4
Design Features
Kingston Technology Company
KNS1600/R User’s Guide - Rev. B00
Compliance Standards
The Fast EtheRx Switch complies with the 10/100Mbps functions as defined by
IEEE802.3u 100BASE-TX, IEEE802.3i 10BASE-T, and IEEE802.3 CSMA/CD
Ethernet standards.
Design Features
Switching Function
The Fast EtheRx Switch is basically designed to bridge Standard 10BASE-T
Ethernet networks to 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet networks and to segment 10Mbps
or 100Mbps network segments.
Auto-Negotiation
Auto-Negotiation provides the means of automatically establishing a link by
detecting the link capabilities of the connected device on the network to select the
best operational mode available (i.e. 10/100BASE-TX selection, half- / full-duplex
mode operation, etc.)
Full-Duplex
Full-Duplex transmission means that dedicated inbound and outbound channels are
established for bi-directional transmission of data. This allows the collision
detection mechanism (CSMA/CD) to be by-passed, thus decreasing transmission
delay normally caused by listening, collisions, and packet resends when operating in
half-duplex mode.
Store-and-Forward Switching
The Fast EtheRx Switch uses a packet-forwarding method called Store-and-
Forward, which minimizes the re-transmission of faulty data packets. This means
that the Fast EtheRx Switch can store the incoming frame in an internal buffer and
check the packet for errors before sending it out to the destination port. If the frame
does contain errors, it will be discarded and then retransmitted.
Flow Control
The Fast EtheRx Switch implements a collision-based flow control mechanism that
reduces the risk of data being lost at the congested ports. This is accomplished by
forcing a collision with the data frames on all ports once the free-buffer queue has
reached the pre-set minimum.
