Free Research Paper About Technical Aspects Of 100 Ethernet And Beyond

100 Ethernet and Beyond

Introduction

Ethernet (802.3 standard for IEEE) is one of the early types of local area networks (LAN) as from 1980’s. Local area network covers a limited geographical space such as department within an organization, University or company. Apart from Ethernet, there was also the token ring that was employed by the IBM and the token bus that was used by the plant manufacturers. Token ring and token bus were also known as 802.5 and 802.4 standards respectively. Nevertheless, Ethernet has turned out to be the main well-liked type of local area network standard employed in the majority of institutions and other organizations. Ethernet has experienced the advancements in its six versions of communication speeds that appear to be faster as compared to the earlier editions by a factor of ten. The versions include 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, 10Gbps, 40Gbps, and 100Gbps in that order. Therefore, the speed of communication has improved significantly from Megabits per second (Mbps) to Gigabits per second (Gbps). As a result, 100 Ethernet may stand for either local area network that operate at a speed of 100Mbps or that which operate at 100Gbps (Robertazzi 83).

The standards of technology employed in this case refer to the specifications that offer users together with vendors with universal platform and compatibility assurance amid components of the existing Ethernet system. The technical components involved and their rules of usage are set within the organizations that develop the standards (Jain 20).
The 100 Gbps Ethernet (IEEE P802.3ba) standards use 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). This sped is used for over ten to forty kilometers of single mode fiber optic cable by means of four channels each with the speed of 25 Gbps. The speed is also used within the system of wavelength division multiplexing. This system is not spectrally efficient in comparison with the system of single channel which makes use of the mixture of modulations of higher order alongside frequency division multiplexing of optical orthogonality. At the same time, the system is not cost effective still when compared with the same single channel system. Normally, the single channel 100 Gbps system which is spectrally efficient can be designed depending on the 64 quadrature amplitude modulation. Secondly is that the design is also done based on directly detected orthogonal optical frequency division multiplexing that has an effective optical frequency division multiplexing bandwidth signal of up to 24 GHz (Mehedy, Masuduzzaman and Ampalavanapillai 78).
The system thus provides error free transmission over the highest distance of 40 kilometers of single mode fiber. It also attains a power margin of sixteen decibels (dB). This power margin is achieved without the help of any inline amplifier. This implies that spectrally efficient ingle channel 100Gbps has the possibility of providing 100Gbps Ethernet for short transmission of point to point connection. The bit rate of this spectrally efficient system can be enhanced to 1 terabyte per second (Tb/s) by use of wavelength division multiplexing (Mehedy, Masuduzzaman and Ampalavanapillai 11).
This 100 Gbps for Ethernet is a very high speed data rate that needs both fast and low latency memory for the operations of automatic repeat request during data transmission across the local area network. The extra fast physical layer is needed in order to attain 100 Gbps speed of transmission. However, wireless data transfer at this speed can result to high bit error rate. The data link layer is provided to help in the correction and re-relays of data frames that are corrupted, a process that must take place within the shortest time possible, say, nanoseconds. !00 Ethernet in addition, calls for the installation of network interfacing card that operates at the speed of 100 Gbps. There is also the issue of forward error correction codes and the design of its system for ultra high speed data connections. The throughput constraints for forward error correction system are part of known challenges (Brzozowski and Rolf 72).
The transmission of 100 Gbps perhaps needs a collection of processors in order to get the particularly high target rate of data transmission. The automatic repeat request with high speed communications needs adequate memory for the storage of transmitted frames. For instance, at 100 Gbps rate of data, the transceiver requires 12.5 gigabytes (GB) of memory for the storage of transmitted data frames over the previous second. Therefore, both the automatic repeat request and forward error correction have to work very fast, in terms of nanoseconds of processing time for one frame for the purpose of supporting 100G communication. In addition, 100g transceivers having the automatic repeat request requires large amount of memory in order to store the frames transmitted but which have not been acknowledged by the receiver (Brzozowski and Rolf 82).
The use of optimized spectrum can be gotten in the end-to-end Ethernet optical networking, situations, and in cases of power cases of reductions for power consumptions. In addition, the software defined control can be used to lower the cost of operations as well as to reduce the issues of complexity. At the same time, the use of software designed control reduces the management sophistication while also enhancing its efficiency in comparison with the case of forming equally sized Ethernet connection aggregation sets. The approach and the system according to the current principles of networking do not add any extra network layer, and thus no extra overhead is introduced, given that the current principles can alter the available Ethernet rules or protocols. The approach and system as at present can also convey the normal frames of Ethernet over smaller bandwidth of transmission pipes. As a result, this permits the multiplexing of many Ethernet signals over the similar lines in parallel in accordance with the actual traffic needs. The transponder can make the use of multi-lane technique that is similar to the one employed in 802.3ba according to the current principles (Kanonakis, 62).

