* Copper standard for 10 Gigabit reaches a milestone
As expected, the IEEE group looking into the first copper standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet got its project approval request approved. The study group is now a task force, and its funky letter-and-number designation is 802.3ak.
This group is the one working on 10 Gigabit over coaxial cable – called 10GBase-CX4 – rather than Category-5 or -6 wiring. The latter, 10GBase-T, is a more complex problem that will take more time, so it is still in the “study group” phase.
As I have mentioned before, the folks behind the coax version of 10 Gig are trying their best to reach the standards finish line as quickly as possible. Though its applications are admittedly limited, the standard would go a long way towards finding acceptance for 10 Gigabit among enterprise companies.
While this is a significant milestone, there is much more territory to cover before it is deemed standard. As Dan Dove, the group’s chair, recently wrote in the group’s e-mail reflector, “Now that the hard work is done, all we have left to do is the REALLY hard work.”
The group’s members now have to scrutinize each version of the specification, make their comments, and then vote on directions.
The group reached this point through a lot of hard work, and Dove characterized the effort as a “groundbreaking achievement” in the IEEE.
It will be interesting to watch the group as it makes further progress, and will be interesting to see if vendors and enterprise companies pick up the technology as rapidly as the group has been able to prepare the initial definition of it.
