IEEE Launches 400GbE Task Force
The Ethernet Alliance today offered its congratulations to the IEEE 802.3 Working Group and the IEEE 400Gb/s Study Group on the formation of the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force. The new group is chartered with the development of the IEEE P802.3bs 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) project, which will define Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) parameters, physical layer specifications, and management parameters for the transfer of Ethernet format frames at 400Gb/s. As the leading voice of the Ethernet ecosystem, the Ethernet Alliance is ideally positioned to support this latest move towards standardizing and advancing 400Gb/s technologies through efforts such as the launch of the Ethernet Alliance’s own 400 GbE Subcommittee.
The Ethernet Alliance 400Gb/s Subcommittee is tasked with helping support the definition and development of Ethernet’s next speed. In part, the subcommittee’s work will focus on supporting IEEE’s 400GbE standardization initiative, IEEE P802.3bs, through consensus building. The subcommittee will also play an active role in elevating industry awareness and adoption of 400GbE and related technologies. The Ethernet Alliance 400GbE Subcommittee will hold a members-only meeting on April 29, 2014, enabling industry consensus-building on technical proposals.
“The scale of cloud data centers has been expanding rapidly and the percentage of data centers classed as “mega data centers” is rising as businesses transition to the cloud and Web 2.0 operators experience massive growth,” said Dale Murray, principal analyst, LightCounting Market Research. “The IEEE 802.3 committee needs to stay ahead of the curve as data rates in the core demand faster than 100Gb speeds.”
“Since the ratification of the 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet standard, the Ethernet Alliance has heard from both its members and the industry at large that global network traffic and bandwidth demand continues to experience unrelenting growth. We must continue pursuing higher-speed standards to support emerging application areas. Vehicular Ethernet for example, will bring a multitude of new users, ports, and applications into the system, resulting in a corresponding increase in bandwidth demand,” said John D’Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance; chair, IEEE 802.3 400 Gb/s Ethernet Study Group, and chief Ethernet evangelist, Dell. “We applaud the launch of the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force, and are ready to support it in its mission of advancing the next speed of Ethernet. Through our own 400GbE Subcommittee, we will help enable industry consensus on proposals that will drive the 400GbE specification from concept to ratification.”
The new IEEE P802.3bs Task Force will extend Ethernet to 400Gb/s, while improving the bit error ratio to 10-13. When completed, the new standard will enable aggregation and high-bandwidth interconnect solutions for cloud-scale data centers, Internet exchanges, wireless and video distribution infrastructures, service provider and operator networks, and other key applications. Physical Medium Dependent Sublayers (PMDs) will be standardized to cover at least 100m over multi-mode fiber, and 500m, 2km and 10km over single-mode fiber. Additionally, specifications for 400 Gb/s electrical interfaces for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module applications will be standardized. Other features will include ensuring appropriate Optical Transport Network (OTN) and optional Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE).
The inaugural meeting of the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force will take place at the IEEE 802.3 / IEEE 802.1 Joint Interim Meeting, where Task Force members are expected to begin development of the 400GbE standard. Hosted by the Ethernet Alliance, the IEEE 802.3 / IEEE 802.1 Joint Interim Meeting will be held the week of May 12, 2014 in Norfolk, Va. IEEE 802 meetings are open to any interested parties; individuals seeking to attend any portion of interim meetings must register and pay any associated registration fees. For more information about the IEEE 802.3 / IEEE 802.1 Joint Interim Meeting or registration, please visit http://bit.ly/802Interim.
