Ethernet

Intel sues N-Data over Ethernet patent claims

Layer 8 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:26:19 -0400

An Ethernet patent dispute is again rearing its ugly head in court this week as Intel has filed suit against patent licensing firm Negotiated Data Solutions (N-Data) looking to indemnify Intel customers against any royalty claims N-Data is looking to grab.

Read more

How important will an external control plane be...

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:07:58 -0400

How important will an external control plane be for carrier ethernet? What does everyone think of Soapstone's prospects?

Future Ethernet - Fiber vs. Copper

surender — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:30:12 -0400

Ethernet started as the shared copper medium (cable) technology. As data speed increased from 10Mbps to 1Gbps, then Ethernet no more remained the shared medium and required point to point inter-connect. Ethernet switches are used to have LAN implemented when going to from shared cable to dedicated link. Fiber became one of the medium for Gige Ethernet and became medium for choice for longer distance (more than 300 meters) upto 80 Kilometers. Fiber was the first medium for be used for 10GE. Now copper is also supported for 10GE, but it is limited in distance (150m) and requires higher powers. Hardware chip companies are struggling to lower down the power of 10GE copper solution.

Read more

Thin Wire Ethernet

Thu, 29 May 2008 10:02:32 -0400

Sounds like the old 'thin wire' ethernet of the 80's without the TV signals...

Big market for IP managed services

Cisco Subnet — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:59:23 -0400

A study by market tracker Ovum and commissioned by Cisco finds that the market for four specific managed services will grow to $66 billion by 2012.

The four services are managed metro Ethernet, managed IP VPNs, managed IP voice and managed security. The report notes that the market for these services is currently growing at a compounded annual rate of 18%.

The study was based on data collected from more than 1,300 individuals in companies using managed services in 14 countries across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. The companies are in the finance, manufacturing, retail, government, healthcare and education markets.

Read more

What is WAN (Metro) Ethernet?

BandwidthSeek.Net — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:43:37 -0400

Metro Ethernet is the use of telco carrier-supported Ethernet technology in metropolitan area networks (MANs) or Wide Area Networks (WANs) vs. using Ethernet technology for just a Local Area Network (LAN), the most widely used application for the Ethernet protocol. Because it is typically a collective endeavor with numerous financial contributors, Metro Ethernet offers cost-effectiveness, reliability, scalability and bandwidth management superior to most proprietary networks. Metro Ethernet can connect businesses LANs and individual end users to a WAN or to the Internet. Corporations, academic institutions and government agencies in large cities can use Metro Ethernet to connect branch campuses or offices to an intranet.

Read more

Enterasys, Extreme hooking up?

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:42:12 -0400

Could Enterasys be looking at possibly acquiring rival Extreme Networks? There's been a flurry of speculation on that this week. Enterasys has made no bones about its intention to acquire a sizable company that will take it close to $1 billion in annual revenue and better compete with Cisco and new enterprise LAN switch entrant Juniper Networks. Extreme and Enterasys both do about $350 million in yearly sales.

Read more

Configuring an L2TPv3 Ethernet Pseudowire

Mark_Lewis — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:18:04 -0400

As I mentioned last time, L2TPv3 has a plethora of capabilities, including the capability to be used for remote access VPNs, the capability to transport a number of Layer-2 protocols in a pseudowire configuration, the capability to transport MPLS Layer-3 VPN traffic, and the capability to transport IPv6 over an IPv4 backbone network.

In this blog post, I am going to focus on the most popular application for L2TPv3 - pseudowires.

The first question to answer in regard to L2TPv3 pseudowire configuration is, ‘What is a pseudowire?'. As I mentioned briefly last time, a pseudowire is simply an emulated circuit. By using L2TPv3, it is possible to extend a number of layer-2 circuit types over an IP backbone network.

Read more

RE: Ethernet patent settlement is good for the industry

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:32:57 -0500

Interesting story, but am I alone in wanting to know what the actual settlement was? Frankly, that's why I looked at the story, but there is no mention if N-Data will be charging $1000 one time fee or no fee !!

