Turning Ideas into Action for 1.6T Ethernet

The explosion of Edge computing, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and AI applications are set to significantly increase demand from their networks as new requirements accelerate the adoption of higher speed Ethernet connectivity solutions to satisfy these data needs. This trend is disrupting traditional timelines for the development and availability of connectivity technologies and will have a major impact on the ecosystem powering these new technologies, including Network Equipment Manufacturers, Data Center operators, interconnect manufacturers and system integrators.

According to Dell’Oro Group, the pace of migration from 800 Gbps to 1600 Gbps will be nearly twice as fast as what we have typically observed in traditional front-end networks connecting general-purpose servers.

As with many communication system advances, carrying 1.6T information across a physical medium turns into an engineering challenge of how to best achieve the performance requirements while mitigating complexity. Dollar costs, power consumption, and latency all need to be factored into the complexity equation for 1.6T. To achieve the right balance for multiple applications, a wide variety of solutions will likely be required.

This white paper provides an overview of the trends accelerating the adoption of higher speed Ethernet connectivity, a detailed look at the technology challenges that will need to be resolved along the way and highlights how Ethernet connectivity technology is evolving to fill the gap to meet these new challenges. It includes insights about the current state of this dynamically evolving ecosystem along with emerging interconnect technologies being developed to help the transition to 1.6T Ethernet.

This paper covers the following: