100-Gbit Ether spec: 2010 at best

Santa Clara, Calif. -- While the IEEE's high-speed study group for Ethernet has come together on a 100-Gbit/second speed, participants in a panel on 100-Gbit Ethernet agreed that any draft standard would be unlikely to emerge before 2010. The panel was held here recently during DesignCon.


Seamus Crehan, principal analyst for switched Ethernet at the Dell'Oro Group, said that the different physical-layer options of the 10-Gbit standard have already proved tough to finish, and the decision on how many waves of light to multiplex will only be more complex at 100 Gbits/s.