Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for implementing Ethernet networking at a nominal speed of one gigabit per second.

Gigabit Ethernet is supported over both optical fiber and twisted pair cable. Physical layer standards include 1000BASE-T, 1Gbps over cat-5e copper cabling and 1000BASE-SX for short to medium distances over fibre.

While it is currently deployed in high-capacity backbone network links (for instance, on a high-capacity campus network) its speed is largely not yet required for small network installations. Gigabit Ethernet has begun to penetrate the desktop (as of 2004), shipping standard on Apple's Power Mac G5, the notebook (Apple's PowerBook), and is built into some high-end Pentium and Athlon motherboards. Desktop applications for it include professional video editing.

It is no longer the fastest Ethernet standard, with the ratification of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in 2002.

See also

• GBIC