Lower prices boosting 10 Gig Ethernet according to HeavyReading

The 10-Gbit/s Ethernet market could be poised for a growth spurt, as prices are getting down to the critical level to kick up some serious demand, according to the latest Heavy Reading report, available at here. The LightReading report discussing the same is available here.

It notes that the chip technology prices are one-tenth what they were in the first generation of 10-Gbit/s Ethernet which has helped boost the volume of 10 Gig Ethernet sales. Modules are lowering systems prices by getting smaller. The industry started with the 300-pin multisource agreement (MSA) and has been moving through smaller module generations since -- to Xenpak, then X2, and eventually XFP. Vendors are already working on the next step beyond the XFP transceiver, called SFP+.

Prices for 10-Gbit/s ports have recently dropped to less than $10,000 per uplink -- which, with 48-port switches on the market, translates to less than $200 per user.