Tag Archive for Standards

| July 23, 2016
Comments Off on Ethernet Marches On

Ethernet Marches On

Ethernet Marches OnIt has been a while since we talked about networking on the Bach Seat. So it is time to get back to my roots. Ethernet continues to dominate the world. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 Ethernet Working Group, the group responsible for the Ethernet standard, recently ratified 4 new Ethernet-related standards. The committee approved IEEE 802.3bp, IEEE 802.3bq, IEEE 802.3br, and IEEE 802.3by.

IEEE 802.3br has implications for IoT and connected cars. This new standard addresses the needs of industrial control system manufacturers and the automotive market by specifying a pre-emption methodology for time-sensitive traffic. IEEE 802.3bp addresses how Ethernet operates in harsh environments found in automotive and industrial applications.

The 2 more interesting new standards to networkers are IEEE 802.3bq and IEEE 802.3by. These standards help define how 25 GB and 40 GB Ethernet will work and more importantly how products from multiple vendors should interoperate in the data center. For a summary of the rationale for the new standard here is the IEEE presentation  (PDF).

Data c enterIEEE 802.3bq, “Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Physical Layer and Management Parameters for 25 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s Operation, Types 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T“, opens the door to higher-speed 25 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s twisted pair solutions with auto-negotiation capabilities and Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) support for data center applications.

IEEE 802.3by, “Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers, and Management Parameters for 25 Gb/s Operation”, introduces cost-optimized 25 Gb/s PHY specifications for single-lane server and switch interconnects for data centers.

Siemon’s Standards Informant explains that 25GBASE-T will be backward-compatible with existing BASE T technology and both 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T are planned for operation over TIA category 8 cabling. The deployment opportunity for 25GBASE-T is aligned with 40GBASE-T and defined as the same 2-connector, 30-meter reach topology supporting data center edge connections (i.e., switch to server connections in row-based structured cabling or top of rack configurations).

The standard’s ratification comes shortly after the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) approved its standard specifications for Category 8 cabling, the twisted-pair type designed to support 25GBase-T and 40GBase-T.

Though 25 Gigabit Ethernet is only now becoming an official standard, Enterprise Networking Planet reports that multiple vendors already have technologies in the market. Among the early adopter of 25 GbE is Broadcom (AVGO) which announced back in 2014 that its StrataXGS Tomahawk silicon would support 25 GbE. In 2015, Arista (ANET) announced its lineup of 25 GbE switches. Cisco (CSCO) is also embedding 25 GbE support in some of its switches including the Nexus 9516 switch.

That is where 25-Gb/s Ethernet comes in. It uses the same LC fiber cables and the SFP28 transceiver modules are compatible with standard SFP+ modules. This means that data-center operators can upgrade from 10 GbE to 25 GbE using the existing installed optical cabling and get a 2.5X increase in performance.

The IEEE 25GbE standard seems to have come out of nowhere, (especially considering the L O N G D R A W N O U T 8 0 2 . 1 1 n process but the technology actually came into being as the natural single-lane version of the IEEE 802.3ba 100-Gb/s Ethernet standard. The 100-Gb/s Ethernet standard uses four separate 25-Gb/s lanes running in parallel, so defining a single lane makes it a straightforward and natural subset of the 100-Gb/s standard.

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IEthernetEEE P802.3by and P802.3bq were initially targeted for server connections in mega data centers like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. In the next 5 years, 25G will be the next mainstream server upgrade from 10G, even for smaller data centers. SMB data centers will be facing a connectivity crisis in the future as the pace of virtualization increases.

According to IDC, the typical virtualized server supported about 10 virtual machines (VMs) in 2014 and will support in excess of 12 VMs by 2017. In many organizations, the majority of production workloads are already virtualized and almost all new workloads are deployed on virtualized infrastructure, placing inexorable stress on server connectivity.
In order to accommodate this growth Twinax copper and short-reach MMF are included in the “by” standard, while 25GBASE-T (twisted pair) was added to the existing 40GBASE-T “bq” project making 25G possible in smaller data centers without having to re-wire the data center.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| November 17, 2015
Comments Off on Sun Setting on Cat 5e

Sun Setting on Cat 5e

Sun Setting on Cat 5eThe sun is setting on the Cat 5e cabling standard. The long-standing standard defined how most commercial spaces around the world were cabled for nearly 20 years. Starting in 2017 Cat 5e will be considered obsolete for new installations following a decision by the ISO/IEC cabling standards body.

recommendation for Category 6AIn a recent blog post at CommScope (COMM), the ISO cabling standards body JTC1/SC25 WG3 working group agreed to raise the minimum horizontal cabling requirement. The new standard is stated in ISO/IEC 11801-2. Office space requirements change from Class D (Category 5e) to Class E (Category 6). It includes a recommendation for Class EA (Category 6A). Cat 6A will enable a smooth migration to 2.5, 5, and ultimately 10 gigabits per second (Gbps). In the drafts of 11801-5 (data centers) and 11801-6 (distributed services), the minimum requirement is already Class EA cabling.

