Long live the Hurricane! 3years+?.
Ethernet Lives -- Like a cat with
nine lives, Ethernet survives
despite networking turmoil.
July 8, 1997
Ethernet proponents
take heart: The Ethernet dynasty is secure both in network
backbones and LAN desktop connections, according to the 1997
CommunicationsWeek Managers Survey.
Based on our findings, Ethernet still dominates the LAN market.
About 63 percent of respondents said Ethernet is the primary
LAN architecture in their organization, and 54 percent said it is the
primary network backbone technology.
Three years from now, however, a shift is expected. Ethernet's
dominance is expected to drop dramatically as it is replaced
by-guess what?- its progeny, Fast Ethernet. Ethernet will continue
to provide the infrastructure for 37 percent of LAN architectures
and 29 percent of backbones, but Fast Ethernet will take up the
slack, shooting up to 31 percent of LAN architectures and 30
percent of backbones. Gigabit Ethernet was not listed as an
option in the survey, although it will be standardized next year.
It's also becoming cheaper and easier to make the shift from
10-megabit-per- second Ethernet to 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet.
Network interface cards supporting both speeds are about the
same price as 10-Mbps-only cards, 10/100-Mbps hubs are
available at about $100 per port, and 10/100-Mbps switches are
only $250 per port, says John Armstrong, director and principal
analyst at Dataquest Inc., San Jose, Calif. "It's really a no-brainer."
Even companies that run token ring in their networks are
considering using Fast Ethernet as a backbone transport. Token
ring is slowly declining in respondents' networks, dropping from
14 percent to 11 percent of primary LAN architectures in the next
three years.
Backbone Champ
Fast Ethernet also makes more sense than FDDI, the traditional
backbone technology for token ring users, says Eric Ferguson,
senior LAN manager at Maryland Casualty, Baltimore. The
insurance company is weighing Fast Ethernet for possible use
next year because it is more cost-effective than FDDI.
Even so, current FDDI users are loyal. In fact, over the next three
years, the 10 percent of backbones based on FDDI will remain
constant, according to the survey. In some cases, users will keep
their FDDI in place and add other technologies. For instance, the
University of Miami will add ATM to its FDDI network, providing
gateways between the two, says Peter Evans, senior research
associate and director of computing at the university's Rosenstiel
School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
ATM proponents should take note that Fast Ethernet also beat
out ATM in the backbone. ATM is generally regarded as a
strategic backbone technology because it makes sense to connect
it directly to the carrier ATM networks, says Skip MacAskill,
senior analyst at the Gartner Group, Stamford, Conn. The picture
will shift a little in three years. That's when about 13 percent of
respondents said ATM would be their primary backbone
technology.
As a desktop technology, planned adoption of Fast Ethernet was
much greater than switched Ethernet, indicating that 100 Mbps of
bandwidth shared among workstations would take root faster
than 10 Mbps dedicated to each workstation.
Compare the prices sometime with performance:
Hurricane/155 Features:
ATM speed of 155Mbps
Uses standard 4 pair wire and RJ45 connectors
3 times faster than FAST Ethernet
50% faster than FDDI
Software systems include Novell, Microsoft's WFWG & NT 2 to 3 times faster than ATM
and LAN Emulation software
Connects to carrier supplied ATM services and enterprise ATM switches at the correct
speed
Based on today's LAN standards
LAN Emulation implemented in HARDWARE
Cards implement Adapter and internal HUB features in one
No external HUB required on systems up to 16 Nodes
Complete family ISA - EISA - VESA - PCI
****Priced below all 100Mbps and 155Mbps LAN****
Besides, a hurrican gets everyone's attention sooner or later. |
