* Challenges met by the IEEE task force that developed 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper
Today I’d like to point you to an interesting article in Network World that explains in detail the obstacles the IEEE overcame to create the standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair copper wiring.
It’s written by Bruce Tolley and George Zimmerman, both of Solarflare Communications, a semiconductor company that specializes in silicon for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair wiring.
The article points out that 10 Gigabit over this kind of wiring was once thought to be impossible. Of course, in the end the cabling had to be changed to make it possible, and the authors discuss the upcoming Category 6A specification that cuts down the so-called “alien crosstalk,” or interference from adjacent wires, which can happen with other standards of cabling.
The article also talks about the other technical achievements that made 10 Gigabit over copper possible.
The authors say that 10 Gigabit needed 1,000 times better cancellation of noise caused by internal cable impairments – and any signal echoes caused by the transmitters at either end would have to be dealt with. The problem was solved through processing techniques similar to those used in radar processing.
The article says that analog-to-digital converters represented another challenge, because 10 Gigabit would need to digitize a signal 800 million times a second. The group was able to do this, while keeping the power requirements low.
Finally, the authors point to coding improvements as a key enabler of the technology, as the standard uses low-density parity check code to achieve a low bit-error rate.
See the full story here.
