10GE: Packing A Punch

You may refuse it now, but you can't ignore it forever. While many seem to
be saying, “I'll never need 10 Gbits/sec to the desktop,” it's wiser to
beware of the future and learn from the past. 10 Gigabit Ethernet or 10GE is
reckoned as the sole answer to the call for greater bandwidth network capacity.
10GE technology transmits at data rates of 10 Gb per second, which effectively
is 10 times faster than the current Gigabit Ethernet standard-on traditional
twisted pair copper wiring.

The recent ratification of the next-generation of Ethernet technology - IEEE
802.3an-2006 standard, otherwise known as 10GBase-T, is likely to
accelerate the implementation of 10GE.

So far users get only around 180 feet (55 meters) of reach using Cat6
cabling, and only around 150 feet (or 45 meters) of reach over Cat5e, which is
one of the more widely installed network cabling types in corporate nets. On the
other hand, 10GBase-T will reach the maximum distance easily over Category 7
(Cat7) and Category 6-Augmented (Cat6A) UTP cabling.

In India, the industry has come alive especially in the past one year with
several launches of 10GE over copper solutions. A handful of cabling companies
are already offering end-to-end 10GE cabling solution (CAT6A UTP, and CAT 7
solutions) while others are gearing up to launch their respective solutions by
end of the year.

Cat6A Shifts Gear

Cat6a has emerged as the new flavor in the structured cabling market that is
capable of supporting huge data centers hungry for bandwidth. “Cat6a UTP
cabling systems supporting 10Gigabit Ethernet will be the major focus area for
the cabling industry players. The structured cabling market has already accepted
this technology with quite a few 10G Base-T installations as the customers want
to future-proof their networks,” says Dileep Kumar, enterprise product
manager, ADC Krone, echoing the voice of several other vendors. The company was
the first cabling company to launch CopperTen in India, the world's first 10GE
cabling on UTP.

Cat7 on the other hand is still waiting in the wings and a handful of
deployments have also taken place. Not to miss, the growing popularity of
wireless technology has also served to boost the demand for a wired
infrastructure to underpin it.

Building Long-life Networks

In the past, 10GbE was neither necessary nor affordable. However, high
demand of bandwidth has led to an increased demand for higher speed switches and
routers. This has a multiplier effect on the wired LAN market, and, in turn, on
the structured cabling segment.

Today many companies are seeking to “future proof” their network to
ensure they can support emerging technologies and preserve their initial
investments. In this regard, argument to deploy 10GE cabling systems is strong
keeping in mind cost associated in re-cabling a network.

Peter Karlsson, senior VP, enterprise solutions, CommScope Systimax Solutions
asserts this forward planning: “Choosing a cabling solution is a very
strategically important decision for
any company as it is a one-time investment. For enterprise customers, we suggest
it is better to go for a 10GE solution now even though they are using 1GB
presently, as in a few years time 10GB will be the mainstay.”

Rajesh Kumar, country manager, Siemon also endorses this view, “The best
practice is to install a future-proof cabling plant capable of supporting the
next generation of application speeds. The total cost of ownership on 10Gb/s
capable cabling is far better than lower performing options.”

There is no denying the fact that data centers will need 10GE. The bandwidth
it provides in conjunction with server consolidation is highly advantageous for
Web caching, real-time application response, parallel processing and storage.
10GE also finds favor with organizations that wish to have campus backbone
linking. Establishing a 10GbE campus backbone is a one-time expense that can
provide significant cost savings when compared to monthly communications link
bills.

Standard Ratification: A Blessing

Running 10GE over twisted-pair copper wiring was once thought to be
impossible, so the standards makers relied on four technical building blocks to
make 10GBase-T a reality: cancellation, analog-to-digital conversion, cabling
enhancements and coding improvements. As a result, over 90% of the IEEE 802.3an
task force members voted to approve the standard, certifying that the technology
is stable and marketable.

This standard enables a low-cost, easy-to-use, copper cabling solution for
the transmission of 10GbE. 802.3an specifies the industry standard for running
10Gbps of Ethernet data over unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling, running a
maximum length of around 330 feet, or 100 meters.

The ratification is well timed with the ripple of new product releases across
the networking equipment industry. This is being read as an encouraging sign for
the 10GE momentum. Rajesh Shenoy, key account manager, India, Belden CDT informs
of such driving factors, “The active vendors including Cisco, Foundry and
Force 10 are at the verge of launching fully functional 10Gbps (10G Base-T)
switches. This will drive the Cat 6a market.”

