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IEEE Releases 802.3ba Standard

An anonymous reader writes "EEE announced the ratification of IEEE 802.3ba, a new standard governing 40Gbps and 100Gbps Ethernet operations. An amendment to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, IEEE 802.3ba, the first standard ever to simultaneously specify two new Ethernet speeds, paves the way for the next generation of high-rate server connectivity and core switching. The new standard will act as the catalyst needed for unlocking innovation across the greater Ethernet ecosystem. IEEE 802.3ba is expected to trigger further expansion of the 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet family of technologies by driving new development efforts, as well as providing new aggregation speeds that will enable 10Gbps Ethernet network deployments."

34 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Much welcomed tech by mnmn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's interesting how this will increase the adoption of iSCSI storage, yet the original reason to go to iSCSI will be lost since fiber cables will have to be laid.

    Either way 1Gbit Ethernet is beginning to feel a bit like a bottleneck with storage and other bottlenecks being removed.

    It'll take some time between ratification and cheap D-Link switches...

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
    1. Re:Much welcomed tech by afidel · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nah, thanks to DCE most storage will stay FC using FCoE. What this will do is eventually allow us to get to ridiculous port counts in top of rack and end of row switches and upload all that capacity without requiring a 6" diameter bundle of trunking cables. It will also allow 100Gb to be usable at metro distances since it only requires 4 pairs instead of 10.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    2. Re:Much welcomed tech by donkeyoverlord · · Score: 2, Informative

      The original goal of iSCSI wasn't to avoid using Fiber, it was to avoid using Fiber Channel and requiring the creation of a second network, dedicated to storage, that is managed separately from the standard data network.

    3. Re:Much welcomed tech by afidel · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's exactly one 4Gb copper FC card and zero 8Gb, the only use I've seen for copper FC is for connecting the bays back to the controllers, from there out it's always fiber optics.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    4. Re:Much welcomed tech by bertok · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's interesting how this will increase the adoption of iSCSI storage, yet the original reason to go to iSCSI will be lost since fiber cables will have to be laid.

      That seems a tad disingenuous. The real reason for iSCSI was a
      Microsoft price structure that made a network file service very
      expensive unless it went in through the 'disk-on-SCSI-bus'
      back door.

      Linux and iSCSI was a way around the high cost of
      a MS server/client system. None of the Linux-only or Macintosh
      network systems were so encumbered, and worked
      quite well without any iSCSI.

      WTF are you talking about? Why was this modded up? Is it just because he's saying something negative about Microsoft?

      I've worked in Microsoft Windows server environments for a decade, and I've never heard of SCSI specific MS licensing, or any kind of special licensing at all for file servers.

      While it's true that a Linux server in general is cheaper from a licensing standpoint (hard to compete with free), that has nothing to do with iSCSI, SCSI, or FC.

      The reason iSCSI is popular is because it's simpler to set up, halves the number of ports and switches required for a fully redundant server environment (minimum 2 ports and 2 switches vs 4 and 4), it has real authentication instead of the worthless "zones" crap in the FC world, provides user friendly names instead of numeric IDs, has encryption, 10Gb Ethernet can outperform even 8Gb FC, and even old 1GbE switches can perform adequately if port trunking is used properly.

      What this all boils down to is that iSCSI is both better and cheaper than FC. Once popular SAN arrays from big vendors start to appear with 10GbE iSCSI as standard instead of an expensive "option", then FC will start to die a rapid and well deserved death.

    5. Re:Much welcomed tech by mnmn · · Score: 2, Informative

      I do not believe you've actually used iSCSI, at all.

      The performance numbers are very different and so are the technologies, Microsoft filesharing is file-level and iSCSI is block level. It means with an iSCSI card, the machine can treat volumes as local disks and install any OS.

      Secondly, you're confusing iSCSI with NFS. NFS has been freely available even back on Windows NT4. However it was not created to counter Microsoft, it was ALREADY there.

      iSCSI until recently has been the only technology that provides block-level storage access and as efficiently as possible on a routable ethernet network. The recent FCoE is even more efficient but its not so easily routable.

      --
      "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
  2. Re:Stuck by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You know networking exists outside of the internet, right?

  3. Seriously? by Pojut · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just finally upgraded all of the connections in my house to Gigabit Ethernet, you fucking clod you!

