Long Reach Ethernet
Encyclopedia
Long Reach Ethernet was a proprietary networking protocol marketed by Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...

, intended to support multi-megabit (5 to 15 Mbit/s) performance over telephone-grade unshielded twisted pair wiring over distances up to 5,000 feet (1.5 km).
Supporting such distance ranges, LRE is technically classified a Metropolitan area network
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network is a computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus. A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area networks using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides up-link services to wide area networks and the...

 (MAN) technology.
Technically the protocol was similar to very-high-bitrate digital subscriber line (VDSL).

The technology was sometimes considered an example of Ethernet in the first mile
Ethernet in the first mile
Ethernet in the first mile refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network protocols between a telecommunications company and a customer's premise. From the customer's point of view it is their "first" mile, although from the access networks' point of view it is known as the "last...

 (EFM).
Several networking vendors offered compatible networking hardware, but the technology became obsolete.

Description

Like standard VDSL, LRE allowed existing telephone wiring that connects an organization's offices to be used to network those offices together using standard Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

 protocol without incurring the huge cost of deploying fiber optic cable or limiting organizations to the bandwidth provided by modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...

s or other Digital Subscriber Line
Digital Subscriber Line
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ,...

 services.

Other sample applications included Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....

 to hotel rooms or college dormitories over existing installed telephone wiring.

LRE was compatible with VDSL ETSI Band Plan 998.

Cisco sold Cisco Catalyst
Cisco Catalyst
Catalyst is the brand name for a variety of network switches sold by Cisco Systems. While commonly associated with Ethernet switches, a number of different interfaces have been available throughout the history of the brand. Cisco acquired several different companies and rebranded their products...

 model 2900 switches using Infineon Technologies
Infineon Technologies
Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer and was founded on April 1, 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the parent company Siemens AG were spun off to form a separate legal entity. , Infineon has 25,149 employees worldwide...

 PEF22822/PEB22811 VDSL QAM chipset like many other VDSL concentrators.
The customer-premises equipment
Customer-premises equipment
Customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication channel at the demarcation point...

 included the Cisco 575 desktop bridge.
Products were announced in February 2001 to be available in April 2001.
Infineon used the name 10BaseS for the technology,

Cisco included LRE in its Mobile Office marketing effort.
A few compatible devices were produced.
Cisco announced end-of-sale for the LRE products in October 2006, and its explanation page was removed from their web site in 2007.

HomePNA
HomePNA
The HomePNA Alliance is an incorporated non-profit industry association of companies that develops and standardizes technology for home networking over the existing coaxial cables and telephone wiring within homes.-Overview:HomePNA does not manufacture products, although its members do...

promotes similar technologies for use within a home rather than to a central office or business, with its 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 releases. Different frequency bands are used so that VDSL and HomePNA can share the same wires.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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