IEEE Ethernet standards
Ethernet is defined in a series of IEEE 802.3 standards. These standards define the physical layer and data link specifications for Ethernet. The most important 802.3 standards are:
10Base-T (IEEE 802.3) - 10 Mbit / s with unshielded twisted pair (UTP) of Category 3 cables, up to 100 meters long.
100Base-TX (IEEE 802.3u) - or Fast Ethernet - used Category 5, 5E or 6 UTP cable, which can be up to 100 meters long.
100Base-FX (IEEE 802.3u) - a version of Fast Ethernet using a multimode fiber. Up to 412 meters long.
1000Base-CX (IEEE 802.3z) - uses twisted pair copper cable. Up to 25 meters long.
Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-T (IEEE 802.3ab), which uses UTP Category 5 cabling. Up to 100 meters long.
1000Base-SX (IEEE 802.3z) - 1 Gigabit Ethernet cable on multimode fiber optic.
1000Base-LX (IEEE 802.3z) - 1 Gigabit Ethernet over single-mode fiber.
10GBase-T (802.3.an) - 10 Gbps connections on Category 5e, 6 and 7 a UTP cable.
Note that the first number of the name of the standard represents the speed of the network in megabits per second. The word base refers to the baseband, which means that the signals are transmitted without modulation. The last part of the default name refers to the cabling used to transmit the signals. For example, 1000baseT means, that network speed is up to 1000 Mbps, baseband signaling is used and twisted pair cable is used (T means twisted pair).