02.100 Gigabit Ethernet Drivers and Technology

The world is currently experiencing a dramatic escalation in the demands placed upon its global data communica-tions infrastructure. The increase is driven predominately by a shift from text only traffic with modest bandwidth requirements to full multimedia content with bandwidth requirements orders of magnitude more. To accommo-date the ever increasing demand for bandwidth, commu-nication links have evolved from copper based channels running in the MB/s range to fiber optic based links running in excess of 10 Gb/s. In modern data centers for example, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GBE) ports are commonly used as uplinks for 24- and 48-port 1 GBE switches. The demand for 10 GBE is only expected to increase as switch vendors begin to roll out their next generation platforms with individual port capacities of 10 Gb/s. For these types of systems, it seems logical that any link to an upstream network element requires a throughput much greater than 10 Gb/s. Emerging 100 GBE technologies will provide a path to realizing these high capacity uplinks.
100 Gigabit Ethernet Drivers and Technology

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The world is currently experiencing a dramatic escalation reliability and availability needs for critical applications
in the demands placed upon its global data communica- for mid-tier enterprises. The emerging Fiber Channel over
tions infrastructure. The increase is driven predominately Ethernet (FCoE) standard will enable the consolidation of
by a shift from text only trac with modest bandwidth both SAN and Ethernet trac onto one common network
requirements to full multimedia content with bandwidth adaptor reducing the ever growing number of adaptors
requirements orders of magnitude more. To accommo- required. The goal of FCoE is to create a converged
date the ever increasing demand for