Ethernet history

The merits for the invention of the Ethernet belong to Dr. Robert Metcalfe, who in 1973 while working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) wrote a memo in which he described his finding. Metcalfe had built an Ethernet network system to interconnect workstations with laser printers, thus making it possible to transfer data up to 1 Mbps. Undoubtedly, being convinced of the potential of the Ethernet network system, he asked DEC, Intel, and Xerox to help promote the Ethernet as the next standard of communication technologies. Thus, ten years later, in 1983, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standardized Ethernet as IEEE 802.3. As the years went by, interestingly from the point of view of transmission speeds, Ethernet became increasingly fast. So, in terms of transmission speeds, it evolved from Ethernet to Fast Ethernet, and then to Gigabit Ethernet. Today, it reaches up to 5 Gbps in twisted pairs and up to 100 Gbps in optical fiber.