|
An article on Gigabit Ethernet:
Gigabit Ethernet Interest Speeding Up Volume 28, Number 4 April 1998, pp. 59-62 By Paul Korzeniowski (paulkorzen@aol.com), a freelance writer in Sudbury, MA specializing in networking issues The following is an abstract of the printed article:
Gigabit Ethernet may offer more horsepower than most networks need, but the early adopters have had first-generation products in production networks for several months now, long enough to get a solid idea of how the technology performs. These customers' early reviews are mixed. On the plus side, the devices offer bandwidth well above the levels available with Fast Ethernet, and are proving simple to install--among those interviewed for this article, there were no signs of any interoperability issues.
On the minus side, however, the technical concerns about Gigabit Ethernet's frame size--that its relatively small frames would create inefficiencies in faster networks--seem to be proving at least partially valid. The products also have showed problems related to jitter. Another significant concern: prices continue to be high, although analysts believe intense competition among vendors will bring reductions this year.
The vendors who were the first to ship products last year are now announcing second-generation Gigabit Ethernet devices. All in all, despite the shortcomings, early adopters seem happy with what they're getting from Gigabit Ethernet, and since the need for speed will only continue to grow, adoption seems sure to ramp up as well.
Some hitches are inevitable when new technologies are introduced into the market, and Gigabit Ethernet seems to be having its share. But the history of Ethernet has been that its familiarity to network managers and ever-increasing speeds more than compensate for the fact that it may be less technically elegant than other solutions, such as token-ring. The reactions of early users seem to indicate that this mentality is at work for Gigabit Ethernet as well. |
