IEEE explores new standards: 400 Gigabit Ethernet or Terabit Ethernet

by: Shamus McGillicuddy

Director of News and Features

With bandwidth demand growing, the IEEE formed a new consensus group to determine next
Ethernet speed: 400 Gigabit Ethernet or Terabit Ethernet.
With bandwidth demand escalating rapidly, the IEEE is getting the ball rolling on the next
generation of Ethernet, forming the 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet
Consensus group.
The group will determine whether the IEEE should develop 400 Gigabit Ethernet, Terabit
Ethernet or both, according to John D'Ambrosia, chair of consensus group and chief Ethernet
evangelist at Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc.
The last time the IEEE kicked off this process a consensus group determined bandwidth
requirements for enterprise and service provider networks were growing at different rates. The
emergence of 10 gigabit network interfaces for servers created demand for 40 Gigabit Ethernet
(GbE) in core and aggregation switches. Meanwhile, service providers were facing explosive
mobile data growth, creating demand for 100 GbE in the core. As a result, the consensus group
recommended the development of two Ethernet speeds simultaneously. The 802.3ba standard
emerged with 40 GbE aimed at enterprise data centers, and 100 GbE aimed at service provider
core networks.
A similar debate could break out within the next standardization effort. While networking
vendors will likely lobby for 400 Gigabit Ethernet, service providers facing extreme traffic
growth could argue for Terabit Ethernet.
"The component and system vendors are in general moving toward 400 gigabit," D'Ambrosia
said. "Then the end users are looking at needs based on bandwidth demand. I think what could
happen in that first meeting is the cost perspective will come into play. Even technical feasibility
will be brought up."
Today 400 Gigabit Ethernet is more technically feasible than Terabit Ethernet, he said. State of
the art electrical signalling for Ethernet components tops out at 25 gigabits today, so it was a
simple matter of using quad-signalling to get the industry to 100 GbE.
"If you try to do 400 gigabit, it's simply a by-16 interface," D'Ambrosia said, but to achieve
Terabit Ethernet with today's electrical signalling capabilities would require a by-40 interface,
which will get extremely expensive. "You might see some progress where we'll build a new

generation of building blocks to play with, but we really don't have the tools in the toolbox right
now. 400 gigabit is technically feasible."
According to a new bandwidth study from the IEEE, there is urgent need for a next-generation
standard. The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment report estimates networks will need
1 terabit per second (Tbps) total network capacity by 2015 and 10 Tbps by 2020.
D'Ambrosia said the determination of this consensus group could dictate how quickly a
standard emerges. If the IEEE focuses on a single Ethernet speed it could move relatively
quickly. If it focuses on developing two Ethernet speeds again, the process could run longer.
The consensus group will hold its first meeting at the Joint International Telecommunications
Union (ITU)/IEEE Workshop on Ethernet on Sept. 22 in Geneva, Switzerland.