The Wait Is (Almost) Over
06/04/2009 07:28
As the 100 gigabit Ethernet IEEE standards are being finalized, networking vendors and service providers are gearing up for tests and demonstrations of this latest evolution of Ethernet. It has been a long wait: The transition from 10 gigabit Ethernet to 100 gigabit Ethernet has been one of the longest the networking industry has seen. Previous technology iterations happened much quicker: 100mbps Fast Ethernet was standardized in 1995 and only three years later the 1 gigabit Ethernet standard was published. Another four years later (2002) the 10 gigabit Ethernet standard was ratified. By contrast, it took eight years to get to the next logical step – an eternity in technology time. One of the reasons for this delay may be the technology bubble that burst early in the decade, putting a damper on research and engineering spending. Work on the 100 gigabit Ethernet standard only began in earnest in 2006 with the formation of the Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) within the IEEE 802.3 working Group. Nonetheless, the timing for the new 100 gigabit Ethernet standard, and the first products supporting it, is almost perfect: the current economic downturn, networks requiring more bandwidth and carriers looking for ways to reduce costs all contribute to create a market ripe for expansion – provided the economics are workable. John D’Ambrosia, chair of the IEEE 802.3ba task force, was recently quoted saying, “Despite the global economic slowdown, global revenue for 10G fixed Ethernet switches doubled in 2008, according to Infonetics. And there is pent-up demand for 40 gigabit and 100 gigabit Ethernet.” Several other areas are driving the need for 100 gigabit Ethernet in the core of the network. Advanced video services are more readily available not only to television sets in homes, but also to PCs, mobile devices and other network-connected devices. User demand for better quality and the increase of pervasive video rapidly drive up bandwidth usage. In addition, both broadband access speeds and mobile speeds are rapidly increasing. Very soon consumers will be able to get 100mbps delivered to their home (compared to 3-9mbps today), while new wireless technologies such as WiMAX and LTE promise speeds of up to 75mbps and 100mbps (far eclipsing the 1-3mbps that typifies most of today’s wireless networks). Finally, cloud computing networks (grids) will be the next big driver for bandwidth, even more so than video. 100 gigabit Ethernet offers more than the ability to simply carry more data. Examples include new advanced disaster recovery networks or the ability to transform data centers into real-time “application centers” as the delay between user and server can be significantly reduced. So while some may lead you to believe that 100 gigabit Ethernet is still far off in the future, it has been a long time in the works. And we’ll see the first products and applications come to market really soon! Luc Ceuppens is vice president of product marketing, High-End Systems Business unit at Juniper Networks (JNPR).
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