SONET/SDH to Ethernet for carriers

A nice article is on
LightReading
on the prospects of carriers migrating to Ethernet. A link to a HeavyReading research report is also included.

GEPON new subscribers overtakes DSL in Japan

An excellent article featuring the growth in the adoption of Ethernet PON technology (also called GEPON) in Japan came to my attention recently. It shows NTT achieving more subscribers to the GEPON FTTH technology than ADSL. NTT charges FTTH subscribers about 4000 yen or $40 per month. NTT is also planning to deploy video service over GE-PON using a different downstream wavelength.

10 GigE vs Infiniband and Myrinet

An excellent research article by Wu Feng at Los Alamos Research Labs and his team. It demonstrates the capacilities of 10GigE and also its importance as a cost effective solution. I interned with Wu Feng's group in the summers of 2004 and 2005.

Startups in race for 10 GbE over Copper

Lightreading has reported another starup - Aquantia joining the race to provide 10 GbE solutions of Copper wire. 10 GbE over Copper is being standardized at the IEEE 802.3an also called 10GBase-T, which is expected to be ratified by June next year. It provides for 10GbE over distances of 100 metres on Category 6 Copper wire. Proprietary solutions to 10GbE already exists in the market today - for example, one provided by Chelsio Communications, KeyEye Communications, and Quake Technologies.

Amsterdam going with active Ethernet for FTTH

Its interesting to see Amsterdam go with active Ethernet for this $35 million project which will connect 40,000 homes, as opposed to EPONs. The lightreading report mentions the decision being based on a report from Riverstone Networks, a pioneer for Metro Ethernet, which states that EPONs may provide 39Mbps per user as oppossed to Ethernet's 100Mbps.

While it is an interesting debate between Metro Ethernet and EPONs, I feel that EPONs cetainly have an edge in residential access networks, primarily because of low end equipment cost and zero maintainance. Moreover the above study is surely misleading. EPONs offer 1 Gbps connectivity which may be shared between multiple users. The peak bit rate is thus 1 Gbps. The average bit rate depends on the number of users you share with. If you have 32 users connected to an EPON, the average bit rate may be close to 39 Mbps. But if there is higher demand, you can share across lesser number of users.

Overall, it is nice to see some cities getting very serious with FTTH deployment.

World Wide Packets gets $25.5 million funding

Carrier Ethernet vendor World Wide Packets announced today that it has completed a $25.5 million funding round that was co-led by Craig McCaw’s Eagle River Holdings, and Rally Capital. The cash will be used in a large part to expand World Wide Packets’ sales efforts at a time when carriers increasingly are viewing Ethernet as key to their future, said World Wide Packets CEO Dave Curry.

FTC selects Extreme Networks for Metro Ethernet deployment

Extreme Networks, the leader in open converged networks, has been selected to provide the network foundation for triple play services including video, voice and data by Farmers Telephone Cooperative (FTC). By supplying the Metro Ethernet network infrastructure for 17 FTC central offices, Extreme Networks will be delivering the critical availability and performance features that are essential to telecom services. Founded in 1951, FTC is a multi-faceted telecommunications company serving over 60,000 customers within a coverage area spanning 3,000 square miles in South Carolina.

Liquid Computing Selects Neterion

Liquid Computing, a developer of a new class of scalable servers for high performance computing applications, announced today it will embed Neterion's Xframe(R) 10 Gigabit Ethernet network adapter into LiquidIQ, the industry's first Interconnect Driven Server (IDS).

10Gb Ethernet sales expected to reach $4.8 bn by 2010

According to a recent recent report from market research and consulting firm CIR, demand for 10Gbps will fuel growth from 221,000 ports today to 1.6 million ports shipped over the next five years. The study also noted that the 10Gbps Ethernet market is rapidly becoming commoditised and is seeing a huge transfer of production facilities to Asia.

