IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc Group Launched

IEEE Standards Association Industry Connections Program Seeks Contributions from across Industries in Appraising Ongoing Bandwidth Needs for Ethernet Wireline Applications

LAS VEGAS-- May 09, 2011 --IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced the formation of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc group. This new IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Industry Connections program is designed to assess the future bandwidth needs of Ethernet wireline applications across multiple industries, which will assist future development activities of Ethernet standards.

The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc (http://www.ieee802.org/3/ad_hoc/bwa/index.html) invites contributions from individuals across all industries as it gathers information and—with the IEEE 802.3 Working Group’s approval—produces an assessment of its findings that will be referencable for future standards-development efforts. The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc seeks any data related to Ethernet bandwidth trends of past, present or future, to help ensure that the future needs for Ethernet wireline speeds are understood.

“We are driving a global, industry-wide assessment now of the needs of the people who are ultimately going to use the next generation of Ethernet wireline standards,” said John D’Ambrosia, chair of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc and chief Ethernet evangelist, CTO office, Force10 Networks. “The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc will give future development activities extremely valuable information in a useful format, streamline their early stages of work and enable them to hit the ground running instead of crawling.”

The span of stakeholders in the future of Ethernet bandwidth standards is sweeping, as applications for corporate data centers, Internet exchanges, telecommunications carriers, finance, research and development and content providers inevitably push network capacities. IEEE in June 2010 ratified IEEE 802.3ba 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet, enabling innovations in high-rate server connectivity, core switching and other points along the Ethernet value chain.

“It's to the benefit of all that we keep pushing the upper limits of Ethernet speed so that the bandwidth of backbone networks never inhibits the research and development activities of industry, government and education as they seek innovative ways to leverage advanced networks,” said Paul Nikolich, chair of the IEEE 802® LAN/MAN Standards Committee. “The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc is a terrific opportunity for the individuals at the vanguard of Ethernet's usage to contribute to its next generation of development. Cross-industry and global scope, neutrality, credibility and proven systems of openness and due process make IEEE, through the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc, the ideal forum for building an industry understanding of the diverse bandwidth needs of various Ethernet applications.”

The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc is an IEEE-SA Industry Connections activity (http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/index.html). Through Industry Connections, IEEE-SA facilitates like-minded organizations and individuals coming together quickly, effectively and economically to build industry consensus at strategic points in a technology’s lifecycle. Groups have the unique opportunity to leverage IEEE resources in a customized format, host workshops and conferences and produce varied content.

“The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc is a perfect example of the value that IEEE-SA Industry Connections can deliver in terms of sowing seeds of future innovation and market growth within a technology space,” said James Wendorf, director, IEEE-SA Industry Connections. “Future standards efforts will be given a head start thanks to the work the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc accomplishes today in building cross-industry awareness and consensus.”

The public webpage of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad hoc may be found at http://www.ieee802.org/3/ad_hoc/bwa/index.html. To subscribe to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad hoc reflector, visit http://www.ieee802.org/3/ad_hoc/bwa/reflector.html.

Supporting quotes

Andrew Bach, senior vice president, communications and network infrastructure, NYSE Euronext:

“It’s critical that Ethernet standards development keeps in front of the real-world needs of the marketplace so that network architectures are able to support growth in traffic without equivalent growth in operational costs and complexity. The groundwork that the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc can do today for standards activities downstream will prove very valuable, particularly to companies in industries such as finance where early adoption of standards-based technologies can prove to be a competitive differentiator.”

Steve Cotter, department head for ESnet at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:

“At the Department of Energy's national labs, scientists are tackling some of society's most pressing issues—from understanding the origins of the universe to measuring the impact of climate change on our environment. Large-scale instruments and the distributed nature of today's collaborations are creating an explosion of data that demands more bandwidth and network resources as access to this data directly impacts scientific productivity and, ultimately, our nation's competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The launch of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc and its potential as a reference for future standards comprise very good news.”

Keith Cambron, president and chief executive officer, AT&T Labs

“AT&T applauds the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc for its efforts to gain an understanding of the future bandwidth needs of the industry. We continue to see exponential broadband growth across the AT&T global IP backbone network, and appreciate the need for next-generation Ethernet standards to stay ahead of consumer demand.”

About the IEEE Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information visit http://standards.ieee.org/ .

About IEEE

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