In this day and age, the majority of consumers rely heavily on computing technologies to manage their personal and professional needs on a daily basis. Due to the exponential growth in Internet use, the need for increased bandwidth has become evident. In an effort to accomplish this goal, a task force recently developed and ratified a new high-speed Ethernet standard, known as IEEE (News - Alert) 802.3ba.
The creation of the 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s standard allows existing Ethernet technology to manage the ever-increasing Web demands of today’s consumers, service providers, high performance computing environments and data centers. Ethernet devices that employ the standard can be integrated into an existing network with minimal complications.
The deployment of devices that are interoperable at higher speeds should be especially advantageous for businesses that are Internet-performance dependent, especially those that utilize decentralized data centers and cloud computing applications. These enterprises can now run at 40Gb/s, compared to the previous speed of 10Gb/s.
Furthermore, the enablement of the standard should reduce the need for other bandwidth solutions, which have been found to be generally inefficient, time consuming and overly complicated.
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL (News - Alert)) has provided a great deal of support throughout the entire process of creating and ratifying the standard. Currently, it is recruiting founding members for testing programs through a new consortium that will officially launch in September 2010. Those who take part in this initiative will work with the UNH-IOL and other organizations to ensure the interoperability of their devices, which should benefit them greatly.
Following the completion of interoperability testing and physical layer measurements, the consortium with conduct PCS, MAC, and RS layer testing, as the development of test suites and tools continues to progress.
For more information on the upcoming testing process, check out this exclusive interview with Jeff Lapak, senior engineer for The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory.
Erin Monda recently graduated from W.C.S.U. with a degree in professional writing. She primarily writes about network technologies, including cloud computing, virtualization and network optimization, however she also has a focus on E911 technologies and legislation.Edited by Erin Monda