IEEE 802.3 Boosted to Support 40, 100 Gbps Speeds
March 23, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 Working Group approved extending the existing IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard to operating speeds of 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps in order to provide an increase in bandwidth.
The project will meet its target June 2010 approval as a standard by the IEEE Standards Board, according to IEEE.
IEEE P802.3ba will be known by its full name of IEEE Standard for Information Technology - Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems - Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Specific Requirements Part 3: Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications - Amendment: Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s Operation.
The project is designed to provide a family of physical layer specifications that target various interconnection needs for application spaces, such as data center, Internet exchanges, backbone trunking, high-performance computing and video-on-demand delivery, said IEEE.
"Ethernet has become the technology of choice for networking communications," said John D'Ambrosia, chair of IEEE P802.3ba 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet Task Force. "Establishing a standard for 40Gb/s Ethernet will enable the next generation of servers, while 100Gb/s Ethernet will be utilized for aggregation nodes. Together, these two rates will enable the next phase of the Ethernet ecosystem."
For more information on the IEEE P802.3ba 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet Task Force, go to IEEE.
Source: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA).