THE NEXT GENERATION OF ETHERNET

This paper discussed the challenges facing the body that will define the next generation of Ethernet technology. This is the task facing the IEEE P802.3ba Task Force, which was recently approved by the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board to begin developing the standard that will follow 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). The task force is beginning the development of the next generation of Ethernet at a time when existing networks are already being strained by current capacity requirements. Network engineers forced to deal with this issue are attempting to plan their networks to support anticipated increasing bandwidth requirements. The industry is looking to the next generation of Ethernet for relief from existing and potential future network bottlenecks that are being created as data aggregation drives bandwidth requirements to double approximately every 18 months.