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Network bandwidth is also increasing concurrently with the CPU speeds.

When in 1980s 10Mbs Ethernet was considered fast, we now have 100 Mbs Ethernet. The bandwidth is approaching the speed on 1 billion bits per second

(1 Gbs), much due to the research in the field of fiber optic signalling.

The three main fields data communications, telecommunication and computing are undergoing a period of transition. The field of computing is rapidly advancing with processor speed doubling ever year. The latest RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) has given rise to file-systems with gigabit-bandwidth.

The field of data communications which facilitates the exchange of data between computing systems has to keep up with the pace of the growing computing technologies. In the past the data communications provided services like the e-mail. Now applications like virtual reality, video conferencing, video on demand services are present.

For a century the telecommunication industry has been carrying voice traffic. This scenario is changing with telephone networks carrying more data each year. The data being carried by telephone network is growing at 20% per year compared to voice traffic which is growing only at 3% per year. Soon the data traffic will overtake the voice traffic. All this, has made the telecommunication industry more interested in carrying data in their networks.

So the three communities are now converging with common interests of carrying more data at higher speeds. This has led to some joint activities. The most notable of these activities is that which has led to the setting up of gigabit testbeds in United States. Other joint activites are the standardization of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), a suite of communication protocol to support integrated voice, video and data networks. Some organizations which are doing research in gigabit networking are National coordination office for HPCC (High Performance Computing and Communications), The Corporation for National Research Initiatives, IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Gigabit Networking.

When the gigabit networking was in its horizon, many researchers felt that the current knowledge about networking would not apply to gigabit networks which are considerably faster than existing networks. Now, after several years of research it has been found that many of the strategies and techniques (like layering the protocol) still work in gigabit networks also.

There are many working Gigabit testbeds .In five to ten years Gigabit networks will become a reality. It is now unclear whether there will be a single gigabit technology with a specific standard protocol. But it looks like that there will be many competing gigabit networking technologies (like many LAN technology) and many protocols but eventually one of them will become most popular (like IP).

The next section deals with the key concepts and technologies in the Gigabit networking. The third section deals with more specific issues in gigabit networking. The fourth sections discusses the various potential gigabit applications. The last section overviews the current state of gigabit networking. The appendix A gives a list of gigabit testbeds. The appendix B is an annotated bibiliography of the http sites, articles, papers and books refered in this paper.

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