40G and 100G Ethernet: The hype has arrived

From walking around at the 2009 OFCNFOEC conference exhibition, it became abundantly clear that the marketers have descended on the next communications technology: 40G and 100G Ethernet. Although a completed IEEE 802.3ba standard is perhaps a year away, numerous companies are making claims to have some kind of 40G/100G test equipment. Early implementations of the technology will likely use four or ten 10-Gbps lanes, which will leverage existing 10-Gpbs test equipment. Thus, anyone with 10-Gbps test equipment is touting their equipment as 40G and 100G ready. That’s pushing it.

Several companies focusing on physical-layer testing are touting signal analyzers that let you make measurements on modulated signals that will likely be used for the two data rates. But, the modulation scheme may not be settled for some time. Some companies are showing products such as 10-Gbps pattern genrators with four channels as ready for 40G data transport. One comapny showed a 4:1 splitter that the company says lets you test 40G optical connections with one 10-Gbps source. Maybe so, but real 40G, and especially 100G, test equipment isn’t here yet.

As usual, the hype is far ahead of the technology. Let the engineers do their job first, please.