Ethernet beyond the LAN
 
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A strange thing is happening in the IEEE these days: WAN companies are showing a lot of interest in guiding the next generation of Ethernet - 10-Gigabit Ethernet.
Ethernet's roots are in the LAN, but that isn't stopping WAN-focused companies such as Lucent and MCI WorldCom from getting into the early discussions about 10-Gigabit Ethernet's direction.
Gigabit Ethernet is already being used in metropolitan-area networks because of its simplicity and low cost - the same reasons that the technology is becoming successful in the LAN. While ATM is widely used in the wide area, it is more complex and expensive than Gigabit Ethernet. ATM is also more robust, so many providers will continue to use it.
But there are a growing number of providers who are willing to go with inexpensive Ethernet. Those companies benefit because there is less translation to be done between their customers' Ethernet-based LANs and Ethernet in the WAN. And the customer benefits by being able to manage the network more easily, almost as if it were all in the same building.
The next improvement to Ethernet, 10-Gigabit Ethernet, will have to work in both LANs and WANs. And vendors are going into the technology's development with both environments in mind. In a sense, Ethernet technologies are starting to become what many wanted ATM to be: a single, unifying network stretching from the desktop to the WAN, and touching all points in between.
