[Cialug] OT: 10 Gigabit Ethernet

[Aaron Porter]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:28 AM, Nathan C. Smith <nathan.smith at ipmvs.com> wrote:
> Is anyone using 10GbE?

All over the place -- hosts, switch interconnects, isp connections at
the edge...

> 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?

10Gbe over copper is still a bit of an oddity. Over fiber is very
widely deployed.

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

Just about everyone who makes "real" ethernet switches these days. I
use a lot of Force10

> 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?

Cost per port and the cost of end-user NICs still make it unattractive
for wide deployment, we usually end up doing 10Gbe on the server/nas
and then trunking multiple gigE on the "client" side.

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

If by "mainstream" you mean "frequently found on desktops", I'd say no
time soon. 10GBASE-T is still vaporware from most manufacturers,
nobody's talking about running 10GBASE-CX4 to users (15m distance
limit), and fiber to the desk has its own set of messes.