Complete Guide to Ethernet Ports to get an idea of what that looks like. Cat3 was developed, which was designed for use with voice transmission and 10 Megabit (10BASE-T) Ethernet data communications as a transition point away from coaxial cable. Data needs quickly evolved and soon a new Category was needed which is how Cat5 was born to support 100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet) and hopefully even the foreseen upcoming Gigabit Ethernet. Cat5 proved incapable of handling Gigabit Ethernet well and was revised to Cat5e (enhanced for Gigabit Ethernet support). Cat5e is still with us today, but the Category race had begun and the rest is history.

The biggest change from Cat3 to Cat5 was the number of conductor circuits in the cable. Cat5 and above uses eight conductors twisted together into four circuits to support Gigabit Ethernet. If the cable only had four conductors twisted into two circuits then the maximum speeds were either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps.

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Have you ever wondered why an Ethernet cable designed for Gigabit or faster speeds only connects at 100 Mbps or even 10 Mbps? This is likely due to a bad termination where all eight conductors are not hooked up or hooked up correctly. If all eight conductors are not making proper contact, you won’t get anything faster than 100 Mbps!

Here is a proper breakdown of which Cat cable type supports what protocols:

Speed and Category Relationship
Application Speed Megabits Bandwidth Cat5 Cat5e Cat6 Cat6A Cat7 Cat8
10BASE-T 10 Mbps
100BASE-TX 100 Mbps
1000BASE-T 1,000 Mbps
2.5GBASE-T 2,500 Mbps
5GBASE-T 5,000 Mbps
10GBASE-T 10,000 Mbps ✓*
40GBASE-T 40,000 Mbps ✓** ✓**

 

Note: All speeds and lengths are at 295ft with a 68℉ ambient temperature except as noted below:

* Cat6 is capable of handling 10G up to 165ft depending on crosstalk factors

** Cat7 and Cat8 handle 40G up to 165ft or 98ft respectively, otherwise maximum speed is 10G at longer lengths*

Fast Ethernet vs Gigabit Ethernet

You might be wondering why Fast Ethernet operates at 100 Mbps where the original Ethernet operated at 10 Mbps, given that both protocols rely on four conductor wires twisted into two conductor pair circuits. The difference was in Full Duplex vs Half Duplex communication. Full Duplex is supported with 100BASE-TX. 10BASE-T is Half Duplex, which means it communicates in one direction at a time. 100BASE-T operates bidirectionally, greatly increasing the available speed. Now, add two more conductor circuits into the cable operating at Full Duplex and you get Gigabit Ethernet. Faster speeds were built upon the original 10BASE-T protocol. All modern communication protocols make use of Full Duplex.

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To help visualize the difference between Full Duplex and Half Duplex, think of Half Duplex as similar to a “walkie talkie” where you must stop transmitting/speaking before you can hear back from the other person. Now, think of Full Duplex as similar to a conference call where two people can speak and hear each other at the same time.

Breaking Down the Numbers: 10, 100, 1000, and Beyond

When we look at networking hardware and wiring, we see the reference to 10/100/1000 and wonder; what does this mean? The 10/100/1000 reference is to three different but related Ethernet protocol standards developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE sets standards when it comes to Ethernet data transmission. Formed in 1963, they are best known for setting the IEEE 802 standards. These standards literally specify how all networking hardware like network interface cards (NICs) and Ethernet switches must communicate with each other so everything works together as a system. On the other side of the fence, we have the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) which works with IEEE to set the design for Category cables that support those speeds. TIA defines these communications cable standards via TIA 568, loosely specifying physical cable design boundaries but very strictly specifying the electrical performance requirements to support the IEEE speeds. At that point, companies like trueCABLE will use the TIA 568 standard as the starting point for cable design and minimum performance requirements.

So how did 10/100/1000 get all mashed together and referenced as one speed instead of acknowledging that these are in fact three different speeds? The short answer is because one protocol built upon another and was backward compatible. Also, marketing. There is nothing in the IEEE standard that says “10/100/1000” verbatim. The industry invented term “10/100/1000” was a quick way of reassuring potential customers that their networking gear stamped in such a way supported 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1000 Mbps. This reduced customer questions like “Will my other hardware work and what happens if two different pieces of equipment support different speeds?” If one part of the system was not able to reach 1000 Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet) then the connection would speed shift back to 100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet). If Fast Ethernet could not be achieved, then a speed shift to 10 Mbps (Ethernet) would occur. The whole idea behind “10/100/1000” was to communicate Ethernet switch compatibility AND resilience; if the top speed could not be achieved then your cable and hardware had two more speed shifts downwards before the switch would throw up its hands on you and give up (figuratively speaking of course).

Why Does 10/100/1000 Ethernet Matter?

