Now that second-generation 10-Gigabit Ethernet products are starting to arrive, the time has come to think about serious deployment of the technology.
In simple terms, it means that kinks in first-generation products will have been ironed out. It also means that vendors are now focused on ramping up production by driving down costs, just as they have been with each previous tenfold increase in Ethernet speeds.
Now service providers need to get up to speed themselves – with what 10-Gig Ethernet technology actually is, what products currently exist, and what applications it addresses.
That’s what this report is all about. Here’s a hyperlinked summary:
I have heard the absolute cost of 10G Ethernet discussed on this list and others, but not much on the cost of 10G vs. 1G. While there have been some exciting price reductions for 10G lately (Cisco, Riverstone), I see 1G prices dropping even more rapidly (e.g., Cisco’s 48-port 10/100/1000 card for the Catalyst 6500 which lists at <$200/port).
I hear arguments that talk about massive 10G adoption when its price crosses over some multiple (<10) of 1G pricing. Different folks project different dates for that crossover point, but they all assume one thing: That 10G pricing will erode faster than 1G pricing. I’m wondering if this assumption is in fact valid. And, if not, what does that mean for 10G adoption?
They use a packet based backplane...no SAR/Cell required ----------------------------------------------- I don't think so. Juniper uses 64 byte Jcells to transmit data across back plane. Cisco also uses 64 byte cells to transmit data over backplane. You may call this unit of data with some other name, but it is a fixed size data unit - not variable length packet.
"Thanks very much for the information. I really appreciate that. I was hoping that this was the case: that 10 GigE would be used mainly at the link level in the WAN (more efficient encapsulation than POS and better price point)."
dl99,
There are some advantages to ethernet no doubt but be careful about blindly assuming ethernet to be more cost effective in the WAN.
Regarding encapsulation efficieny, POS is in fact much more efficient than ethernet. (inefficiencies in ethernet exist because of the IFG, Preamble, MAC layer). Compare the real goodput of an IP over POS link with that of an IP over ethernet link to know how much the difference really is (I'd bet you will be surprised).
Even this claim of ethernet ports being much less expensive than SONET ports needs to be examined more closely. Consider that the cost of high speed optics like 10G is often the dominant piece of the cost equation and as you know that is independant of whether the port is running ethernet or SONET.
Ethernet primarily benefits from the cost advantages due to large volumes which can certainly be leveraged at the 1 Gig level but not at the 10 Gig level.
Finally there is SONET protection, manageability, true TDM support etc etc.
I am not claiming SONET is always the right choice but would definitely recommend that you do your own due diligence to learn the real issues.
If the vendor has an MPLS-capable platform, then they almost certainly support MPLS over Ethernet of any flavor (10GE included). For sure, this includes: Cisco (12400s, 7600s, 6500s), Juniper (M160, T320/640), Laurel, and Procket (according to Tony, who should know!).
Do you know if anyone does/will support MPLS over Ethernet / 10 Gigabit Ethernet? It would be nice to have the traffic management features that MPLS offers using 10 GigE as the link protocol. ------------------------
Procket does, and I suspect that our competition does too.
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