Tag Archives: 10Gigabit Ethernet

10Gigabit Ethernet will rule

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As far as how the next generation storage networks would look like, 10Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) is definitely the strongest candidate for the storage network. And this is made possible with key enhancements to Ethernet that has made it possible for greater reliability and performance. This enhancement goes by several names such as Data Center Ethernet (a term coined by Cisco) and Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE). But probably the more widely use term is DCB or Data Center Bridging.

Ethernet, so far, has never failed to deliver and as far as I am concerned, Ethernet will rule for the next 10 years or more. Ethernet has evolved several generations from Ethernet running at 10Mbits/sec to FastEthernet, then Gigabit Ethernet and now 10Gigabit Ethernet. Pretty soon, it will be looking at 40Gbits/sec and 100Gbits/sec. It is a tremendous piece of protocol, allowing it to evolve and adapt to the modern data networks.

But before 10GbE, the delivery of packets were of best effort basis. But today’s networks demand scalability, security, performance and most of reliability. However, since the advent of DCB, 10GbE is fortified with these key technologies

  • 10GBASE-T – using Cat 6/6A cabling standards, 10GBASE-T delivers low cost, simple UTP (unshielded twisted pair) networking to the masses
  • iWARP – Support for iWARP is crucial for RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access). RDMA, in a nutshell, reduces overhead of typical networking buffer-to-buffer copy, by bypassing these bottlenecks, and placing the data blocks and its bits/bytes directly into the access points of the corresponding requesting node.
  • Low latency cut-switching at Layer 2 by reading just the header of the packet instead of the entire full length of the packet. The information contained in the header of the packet is sufficient for it to make a switching/forwarding decision
  • Energy Efficient by introducing low power idle state and other implementations which makes the power consumption usage more proportional to the network utilization rate
  • Congestion notification and pause frame which handles 8 different classes of traffic to ensure lossless network delivery
  • Shortest path adaptive routing protocol for Ethernet forwarding. TRILL (Transparent Interconnections with Lots of Links) is one of the implementation. Lately OpenFlow has been jumping into the bandwagon as a viable option but I need to check out OpenFlow support with 10GbE and DCB.
  • FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) is all the rage these days and 10GbE has the ability to carry Fibre Channel traffic. This has sparked a initial frenzy among storage vendors.

Of course, last but not least, we are already seeing the sunset of Fibre Channel. While 8Gbps FC has been out for a while, its adoption rate seemed to have stalled. Many vendors and customers are at the 4Gbps range, adopting a wait-and-see game. 16Gbps FC has been in the talks but it seems that all the fireworks are with 10Gigabit Ethernet right now. It will rule …

Dell acquiring Force10

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What do you think of Dell acquiring Force10? My first reaction was surprise, very surprised.

I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend when the RSS feed popped up in front of me – “Dell acquiring Force10”! I cut that conversation short to read the rest of the details … wow, that’s a good buy!

With all the rumors flying around that Brocade was the most obvious choice, Force10 was out of the blue for me. As the euphoria settled down, I thought Dell had made a very smart move. Brocade, unfortunately, is still pretty much a Fibre Channel company, with 75% of its business relying heavily on Fibre Channel and FCoE. Even though Brocade has Foundry now, Brocade has not strongly asserted itself as an front runner and innovator of 10Gigabit Ethernet.

Meanwhile, Force10 has been a up-and-coming force (pun intended) to be reckon with, strengthening its position as a 10GbE player in the market. And with 10GbE now, and 40GbE or 100GbE coming in the next 2-3 years, Force10 will be riding the wave of the future. Dell can only benefit from that momentum.

Dell has been very, very aggressive to push itself into the enterprise storage space. From its acquisition of EqualLogic in 2007, to Exanet, Ocarina and Compellent last year, there is no doubt that Dell wants this space badly.

The first challenge for Dell is to put its story together and convince the customers that they are no longer Dell, the PC/laptop direct seller, but a formidable company capable of providing enterprise solutions, services and support.

The second challenge, and even bigger one, is itself; its culture of changing mindset. The game has changed; the rule has change. The enterprise is a totally different ballgame. Is Dell ready? Is Dell ready to change itself?

Maybe the Force(10) be with Dell!