The book was very readable about the changes taking place in the use of local area networks. Johnson starts with the premise that what users need is bandwidth and the current standard for today's local area networks is the 10 million bits per second (mbps) ethernet implemented in a 10BASE-T configuration using a dumb hub and two pair cable.

Improvements in All Hardware

From this beginning, Johnson sees improvements in all pieces of the hardware so that eventually a local area network becomes a 100 mbps ethernet implemented in a 100BASE-T4 configuration using four pair category 5 untwisted pair cable. In the improvement process, all of the collision problems of ethernet are removed by using switched lines and or full duplex ethernet lines.

Dumb Hubs To Become Smart Hubs

Thus, the dumb hubs of today will be replaced with fully switched, full duplex hubs supporting a mixture of 10 and 100 mbps ethernet links.

The new smart 100 mbps hubs will be linked to each other using fiber optic cable.

To prepare today for the future, Johnson recommends all building wiring for ethernet be four pair category 5 untwisted pair cable of 100 Meter length or less to the hub. The network interface card (NIC) today can be dual 10 or 100 mbps but until 100 mbps NIC's are popular, the price will not drop.

How soon the future? - A quick check of the "Computer Shopper" showed only two vendors offering 100 mbps NIC cards. The cable offered in "Computer Shopper" was not clearly identified as Category 5, or 4, or 3 etc. so users should be careful here too.

The changes outlined by Johnson will allow for several orders of magnitude increase in bandwidth and should allow a responsive network for the traffic at the turn of the century on a local area network.