Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
10 Gigabit Ethernet Design Rules
The IEEE 802.3ae supplement to the 802.3 standard, published in August 2002, specifies
the standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE). It is defined for full-duplex operation over
optical media, UTP, and copper. The IEEE 802.3an standard provides the specifications
for r unning 10GE over UTP c abling. Hub s or repeater s c annot be u s ed bec au s e they oper -
ate in half-duplex mode. It allows the use of Ethernet frames over distances typically en-
countered in metropolitan-area networks (MAN) and wide-area networks (WAN). Other
uses include data centers, corporate backbones, and server farms.
10GE Media Types
10GE has seven physical media specifications based on different fiber types and encod-
ing. Multimode fiber (MMF) and single-mode fiber (SMF) are used. Table 3-5 describes
the different 10GE media types.
Ta b l e 3 - 5
10GE Media Types
10GE Media
Type
Wavelength/Fiber
(Short or
Long)/UTP/Copper
Distance
Other Description
10GBASE-SR
Short-wavelength MMF
To 3 0 0 m
Uses 66B encoding
10GBASE-
SW
Short-wavelength MMF
To 3 0 0 m
Uses the WAN interface sublayer
(WIS)
10GBASE-LR
Long-wavelength SMF
To 1 0 k m
Uses 66B encoding for dark fiber use
10GBASE-LW
Long-wavelength SMF
To 1 0 k m
Uses WIS
10GBASE-ER
Extra-long-wavelength
SMF
To 4 0 k m
Uses 66B encoding for dark fiber use
10GBASE-
EW
Extra-long-wavelength
SNMP
To 4 0 k m
Uses WIS
10GBASE-
LX4
Uses division multiplex-
ing for both MMF and
SMF
To 1 0 k m
Uses 8B/10B encoding
10GBASE-
CX4
4 pairs of twinax copper
15 m
IEEE 802.3ak
10GBASE-T
CAT6a UTP
100 m
IEEE 802.3an
Short-wavelength multimode fiber is 850 nm. Long-wavelength is 1310 nm, and extra-
long-wavelength is 1550 nm. The WIS is used to interoperate with Synchronous Optical
Network (SONET) STS-192c transmission format.