    1. Re:Seriously? by broken_chaos · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sorry to break it to you, but...

  4. Disc speeds by f3rret · · Score: 2

    I can't help but wonder what you could actually use 100Gbit/s for, I mean to the best of my knowledge (which is not all that vast I admit) you'd be hard pressed to find a storage unit that can handle these sorts of speeds.

    --
    Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    1. Re:Disc speeds by afidel · · Score: 3, Interesting

      100Gb isn't for server to server or server to storage connections today, it's for network aggregation (switch to switch ISL's). 40Gb is there for server to storage on some high end configurations.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    2. Re:Disc speeds by Surt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      SSDs are going to hit 6 gbit/sec in the next year or so. Multiply by 17 devices on a SAN and you're done.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    3. Re:Disc speeds by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Delivering 100 Mbit/s Internet to 1000 people before over-subscription seems like a nice application. Unless you're in the US in which case it probably covers New York.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Disc speeds by Surt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      True, though many a small business has a SAN built on consumer grade devices. My point was exactly that the low end will be pushing up against this limit all too soon.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  5. Re:More ads faster! by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, but the porn was low-res and slow to download. So it's a double-edged sword.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  6. Re:More ads faster! by geekoid · · Score: 3, Informative

    I would rather have the adds and my 15Mb line, then my old 1200 baud connection to compuserve.
    We only use 300 baud for internal stuff.

    In 10 minutes I can down load some porn, whack off, and be a sleep in 10 minutes. In those days it was hours just to get a 5 second clip.

    what..TMI?

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  7. About Time! by Above · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've been waiting to connect to my 8M Cable modem with 100GE for a while now. Finally, no more bottleneck!

  8. Re:IEEE 802.3ba code name by cmg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately there is no corresponding 100000Base-MrT

  9. Shame about the MTU by elFarto+the+2nd · · Score: 4, Funny

    The MTU is still 1500 bytes though :(

    1. Re:Shame about the MTU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Jumbo frames, dear boy. Jumbo frames.

      Which have been around since 1Gb ethernet.

  10. Re:More ads faster! by value_added · · Score: 2, Funny

    In 10 minutes I can down load some porn, whack off, and be a sleep in 10 minutes. In those days it was hours just to get a 5 second clip.

    Hmm. I could write that the above is an example of how user contributions on a site like Slashdot can offer recommendations to the average reader that are both informative and practical. On the other hand, I could write something to the effect that what you wrote provides more information than most of us asked for, or want.

    I suspect both of those are too subtle, so I'll tailor my response to the wider Slashdot demographic:

    "Ten minutes!??? You need to find better porn!"

  11. Re:More ads faster! by Surt · · Score: 4, Funny

    For end users, 100gb/s is almost 'enough'. It's just a hair short (about 2.5x) of the speed needed to stream uncompressed video at the highest resolution anyone is likely to seriously consider, at 240hz. Once you hit that point, you just remote your applications to wherever the data is, and forget about moving data ever again, assuming, of course, that the data is close enough to you to avoid any latency issues for interactivity.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  12. Re:Stuck by ePhil_One · · Score: 2, Informative

    Tell that to my router... 20Mbps/1.3Mbps

    Verizon FIOS here, my basic bundled rate is 25 Mbps/ 25Mbps. I could opt for faster

    --
    You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
  13. Re:Pardon my ignorance by Shimbo · · Score: 4, Informative

    But are we talking about 100Gb/s over copper or fiber?

    -Rick

    Fibre and short-haul (~10m) copper, at least for the current standard. Historically, there's usually a lag of several years between a new Ethernet standard and a 100m copper version.

    I'm a bit sceptical about folks who say they'll never be a copper version, because I've heard that tale often enough before. I confidently predict it will be the Year of Linux on the desktop before it's the year of Fibre to the Desktop.

  14. One cable to rule them all by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    USB3, HDMI, DVI, Ethernet, DisplayPort, FireWire, eSATA, proprietary. There should be one kind cable that can be used for all of these purposes. We have the technology. Consumers will thank you.

    1. Re:One cable to rule them all by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2, Informative

      They actually tried this with FireWire (IEEE-1394) in the consumer electronics industry back in 2000-ish, but then the whole HDCP thing came up, and that was that.

