| | | The Year of 100GbE in Data Center Networks
Here’s what’s driving the current step change in evolution of data center networks.
The steady march to 100 Gigabit Ethernet in data center networks appears to have progressed into a jog this year.
It’s August, and 100GbE port shipments have already doubled from 2017, while the rate of adoption continues to accelerate, as data centers move away from 40GbE, according to Dell’Oro Group. Shipments are projected to “almost triple by the end of the year,” Sameh Boujelbene, senior director at the market research firm, said.
The analyst was commenting on Dell EMC’s recent launch of its latest 100GbE Open Networking switch. By 2022, he predicted, 19.4 million 100GbE ports per year would be shipped, up from 4.6 million in 2017.
Dell’s chief rival Hewlett Packard Enterprise sees a similar trend. “100GbE is going to come really quickly,” HPE chief technologist Chris Dando told Data Center Knowledge in an interview.
That is, really quickly compared to the rate of transition previously from 1GbE to 10GbE, or to 40GbE. “There’s no next step on the 40GbE route, so 100GbE is the natural successor,”Dando said.
Why Now? Hundred Gigabit Ethernet isn’t exactly new technology, so why so much activity now?
One part of the answer is maturity and falling costs of 100GbE networking equipment (and the corresponding 25GbE NICs for uplinks from increasingly dense blade and rack servers).
Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems have been making their own ASICs for 100/25GbE switches for some time. Broadcom, Cavium, and Mellanox Technologies now offer standard 100GbE-capable processors that are powering switches by the likes of Dell, HPE, Huawei Technologies, Lenovo Group, Quanta Computer, Super Micro Computer, and others.
[iframe id="google_ads_iframe_/3834/dcknowledge.home/article/design/networks_7" title="3rd party ad content" name="google_ads_iframe_/3834/dcknowledge.home/article/design/networks_7" width="300" height="250" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" kwframeid="14" style="box-sizing: inherit;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-right-width:0px;border-top-width:0px;vertical-align:bottom"] [/iframe] Volume and competition are driving down prices, and the premiums for 100/25GbE equipment over 40/10GbE are relatively low: 20 to 30 percent more for NICs and 50 percent more per port for switches, according to SNIA estimates.
Servers may already have 25GbE. “We see a lot of servers in racks that are being upgraded with the latest Intel technology; that includes dual 25GbE IO capability,” Jeff Baher, director of networking and service provider solutions at Dell, told us.
The 100GbE products are backward-compatible, which simplifies deployment. Existing cabling can be reused by installing new transceivers or modules on the cables. Nearly all 25GbE adaptors and switch ports are backward-compatible with 10GbE, and 100GbE adaptors and ports gel with 40GbE. Most switches can support a mix of speeds.
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