In particular, Broadcom recently launched a 20-port 10GbE chip for stackable
switches. Start-up NetXen followed this release with dual-port 10Gb server
cards. IBM, on the other hand, launched its BladeCenter H-said to be the first
blade server system to utilize 10GbE backplane signaling.

Demand, Yet To Pick Up

Despite all the excitement around 10GE, the number of actual deployments
remains modest. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is yet to
ratify CAT6a standard, as a result many small cabling vendors are playing it
safe.

KK Shetty, director, Sales, India & SAARC, Tyco Electronics informs that
the market is still in the nascent stage, “Any new technology takes time to
take wings and we feel it will be 4-5 years before we can actually see the real
impact of 10GE. Even now, 1Gb to the desktop is not yet common so we have a long
time to go.”

Kashi Vishweshran, director, BNA Technology Consulting, agrees, “The demand
for 10GE cabling is likely to pick up only after this standard crosses a
critical mass in terms of implementation in back-bone or data center segment.”
Kumar Natarajan, regional director, India, Panduit adds, “We are still quite a
distance away in using CAT 7 in the market space. There is not much need for
such high-speed bandwidth applications today and hence the volume requirements
will be low for some time.”

Despite early deployments of Cat6a and Cat 7 by the likes of ADC Krone,
Systimax and Tyco, a majority of cable vendors are in the wait and watch mode.
Vendors like D-Link, Panduit, BNA Consulting, and DAX Networks are ready to join
the 10GE bandwagon and hope to add to the ripple.

Challenging Task

Despite the fact that some vendors have announced new infrastructure cables
claiming to support 10GE many issues still need to be addressed. Issues such as
price, power dissipation, and user manageability make it difficult for IT
managers to roll out 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections using existing
technologies. Delivering 10GE services over UTP cables is not an easy task.

While the published 10GBase-T standard includes the necessary transmission
requirements, there is some confusion regarding the cabling options. Because the
transmission requirements in the 10GBase-T standard exceed those specified for
Category 6/Class E, 10GBase-T will only achieve limited distances over Category
6/Class E UTP cabling.

Little is known about the affects of ANEXT (alien Crosstalk) of installed
cabling and whether or not conventional design and installations methods can be
used. ANEXT is a source of noise from surrounding cables that attack the victim
cable. (See figure below). In the traditional method of managing patch cords,
there is a management panel for every 2 patch panels and the patch cords are
dressed along either side of the cabinet. This again introduces ANEXT problem.
So there is an issue of how patch cords should be managed in the existing and
new cabling systems.

Tyco supports shielded copper over unshielded (UTP). Shetty says, “Although
the 10Gbase-T standard claims to have minimized the problem of ANEXT, it is true
for ideal circumstances like neat installation and ideal environment of
deployment. In reality, there will be still a large scope of electromagnetic
interference and crosstalk. So we recommend fibre or shielded option for copper
as it circumvents the problem of alien crosstalk. Shielded option provides you
larger headroom than UTP, giving you more space to make changes.”

Dileep Kumar of ADC Krone counters that argument in support for UTP. He says,
“Termination of shielded solution is difficult and time consuming. When the
earthing is not done properly, a shielded solution is worse than a UTP solution
since the shield will act like an antenna and attract unwanted signals into the
transmitting pair. This is exactly the reason for different standards to
consider a UTP solution.”

What Customers Should Know

End users must be aware that different cabling standards exist and bring
with them different levels of capability. Vendors will claim to “meet the
standards,” but end users should ask, “Which one?” and fully understand
the response. It is recommended to refer to the current ISO/IEC Class EA
specification, as it is more stringent than the others, and compliance to this
global specification offers peace of mind.

Shenoy believes that Cat 6a will take some times for acceptability not only
in India, but also across the globe. “The primary reason is the lack of
availability of active devices and servers that will have NIC cards of this
capability. The second reason being the huge cost; Cat6a is approximately 80%
costlier than the regular Cat 6,” he adds. But the market is optimistic that
cost will soon dive down. Shetty says, “As volume of Cat6a will expand, and
more and more electronics will be introduced, 10GE cabling solution will become
more affordable in the next few years.”

The real challenge, therefore, before the customer is to identify the purpose
of choosing a 10 Gigabit Ethernet network and to assess the impact of some
unresolved issues. At the same time, by their nature, Cat 5e and Cat 6 cables
were not designed to support 10-Gbit data rates and reach necessary to make
copper-based 10 GE connections an effective option for enterprise and data
center deployments.

So expect the wait-and-watch period to be very short, and enterprises may
well be advised to take the leap before the competitor. After all, limiting your
options today due to your cabling choices may prove costly in the end.

Malovika Rao

malovikar@cybermedia.co.in