The Ethernet Alliance announced the summary results of its Higher Speed Ethernet (HSE) subcommittee interoperability plugfest for products designed to support IEEE Std. 802.3ba-2010, 40 and 100 Gbps Ethernet. This is the second such interoperability event hosted by the Ethernet Alliance; the first event was held in September of 2010.
According to Ethernet Alliance, compared to the inaugural event, many more system vendors participated in the latest plugfest. Demonstrating system level interoperability were fourteen Ethernet Alliance members including Berk-Tek Systems (a Nexans Company), Broadcom, Brocade, Extreme Networks, Ixia, JDSU, Juniper Networks, Mellanox Technologies, Opnext, Panduit, Siemon, Spirent Communications, TE Connectivity (TE – formerly Tyco Electronics) and Volex Group plc.
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The companies gathered at the UNH-IOL, the Interoperability Lab at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, during the week of April 18th to verify the interoperability of test equipment, switches, routers, NICs, transceivers and cabling supporting 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet. Substantial success was achieved for interoperability between transceivers, cables and systems tested, reported the lab.
Ixia, JDSU, and Spirent provided 40 and 100 Gbps test ports, Broadcom, Brocade, Extreme Networks, and Juniper Networks provided 40 and 100 Gbps switch and router ports, and Mellanox provided 40 Gbps NICs. Transceivers from Opnext, TE and one other optics vendor were included in the testing. Copper and optical cables, including OM3 and OM4 multimode fiber and direct attached copper, passive and active cable assemblies along with direct attach active optical cable assemblies were contributed by Berk-Tek, Panduit and Siemon.
The test results will give service providers an increased level of comfort knowing that there will be a wide availability of HSE products as well as a greater breadth of vendor choices. Plugfest participants were able to effectively demonstrate the interoperability of their products. Cables tested met or exceeded IEEE Std. 802.3ba, and bit error ratio tests (BERT) were used in the transceiver and cable tests to verify link-level error-free operation within the requirements of IEEE Std. 802.3ba. Basic layer 3 traffic was used to verify system-level error-free operation.
Press Release:Ethernet Alliance Completes Interoperability Event for 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (businesswire)