Ethernet's 400-Gigabit Challenge Is a Good Problem To Have 75
alphadogg writes "As it embarks on what's likely to be a long journey to its next big increase in speed, Ethernet is in some ways a victim of its own success. Years ago, birthing a new generation of Ethernet was relatively straightforward: Enterprises wanted faster LANs, vendors figured out ways to achieve that throughput and hashed out a standard, and IT shops bought the speed boost with their next computers and switches. Now it's more complicated, with carriers, Web 2.0 giants, cloud providers, and enterprises all looking for different speeds and interfaces, some more urgently than others. ... That's what the IEEE 802.3 400Gbps Study Group faces as it tries to write the next chapter in Ethernet's history. ... 'You have a lot of different people coming in to the study group,' said John D'Ambrosia, the group's chair, in an interview at the Ethernet Alliance's Technology Exploration Forum in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday. That can make it harder to reach consensus, with 75 percent approval required to ratify a standard, he said."
Re:Needs more context (Score:4, Informative)
At the 10gigE point, things diverge. There is single mode ("don't look at laser with remaining eye") media which is great for long distances, but more expensive, multi-mode which is good enough for inside the server room, and good ol' copper. However, this is what SFP modules are for.
It would be nice if fiber optic made it to the home, other than S/PDIF connections, and preferably with a more idiot-resistant connector than what existing fiber uses, especially with fouling lightpipes due to dust and such. Copper is useful, but eventually for faster connections, we will have to jump ship completely to fiber.
Of course, once we get 400Gbps, there will be the issues of how it filters down and all the switching/routing fabric needed. Most companies were dragged kicking and screaming to 1Gbps, and might use 10gigE for their trunk, or perhaps their SAN fabric. Trying to get them to 400Gbps for anything other than maybe storage will take a very long time.