Grand Junction Networks Inc has finalised its proposal for 100Mbps Ethernet, and submitted it to the IEEE 802.3 committee. The Union City, California company says that the technology preserves the MAC, Media Access Control, Layer of existing 10Mbps Ethernet as promised, and that the higher speed is achieved by using the ANSI X3T9.5 physical medium-dependent sub layer used for FDDI. It envisages that the two should be mated together with a translating function it has developed, and which it is calling 100Base-X. To encourage take-up, Grand Junction says that it will make this specification available during the first quarter of this year. The company remains adamant that changes to the Media Access Control layer are not needed for the new technology. While it would not comment directly on whether its proposal has been successfully tested, it said it was fully confident the technology was feasible. If the plan is adopted by the IEEE, it will mean users will be able to run 100Mbps Ethernet over shielded and data grade unshielded twisted pair cabling, but not over voice grade unshielded twisted pair.
