14 DAY TRIAL // The IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) has recently voted the latest standard required to begin the development of the Ethernet at 100Gbps. The voting comes at about a year after the official technical specifications of the service have been released, but it means that the network-related producers can finally begin the transition to 100Gbps. Although an intermediate standard (10Gbps) was proposed at first, it seems that Gigabit Ethernet will directly switch from 1Gbps to 100Gbps. The idea of switching to such a high-band network emerged after HD content appeared (a 1080p uncompressed stream can use about 500-2000 Mbps depending on the content).
"While 100Gbps Ethernet has been touted in the press, the HSSG took the time to hear presentations and discuss the next speed jump. Ultimately, it was perceived that the ROI requirements would be balanced by the investment in the 10x increase in speed. The decision by the group continues to validate the industry's belief in Ethernet's long tradition of increasing speed in increments of 10x," said Lucinda Borovick, director of data centre networks at analyst firm IDC.
At the same meeting, the HSSG agreed to support reaches of at least 100m on OM3 multimode fiber and at least 10km but this time using only single mode fiber. It is unclear whether the new 100Gpbs transmission lines will use only optical fiber, but it seems that actual RJ45 connectors coupled with copper wiring cannot sustain such a high load.
Brad Booth, president of the Ethernet Alliance claimed: "HSSG achieved a major milestone in deciding to support 100Gbps Ethernet as the next speed for Ethernet. This is an important first step, and the Ethernet Alliance fully supports the work of the HSSG."