FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)

ANSI and OSI standards for transmitting digital data at 100 Mbps over LANs. Originally designed for fiber optic cabling, FDDI now includes copper media for interconnection. Extensions: FDDI-2 adds voice and video and FDDI Full Duplex Technology (FFDT) permits data rates up to 200 Mbps.

Fiber: Multi-mode and Single mode

Multi-mode fiber means there are many paths of light to be sent down the fiber optic cable. Multi-mode fiber uses inexpensive LED light sources and supporting hardware. Single mode fiber sends only a single path of light, thereby eliminating modal dispersion -- the main limitation to fiber bandwidth. Lasers (instead of LEDs) provide the light source, causing single mode equipment to have a higher price. A common use of single mode fiber is to extend the distance of high-speed copper-based networks.

Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)

An Ethernet protocol that transmits data at 1 Gbps (gigabits per second). That's a thousand million bits per second.

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

A communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over fiber or copper telephone wires. ISDN transfers data at a rate of 64 Kbps (64,000 bits per second). The two types of ISDN are Basic Rate Interface (BRI) and Primary Rate Interface (PRI). Originally, ISDN used baseband. B-ISDN, however, uses broadband and has data rates of 1.5 Mbps. B-ISDN requires fiber optic cables.

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