What 100 Ethernet comes with

The 100 Ethernet comes with Xport Ethernet module which is selected to permit the support for several devices having byte stream based communication interface with an aim of keeping the Ethernet functionality as simple as possible. It also comes with transfer control protocol, also called internet protocol (TCP/IP) that controls the movement of transmitted files and messages across the Ethernet LAN and internet as a whole (Crofford, Davidson (Geng, Hardek 27). It also comes with RS-232 standard which supports remote communication with 10/100 Ethernet. Ethernet also comes with pulse power meter with the design based upon microchip 16 bit micro processor that can be used in the process of polling analogue signals to digital converters and offer the user interface to the system (Crofford 37).

What 100 Ethernet do

The 100 Ethernet offers transmission of data across local area network at the speed of 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). The former version was transmitting at 100 Megabits per second (Mbps). The configuration of Ethernet communication device is also such that it can support 100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN. Because of device compatibility, it can also support 10G Ethernet in addition to other legacy Ethernet modes such as 10 BASE-T LAN. The voltage line form can be used during the operation in legacy mode for the conservation of power. The switch and/or voltage regulator can be employed to either couple or decouple a direct current voltage to the center tap of the transformer purpose of accommodating the use of two distinct line drivers. The coupling or decoupling of the direct current voltage in this case depends on the driver out of the two distinct ones that is active at present (Ward, Bajdechi and Arslan 27).

What 100 Ethernet improves

According to performance assessment, 100 Ethernet improves overall performance of the local area network in comparison with the conventional mechanism. This performance improvement can be explained in terms of significant reduction in the energy power consumption rate. As a result, communication is achieved with maximum energy efficiency. It thus improves the efficiency of energy use in the Ethernet protocol. This energy efficiency also comes due to improved synchronization of data packets uniting mechanism (Kim et al. 73). There is also improvement of single mode fiber optic links by means of improved communication bandwidth of directly modulated laser for both single and two coarse wavelength division multiplexing channels. Even in the case where loss of optical multiplexing or demultiplexing functions are considered, the employment of two coarse wavelength division multiplexing channels sustains transmission over a distance of five kilometers single mode fiber(Wei 72).

How 100 Ethernet changes our technology

The technology change takes place through modifications of technical specification, crafting of timely modifications and building an identity for a rule or regulations used. The enhancement of the specifications in question results to further development of 100 Ethernet extensions from 100Mbps to 100 Gbps operating speeds of local area network. The actor in this case takes part in the continuous extension generation, ratification and incorporation. The alteration made on the technical specifications results to timely modifications alongside crafting an identity regulation as it transforms (Jain 27).
The change in technology can also be attributed to the enhancement of hardware devices. The hardware that contributes to the technology change includes microprocessor. This is because severs used by 100 Ethernet should be well advanced in terms of sped of operation in MHz in order to support other clients within the local area network. There is also the advancement of software such as operating system and web application programs which also contributes to the improved way of performance for Ethernet equipment in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and response time (Mzahm et al. 38). The improvement of bandwidth for the 100 Gb/s also contributes to the change in our technology in terms of interconnection speed. Other contributors include enhancement of power equipment used and other communication devices such as modems, hubs, switches and many others. The improvement in the type of communication mediums such as cables changes the technology through the use of better transmission mediums like optic fiber cables which transmits huge amount of data per second. The efficient Ethernet local area network transceivers also improves the technology by improving the speed and accuracy at which data is transmitted and received from one terminal of the network to the other(Fuchs, Randolph and Shan L 69).

