100G : Marching Toward 100G

The demand for bandwidth has increased manifold in the last couple of years.
The large scale networks are continuously challenged by bandwidth constraints of
the backbone network while trying to accommodate the demands of new, high-speed
services. 100G is being proposed as an economical solution to the emerging
bandwidth crisis caused by the demand for new services.

Most of the operators today are using 10 gigabit per second (10G) optical
networks, which forms the high-speed backbone core for communications. This is
inadequate considering the increasing use of technology. According to some
estimates, YouTube alone consumes more bandwidth today than the entire Internet
traffic in the year 2000.

Bandwidth Crisis

Bandwidth is today becoming the most coveted commodity. With more and more
devices connected today, it is fueling an increase in devices and applications
accessing networks. The emergence of new IP-based consumer service has led to
further pressure on bandwidth. This unprecedented demand for bandwidth is
causing bandwidth constraints in carrier networks worldwide. Service providers
are thus trying to squeeze more gigabit capacity into their network fiber-optic
threads.

The operators are looking for new technologies to boost current 10G networks
to 40G and ultimately to 100G capabilities, which will meet the demands of
increasing Internet usage without increasing subscriber fee to pay for expensive
network upgradations. Though most operators are using 10G today, many are making
efforts to migrate from 10G to 40G. This technology is especially relevant in
the current credit crunch since operators are considering scenario to use the
same infrastructure for increasing capacity.

An ideal way to increase the capacity from 10G to 40G and then to 100G would
be to leverage existing fiber and other technology and gear from 10G and 40G
iterations. This would obviously appeal to service operators since it requires
minimum possible new capital expenditure.

The fastest existing standard is 10G and both 40G and 100G are standards
presently under development by the IEEE. In November 2006, an IEEE study decided
to target 100 Ethernet as the next version of the technology. The IEEE has set
up a Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) to decide the specifications for higher
speed Ethernet. While 10G took about five years to develop, 100G is likely to
become a norm sooner than that because of an increasing pressure on bandwidth.

Nortel is at the forefront of development of this technology. The company is
credited with developing the industry's first optical technology which can
deliver both 40G and 100G network capacity, enabling four times the network
throughput immediately, while providing the foundation to simply increase the
capacity tenfold as required. Verizon is another company which conducted some
trials last year. In September last year, Verizon and Nokia Siemens Networks
announced that they had successfully transmitted data at 100G on a single
wavelength for more than 1,040 kilometers, setting a new distance record over
deployed fiber and demonstrating better performance than conventional
transmission.

A study by Infonetics Research says that demand for 40G Ethernet services
will grow rapidly over the next four years. Between 2007 and 2011, the study
projects that 40G Ethernet revenue will see a of 59% as companies look to meet
ever-higher demands for greater bandwidth capacity.

Gagandeep Kaur

gagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in