10-Gig Ethernet: Now's the Time

10-Gig Ethernet: Now's the Time

After a development period that has felt more like Darwin than Moore's Law, the market for 10-Gbit/s Ethernet (10GE) is set for significant expansion over the next two years. Market demand for 10GE hasn't been a problem, but deployment has been held back by the relatively high cost of 10GE optical modules and by the lack of systems supporting 10GE over copper.

Those issues are now being addressed. During the past year, the first SFP+ modules were introduced, delivering a potentially significant reduction in cost and real estate for optical 10GE systems. Meanwhile, vendors have introduced the first 10GE physical-layer (PHY) devices and systems adhering to the 10GBase-T specification for 10GE over twisted-pair copper. Together, these two developments are changing the landscape, leading to significant growth expectations for 10GE during 2008 and 2009.

The bright outlook for 10GE is confirmed by a brand-new survey of telecom and network equipment manufacturers conducted by Light Reading, full results of which appear in the latest issue of Light Reading's Components Insider. More than 250 executives, managers, and engineers participated in the survey, which focused exclusively on the 10GE sector and manufacturer plans to deploy 10GE systems. The report goes beyond gauging the depth and breadth of 10GE component usage to include insights into how customers view vendors and their plans for the future, including SFP+ and 10GBase-T.

The arrival of more affordable 10GE components comes just as the telecom and network equipment industry is set for wide-scale deployment of metro Ethernet products. In the past few years, metro Ethernet equipment has taken over as the leading application for 10GE, spurred on by developments at the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and early proponents among telecom equipment manufacturers. The use of 10GE is now becoming widespread, and many other types of system now have 10GE options available, including Ethernet access equipment, multiservice provisioning platforms (MSPPs), multiservice switches, and enterprise switches.

Switching has been a key challenge for 10GE systems. Most early systems were based on either ASIC or FPGA switch implementations, with a few using proprietary switch chipsets from vendors such as Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM - message board), Dune Networks , and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: MRVL - message board). The introduction of integrated 10GE switch devices, with up to 24 10GE ports, means vendors can now develop cost-effective workgroup switches and 10GE switching for standard platforms, such as AdvancedTCA. More than half of our survey respondents said their company now uses integrated 10GE switch devices.

It's clear that SFP+ is already having a big effect on telecom equipment development plans. More than 20 percent of respondents to our survey said their company already supported SFP+ in some systems, and another 35 percent said there would be SFP+ support in place within the next 24 months.

This arrival of components enabling 10GE-over-copper systems will drive 10GE product development even further. More than a quarter of our survey respondents said their company already supports the 10GBase-T copper standard, and another 31 percent said their company would have 10GBase-T support in place within the next 24 months.

There is still more to be done to reduce power and cost, but for most system manufacturers and their customers, 10GE is now an attractive solution for high-performance networking applications. The move to 10GE could have been faster, but now that it's at hand, the 10GE market is shaping up to be a strong one.