When Ethernet was originally created in 1974 it was a 3Mbps technology from Bob Metcalfe at Xerox PARC that few thought would beat out technologies such as Token Ring from the big boys like IBM. But Metcalfe left Xerox to found 3com and promote Ethernet, while also boosting the speed from 3Mbps to 10Mbps, compared to Token Rings 6Mbps [Edit: Token Ring was originally 4Mbps and later upgraded to 16Mbps]. Now a days 1Gbps networks are becoming standard and 10Gbps networks are creeping in to specialized situations. But the Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) is not satisfied. They have approved a Project Authorization Request (PAR) for a new standard, IEEE 802.3ba, which will give Ethernet speeds of up to 100Gbps.
When IEEE 802.3ba was originally proposed their were multiple possible speeds that were being discussed, including 40, 80, 100, and 120Gbps. While there options were eventually narrowed down to just two, 40 and 100Gbps, the HSSG had difficulties decided on the one specific speed they wanted to become the new standard. HSSG chair John D'Ambrosia told PC World that although he "wouldn't say there was a fight, I would say their was an education going on, and it got heated at times." During the discussions two different groups formed, one which wanted faster server-to-switch connections at 40Gbps and one which wanted a more robust network backbone at 100Gbps. The higher speed required more expensive and power-hungry equipment, you can find out more about it from this presentation [PDF].
Unable to come up with a consensus the HSSG decided to standardize both 40Gbps and 100Gbps speeds as the IEEE 803.23ba standard. Each speed will use different connection equipment. 40Gbps can be 1 meter long on the backplane, 10 meters for copper cable and 100 meters for fiber-optics. The 100Gbps standard includes specifications for 10 kilometer and 40 kilometer connections over single-mode fiber.
According to D'Ambrosia this is the first time the specification group has approved two different speeds in the same specification. If IEEE approves the specification it could be completed by 2010 with devices that support is soon thereafter.
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3 comments:
Amazining, I still remember when people didn't think you'd be able to send Ethernet over anything except the bright orange semi-rigid coaxial cable and that was only 10Mbps. A minor detail Token Ring as originally released was 4 Mbps (not 6 Mbps) and was soon upgraded to a 16 Mbps version
I think it is more amazing that they had 4Mbps going in the 70s and that is still considered a pretty fast ISP connection 30 years later.
My Team Lead (David Redell) at Xerox negotiated the Dec, Intel, Xerox (1982) DIX Ethernet standard while he was working at Xerox. This became the flavor of 802.3 that everyone uses.
He said that 10 Mbps was a pain in the butt, and totally unnecessary and overly expensive, in 1984. But, it made Ethernet faster and more useful than all other networking technologies, and Ethernet was plenty-fast throughout the decade of the 1980's. This was the first networking technology that wasn't throw-away in 2-4 years, and that helped it to beat out 4 Mbps Token ring, and all the crummy sub-1-Mbps twisted-pair networks that came and went in the name of shaving a few $$$ from the cost of ethernet.
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