Long Reach Ethernet (LRE) was a

proprietary networking protocol In telecommunications, a proprietary protocol is a communications protocol owned by a single organization or individual. Intellectual property rights and enforcement Ownership by a single organization gives the owner the ability to place restricti ...

marketed by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

, intended to support multi-megabit (5 to 15 Mbit/s) performance over telephone-grade

unshielded twisted pair Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring used for communications in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of improving electromagnetic compatibility. Compared to a single conductor or an untwisted ba ...

wiring over distances up to 5,000 feet (1.5 km). Supporting such distance ranges, LRE is technically classified a

Metropolitan area network A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic region of the size of a metropolitan area. The term MAN is applied to the interconnection of local area networks (LANs) in ...

(MAN) technology. Technically the protocol was similar to very-high-bitrate digital subscriber line (VDSL), practically Ethernet over VDSL (EoVDSL). The technology was sometimes considered an example of

Ethernet in the first mile Ethernet in the first mile (EFM) refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network technologies between a telecommunications company and a customer's premises. From the customer's point of view, it is their first mile, although from th ...

(EFM). Several networking vendors offered compatible networking hardware, but the technology became obsolete.

Description

Like standard VDSL, LRE allowed existing telephone wiring that connects an organization's offices to be used to network those offices together using standard

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

protocol without incurring the huge cost of deploying

fiber optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

or limiting organizations to the bandwidth provided by

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

s or other

digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...

services. Other sample applications included

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

to hotel rooms or college dormitories over existing installed telephone wiring. LRE was compatible with VDSL

ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standard ...

Band Plan 998. Cisco sold

Cisco Catalyst Catalyst is the brand for a variety of network switches, wireless controllers, and wireless access points sold by Cisco Systems. While commonly associated with Ethernet switches, a number of different types of network interfaces have been availa ...

model 2900 switches using

Infineon Technologies Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the former parent company Siemens AG were spun off. Infineon has about 50,280 employees and is one of the ten largest semicond ...

PEF22822/PEB22811 VDSL QAM chipset like many other VDSL concentrators. The

customer-premises equipment In telecommunications, a customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment (CPE) is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication circuit at the demarcation poi ...

included the Cisco 575 desktop bridge. Products were announced in February 2001 to be available in April 2001. Infineon used the name 10BaseS for the technology, Cisco included LRE in its Mobile Office marketing effort. A few compatible devices were produced. Cisco announced end-of-sale for the LRE products in October 2006, and its explanation page was removed from their web site in 2007.

HomePNA The HomePNA Alliance is an incorporated non-profit industry association of companies that develops and standardizes technology for home networking over the existing coaxial cables and telephone wiring within homes, so new wires do not need to be ...

promotes similar technologies for use within a home rather than to a central office or business, with its 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 releases. Different frequency bands are used so that VDSL and HomePNA can share the same wires.

References

External links

Metanoia communications Inc. Taiwan
produced products called EVA Award and EVA Aero Ethernet Cisco protocols Digital subscriber line {{Compu-network-stub