August 20, 2012 – IEEE has formed IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group to build consensus toward the development of the next speed of ethernet. Potential participants include users and producers of systems and components for telecom carriers, internet exchanges, financial markets, data centres, multiple system operators (MSOs) networking systems, high-performance computing, network storage and servers, and other individuals interested in future IEEE 802.3 ethernet wireline standards.

The launch of this group follows the publication of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment report, says IEEE, which shows the global bandwidth requirements of multiple application spaces are continuing an exponential climb. The report forecasts that, should current trends continue, networks will need to support capacity requirements of 1 Tb/s in 2015 and 10 Tb/s by 2020.

“The launch of the IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group will facilitate an open forum to explore the start beyond 100Gb/s Ethernet,” said John D’Ambrosia, chair of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc and IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group.

In creating the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment report, input was collected from a variety of application spaces (e.g. servers, data centre networks, high-performance computing) and from different geographic regions. The report indicates that bandwidth requirements of network-aggregation nodes are growing at an even faster rate than end-station applications, which initiate the transmission and receipt of data. Among industries, the most aggressive growth rates are shown by the financial sector and data-intensive science, with compounded annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 95% and 70%, respectively.

The IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group will meet at the IEEE 802.3 Interim Meeting, scheduled for September 24-28 in Geneva, Switzerland.