10GBASE-T for Broad 10 Gigabit Adoption in the Data Center
10GBASE-T for Broad 10 Gigabit
Adoption in the Data Center
The increasing use of virtualization and unied networking places extreme I/O demands on a single, 1-gigabit LAN that
can cause bottlenecks and growing complexities. Moving to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) addresses these problems.
10 Gigabit Ethernet: Drivers for
Adoption
The growing use of virtualization in data
centers to address the need to reduce IT
costs has caused many administrators to
take a serious look at 10 Gb Ethernet (10
GbE) as a way to reduce the complexi-
ties they face when using the existing
1 Gb Ethernet (1 GbE) infrastructures.
The server consolidation associated with
virtualization has had signicant impact
on network I/O because they combine the
network needs of several physical ma-
chines and the other background services,
such as live migration, over the Ethernet
network onto a single machine.
Together with trends such as unied
networking, the ability to use a single
Ethernet network for both data and stor-
age trafc is increasing I/O demands to
the point where a 1 GbE network can be a
bottleneck and a source of complexity in
the data center. The move to implement
unied networking requires rethinking
of data center networks. While 1 GbE
connections might be able to handle
the bandwidth requirements of a single
trafc type, they do not have adequate
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Advancing technologies place increased demands on 1 GbE networks. Trends, such as
data center server consolidation, present a bandwidth challenge. 10 GbE alleviates this
bottleneck while providing multiple media options, decreasing power requirements, and
latency well within most users’ requirements. Meanwhile, costs are generally dropping.
bandwidth for multiple trafc types dur-
ing peak periods. This creates a need for
multiple 1 GbE connections.
Moving to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE)
addresses these network problems by
providing more bandwidth and simplies
the network infrastructure by consolidat-
ing multiple gigabit ports into a single 10
gigabit connection. Data Center Adminis-
trators have a number of 10 GbE inter-
faces to choose from including CX4, SFP+
Fiber, SFP+ Direct Attach Copper (DAC),
and 10GBASE-T. Today, most are choos-
ing either 10 GbE Optical or SFP+ DAC.
However, limitations with these inter-
faces have kept them from being broadly
deployed across the data center.
Fiber connections are not cost-effective
for broad deployment, and SFP+ DAC is
limited by its seven-meter reach, and re-
quires a complete infrastructure upgrade.
CX4 is an older technology that does not
meet high density requirements. For
10GBASE-T, the perception to date has
been that it required too much power and
was too costly for broad deployments.
These concerns are being addressed with
the latest manufacturing processes that
Carl G. Hansen
Intel Corporation
Carrie Higbie
Siemon
Yinglin (Frank) Yang
CommScope, Inc.
Broad deployment on 10GBASE-T
will simplify data center infra-
structures, making it easier to
manage server connectivity while
delivering the bandwidth needed
for heavily virtualized servers and
I/O-intensive applications.
WHITE PAPER
10GBASE-T Ethernet
Network Connectivity