Road to 100G Alliance Forms

Four component vendors have joined together to create the Road to 100G Alliance, a new organization focused on interoperability for network systems supporting 40G and greater speeds required to meet growing bandwidth demand.

With 10 to 15 times bandwidth growth expected in the next three to five years, “10G is not going to do it,” said Bill Weisinger, chairman of the new group and an executive for Bay Microsystems Inc, one of the founding members.

Other founding member companies include Enigma Semiconductor, Integrated Device Technology Inc., IP Fusion and Lattice Semiconductor.

Weisinger said service providers are demanding vendors drive to greater bandwidth. But, he said, many OEMs are “trying to play catch up,” having invested little in the field during the downturn. At NXTcomm, he added, several vendors are announcing 40G support and 100G-ready systems. “They don’t have an answer for 100G because they are several years behind in development.”

The alliance hopes to help that situation, but creating a collaborative ecosystem for vendors to accelerate development of higher-speed systems. Weisginer said while there are standards and technologies that exist and/or in process, interoperability is the key. “Every element in the supply chain has to work together,” he said.

There are lots of standards that don’t work together, he explained, noting that the assumption that a standard exists means that the work is done is erroneous.

The alliance is seeking additional members and will reach out to OEMs and service providers. Membership costs $2,000 per year per company.

The group will engage in interop testing and implementations as well as industry education. Certifications are not planned at this time, nor are Implementation Agreements, Weisinger said.

The group will look to evaluate where the gaps are in bringing higher speeds to market and identifying who is working on that. Among the items that might be on the radar are how traffic is handled and prioritized and reducing power consumption.

The alliance also plans to have liaisons with other industry groups including the standards bodies – IEEE, IETF, ITU-T, and other forums, such as MEF, OIF and the Ethernet Alliance.

Road to 100G Alliance www.roadto100g.org

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