      The idea is that you'd have a home theater receiver that just had a crapload of firewire ports on the back, and all your stuff would plug in via that, including speakers. Never happened though.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:One cable to rule them all by evilviper · · Score: 2, Insightful

      USB3, HDMI, DVI, Ethernet, DisplayPort, FireWire, eSATA, proprietary. There should be one kind cable that can be used for all of these purposes.

      HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort are for raw video data. They have NOTHING in common with the USB mouse/keyboard on your desk. It makes no sense to combine them.

      There's some good reasons for the differences. For instance, even if I could hook up my internet access to the same port as my hard drives, I never would... One needs low-overhead, realtime and no security, while the other is high overhead, delays are better than realtime constraints, and needs much more security.

      While you have a point about the display ports, it's far worse to have only one type available, which always sucks.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  15. Re:RIP OUT THE CAT5e CABLE BOYZ !! by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 3, Informative

    The standard includes specifications for copper. 40GBASE-CR4 for 40GB which specifies 4 lanes of twinax cable, and 100GBASE-CR10 for 100GB which specifies 10 lanes of twinax.

    Surprise, surprise. Serial too slow? Try parallel!

    --
    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  16. Re:The Eighties called... by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... and wants its A-Team back. Your meme is violating some copyright somewhere.

    Was "I pity the fool" even in The A-Team? I watched like the first two or three seasons of the show and I don't recall Mr. T ever saying it. It was in Rocky III though...

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  17. C-64 porn by Tetsujin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, but the porn was low-res and slow to download. So it's a double-edged sword.

    Still, I think you're underrating the merits of the slow reveal... I mean, as the image file was loaded byte by byte onto the computer's memory, filling the display with that lustworthy graphical data, gradually revealing more and more, until you had a naked woman on your screen in 320x200 glory, 1bpp plus 4 bit colors, foreground and background, per 8x8 character cell... The five minute wait for the elusive delights to be laid plain was like a striptease...

    And when I say 5-minute wait, that's how long it took to load an image from disk. Modem would take longer. :)

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
    1. Re:C-64 porn by MrEricSir · · Score: 3, Informative

      The image format changes the strip-tease.

      BMP loads from the bottom-up. It's Sir Mix-a-lot's favorite format.

      Progressive JPEG gets less blurry as it loads, simulating being drunk at a strip club.

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  18. Light Peak by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    USB3, HDMI, DVI, Ethernet, DisplayPort, FireWire, eSATA, proprietary. There should be one kind cable that can be used for all of these purposes. We have the technology. Consumers will thank you.

    Are you here from Intel marketing?

    <wp:Light_Peak>

    Oh, heck, that's still not working. fine:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Peak

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  19. Re:RIP OUT THE CAT5e CABLE BOYZ !! by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There isn't a whole lot of difference between the raw speed of the signal in a copper line and fiber line, the electrical signal already travels at effectively the speed of light (or close enough that it doesn't really matter). It's distance that's a problem for copper. An electrical signal through copper has significantly more attenuation than an optical signal through fiber, which means right from the very start the signal is cleaner and more usable. The cleaner the signal, the easier it is to pick up small variations in the signal accurately, and the more data you can pack into the signal. Copper is also vulnerable to noise, which further reduces the signal quality, which means a less complex signal is possible. This is why copper is useful for ultra-high speed IO inside a computer covering inches or less (the IO in a CPU travels only nanometers and is obscenely fast), but once you start stretching it a few feet its effectiveness drops off dramatically. Fiber is capable of handling much longer distances before the same attenuation loss occurs.

    Other than that it's just the equipment on the back end that are different, and the concepts behind both fiber and copper are the same. Only the components are different.

    In other words, it's trivial to make copper just as fast or faster than fiber. In fact, the fastest copper connections are already faster than the fastest fiber connections. What isn't trivial is making copper as fast as fiber over the same distances. Fiber wins hands down on a run of any distance. Therefor copper only wins on short runs, due to the huge price difference between the two.

    --
    Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  20. Re:Pardon my ignorance by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Twinax isn't too big, it's the bundle of 10 twinax you need to run 100gbit that are huge.

    I'm a little confused, though. Cat6 is capable of 10GbE, so why not bundles of 4 and 10 Cat6 for the standard as well, instead of just twinaxial? I recognize you'd need a special port setup, but that would still be significantly smaller than twinax. They would then be capable of 100m, would they not?

    --
    Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller