Bob Metcalfe is thinking big (again)

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

February 1, 2008

1 Min Read
Terabit Ethernet

2:17 PM -- While doing some conference planning, I noticed that Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe is going to be talking at OFC/NFOEC on the subject of Terabit Ethernet.

Yeah. Terabit. With a "T".

His speaker abstract gives a pretty effective tease: "I want to talk not just about how we got to 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), but also about how we are going to get to 40-, 100-, and, yes, even 1,000-Gbit/s Ethernet, which I hereby call Terabit Ethernet (TbE)."

So, I have questions for Mr. Metcalfe (and I hope to spring these on him in person):

  1. Warming up: Do you feel there's a market forming for Terabit Ethernet (TbE)?

  2. What will make that market? How will we know it's time to build those products?

  3. Who's going to buy TbE? Seriously.

  4. What's the traffic driver? (Maybe that's obvious, but is video really enough to make this a market in the next decade?)

  5. What kind of infrastructure is going to be needed to support TbE? We're running 100-Gbit/s Ethernet over the same stuff that 10-Gbit/s Ethernet was built on, in many cases. How is that going to change?

  6. How will the Ethernet standard itself have to change to adjust for the packet sizes required for Terabit Ethernet? What's going to happen to Sonet if Terabit Ethernet really is around the corner?

That's a start. If I get my shot at Bob, what would YOU like to know?

— Phil Harvey, The Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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