The State of 100 Gigabit Ethernet

Featuring Rick Younce, Tellabs Fellow

Today, the highest bandwidth commercially available via Ethernet is 10 Gigabit
What are some of the vendor
?
challenges in bringing 100 GbE
Ethernet (10 GbE). The IEEE is currently working on an Ethernet standard for 100 Ethernet to market?
Gigabit Ethernet (100 GbE) with an expected go-to-market time of 2010.
A. There will be a 40 GbE and a
What does this new standard mean for service providers? How will it meet the
demand of cost versus performance? Join Rick Younce, Tellabs Fellow, as he 100 GbE standard for now
explains the market drivers behind 100GbE, the state of the tech­nology and the
challenges facing vendors. B. High cost and low demand
C . Different rates, different reaches
> To download podcasts, visit www.inspirethenewlife.com and different interfaces
Answer is A & C

Additional References

Tellabs® AssuredEthernetSM Solution

Tellabs® AssuredEthernetSM Solution
www.tellabs.com/solutions/assuredethernet/

Online Demo: Raise your Ethernet to mission-critical standards.

www.tellabs.com/solutions/demo/ethernet_demo.html

Tellabs® Assured Ethernet Solution Brochure

www.tellabs.com/solutions/assuredethernet/tlab_assuredethernet.pdf

Tellabs Emerge Magazine Article Reprints

Carrier Ethernet 101
www.tellabs.com/news/reprints/emerge_fall07_carrier101_reprint.pdf

Inside MetroEthernet
www.tellabs.com/news/reprints/metroethernet_spring06-reprint.pdf

Measuring the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Success One Millisecond at a Time

www.tellabs.com/news/reprints/emerge_summer07_chicagomercs_reprint.pdf

One Tellabs Center • 1415 West Diehl Road • Naperville, IL 60563 • 630 798 8800 • www.tellabs.com
Statements herein may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events, products, features, technology and resulting commercial or technological benefits and advantages. These statements are for discussion
purposes only, are subject to change and are not to be construed as instructions, product specifications, guarantees or warranties. Actual results may differ materially. The following trademarks and service marks are owned by Tellabs Operations,
Inc., or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries: TELLABS®, TELLABS and T symbol®, and T symbol®. Any other company or product names may be trademarks of their respective companies. © 2007 Tellabs. All rights reserved.
Product Literature:
Tellabs® 6300 Managed Transport System
www.tellabs.com/products/6000/tellabs6300.shtml

Tellabs® 7100 Optical Transport System

www.tellabs.com/products/7000/tellabs7100.shtml

Tellabs® 8100 Managed Access System. Market Drivers for 100 GbE Ethernet
www.tellabs.com/products/8000/tellabs8100.shtml
a Video on Demand & High Definition Television
Tellabs® 8600 Managed Edge System. a Enterprise Traffic
www.tellabs.com/products/8000/tellabs8600.shtml
a Datacom Centers
Tellabs® 8800 Series of Intelligent Multiservice Routers
www.tellabs.com/products/8000/tellabs8800.shtml

Tellabs® 8800 Multiservice Router (MSR) Series — Enabling New Services and Network Convergence
www.tellabs.com/products/8000/tlab8800msr.pdf

Tellabs® AssuredEthernetSM
Solution

More Get Schooled Podcasts Other Links:

Carrier Ethernet 101 IEEE
www.inspirethenewlife.com/videogallery/index.cfm?id=7E591E23- www.ieee.org/
B30F-DF0A-B06C0504B369A55C
IEEE 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG)
Rethinking WDM Aggregation Networks www.ieee802.org/3/hssg/
www.inspirethenewlife.com/videogallery/index.cfm?id=7E51570A-
9C0E-D1DE-1FB1984238926237 IEEE 802.3 Study Group Puts 100 Gigabit Ethernet
in the Fast Lane
Optical Transport Evolution: Key Drivers for www.ethernetalliance.org/news_events/press_release/press_120406
Multi-Degree ROADM
www.inspirethenewlife.com/videogallery/index.cfm?id=54E51CF7- ITU
E0CB-91F4-23C5F36ED2F71CC2
www.itu.int/net/home/index.aspx

