The IEEE gears up for the next Ethernet standard

Completing an Ethernet specification takes years of effort. Just ask John D’Ambrosia of Futurewei who has spent the last 15 years chairing various IEEE Ethernet standards.

John D'Ambrosia

He oversaw the standardisation of 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 200/400GbE and he is now chairing two IEEE Task Forces standards addressing 100 and 400 coherent Ethernet.

He is also the Chair of the group looking at new Ethernet applications (NEA) or to give it its full title, the IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections NEA Ad Hoc group.

D’Ambrosia is driving the development of the ‘Beyond 400 Gigabit’ Call-for-Interest work of the NEA group that will define the next Ethernet standard.

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Choosing paths to future Gigabit Ethernet speeds

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.

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An interview with John D'Ambrosia

The chairman of the Ethernet Alliance talks to Gazettabyte about the many ways Ethernet is evolving due to industry requirements.

"We are witnessing the evolution of Ethernet in ways that many of us never planned because there are markets that are demanding different things from it."

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The uphill battle to keep pace with bandwidth demand

Relative traffic increase normalised to 2010 Source: IEEE

Optical component and system vendors will be increasingly challenged to meet the expected growth in bandwidth demand.

According to a recent comprehensive study by the IEEE (The IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment report), bandwidth requirements are set to grow 10x by 2015 compared to demand in 2010, and a further 10x between 2015 and 2020. Meanwhile, the technical challenges are growing for the vendors developing optical transmission equipment and short-reach high-speed optical interfaces. 

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The next high-speed Ethernet standard starts to take shape

Source: Gazettabyte

The IEEE has begun work to develop the next-speed Ethernet standard beyond 100 Gigabit to address significant predicted growth in bandwidth demand. 

The standards body has set up the IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group, chaired by John D’Ambrosia, who previously chaired the 40 and 100 Gigabit IEEE P802.3ba Ethernet standards ratified in June 2010. "I guess I’m a glutton for punishment,” quips D'Ambrosia. 

The Higher Speed Ethernet standard could be completed by early 2017. 

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Next-gen 100 Gigabit optics

Briefing: 100 Gigabit

Part 2: Interview 

Gazettabyte spoke to John D'Ambrosia about 100 Gigabit technology

John D'Ambrosia, chair of the IEEE 100 Gig backplane and copper cabling task force

John D'Ambrosia laughs when he says he is the 'father of 100 Gig'.

He spent five years as chair of the IEEE 802.3ba group that created the 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standards. Now he is the chair of the IEEE task force looking at 100 Gig backplane and copper cabling. D'Ambrosia is also chair of the Ethernet Alliance and chief Ethernet evangelist in the CTO office of Dell's Force10 Networks.

“People are also starting to talk about moving data operations around the network based on where electricity is cheapest”

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