FTC throws cold water on Ethernet patent overcharges

Layer 8 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:45:31 -0500

The US Federal Trade Commission today settled a complaint against a company the agency said was trying to collect huge license despite a prior, paid up agreement.

Read more

MacBook Air: .11n Standard, Ethernet Optional

Craig Mathias — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:07:27 -0500

So Apple announced their thin notebook, the MacBook Air moments ago, and I couldn't help but notice that, thin coolness aside, there is no Ethernet port on this machine. There's an optional USB-attached Ethernet dongle (no full-speed Gig-E, then), but users are expected to be wireless essentially all of the time. This is more than a cynical attempt to sell APs (Apple also announced a couple of these, equipped with large hard drives for their clever real-time backup mechanism, Time Machine); it's the future. Still, this is a gutsy move for Apple, but, then, they'll sell tons of these no matter what.

Read more

RE: Can carrier Ethernet answer the call for bigger bandwidth?

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:41:09 -0500

I curious to find out abt Yipes viability, and their ability to thrive in mkt place.

RE: Ethernet vs. MPLS in the WAN

Keao Caindec — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:01:03 -0500

IP MPLS and Ethernet VPLS services are both based on MPLS technology, and thus are able to meet the needs for a multipoint-to-multipoint converged network. The only difference is that one is handed off as a layer 3 service (IP MPLS) and the other as a layer 2 service (Ethernet VPLS). From our perspective, applications more than security or a desire to control routing seem to be driving the migration to Ethernet VPNs. It's not so much control of routing being a driver as it is not having to deal with another carriers IP network addressing policies. Ethernet end-to-end is simply easier to manage and scale than an IP MPLS network.

Read more

RE: IEEE chooses two higher speeds for Ethernet

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:48:24 -0400

Would companies interested in this technology shy away from using unless standards are in place?

Xerox's PARC wants to help you create the next Ethernet -- or whatever it is you want to build

Alpha Doggs — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:16:59 -0400

PARC, a Xerox company, is formalizing the process through which it works with young companies and entrepreneurs in an effort to help them be successful while also enriching itself. The Startup@PARC program gives entrepreneurs access to PARC's scientific minds and intellectual property in exchange for cash, royalties, equity compensation or some combo of that.

PARC has already worked with numerous small companies to help get them going on to bigger things. Powerset , a new search engine company, is among its current partners.

RE: Does 802.11n spell the 'end of Ethernet'?

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:31:49 -0400

Absolutely not. In deployments where RFI and security are concerns, wireless will not supercede wired Ethernet. It's silly to suppose that saturated airwaves is the environment for dependable network connectivity, which is where we'll all be if everyone's wired connections became wireless.

RE: 0Base-T

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:10:00 -0400

At first I was going to discount reading this article but then took a second look and read through it. So if "0" is power what will "null" (empty set), "-10,-100,-N"(set of negative numbers), and "j" (imaginary) stand for??

Overly chatty operating systems

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:17:48 -0400

If you are really going to do something about energy efficient ethernet, then start with some of the overly chatty OS's out there that spam unneeded traffic into and over ethernet lines. That is the first place to start. Re: Energy Efficient Ethernet moves forward.

EFM

Inbox — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:31:34 -0400

EFM (Ethernet in the First Mile) is an effort to extend Ethernet's reach over the access line between end users and carriers, to make Ethernet a low-cost broadband alternative to such technologies as DSL and cable modems.

In June 2004, the IEEE approved a formal specification developed by its 802.3ah Task Force and backed by the EFM Alliance, a vendor consortium.

The specification includes physical-layer specifications for copper, fiber point-to-point and fiber point-to-multipoint. In addition, the IEEE is looking to provide a common method for operation, administration and maintenance to help service providers.

CSMA/CD

Inbox — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:42:14 -0400

CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection) is the IEEE 802.3 Standard Ethernet contention protocol which specifies rules on how Ethernet devices respond when more than one device attempts to use the data channel simultaneously.

Submitted by George Macdonald.

Additional resources

IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD.