The past year was hectic in terms of discussions regarding what could the next client rate for Ethernet and at the same time discussions were going on to decide the next line rate. There was a debate on whether the industry should go for 400GE or jump straight to 1 Terabit. Earlier in the same year major optical vendors had already announced their plans for 400G chipset setting pace in the industry that 400G line rate might be something the industry could find consensus on. ALU showed back in May 2012 that it has seen as many as 20 customers interested in 400G line optics. Ciena unveiled around the same time the readiness of their chipset to support 400 G line rate. The major chipset vendors were of the view the cost and power requirements to develop 1 terabit line rate might simply be cost prohibitive. Infinera was a lone voice advocating 1 terabit line optics and had already unveiled that its 1 terabit chipset would be ready in a couple of years. Around the same time the Ethernet industry was working on understanding and defining the requirements for the next client rate beyond 100g. An adhoc committee was setup by IEEE chaired by John D ‘Ambrosia ( Chief Ethernet evangelist at Dell Inc.) to study the bandwidth assessment for the next client rate and put forward a proposal in this regard. While there were voices heard that 1 terabit should be the next client rate however the 1EEE ad hoc finally decided to consider 400GE as client rate. It was a tough decision though as John Ambrosia the chair of the Adhoc committee said “Terabit Ethernet would take too long to develop, cost too much to buy and it would have a very small market”. The CFI (Call for Interest) meeting is scheduled to be held in March with the standard might take few years to be fully developed like around 2016.
So it is clear that the industry has finally found some consensus on the line and client rate which will be 400G.
