Ethernet Interfaces Overview

Ethernet was developed in the early 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as a data-link control layer protocol for interconnecting computers. It was first widely used at 10 megabits per second (Mbps) over coaxial cables and later over unshielded twisted pairs using 10Base-T. More recently, 100Base-TX (Fast Ethernet, 100 Mbps), Gigabit Ethernet (1 gigabit per second [Gbps]), and 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10 Gbps) have become available.

Juniper Networks routers support the following types of Ethernet interfaces:

• Fast Ethernet
• Tri-Rate Ethernet copper
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Gigabit Ethernet intelligent queuing (IQ)
• Gigabit Ethernet IQ2 and IQ2-E
• 10-Gigabit Ethernet IQ2 and IQ2-E
• 10-Gigabit Ethernet
• 10-Gigabit Ethernet dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM)
• Management Ethernet interface, which is an out-of-band management interface within the router
• Internal Ethernet interface, which connects the Routing Engine to the packet forwarding components
• Aggregated Ethernet interface, a logical linkage of Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, or 10-Gigabit Ethernet physical connections