[Cialug] OT: 10 Gigabit Ethernet

[Jeffrey Ollie]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 10:28 AM, Nathan C. Smith
<nathan.smith at ipmvs.com> wrote:
>
> Is anyone using 10GbE?  It looks to me like a wholly different animal from fast or gigabit Ethernet (Same rules, more delicate medium) - is it?  Are the cables vastly different and more expensive?

We looked at it at work this summer but even with some _steep_
discounts the costs far exceeded our budget, even for a modest sized
rollout.  I'm not sure about copper cables, but 10GE will work over
standard multi mode and single mode fiber.  Distance will depend on
kind and quality of course.

> Who manufactures GbE Switches?  Cisco, and a few others?

Cisco, Extreme, Juniper, Nortel.

> I was interested in using it in a SAN and over copper but if everything is different maybe optical will be faster, cover more distance and make more sense?

Optical will get you more distance over copper, but it won't be any faster.

> Any bets on when 10GbE will really hit the mainstream?

Nope.

Jeff