ISM 5226

Industry News by Jesse Hedrick

"Gigabit Ethernet Spec Ready to Roll"

InternetWeek 3/23/99

By John Fontana

Fast Ethernet connections may soon be a part of reality. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers met this month to ratify the formal standard for Gigabit Ethernet connections over copper. However technicalities in the editing and review process will delay its acceptance. Hopefully this standard will be adopted by yearend. This standard will be known as 802.3ab according to IEEE. This will provide improvements to the traditional 10Mbps Ethernet and 100Mbps Fast Ethernet connections. Currently Gigabit Ethernet connections are rare and limited to use on fiber optics. Once these fast paced connections can be made with copper wire usage is expected to increase dramatically. Major vendors like 3Com, Level One Communications, and Broadcom are anxious to develop products using this standard.

Some concerns about its reliability. Test for return loss and far end cross talk will need to be performed. This will help to ensure efficient usage on current Category 5 cabling. It will contribute to the continued success of Ethernet standards if current systems can be easily upgraded. Granted new hardware like network cards and hubs will be needed to support these new speeds. The Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, which is responsible for this standard, is also testing interest in a 10-Gigabit Ethernet standard.