10G causes LAN architecture shift

An important article related to network architecture may have gotten a little lost in the shuffle when it was published last week on Network World, so I wanted to make sure I drew your attention to it. Jim Duffy wrote about a fundamental shift caused by 10 Gigabit Ethernet, virtualization and blade servers.

The shift is from three-tier to two-tier LAN architectures. Typically, a LAN might have switches for access, aggregation and the core of the LAN. As Jim explains, aggregation goes away when you have a need for low latency coupled with an ability to run the links at high speeds.

Another interesting point is that blade servers have switching built in, so that cuts one of the layers right there. This is something that you could see coming from a long way away, as blade servers just started to become popular.

Plus, you need high speeds on those links going to either blade servers or virtualized servers, as more application processing is squeezed into a smaller space. This is the rationale for upgrading to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and Jim notes that it could also be a rationale for upgrading to 40G and 100G when equipment at those speeds is available. This is probably the most compelling argument I’ve seen for making that upgrade, and you can imagine such upgrades in turn propelling a possible Terabit Ethernet down the road.

Jim’s story is full of great insight into this shift in architecture, and I’ve just scratched the surface. Check it out.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.