Now you ask, why does Ethernet speed matter? It matters in every way. As data transmission needs increased, older Ethernet speeds started showing their age by making you, the end user, wait. This waiting not only translated to slow Internet surfing speeds and file downloading, but completely unacceptable delays in streaming video transmissions. Here is a great example of a 10GB (Gigabyte) file transfer and how long it takes to move it from one computer to another at various speeds:

Ethernet File Transfer Time for 10GB Files
Ethernet Protocol Speed Time (HH:MM:SS) to Transfer 10GB File
10BASE-T 10 Mbps 02:13:20
100BASE-TX 100 Mbps 00:13:20
1000BASE-T 1000 Mbps 00:01:20
2.5GBASE-T 2.5 Gbps 00:00:32
5GBASE-T 5 Gbps 00:00:16
10GBASE-T 10 Gbps 00:00:08

 

From the chart above, a typical large 10 Gigabyte file can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a mere eight seconds. Which would you choose?! I think this just also illustrated why people were in such a hurry to move from 10BASE-T to 100BASE-TX and then again as fast as possible to Gigabit Ethernet. That is why you don’t see 10 Mbps used any longer and 100 Mbps is relegated to duties that are not bandwidth heavy, such as printers.

Building a Network That Maximizes Speed

When building out your network, you need to understand how to maximize the bandwidth you can get for your users. Most networks today are built on the 1000 Megabits, or 1 Gigabit speed standard or faster. That said, 2.5GBASE-T is quickly becoming the common speed standard for networking hardware due to faster Internet speeds. This means you purchase hardware and cable that is rated for that speed or higher. Data is getting larger and larger, so network bandwidth is one of the most important things to consider.

This blog won’t discuss network optimization as that is a very different topic with many nuances and complexities. It would take many blogs to fully understand and flesh out how to build the right network infrastructure with any degree of detail. Fortunately, you can get a headstart on the “structured cabling” part of your network with trueCABLE’s Cable Academy.

But not talking about it at all would be “weak sauce” so here are some general networking guidelines that can also serve as general life guidelines too:

  • Think of Category as the size of a pipe. A higher Category makes for a bigger pipe, and is capable of handling more water. Think of the amount of water as the Ethernet packets. When sizing your piping system (Ethernet cable type) make sure to size the pipes for the amount of data you intend to pump through it.
  • Be aware of bottlenecks in your piping (read: cable) system. It makes zero sense to use a ½” pipe at a critical point and then use a 2” pipe elsewhere. You eventually hit a bottleneck and everything (or certain key things) will only operate according to the smaller pipe size. In other words, make sure your Ethernet hardware like switches and routers plus the associated cable going to it will support all of your end point devices like computers, etc.
  • While sizing your network hardware for the expected speeds you need, keep an eye on future speeds too. That said, don’t over do it and end up overspending or buying into hype.
  • Do your research. Visit our Cable Academy. Understand you won’t have all the answers and ask trusted professionals pointed questions. Don’t be afraid, because we won’t be afraid to answer your questions directly.
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trueCABLE recommends Cat6 as the starting point when making an informed decision on an Ethernet cable. That said, Cat5e is still quite valid for installations that require thin and easy handled cable which is very easy to terminate. Cat5e is not dead yet!

In conclusion, the hustle and bustle of today’s world runs on speed. Our Internet backbone throughout the world was built on the 10/100/1000 Ethernet standard and that’s what makes it reliable. Our providers supply us, the end user, with bandwidth and charge a premium for it. Our lives revolve around how many gigabits of data we get with our cell phone provider, or how fast our home bandwidth is so we can stream the latest movie. Without the 10/100/1000 standard and beyond, we’d have data chaos. How fun would that be?

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Base-T mean?

Base means baseband and T means twisted pair cable.

What does Fast Ethernet mean?

The original Ethernet protocol speed was 10 Mbps via 10BASE-T. When this changed to 100 Mbps, the new faster protocol was called 100BASE-TX which means “Fast Ethernet”.

Why is Cat5 no longer used?

Cat5, despite using eight conductor wires and four circuits, was found to support 100BASE-TX well but not Gigabit Ethernet as was hoped. Cat5e was developed as a direct replacement for Cat5, rendering Cat5 totally obsolete per the standards.

I have a home built in 2001. I have an old style telephone port outlet right next to an Ethernet port outlet. I can only get 100 Mbps out of my Ethernet port. What did I do wrong?

You did not do anything wrong. A common way of providing “modern home” connectivity during the early days of Ethernet was (using the same cable) to use four conductor wires for home telephone landlines (which was very common at this time) and the other four conductors were split off for 100BASE-TX Ethernet data (100 Mbps). Of course this soon proved to be not workable as Gigabit Ethernet required all eight conductors.

HAPPY NETWORKING!

 

trueCABLE presents the information on our website, including the “Cable Academy” blog and live chat support, as a service to our customers and other visitors to our website subject to our website terms and conditions. While the information on this website is about data networking and electrical issues, it is not professional advice and any reliance on such material is at your own risk.

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