Media independent interface: concepts and guidelines

Abstract

In the course of their efforts to upgrade the operating speed of Ethernet from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps, the members of the IEEE 802.3~ 1OOBASE-T Task Force recognized that it was vital to preserve the media independent nature of Ethernet, but they also recognized that the mechanism by which this was accomplished at 10 Mbps was not up to the task. Thus, they set out to define a new Media Independent Interface (MII) which would allow the development of a family of specifications for operation over various types of network media.