IEEE Ethernet Spec AdvancesIEEE Ethernet Spec Advances

DENVER — The draft standard for 10-Gbit Ethernet over copper moved closer to approval after a meeting of the 802.3an task force.

Additional editorial suggestions will be considered at a spring meeting, but editors at the IEEE 802 plenary session on Thursday (March 9) said that all significant technical issues appear to have been resolved.

The only substantive issue addressed in the last six months was the addition of a 30-meter test channel. The channel is meant to give developers a short-reach means of testing signal quality.

SolarFlare Communications' George Zimmerman, founder and CTO, said members sought to ensure they were not approving two separate physical-layer alternatives, and that the final standard would specify 100-meter distances for 10-Gbit connections.

Mike McConnell, co-founder of 10GBase-T supplier Key Eye Communications Inc., said some members of the KX1000 physical-layer chips support 30 meters, but Key Eye is prepared to support 100 meters within a matter of months. Marketing representatives of the other two primary 10GBase-T players—Kamal Dalmia of Teranetics Inc. and Bill Woodruff of Aquantia Corp.— said the majority of applications for clustering in the data center may use distances of 30 meters or less, but that a standard must meet worst-case distance issues.

The new spec completes most 802.3 Ethernet work, except for an informal high-speed study examining 40- or 100-Gbit speed options for next-generation Ethernet.

The 10GBase-T spec is unique since it is being driven by four startups—SolarFlare, Key Eye, Teranetics, and Aquantia—though Dalmia said he expects larger companies such as Broadcom Corp. and Marvell Semiconductor Inc. will offer products as the draft advances.

The copper standard assumes the use of category 6A twisted-pair copper in most circumstances, category 5E in some legacy applications and high-end category 7 in some European countries.