We wanted to give you a sneak peak and the kind of resources you’ll find in our white paper, “Taking Your Network to 40/100G Ethernet.”

The chart above shows the evolution of Ethernet speeds and the IEEE standards that correspond with them. This chart also clearly demonstrates that as data center speeds increase, loss budgets decrease – from 12.5dB at 10 Mbps to 1.9dB for 100,000 Mbps (100G Ethernet).

This is a good resource to use when planning your migration to 40/100G Ethernet – without considering loss budget, the performance of your data center can suffer.

With the ratification of new industry standards and increased demands on data center throughput, 40/100G Ethernet will be an integral component of the next generation data center. How fast is this moving? We’re even starting to see manufacturers play with 400G!

In fact, it is already an emerging influence on how organizations plan, build and operate their existing data center architecture. The market proves this: manufacturers are already responding to the increased demand for Ethernet hardware, including cabling products, switches and transceivers.

How can you be ready for this change? Download our free white paper, “Taking Your Network to 40/100G Ethernet,” to learn how you can be ready for 40/100G Ethernet.

We cover:

• Why this shift is happening
• The factors you need to consider when planning your cabling infrastructure
• Best practices for migration
• Next steps for data centers

Click the image below to get started on the path to 40/100G Ethernet today!

Maintaining our position as a leading manufacturer of high-performance cabling products, CABLExpress® lowered the maximum insertion loss of its Skinny-Trunk® fiber optic cables to an industry best 0.25dB per mated pair. Fitted with MTP® connectors, the Skinny-Trunk fiber optic assembly will enable data centers to stay within loss budgets while running networks at 10G, 40G and eventually 100G Ethernet.

Mark Fabbi, VP, Distinguished Analyst of Gartner, Inc. says:

“2012 will be the year where 10G attached servers become the norm which in turn will drive demand for 40G and eventually 100G within the enterprise data center. Enterprises are encouraged to rethink the physical data center architecture and prepare for increased fiber deployment to support 40/100G backbone requirements.”

This is the second time in as many years CABLExpress lowered the insertion loss of its Skinny-Trunk fiber optic assembly. It previously held an already industry best of 0.35 dB loss. However, improvements to the cable manufacturing process and extensive production testing produced a maximum rate of 0.25dB.

The Skinny-Trunk fiber optic assembly comes standard with a lifetime warranty.

I just returned from the 2012 BICSI Winter Conference & Exhibition. It was great to get together with other colleagues and individuals that all have one thing in common: we respect layer one! One of the great benefits of this conference is the educational opportunities, and BICSI certainly delivered this year.

The most common theme that I heard throughout the conference was that 40/100G Ethernet isn’t just on the horizon, it’s already here. This will have profound effects on data center structured cabling – which wasn’t a surprise to me, we’ve been preparing for this for years!

One of the choices data centers must consider when migrating to 40/100G Ethernet is whether to use fiber or copper cabling. Based on what I’ve seen, fiber will be the primary cabling type. The IEEE 802.3ba standard for 40/100G Ethernet states a maximum distance of 7M to run 40/100G, and that will be using “active” cables. (An active cable is a cable with a transceiver hard-wired to it.) This limitation rules out copper as a primary medium of transport.

Fiber optic cabling does offer the choice between multi-mode and single-mode cabling. There are a few key factors to weigh here: distance, transmission type and total link cost. Single-mode fiber will run longer distances and will still utilize a serial transmission. Multi-mode fiber will require parallel transmission, which is a dramatic change for many, and can only run limited channel lengths.

Cost is, of course, key factor here – which makes multi-mode fiber an attractive option. Single-mode fiber is cheaper, but the transceivers are very expensive. Overall, a multi-mode link is projected to be about half the cost of a single-mode. This cost delta is based largely on the expensive lasers required for single-mode transmission. The link distances for multi-mode fiber running 40/100G Ethernet is 100M using OM3 fiber, and 150M using OM4. Since roughly 90% of data center link distances are within the multi-mode distance limitation, it appears to be a no-brainer.

Because of this, it is evident that multi-mode fiber will be the predominant cabling of choice for these higher network speeds. Single-mode will be used only when necessary, and copper could potentially be utilized in specialized areas where short link distances occur. Another consideration for copper: copper transceivers will utilize more power.

Choosing your cabling infrastructure is a critical decision for any data center team, but there is a wealth of information out there (and this site!), and I would suggest doing a little research until you feel comfortable with your decision. We also have a dedicated team to help answer any further questions you may have – give us a call and 800.913.9465 to find out more.

In this episode of Cable Talk™, Josh Taylor talks about the “Respect Layer One” message. It is important to view the cables within structured cabling systems as an investment rather than a cost. By viewing it simply as a cost, you could be short-changing your data center and miss the long-term vision of how your cabling infrastructure will need to grow and change. This is particularly true with migrating to 40/100G Ethernet and 16G fibre channel.