100BaseVG

networking A 100 MBps Ethernet standard specified to run

over four pairs of category 3 UTP wires (known as voice

grade, hence the "VG"). It is also called 100VG-AnyLAN

because it was defined to carry both Ethernet and tokenring frame types.

100BaseVG was originally proposed by Hewlett-Packard,

ratified by the ISO in 1995 and practically extinct by 1998.

100BaseVG started in the IEEE 802.3u committee as FastEthernet. One faction wanted to keep CSMA/CD in order to

keep it pure Ethernet, even though the collision domain

problem limited the distances to one tenth that of 10baseT.

Another faction wanted to change to a polling architecture

from the hub (they called it "demand priority") in order to

maintain the 10baseT distances, and also to make it a

deterministic protocol. The CSMA/CD crowd said, "This is

802.3 -- the Ethernet committee. If you guys want to make a

different protocol, form your own committee". The IEEE 802.12

committee was thus formed and standardized 100BaseVG. The

rest is history.

(1998-06-30)