Choosing paths to future Gigabit Ethernet speeds
Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 7:29AM Industry discussions are being planned in the coming months to determine how Ethernet standards can be accelerated to better serve industry needs, including how existing work can be used to speed up the creation of new Ethernet speeds.
The y-axis shows the number of lanes while the x-axis is the speed per lane. Each red dot shows the Ethernet rate at which the signalling (optical or electrical) was introduced. One challenge that John D'Ambrosia highlights is handling overlapping speeds. "What do we do about 100 Gig based on 4x25, 2x50 and 1x100 and ensure interoperability, and do that for every multiple where you have a crossover?" Source: Dell
One catalyst for these discussions has been the progress made in the emerging 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard which is now at the first specification draft stage.
“If you look at what is happening at 400 Gig, the decisions that were made there do have potential repercussions for new speeds as well as new signalling rates and technologies,” says John D’Ambrosia, chairman of the Ethernet Alliance.