The future of 100 Ethernet

There is high possibility of further enhancement in communication bandwidth as far as the future of 100 Ethernet is concerned. The power efficiency is also likely to improve further due to the new technology of power equipment that is also expected to get better. There is also possibility that the next 100 Gbps will improve the spectral efficiency of communication within the local area network. Other improvements may also include the use of models in data scheduler among others (Jain 84). We can also speculate more advanced hardware systems of computer technology and other internetworking devices that will result to better communication speed and quality. As a result, we can expect the use of Ethernet processors with extra high processing speed, high memory with several terabytes (TB) of storage space. The eventual result of all these future expectations is a better 100 Ethernet local area network standard such as 100 Terabits per second (Tbps) Ethernet speed that will also be compatible with the previous versions of 100 Ethernet.

Requirement of 100 Ethernet

The requirements of 100 Ethernet include Ethernet communication devices with backward compatibility. Therefore, the requirement for the institute of electrical and electronic engineers is that every Ethernet compliant device be backward compatible with different versions of Ethernet standards to permit the support of other former Ethernet legacy modes. The legacy Ethernet standards require digital to analogue converter for their operation in order for them to drive transmission lines. Excellent linearity is also required to meet the stringent needs of both 10 and 100 Gbps standards of Ethernet. As a result, enough power is also required since high linearity come with some cost of consumption for power. Nevertheless, slower and legacy standards of Ethernet do not need high linearity and thus some power end up being wasted at a certain extent. Therefore, apparatus are required for enhancing the efficiency of power for the case of backward compatibility with devices (Ward, Bajdechi and Arslan 78).
Others include technical requirements as well as servers and clients, The servers required need to have higher specification in terms of memory, processing speed and storage capacity to allow to support a good number of clients within local area network. There are also software requirements such as web application software and operating systems that is supported by the network (Benner 96). In addition, Ethernet switch card having phantom power supply is required for powering the access equipment. This permits remote access to the network as well as finding out whether the equipment has the ability to accept remote power in anon intrusive manner. The apparatus needed consists of data node that is adapted for the switching of data, the device for access that is adapted for transmission of data, the data signaling pair that is linked amid the data node and the access device.
The traditional telephony requirements are also necessary due to the advent of internet protocol telephony, voice over internet protocol as well as voice over packet technologies for the data situation. The cabling, preferably category 5 wiring such as 100 Base X that is appropriate for 100 Megabits per second(Mb/s) speed data communication is required over switched network of Ethernet to be linked to the port within the network data node which can be a switch or hub. In addition, the internet itself is also needed as well as protocols to offer asset of rules for data transfer between any two entities in a network (Katzenberg and Joseph 19).

Conclusion

The 100 Ethernet consists of various versions each with its own network speed of operation either in terms of Megabits per second or Gigabits per second. The various literatures as discussed above have revealed that the current version is developed from the previous legacy modes or versions due to technology advancement. This implies that 100 Ethernet will continue to advance as long as technology also continues to advance with the improvement of hardware and software in addition to other parameters like operation bandwidth, efficiency, accuracy and several others. The discussion in this paper have thus evaluated and predicted a better 100 Ethernet in future in terms of speed of operation in Tbps which is not used as at present. This will also call for the enhancement in bandwidth, power efficiency, other internetworking devices, hardware and software needed to automate the 100 Ethernet system.

Works cited

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