SmallTree offers 10Gb Ethernet solution for Apple's XServe

Using its highly optimized drivers and the Mac OS X Tiger technology, Small Tree claims to deliver a 60 percent performance improvement for its 10GbE solution. The company says that CX-4, a copper interconnect standard for 10Gb class signal, is a lower cost switch interface ideal for high bandwidth network connections in high-performance computing clusters and for short distances within wiring closets.

Ethernet over MPLS specification

The MFA Forum announced today it is sending to final ballot a specification for Multi-Service Interworking-Ethernet over MPLS. The specification will enable service providers to introduce new Ethernet services in a heterogeneous network of ATM, Frame Relay, HDLC and PPP using MPLS as a communication broker. In addition, the specification will allow service providers to preserve critical ATM and Frame Relay infrastructure and ease migration to MPLS networks. Read more news by clicking on the title link.

Dynatem unveils 10-Gbit Ethernet copper NIC

Dynatem has launched a 10 Gig Ethernet over copper network interface card. They have measured a performance of 10 Gig at disptance up to 10 metres.

Nice article on Ethernet PON and its future

by Bill Huang, CTO and Senior VP of Engineering, UTStarCom

Agilent Platform for Ethernet PON Performance Analysis

The Agilent N2X EPON Performance Analysis System is designed to validate and debug EPON implementations and to quickly bring EPON services into operation. The multi-port traffic platform includes native, EPON-specific test capabilities. The system generates realistic, end-to-end traffic through an EPON, and can monitor both data and control protocol traffic directly on the EPON.

Cisco targetting Carrier Ethernet market

The Cisco ME 3400 Series Ethernet Access Switches are 24-port devices specifically designed for Carrier Ethernet. Equipped with 10/100M bps (bits per second) ports, the switches are intended to deliver exponentially higher bandwidth to end customers than typical DSL or leased T-1 offerings bring today. Read news at:

http://www.computerpartner.nl/article.php?news=int&id=1734

10 GigE better than aggregating 1 GigE

Neterion has released a ccase study which compares the cost of upgrading to 10 GigE with aggregating 1 GigE channels. The study shows a cost saving upto 6 times for upgrading to 10 GigE. Neterion worked with the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC) to evaluate the overall system cost, performance, power, and management tradeoffs involved with several approaches to upgrading the center's data networking infrastructure. The ccomplete details may be found at:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=ethernet

Salira announcces 3000 series EPON

Salira Systems today announced General Availability of the Salira 3000 Series product line based on the IEEE 802.3ah protocols for Ethernet PON (EPON). The Salira 3000 Series offers full capability to deliver standards-based EPON services. Salira is using market-leading Teknovus chipsets in the Salira 3000 Series.The Salira 3000 series is also the first EPON system to receive certification from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in China.

Articles on Ethernet Expo 2005

A number of articles covering Ethernet Expo 2005 are now on Lightreading:

Shop 'Til You Drop
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=82328

Ready for 100 Gig Ethernet
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=82315

Gurus Trade themselves
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=82288

Metro Ethernet Sales to double by 2008

An analyst research firm, Infotenics Research, says that Metro Ethernet equipment sales is expected to double by 2008 to $7.6 billion. The internet services market is also expected to see strong growth.

Ethernet Expo 2005

This week Lightreading's Ethernet Expo is up at New York city. This is expected to focus on the evolution of Ethernet and initiatives for deploying ethernet in caarrier, enterprise and metro networks. Check it out at:
www.ethernetexpo.com

Ethernet WAN in Japan

Internet Initiative Inc.,(IIJ) of Japan, today announced that it will release the IIJ Internet-LAN Service, a service that uses broadband access lines, such as NTT's FLET's, to create a low-cost and maintenance-free broadband Ethernet WAN. The IIJ Internet-LAN service uses the IIJ's internet backbone to create a secure private Ethernet network to connect offices nationwide like a LAN. Using DSL or FTTH connections, customers can build there own Ethernet WANs. Read news at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=81882&WT.svl=wire1_1

Alcatel to supply Metro Ethernet platform for Taiwanese vendor

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) has contracted Alcatel to supply its metro Ethernet platform to support the roll-out of a triple play network in Taiwan. CHT hopes to have more than a million triple-play subscribers in Taiwan within the next three years.

