Gigabit Ethernet Applications-Is It A Fit For Your Organization?
In general 10 Gigabit Ethernet links are deployed in parts of an
enterprise or service provider network where large numbers of
Gigabit Ethernet links are being aggregated. This most commonly
occurs in the network core, but as gigabit-to-the desktop
deployments continue to grow the need for 10 Gigabit Ethernet
uplinks from the network edge will emerge. Following are some
common uses or applications for 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Enterprise
As all enterprise applications converge on the common Ethernet
backbone, the network must be able to gracefully support a new
array of bandwidth hungry applications such as storage, backups
and video. To effectively deal with this onslaught of bandwidth
demand, forward-thinking network architects are designing
enterprise networks with 10 Gigabit Ethernet to meet current and
future needs.
Starting from the edge of the network, as gigabit-to-the-desktop
deployments continue to grow, the need for 10 gigabit uplinks
from a wiring closet switch to handle the performance demands of
power users will emerge. Backbone links to entire floors or
buildings may run over optical fibers at gigabit rates, while
drops to desktop workstations may need to be no faster than 100
Mbps. Naturally, with this upsurge in bandwidth, demand 10
Gigabit Ethernet will be used as a high-speed interconnection
between multiple buildings. These buildings could be in close
proximity on a self-contained "campus", or could be many miles
apart and be connected by dark fiber provided by a local service
provider or municipality. Due to the limited distance of 10
Gigabit Ethernet on multimode fiber (MMF), singlemode fiber
(SMF) must be deployed or leased to support 10 gigabit building
interconnects.
In an enterprise data center, 10 Gigabit Ethernet can be used in
a variety of applications such as cluster computing, server
attachment and storage interconnect.
High Performance Cluster Computing (HPCC)
Server clusters are a group of tens, hundreds or even thousands
of relatively inexpensive (e.g. 1U Linux servers) computers
(referred to as nodes) connected in parallel to cooperatively
solve large, complex problems. Cluster computing has become a
mainstream technological tool for research, financial modeling,
digital image rendering and scientific applications. The
connection between the various computers in the cluster is
typically an Ethernet switch.
Gigabit Ethernet Servers and NAS
As servers and Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are
attached to the edge of the network at 10 gigabit speeds, the
network core will have to scale proportionally by link
aggregating multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet links or eventually
with 40 Gigabit Ethernet. Network architecture must take into
account meeting current Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
server connectivity needs and scale upwards as the need for
greater bandwidth inevitably emerges.
Storage Interconnect (iSCSI)
Fibre Channel has been the protocol of choice for storage area
networking, however, with the emergence of the IETF (Internet
Engineering Task Force) iSCSI protocol, Fibre Channel's
dominance is being challenged by IP/Ethernet. Simply put, iSCSI
is an IP-based storage networking standard that facilitates data
transfers by carrying SCSI (a protocol commonly used for
communication between storage devices and computers) commands
over IP networks. As iSCSI continues to gain in popularity, 10
Gigabit Ethernet links are the logical choice to carry the
enormous volumes of data that traverse large corporate networks.
Given the extreme complex nature of designing an appropriate
Gigabit Ethernet network architecture....and even deciding if
it's right for your organization....it's strongly suggested that
you not dump this whole animal on your IT staff. At a
minimum....make use of free technical consultation for the
bandwidth sourcing requirements from DS3-Bandwidth.com.