Coexistence and Migration with Auto-Negotiation
Vendors understand the best way to market Fast Ethernet twisted-pair interfaces. They sell 10/100 twisted-pair adapters that permit an easy migration from 10Mbps to 100Mbps Ethernet. An Auto-Negotiation capability was introduced to automate that migration. The Auto-Negotiation Protocol enables an adapter to discover the highest level of functionality that it shares with its peer at the other end of a twisted-pair link.
This is done in two ways. If the interfaces at both ends of a segment are "smart"—that is, capable of performing the Auto-Negotiation Protocol—then the peers exchange messages to announce their capabilities.
If only one of the interfaces is smart, it analyzes incoming signals to ...
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