The need for speed never seems to abate when it comes to computing and communications. Networking companies developed and demonstrated faster Ethernet technology back in 2008, but commercial delivery had to wait for standards approval and compatibility issues to be resolved.
Enterprise Networking Planet reports on the latest developments that include two different new Ethernet speed standards and what remains to be done to ensure interoperability. Also, details on what a key player in this, the Ethernet Alliance, an industry consortium, sees beyond the new 40 and 100 Gigabit standard. Hint, think Terabit.
Ethernet is set for a major speed boost thanks to the approval of the IEEE P802.3ba standard for 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (40 GbE and 100 GbE). The new standard will provide Ethernet users with significant performance gains over the previous top-end of Ethernet speeds which was 10 GbE.
The IEEE P802.3ba standard is the culmination of several years of effort which kicked off in July of 2007. At that time, the IEEE 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) decided to develop a standard for both 40 GbE and 100 GbE.