Ethernet Alliance establishes certification program

The Ethernet Alliance recently announced it is starting up a certification program to identify equipment that has met certain standards.

The idea of the program is to help buyers see which testing criteria have been met by an Ethernet device. The alliance says that the program is separate from other interoperability activities that it has been coordinating for some time. 

Any companies who pass the tests will be awarded an Ethernet Alliance Certification stamp, with nomenclature indicating which tests have been passed. The alliance says that its many subcommittees will develop the testing criteria specific to the areas they focus on, and may vary depending on the technology, the market requirements and the status of relevant standards.

The alliance has subcommittees on technologies including: 10G EPON, 10GBase-T, Backplane Ethernet, Carrier Ethernet, Ethernet in the Data Center, Energy Efficient Ethernet, Higher Speed Ethernet, Power over Ethernet (POE) and POE+, SFP+/EDC, and Test and Management.

The Ethernet Alliance says that people both inside and outside of the organization have been suggesting such a certification program ever since the alliance was created three years ago. The group notes that as Ethernet-related standards and technologies have expanded and evolved, the need has grown for some mechanism to simplify testing criteria and aid in purchasing decisions.

The group says the tests will be conducted at a "vendor neutral location," by a third party. The list of certified products will be available on the Ethernet Alliance Web site. 

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.