* Looking back and looking ahead
In what is becoming an annual tradition of sorts, I’m taking one last look back at the year that was before we head out into the year that will be.
One good thing about this being an annual tradition is I can look back at what I wrote last year at this time and get a snapshot of where things were 12 months ago. In some respects, not much has changed since the 2003 wrap-up. The theme I found is that some things are the same, only more so.
For instance, Gigabit Ethernet is still more than you need, and is still the de facto standard. But prices are even lower and Gigabit is even more available. Wireless LANs continued to grow in popularity, particularly in small and home offices – to the point where I’m sure many people have given up any thought of wiring their homes with Cat 5e. Blade servers continue to incorporate network features, and their shipments are up dramatically.
However, there were a few trends that were new to 2004.
It seemed like everywhere you turned folks were talking about VoIP, and it took on a kind of inevitable feel that didn’t really exist with VoIP before. This translated into LAN equipment designed to help support VoIP – that is, Power over Ethernet started showing up in more places to support IP phones. And voice over WLANs seems to be a logical next step.
The movement toward a standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair wiring continues – but in the meantime, other avenues toward cheaper 10 Gig are being explored. We’re seeing a lot of vendors pick up the 10GBase-CX4 standard – approved early this year – which uses a different copper cabling to get high speeds over short distances for low cost. We’re also seeing the IEEE look at a low-cost option for 10 Gig over multimode fiber.
It will be interesting to see how these trends play out in 2005, and to see what else the year has in store for LANs. Happy holidays, and best wishes to all our readers in the new year. Thanks for reading.