The Ethernet Alliance

www.ethernetalliance.org/home

One Tellabs Center • 1415 West Diehl Road • Naperville, IL 60563 • 630 798 8800 • www.tellabs.com
Statements herein may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events, products, features, technology and resulting commercial or technological benefits and advantages. These statements are for discussion
purposes only, are subject to change and are not to be construed as instructions, product specifications, guarantees or warranties. Actual results may differ materially. The following trademarks and service marks are owned by Tellabs Operations,
Inc., or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries: TELLABS®, TELLABS and T symbol®, and T symbol®. Any other company or product names may be trademarks of their respective companies. © 2007 Tellabs. All rights reserved.
Podcast Transcript
The State of 100 Gigabit Ethernet
Featuring Rick Younce, Tellabs Fellow
Monsho: What’s up? I’m Monsho, back
for another session of Get Schooled. You
been jonesin’ for a pretty face and a pop
quiz? I’ll admit, it’s been a cruel, cruel
summer without you guys. Well, you
know how we do it. It’s time for today’s
pop quiz?
What are some of the vendor challenges
in bringing 100-gig Ethernet to market:
(a) there’ll be a 40-gig and a 100-gig
standard for now, (b) high cost and low
demand, or (c) different rates, different
reaches and different interfaces?
Don’t know the answer? Don’t worry. Sit
back, relax. You know what time it is.
Dave Morfas: Hi, I’m Dave Morfas, and
I’m here today with Rick Younce, and the
topic today we will talk about is 100-
gigabit Ethernet.
Rick, I think the first question is, what are
the basic market drivers behind 100-
gigabit Ethernet?
Rick Younce: Well, Dave, it depends on
the type of network operator you are. The
MSOs are seeing a big uptick in demand
for video-on-demand services and the
popularity of high-definition television.
All these bandwidth demands at the
same time means they’re going to be un-
der a significant bandwidth crunch in the
not-too-distant future. So they’re very
motivated to meet that problem with
100-gigabit Ethernet in their networks.
The traditional telcom suppliers, though,
will see that as well as they begin to build
out their video-on-demand networks,
but they’ll also see the demand for large
enterprise services; that is, high-bit-rate
enterprise services at the access of 10
gig. In order for them to multiplex that
and get that through their backbone
networks, they’re going to need higher
network interfaces and higher network
transport speeds to do that efficiently.
And then lastly, the last kind of network
operator, a little untraditional for us, but a
large network, is the data comm centers.
Those are huge networks and require
very high speed to get things switched
from server to server. So they’ll see a
need for 100-gig as well, and actually the
standards work that’s underway right
now is focused on that data comm short-
reach interface to meet that need.
Dave Morfas: Rick, you’ve established
the market drivers for 100-gigE. So what
are some of the vendor challenges in
bringing it to market?
Rick Younce: Well, Dave, at this phase
we see a lot of complexity issues in build-
ing 100-gigabit Ethernet interfaces. And
we know that it’s feasible to build these
interfaces. The question is; what will the
cost be? And we’re looking at differ-
ent technologies for different rates. Or I
shouldn’t say different rates, but rather
different reaches. Those data comm cen-
ter interfaces, those short-reach inter-
faces—likely going to be multiple lasers
involved in it, multiple light sources. And
so the challenge there is integrating ar-
rays of lasers and receivers into photonic
integrated circuits to bring down the cost
in line with the needs.
On the long-range interfaces, the com-
plexity is a little different. Here you want
a single light source so that that signal
can be multiplexed on existing fiber with
existing services on existing bandwidth
plans. The challenge will be developing
advanced modulation methods and very
high-speed digital receivers to compen-
sate for all the impairments that are seen
over those long ranges of fiber.
Secondly, there are challenges in that
there will be two rates, actually. Ethernet
is typically grown in orders of magni-
tudes, from 1 to 10 to 100 to 1 gig to 10
gig, and now it’s going to be a 40-gig and
a 100-gig standard is what it appears to
be. So that adds a new wrinkle into the
vendors trying to build these interfaces.
It’ll cut the volumes down a little bit, but
there’s still demand for both those types
of interfaces. And the reason for that
deviation at 40 gig was to really meet
the needs in the data center where these
low-cost endpoint servers, 100 gigabit is
overkill for them. They need something
more cost-effective and they don’t need
all that bandwidth. The compromise was
40 gig. So we’ll see both those interfaces
in networking.
Dave Morfas: What, then, is the state of
the technology and what is Tellabs doing
in the way of 100-gigE?
Rick Younce: The state of the technology
right now—well, in terms of standards—
goes, the standards are officially getting
underway, and that’s happening at IEEE.
They own Ethernet, they’ll develop the
standard. The ITU is supplying some
requirements to the IEEE on how that
standard ought to be crafted, but they’re
likely—the ITU, that is—likely to wait,
let the IEEE lay the groundwork and then
come in and make it fit within their OTN
framework.
In terms of vendors, they’re in the stage
of research and advanced feasibility
work; a lot of different parameters be-
ing traded off in terms of cost versus
performance, trying to find the best set
of future technologies that meet the
demand and the cost points.
And then the last part would be Tellabs:
what’s Tellabs doing about this? And
we’re actively involved in 100-gigabit re-
search at this point, looking at advanced
technology in terms of modulation
methods, receiver designs and integrated
photonics. And we’re also readying our
equipment so that it’ll be 100-gigabit-E-
capable when the time arises.
Dave Morfas: So, Rick, we’ve established
some market drivers, and there are more
coming, obviously, so when do we expect
100-gigE to really make its mark on the
network?
Rick Younce: Well, Dave, the standard’s
just getting started. It’s slated to finish
in about 2010; 2011 at the latest. And
normally you expect products maybe
18 months to 24 months later. In this
case, the standard seems to be a little
bit behind the times, behind the demand
curve. And so I expect products and
components to be codeveloped with the
standard and released just right after
that point—2010, 2011.
Monsho: Seriously, you didn’t pick (c)
did you? Well, technically, it’s (a) and
(c), so I’ll give you something for either
answer. Wait a minute, I will?
If you missed the answer, your home-
work is to download the cheat sheet at
inspirethenewlife.com.
Come back for another pop quiz and a
podcast party, without the DJ.

One Tellabs Center • 1415 West Diehl Road • Naperville, IL 60563 • 630 798 8800 • www.tellabs.com
Statements herein may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events, products, features, technology and resulting commercial or technological benefits and advantages. These statements are for discussion
purposes only, are subject to change and are not to be construed as instructions, product specifications, guarantees or warranties. Actual results may differ materially. The following trademarks and service marks are owned by Tellabs Operations,
Inc., or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries: TELLABS®, TELLABS and T symbol®, and T symbol®. Any other company or product names may be trademarks of their respective companies. © 2008 Tellabs. All rights reserved.