Abstract

Growth of IP-based traffic in enterprise, LAN, server, core routing and carrier/WAN transport has not only led core router links to exceed 10 Gb/s but in many cases to approach 100 Gb/s. In response, the IEEE 802.3 Working Group initiated the development of new standards for high-speed Ethernet at 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s.

This article provides an overview of the market drivers for 100-Gigabit Ethernet (100 GbE) in carrier and WAN applications, primarily driven by the need for greater trunk capacity to interconnect routers. The technology options for enabling WAN transport of 100 GbE over long-distance networks are described, along with standardization efforts and new technologies for cost-effective, reliable and managed transport. Finally, a pre-standard demonstration is presented of 100-Gb/s Ethernet transported over a 4000-km-long network.

Introduction

Ethernet has evolved well beyond its early incarnation as a simple method for connecting PCs around an enterprise office, deployed purely in an intra-building local area network (LAN). Over the past 25 years of deployment and evolution, Ethernet has continued to expand its footprint and demonstrate itself as a reliable and valuable networking standard across campus LANs, metro and wide area networks (MANs/WANs). It has also evolved from purely an enterprise technology into the service provider domain, and today provides connectivity from the desktop to the carrier core, with widespread deployment covering enterprise LANs, broadband access, data center networking, and inter-city carrier-class service delivery. Along with this, Ethernet speeds have evolved from the early days of a shared 10 Mb/s bus to individual 10 Gb/s today, while spanning thousands of kilometers when transported over optical infrastructures.

In great part, Ethernet has become the networking communications technology of choice because of the availability of cost-effective, reliable and feature-rich products, interoperable across a broad range of vendors adhering to IEEE 802.3 standards. The quality and value of Ethernet has been deployed across a wide range of applications and networks, and led to ever-increasing interest in deploying Ethernet still more extensively.
More recently, driven by the significant growth of network data traffic stemming from Internet usage, electronic commerce, IP-based- and high-bandwidth video, video-on-demand, VoIP, broadband wireless communications, and online collaboration, it has become clear that the current maximum Ethernet rate of 10 Gb/s will be insufficient to meet bandwidth demands in the near future. In recognition of this and to enable further scaling of the Ethernet standard, the IEEE 802.3 Working Group started a Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) in July 2006 to investigate the requirements for the next step in high-bandwidth Ethernet connectivity. Since then the HSSG has met numerous times, bringing together industry experts from the user, vendor and research communities to analyze the bandwidth drivers stressing enterprise and carrier infrastructures. From that work the group hopes to develop a set of objectives for developing a standard for higher-speed Ethernet.

Biographies

SERGE MELLE is vice president of technical marketing at Infinera Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., responsible for market development, technical customer support and network architecture strategy. Prior to joining Infinera, he was vice-president of market development at Nortel Networks, supporting the deployment of major optical networks for service providers in North America, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. Before joining Nortel, he held business — development and product-management positions at Pirelli Telecom Systems, where he was involved in the implementation of the industry's first WDM and optical-amplifier network deployments. Before this, he held product management and engineering positions at EG&G Optoelectronics. He has extensively published in the fields of optics and networking, and holds a B.S. degree in physics from Concordia University, Montréal, and a M.A.S., M.S. degree from the University of Toronto.

JOHN JAEGER has an extensive 23-year background in general management, product development, marketing and business development in the networking and communications industries. John joined Infinera in 2006 in a business-development and strategic-marketing role. Prior to Infinera, he spent nine years at Acuitive, a networking consultancy working with early-stage, venture-backed communication companies. He was a founder and vice president of product management at StratumOne Communications, a fabless semiconductor manufacturer. He also held the initial marketing position at both Velio Communications, as well as Big Bear Networks. Prior to Acuitive, he was at Bay Networks, where he was director of the multi-LAN switching product group. Earlier in his career, he held both engineering and marketing positions in the networking products division of AMD.

DREW PERKINS, a co-founder of Infinera, has served as its chief technology officer since May 2001, and as a board member from May 2001 to November 2006. He was a co-founder of OnFiber in December 1999, and from then until April 2001 served as its chief technology officer. He was also a co-founder of Lightera and was its chief technology officer from February 1998 to March 1999 when it was acquired by Ciena. After that, he served as chief technology officer of Ciena's Core Switching division. From February 1993 to March 1997, he served in various senior engineering and management roles at FORE Systems, an Internet switching-equipment company. Perkins holds a B.S. in electrical engineering, computer engineering and mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University.

VIJAY VUSIRIKALA is director, technical marketing at Infinera, where he is responsible for positioning the value of digital optical networks with global carriers as they deploy the next generation of optical networks. Prior to joining Infinera, he was at Motorola Access Networks as director, market development, for PON, DSL and IPTV products. Earlier, he was with Sycamore Networks in senior system architecture and product management roles, where he defined architecture for reconfigurable optical networks and next-generation SONET/SDH systems. He has published extensively, spoken at numerous industry events and holds seven patents in optical devices and systems. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from IIT, in Madras, India.