And now 100 Gig Ethernet

In two papers presented to the European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC) at Scotland today, Lucent Technologies Bell Labs announced the first reported transmissions of 100 Gbps Ethernet over an optical connection. These results are a significant milestone in the industry's march towards migrating to 100Gbps data networking. Read at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=81596

New standard for Power over Ethernet

The IEEE 802.3 has created a new task force to develop an enhanced Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard, dubbed PoEPlus, based on the objectives of the IEEE PoEPlus Study Group.

The future PoE standard will allow delivery of at least 30 watts to powered devices such as Voice over IP phones, Wireless LAN Access Points, etc. The existinh 802.3af standard allws for up tp 12.95 watts of power.

Ethernet PON becoming technology of choice in Japan

A new research report from IDC mentions that the optical fiber access market shall reach $1.9 billion in 2009. Th emergence of "triple play" services will increase the demand for bandiwdth in the access network. It also mentions that Japan will focus on Ethernet PON technology. Read news at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=81371

Quake to demonstrate lowest power 10 Gb Ethernet IC

Quake Technologies shall demonstrate QT2032 at ECOC next month at Glasgow, Scotland in association with Opnext. Quake is a leading provider of 10 Gbps Ethernet physical layer ICs.

Force 10 Networks raises VC funding of $40 million

Lightreading reports that the 10 Gigabit Ethernet rouiter startup has raised another $40 million from VC's which it says should be sufficient to carry it to its IPO. Visit company website at: www.force10networks.com and Lightreading news at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=81101&WT.svl=news1_1

CERN building grid computing farm with 10 Gig Ethernet

The grid compute farm will cluster 6,000 processors and 2,000 storage devices, and is expected to yield a massive 2.4Tbit/s of processing power. E-Series boxes of Force 10 networks is being usedi as the hub, which can support up 10 56 10 Gig Ethernet ports. Read news at:

http://www.techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4432

Riverstone introduces Ethernet Access Router

Two Carrier Ethenet Access Routers introduced by Riverstone. This shall provide Tier One carriers and competitive service providers the high reliability and scalability needed to successfully deliver next generation business and residential triple play services in a high quality, low-cost platform. Read news at:

http://www.webitpr.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=3009

Update on EPON

Here's a brief update on activities in the Ethernet PON world over the last month:

- Passave Inc. pushing for IPO which it expects to generate $90 million. News at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=79619

- Teknovus announcing its ambitions for next generation EPON standard, News at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=79481

- Alloptic generates $30 million of additional funding. News at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=79386

British Telecom offering London wide Ethernet LANs

Ethernet Virtual LAN (EVLAN) increases the distance, and the number of connections possible, by linking sites through six major BT points of presence (POPs). This will allow BT to offer 10Mbps, 100Mbps or 1Gbps of uncontended LAN bandwidth between any two points. Read at:

Carrier Ethernet World Congress

is on this week at Berlin. Its organized by Metro Ethernet Form (MEF). The major highlight has been MEF announcing the first certified Carrrier Ethernet Vendors. More info at:

http://www.iir-conferences.com/site/_confcode.cfm?DirName=CG2224&ConfCode=CG2224&iv=23

Ethernet making big waves

10 years back, who would have thought that the simple, naive, trusted Ethernet would outplace every other competing technology including ATM. This simple protocol has evolved a lot over the years.

The objective of this forum is to collect news on "next generation" Ethernet products. Specifically Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON) standardized in the IEEE 802.3ah, and 10 Gig Ethernet standardized in IEEE 802.ae.

We shall mainly be reporting on news from public sources like company websites, news forums, news websites, etc. so no insider info here :)

Happy reading !!!