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The Road To Terabit Ethernet
stinkymountain writes "Pre-standard 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet products — server network interface cards, switch uplinks and switches — are expected to hit the market later this year. Standards-compliant products are expected to ship in the second half of next year, not long after the expected June 2010 ratification of the 802.3ba standard. Despite the global economic slowdown, global revenue for 10G fixed Ethernet switches doubled in 2008, according to Infonetics. There is pent-up demand for 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet, says John D'Ambrosia, chair of the 802.3ba task force in the IEEE and a senior research scientist at Force10 Networks. 'There are a number of people already who are using link aggregation to try and create pipes of that capacity,' he says. 'It's not the cleanest way to do things...(but) people already need that capacity.' D'Ambrosia says even though 40/100G Ethernet products haven't arrived yet, he's already thinking ahead to terabit Ethernet standards and products by 2015. 'We are going to see a call for a higher speed much sooner than we saw the call for this generation' of 10/40/100G Ethernet, he says."
I mean at some point doesn't it become impossible to move electrons or modulate data any faster?
Nah, at that point you just place the whole ethernet infrastructure within a subspace field, modulate the deflector dish a little bit and you'll be off and running.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
That's a bit hard to say. But here's a way of thinking about it:
The Shannon-Hartley theorem states that the channel capacity (e.g. the data bandwidth, measured in bits per second) is related to the channel bandwidth (measured in hertz). If we assume a very pessimistic signal to noise ratio of 1:1, the SH theorem says that the cable's bandwidth in hertz will be the same as the cable's bandwidth in bps.
So if we want a cable capable of transmitting information at 1tbps, the cable will need a bandwidth of roughly 1000 GHz. That means that it would be impossible to carry that amount of information using even microwaves. We're talking about at minimum infrared light. Or in other words -- we're talking about fiber optics, not cat5.
I'd settle for gigabit speeds from the gigabit hardware I have now.
When Token Ring died it was because 100Mbps ethernet was cheaper than 16Mbps token ring. I was there. Token couldn't keep up; case closed.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
+1 Insightful; until now I never truly understood why people wanted more bandwidth.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
In case anyone was wondering "40? Why 40 Gigabit?" here's the answer: 40 Gigabit Ethernet reuses existing OC-768 technology. So it's actually not exactly 40 Gbps, it's actually 39.813120 Gbps. The idea is that Ethernet encapsulation and framing are being applied to existing components that are electrically (and optically) OC-768. (For the nitpickers out there, yes, I know there's more to it than that, but let's not get bogged down in details.)
So that's why we're making a stop at 40 Gbps instead of going straight to 100 Gbps. Existing technology is being reused to get a useful product to market faster.
Incidentally, 10 Gigabit Ethernet is similarly based on OC-192 technology, so it's actually 9.953280 Gbps.
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Personally, much like how BNC is still hanging around in a few spots, I think 15 years for 'more than half' would be optimistic. On the other hand, I have actually dealt with installed fiber to the desktop systems, so I have a bit of experience.
Fiber patch cords aren't as easily damaged anymore, especially for the plastic multimode stuff. There's also nothing preventing them coming out with patch cords that are armored to the diameter of today's cat6 cables. That's a LOT of armor. ;)
Another option would be to steal a bit of PoE technology - make the computer's ethernet port support PoE, which feeds a media converter in the wall. Other options include fiber with a couple of small gauge wires with it to provide power to the MC in the jack, wiring AC to the jack, etc...
Why I see fiber eventually winning, even to the desktop.
1. Cost - Copper keeps going up in price, while fiber remains stable or even drops, relatively. Even today bulk gigabit+ capable fiber can be obtained cheaper than bulk cat6 cable. What currently kills fiber to the desktop is generally connector cost, combined with higher adapter cost because they're 'special purpose'. Still, laser tech keeps getting cheaper. Many motherboards today have optical connectors on them for the audio. Network adapter is a different matter, but the potential is there. Cat6 connectors are a bit harder to terminate and are also a bit more expensive. Thus far, the higher speed copper ones I've read about have been even harder. So that advantage copper has is going away.
2. Speed - Gigabit cat5e/6 costs more than old style cat5, which is more than phone quality cat3. They're looking at having to add wires to break gigabit speeds, and change the connecter so it's no longer RJ45 compatible. This, to me, breaks the backwards compatibility that has allowed twisted pair to win for so long.
3. Range - With a large building, the difference between fiber and copper can be the difference between having 1 network room and 8 or more network closets with powered equipment in them. If fiber was a bit cheaper, I'd run large multifiber wires to the closets, and merely have a patch panel inside to distribute the lines out to the various jacks.
4. Weight & Bulk - Cat6+ is getting heavier and heavier - computer density is still increasing today. With the increase in weight and bulk, existing building cable trays and runs are becoming overloaded. Adding more is an expensive proposition, and I estimate that I can fit two times as many fiber cords into a given cable tray, at half the weight over copper runs. Even more if you put in patch closets so that you run many pair.
5. Emissions - fiber doesn't emit or be affected by EMF radiation.
6. Future proofing - copper is pushing it's limits, fiber installed today would likely only need minimal modifications to support terabit speeds in the future.
What applications do you think will require this kind of bandwidth? HD video with moderate compression should easilly fit into a gigabit.
Well, how about HD 3D video? 120-150HZ refresh rates combined with blink glasses to display those 3D videos that movie theaters are showing?
Still, for most business uses, I tend to say that even 10meg connections are more than enough for most users. Seriously, we still occasionally find a 10 meg hub with some users on it. Thus why speed is only one of the advantages fiber has. Cost, Range, and bulk are bigger ones. Range and bulk because, well, they increase costs.
What I think fiber to the desktop needs is the equivalent to 10baseT - an open, low cost standard that is cheap and easy to use. Right now you have a dozen of propriatary connectors. Some are tougher, some are cheaper, etc... We need the equivalent of the RJ-45.
For fiber I'd consier a standard specifying optional small gauge metallic wires for power transmission to compete with PoE, one of the things keeping copper alive. Being pure power, it could be injected cheaply and effectively just about anywhere. Just keep the voltage low enough to not hurt anyone - depowering such as system could be a nightmare.
I don't read AC A human right