Supermicro 10Gb Ethernet

Supermicro's 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) solutions include the energy-efficient Supermicro AOC-UTG-i2 Universal I/O (UIO) and AOC-STG-i2 standard PCI-Express network adapters, based on the Intel® 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller, to enable the mainstream server market with dual-port PCI-Express-based 10GbE connectivity for optimal I/O performance.

The accelerating growth of worldwide network traffic is forcing service providers, enterprise network managers and architects to look to ever higher-speed network technologies in order to solve the bandwidth demand crunch. Today, these administrators typically use Ethernet as their backbone technology. Although networks face many different issues, 10 Gigabit Ethernet meets several key criteria for efficient and effective high-speed networks:

Easy, straightforward migration to higher performance levels without disruption
Lower cost of ownership vs. current alternative technologies – including both acquisition and support costs
Familiar management tools and common skills base
Ability to support new applications and data types
Flexibility in network design
Multiple vendor sourcing and proven interoperability

Managers of enterprise and service provider networks have to make many choices when they design networks. Network topological design and operation has been transformed by the advent of intelligent Gigabit Ethernet multi-layer switches. In LANs, core network technology is rapidly shifting to Gigabit Ethernet and there is a growing trend towards Gigabit Ethernet networks that can operate over metropolitan area distances.

The next step for enterprise and service provider networks is the combination of multi-gigabit bandwidth with intelligent services, leading to scaled, intelligent, multi-gigabit networks with backbone and server connections ranging up to 10 Gbps.

Applications for 10 Gigabit Ethernet

10 Gigabit Ethernet in Local Area Networks
Ethernet technology is already the most deployed technology for high performance LAN environments. With the extension of 10 Gigabit Ethernet into the family of Ethernet technologies, the LAN now can reach farther and support up coming bandwidth hungry applications.

Similar to Gigabit Ethernet technology, the 10 Gigabit proposed standard supports both single-mode and multi-mode fiber mediums. However in 10 Gigabit Ethernet, the distance for single-mode fiber has expanded from the 5km that Gigabit Ethernet supports to 40km in 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

The advantage for the support of longer distances is that it gives companies who manage their own LAN environments the option of extending their data centres to more cost-effective locations up to 40km away from their campuses. This also allows them to support multiple campus locations within that 40km range. Within data centres, switch-to-switch applications, as well as switch to server applications, can also be deployed over a more cost effective multi-mode fiber medium to create 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbones that support the continuous growth of bandwidth hungry applications.

With 10 Gigabit backbones installed, companies will have the capability to begin providing Gigabit Ethernet service to workstations and, eventually, to the desktop in order to support applications such as streaming video, medical imaging, centralized applications, and high-end graphics. 10 Gigabit Ethernet will also provide lower network latency due to the speed of the link and over-provisioning bandwidth to compensate for the bursty nature of data in enterprise applications.

10 Gigabit Ethernet in Metropolitan and Storage Area Networks
Ethernet is literally everywhere, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet maintains this seamless migration in functionality. Gigabit Ethernet is already being deployed as a backbone technology for dark fiber metropolitan networks. With appropriate 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, optical transceivers and single mode fiber, service providers will be able to build links reaching 40km or more.

10 Gigabit Ethernet provides infrastructure for both network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SAN). There are numerous applications for Gigabit Ethernet in storage networks today, which can seamlessly extend to 10 Gigabit Ethernet as. These include:

Business continuance/disaster recovery
Remote backup
Storage on demand
Streaming media

10 Gigabit Ethernet in Wide Area Networks
10 Gigabit Ethernet will enable Internet service providers (ISP) and network service providers (NSPs) to create very high-speed links at a very low cost, between co located, carrier-class switches and routers and optical equipment that is directly attached to the SONET/SDH cloud. 10 Gigabit Ethernet with the WAN PHY will also allow the construction of WANs that connect geographically dispersed LANs between campuses or POPs (points of presence) over existing SONET/SDH/TDM networks.