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From: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: net.lan
Subject: Re: two different flavors of fiber optic repeaters?
Message-ID: <12896@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Sep-86 12:21:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdcad.12896
Posted: Tue Sep  2 12:21:16 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Sep-86 21:19:56 EDT
References: <2770@islenet.UUCP>
Reply-To: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Distribution: na
Organization: AMD, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 31

In article <2770@islenet.UUCP> bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham) writes:
>While looking around for fiber optic Ethernet repeaters to buy, there seems
>to be two distinct flavors:
>
>	plain repeaters (about $1,000 per end)
>
>	slightly fancier repeaters (about $2,500 per end)
>
>The apparent difference is that for the extra cost, you get preamble
>reconstitution, fragment extension and perhaps more careful retiming.
>
>Still...some of the less expensive receivers nonetheless claim to be
>IEEE802.3 compatible.

As I read the 802.3 spec, all 802.3 compliant repeaters must offer:
1) preamble insertion	 	(section 9.1.2.3)
2) fragment extension		(section 9.1.2.5)
3) signal retiming		(section 9.1.2.1.3)

as well as:
4) signal amplification		(section 9.1.2.1.1)
5) signal symmetry		(section 9.1.2.1.2)

I would be interested in the names of the products you have looked at.

-- 
 Rain follows the plow.

 Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720
 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
 ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com