January 29, 2008 -- The Ethernet Alliance announced that the IEEE New Standards Committee (NesCom) has approved the Higher Speed Study Group's project authorization request (PAR), and the resulting project will now be known as the IEEE P802.3ba task force. The task force recently held its first interim session, January 23-25 in Portland, Oregon to review proposals to be considered for the draft standard.
In July 2007, the Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) agreed upon a single project encompassing a 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40 GbE) rate for server and storage applications and a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100 GbE) rate for network aggregation. In November 2007, the IEEE 802.3 working group authorized the HSSG to become the IEEE P802.3ba task force to begin work on the 40-GbE and 100-GbE draft standard. The Task Force will now focus on defining the standard for 40 GbE and 100 GbE, and expects to complete standard ratification in 2010.
"This is a key milestone for the 40 GbE and 100 GbE project, and the result of collaboration between many individuals who have helped the IEEE P802.3ba task force gain momentum," comments John D'Ambrosia, newly appointed chair of IEEE P802.3ba task force. "During last week's interim session, we began to hear initial technical presentations as part of the effort to work towards a first draft standard proposal expected to be completed by Fall 2008."
"I am proud that Ethernet Alliance members continue to support the efforts of the IEEE P802.3ba task force by building consensus around proposals for applications such as data center, internet exchanges, high performance computing and video-on-demand delivery - all of which have proven to need bandwidth beyond the existing capabilities," remarks Brad Booth, president, The Ethernet Alliance.
During the Portland meetings, the IEEE P802.3at (DTE Power Enhancements) task force completed the task force review process and is now creating a draft in preparation for IEEE 802.3 review in March with the plan to enter working group ballot. Additionally, the IEEE P802.3av (10 Gb/s PHY for EPON) task force has finalized its task force review of draft D1.0 and is preparing the next revision of the draft standard.