VISUALIZATION

The Ethernet Alliance, an industry group dedicated to the continued success and expansion of Ethernet technology, announced that Ethernet Alliance members Excelight/Sumitomo, Fiberxon, Finisar, Fujitsu, Intel, Opnext, and Picolight successfully conducted multi-vendor interoperability testing of 10GBASE-LRM optical interfaces in support of the IEEE Std. 802.3aq-2006. The testing was recently held at the Cisco Photonics Labs in Monza, Italy, September 18-22, and evaluated various optical transceiver form factors (X2, XFP, and SFP+) over 220 meters of OM1 (62.5 µm) multimode fiber, and 260 meters of OM2 (50 µm) multimode fiber. The 802.3aq serial optical interface standard (also known as 10GBASE-LRM) was developed by the IEEE for the purpose of offering a cost-effective and small form factor compatible 10 Gigabit Ethernet optical link for extended reach applications on legacy multimode fiber. The 10GBASE-LRM standard was approved for publication during the week of September 17 and is expected to be published in October 2006. 10GBASE-LRM uses electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) techniques to support transmission of 220 meters on installed multimode fiber plant in enterprise networks. This enables the easy upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet of existing fiber connections between datacenter switches and workgroup switches. “By demonstrating multi-vendor compatibility, this interoperability event shows the maturity of the new LRM industry standard and demonstrates that LRM is ready for the market,” said Brad Booth, president, Ethernet Alliance. “LRM is an important solution that will enable the industry to accelerate 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployments particularly for wiring closet applications.” “With increasing 10G switch port densities, OEMs are looking for smaller and cheaper form factors,” said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst, Linley Group. “We expect LRM to meet these requirements and help drive volume for 10 Gigabit Ethernet.” Additional information on the interoperability demonstration will be available in a white paper that will be published late October and available on the Ethernet Alliance website at its Web site. For more information on the event, please contact Scott Schube at scott.a.schube@intel.com or Marco Mazzini at mmazzini@cisco.com.