Industry News

The switch uplinks use SFP+ transceivers or Twinax cables

August 3, 2011

On June 29, HP announced the A5820, a top-of-rack (ToR) switch. Both the module and the switch take traffic from up to 16 blades (in a blade module) or rack servers (in a ToR switch), discern the type of packet (i.e., IP, Fibre Channel, or iSCSI), and send the appropriate packets to eight SFP+ uplinksfour 10GigE, two FC, and two BladeSystem interconnectsfor a true converged fabric coming from the servers.

Accelerated Volume Heralds Growth in Transceiver Market

August 3, 2011

The HP announcements represent the companys first phase in FCoE implementation. This first phase addresses FCoE within the rack using either blade or rack servers and switches. As traffic exits the blade or ToR switches, IP and FC traffic are split and sent to existing SANs and LANs. The second phase is the implementation of multi-hop FCoE networks where the FCoE packets are sent through a converged FCoE network. That phase will take a lot more validation and FCoE switch design. The final stage will be when FCoE targets become available and are fully validated providing fully converged FCoE networks. By implementing only the first phase, HP has simplified cabling and management within the rack, but existing FC SANs and 10 GbE LANs are unaffected. Phases two and three may take several years before users are comfortable moving to them.

Arista Networks 7500 named as the 2010 Best of Interop Grand Prize Winner!

August 3, 2011

LightCounting analysts covered the Interop 2010 trade show in Las Vegas on April 24-29, 2010. Most noteworthy was the palpable surge in popularity of 10Gbps Ethernet products for line cards, switch/router systems and servers. The buzz on the show floor was, "Customers stopped asking about 10G and started ordering it now, and every other card shipped has at least one 10GigE port on it". An identified change from last year was the significant shift from systems showing vast arrays of 1Gbps RJ-45 Ethernet ports to vast arrays of SFP+ ports (not 10GBase-T) as exhibited by nearly every system and line card-supplier. Switch chassis with 300-700 ports of SFP+ were on display capable of supporting Direct Attach copper and optical transceivers.

Optical Interface Opportunities

August 3, 2011

There is a clear opportunity for optical interfaces to capture the bulk 10GigE ports deployed in the next 10 years. The biggest barrier is the market perception that optics is an expensive solution suitable only for early adopters. The glaring message delivered by the copper-centric Ethernet crowd to SFP+ suppliers was "thank you for your help, we will take it from here" but there are a lot of factors playing in favor of SFP+.

The Best Of Interop

August 3, 2011

While the battle of Cisco and HP is unfolding across the switch and server markets, smaller and more nimble vendors are making headlines. Arista Networks impressively claimed the 2010 Best of Interop Grand Prize Winner for their progress and ingenuity with the 7500 gateway switch system and won infrastructure category show award for low latency, low power, compact 10G 7500 modular switch that supports both 10GBase-T and SFP+ with QSFP for uplinks. The 384-port switch demo at Interop was populated with optical interfaces only, as the pure weight and size of Cat6 cabling required is prohibitive. We will be discussing further the importance of this direction in our upcoming state of the industry report.

Datacom is fast to accelerate and slowdown

August 2, 2011

The telecom segment reacted much more slowly to the global economic recovery, and it is unlikely to respond promptly to deteriorating economic conditions if fears of a double dip recession materialize. LightCounting expects modest increases in sales of telecom optical networking gear in the second part of 2010. Sales of SONET/SDH, WDM, ROADMs, and amplifier modules employed in telecom networks increased rapidly in late 2009 and early 2010, as equipment manufacturers started replenishing inventories cut during the last recession. LightCounting expects that growth for components and modules used in telecom networks will continue through the rest of 2010, but the annual sales will remain below pre-recession levels. Among encouraging signs in this market is higher-than-average growth in sales of ROADMs, amplifiers, and passive components that are deployed in first stages of network upgrade cycles. LightCounting analysis of the network bandwidth growth suggests that the networks are overdue for the next round of infrastructure upgrades. Continuing deployments of next generation wireless and FTTx systems adds urgency to adding capacity in core networks.

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