The IEEE 200G/400G standard is well on its way to publication; so where will it be implemented?   This is the first time in the development cycle of Ethernet standards that there have been so many different standards projects in the pipeline. Ranging from EPON over Coax (EPoC) to 200Gb/s and 400Gb/s Ethernet, these effortsRead More

While telecom networks progress beyond 100G, local area and data center networks have more data rate choices than ever before.     The coming of age of Ethernet has brought with it many different networking applications. Carrier Ethernet is embarking on wider adoption along with Ethernet over optical transport networks (OTNs). In the mean time,Read More

As networks are required to move more data faster than ever before, Bishop & Associates’ Lisa Huff looks at the current state of data center networking and makes her forecast for the future.   Ethernet dwarfs other networking technologies in the data center market with 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G data rates currently being used,Read More

Now that 100G networking equipment is being deployed in both local and wide area networks, it is time to seriously consider what lies beyond.   There are many research and development projects currently underway to answer the question of how high data rates will go, as well as what they will require of the hardware that makes them possible. TheRead More

400G, 100G, 50G, 25G, 10G, 5G, 2.5G, 1G: What combination of data rates is right for your LAN? †   Ethernet has dominated data communications for a very long time. In the next few years, we do not expect this to change but, in fact, to proliferate. Today and in the near future, there willRead More

The need for increased bandwidth in telecommunications networks has given rise to many new innovations. What does the future hold for the WAN?     With traditional telecom service providers’ revenue finally growing again, so are their capital expenditures – both at about 5% annual growth rates. However, bandwidth demands are growing at anywhere fromRead More

From its inception, silicon/CMOS photonics was supposed to revolutionize optical communications, but has yet to come to fruition. How much progress has been made so far?   Both Intel and Luxtera have been working on silicon/CMOS photonics for more than 13 years. While we have a few products, its promise of lower-cost, lower-power-consumption optical devicesRead More

Fiber optics are poised to enable network functionality like never before with increased data rates and bandwidth inside the data center.   The need to change the data center network from a hierarchal one to a leaf-spine or more meshed one has arisen from the ever-increasing need for compute and storage access and the useRead More

Top-of-rack switching has become the norm in data centers. What does that mean for data center connectivity solutions?   With the advent of top-of-rack (ToR) switching and SFP+ direct-attach copper cables, more data centers are able to quickly implement cost-effective 10G-and-beyond connections. ToR designs originally popped up because data center managers ran out of roomRead More

Wi-Fi has changed the connector and cabling content in wireless local area networks. Here’s how different types of Wi-Fi are affecting, and sometimes displacing, connectivity products in LANs.   Wi-Fi – what would we do without it? It’s the first thing any Generation Y or Z person looks for when they walk into a new restaurant,Read More

We now live in an always-connected world, forcing networks to evolve in ways not anticipated even just a few short years ago. We asked Bishop & Associates’ Lisa Huff: What’s next in networking?   Programmability seems to be the latest network trend. Software-defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV), while hyped over the last fiveRead More

The debate continues but it is clear that by 2017, we will have a standard for 400G Ethernet. Lisa Huff does a reality check on Ethernet data rate progression over the next five years and the connector companies building prototypes for possible 400G solutions. Computer networks are on the cusp of a revolutionary change. Software-defined networking (SDN)Read More