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Ethernet's top speed could hit 40 gigabits per second within the next two years, a senior Cisco Systems executive says.

Developing 40GB Ethernet is a simpler technical challenge than creating a 100GB Ethernet technology, which would be the next mathematical step, according to Luca Cafiero, senior vice president and general manager of switching, voice, and storage at Cisco. In fact, 40GB Ethernet should be technically feasible within two years, he said on Wednesday in a briefing on switching at Cisco's headquarters in San Jose, California.

Ethernet's Birthday

Since its origin in 1973, Ethernet has evolved from an invention for stringing together PCs at 4 megabits per second to the mainstay of corporate LANs, with switches delivering 10 mbps, 100 mbps, 1 gigabits or 10 gbps of dedicated bandwidth. Speeds of 1 gbps and higher are being deployed across metropolitan areas.

Cafiero and other Cisco executives at the event saluted the technology's 30th birthday, which is coming up next week. The comments by Cafiero, an Ethernet pioneer who cofounded seminal LAN switch vendor Crescendo Communications, provide a glimpse into its future.

A key factor for the success of each new speed of Ethernet now is its cost per bit, added Andy Bechtolsheim, vice president and general manager of the Gigabit Systems Business Unit at Cisco. Each new Ethernet technology should offer users a lower cost per bit-per-second of speed than did the last one, he said.

Products Coming

Cisco's flagship chassis-based enterprise switch line, the Catalyst 6500 Series, already can support 40 gbps per interface card with the recently introduced Supervisor Engine 720, which boosts total switching capacity to 720 gbps per chassis. Cisco could make a one-port 40 gbps module for a 6500 with the Supervisor Engine 720, Cafiero said.

Cafiero did not project when there might be a demand for such a module, but noted that some research facilities already are starting to work with 10-gbps connections to desktops. As the speed of connections to individual clients increases, the uplinks that feed the aggregate traffic of many clients up to the backbone of a network tend to follow suit.

Cafiero also said he believes the Catalyst 6500 platform's per-module capacity of 40 gbps could be doubled, but the timing of that speed boost will be determined by customer demand.

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