Ethernet and IP communications everywhere

The original ISO/IEC 11801 standard enabled the explosive growth and mass deployment of Ethernet and IP communications everywhere. In its first edition, the author says the standard defined Class D balanced cabling based on Category 5 copper components. This standard offered an upgrade path from 10 to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) up to 100 meters. At that time, some experts and industry observers argued that 100 Mbps (100BASE-T) to the desk was overkill for the typical office user.

handful of cablesToday, 100BASE-T technology is in a rapid market decline. 100BASE-T is being replaced with 1000BASE-T (1 Gbps) according to the article. 1000BASE-T is commonplace for desktop and laptop PCs. It also benefits a wide range of other devices such as phones, cameras, and wireless access points (WAPs).

The 11801 standard now includes more cabling classes that were introduced to enable support of up to 10 Gbps. The new classes include Class E (Category 6), Class F (Category 7). Even more recently, Class EA (Category 6A) and Class FA (Category 7A).

Technology trends

According to the CommScope blog, a number of technology trends made ISO choose to upgrade the minimum recommendation for horizontal cabling in offices. Some of the trends recognized by the committee that are driving the adoption of speeds beyond one Captain Ethernetgigabit on the horizontal cabling include:

The rapid growth of BYOD is driving infrastructure upgrades to accommodate IEEE 802.11ac. As I have covered before, new IEEE specifications are being developed to accommodate 802.11ac wireless. 2.5GBASE-T is targeted at installed Class D cabling and 5GBASE-T is targeted at installed Class E cabling. It is expected that a sizable percentage of the installed base will be able to support the faster speeds, however, some installed Class D and Class E systems may require some mitigation steps.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| September 11, 2009
Comments Off on 802.11n Ratified -Yawn

802.11n Ratified -Yawn

802.11n Ratified -YawnToday (09-11-09) the IEEE Standards Board has ratified the IEEE 802.11n™-2009 amendment. This vote ends a seven year effort to, “enable rollout of significantly more scalable WLANs that deliver 10-fold-greater data rates than previously defined while ensuring co-existence with legacy systems and security implementations” according to the IEEE. The 560-page document describing 802.11n will be published in mid-October 2009. Bruce Kraemer, Chair of the IEEE Wireless LAN Working Group said in a press release,

The performance improvements achieved via IEEE 802.11n stand to transform the WLAN user experience, and ratification of the amendment sets the stage for a new wave of application innovation and creation of new market opportunities.

IEEE logoKelly Davis-Felner, marketing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA), told Network World that “The core interoperability is totally preserved with the [existing] draft certification program.” Ms. Davis-Felner says,  ”Existing draft-11n products should work seamlessly with future products based on the final standard. No existing products will have to be retested in the updated certification program.”

Today’s ratification marks the high-point for other 802.11 wireless products. This approval will green-light the development and deployment of 11n products in the enterprise. There is no longer a reason for firms deploying greenfield WLAN’s to roll put anything but  802.11n. The WFA expects 11n shipments to rise to 45% of all 802.11 shipments in 2009. Reaching 60% in 2012 based on data from market researcher ABI Research. But how long will 802.11n last?

WiGig logoNetworkWorld is reporting that Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC) and others have formed the Gigabit Wireless Alliance (WiGig). WiGig is to create anew wireless specification with a data speed of up to 6Gbps. WiGig is also actively involved with the IEEE’s 802.11ad task group. And if WiGig is to slow. James Buckwalter, a professor at the University of California San Diego has developed s a silicon-based amplifier that transmits 10Gbps wireless in 100 GHz frequency bands according to NetworkWorld. Coverage could also be over a kilometer, which beats traditional WiFi‘s 100 meters.

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The formal ratification of the IEEE 802.11n standard is a good thing. However we have recommended that clients seriously consider this technology in greenfield installs with Wi-Fi approved 802.11n since the beginning of the year.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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