Ethernet Alliance on 800G and the next Ethernet rate

It may have taken the industry five years to get 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) modules shipping, but for Mark Nowell, Advisory Board Chair at the Ethernet Alliance, the long gestation period is understandable given the innovation that has been required.

Mark Nowell

The industry has had to cram complex technology into a small form factor for 400GbE while meeting the requirements of two very different end-customers: webscale players and communications service providers.

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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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