Future watch: new Ethernet standard to bring 2.5 and 5 Gbit/sec speeds to existing cabling
The group responsible for the Ethernet specifications have unveiled a new pair of standards, bringing faster speeds to existing Cat-5e and Cat-6 cable runs, eliminating networking bottlenecks, and potentially saving organizations with large deployments a great deal of money.
The Ethernet Alliance has announced that the new 802.3bz standard, also called NBase-T, that brings 2.5 Gbit/sec and 5 Gbit/sec speeds to older cabling has been ratified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
"The Cat5e and Cat6 installed in just the last 15 years now exceeds an estimated 70 billion meters of cabling, which is more than 10 trips to Pluto," said Cisco Vice President of Product Management Sachin Gupta about the ratification. "It is easy to imagine the value of delivering multi-gigabit speeds to the more than 1.3 billion Cat 5e/6 outlets worldwide if it doesn't require the huge head-ache and expense of a major cable replacement."
The technology to implement faster speeds in existing cable goes hand-in-hand with the initial deployment of 802.11ac wave 2 technologies in June, which is already starting to demand higher bitrates from mostly wired networking backbones. To feed the high-capacity switches, organizations could rip out the older cabling, and replace it with fiber optics or much higher grade copper cabling for 10 Gbit/second speeds, at $500 or more per network "drop" not including expenses for downtime, or planning costs.
Cisco notes that in enterprise deployments supplying "bandwidth hungry smart phones," the bottleneck isn't from the networking hardware like switches and access points, but the in-wall cabling. Existing hardware can handle 3-5 Gbit/second speeds, but Cat-6 cabling, or Gigabit Ethernet cabling, is capable of only 1 Gbit/sec.
Enterprise hardware exists now for the faster speeds. Consumer-grade hardware isn't likely to need the faster speeds for the time being, but gear for public access points at gathering places like coffee shops and other small businesses is now available.
As of yet, no Apple gear supports 802.11ac wave 2 with multi-user MIMO access which will ultimately force the shift to the new protocol. However, inclusion in iOS devices is just a matter of time.
The easiest way to retrofit the faster networking speeds of macOS or other computing equipment currently on the market is through a USB 3.0 or 3.1 adapter, or through a Thunderbolt bridge. Intel already has a chipset that is capable of the speed, can deal with the new protocol, and demands little power.
Apple's iPhone and iPad are the prime movers of wireless internet traffic in U.S. enterprise, both from a "bring your own device" standpoint, as well as from a casual consumer access point demand point of view.
Even with Apple's predilection for wireless technologies, to say that Apple users need not concern themselves with fast wired networking is short-sighted.
The Ethernet Alliance has announced that the new 802.3bz standard, also called NBase-T, that brings 2.5 Gbit/sec and 5 Gbit/sec speeds to older cabling has been ratified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
"The Cat5e and Cat6 installed in just the last 15 years now exceeds an estimated 70 billion meters of cabling, which is more than 10 trips to Pluto," said Cisco Vice President of Product Management Sachin Gupta about the ratification. "It is easy to imagine the value of delivering multi-gigabit speeds to the more than 1.3 billion Cat 5e/6 outlets worldwide if it doesn't require the huge head-ache and expense of a major cable replacement."
The technology to implement faster speeds in existing cable goes hand-in-hand with the initial deployment of 802.11ac wave 2 technologies in June, which is already starting to demand higher bitrates from mostly wired networking backbones. To feed the high-capacity switches, organizations could rip out the older cabling, and replace it with fiber optics or much higher grade copper cabling for 10 Gbit/second speeds, at $500 or more per network "drop" not including expenses for downtime, or planning costs.
Cisco notes that in enterprise deployments supplying "bandwidth hungry smart phones," the bottleneck isn't from the networking hardware like switches and access points, but the in-wall cabling. Existing hardware can handle 3-5 Gbit/second speeds, but Cat-6 cabling, or Gigabit Ethernet cabling, is capable of only 1 Gbit/sec.
Enterprise hardware exists now for the faster speeds. Consumer-grade hardware isn't likely to need the faster speeds for the time being, but gear for public access points at gathering places like coffee shops and other small businesses is now available.
The Apple connection
As of yet, no Apple gear supports 802.11ac wave 2 with multi-user MIMO access which will ultimately force the shift to the new protocol. However, inclusion in iOS devices is just a matter of time.
The easiest way to retrofit the faster networking speeds of macOS or other computing equipment currently on the market is through a USB 3.0 or 3.1 adapter, or through a Thunderbolt bridge. Intel already has a chipset that is capable of the speed, can deal with the new protocol, and demands little power.
Apple's iPhone and iPad are the prime movers of wireless internet traffic in U.S. enterprise, both from a "bring your own device" standpoint, as well as from a casual consumer access point demand point of view.
Even with Apple's predilection for wireless technologies, to say that Apple users need not concern themselves with fast wired networking is short-sighted.
Comments
The writer probably used Google and was given the distance to Disney.
Please tell me more about how no physical jacks/connections are necessary & how wireless has already fully replaced them with equal quality!
On a similar note, it is extremely rare for a single computer to make full use of a 1 Gbps connection. A network drop for that computer doesn't really need crazy fast speeds.
The amount of Ethernet cable deployed on earth is 1/100 of a plutometer. Whip THAT out at your next trivia night.
Arbitrary imperial-style measurements for the space age.
That means 100 mebiibit per second is is 12.5 mebibytes per seconds. A 1080p video is 1920×1080 "Full HD" which is 2.07 megapixels. At a 30Hz aka 30 fps, how many colors can you apply to each pixel in High Profile? What is the results for 60fps? What is the data rates for 2160p aka 4K for videos shot on the iPhone? What overhead is there for the video? How would GigE affect buffering times over 100Mib/s?
100BASE-T is doable—which is the case I made when the 4th gen Apple TV came out and people bitched—but GigE would be optimal when 4K, even though you can still get 2160p over Full Duplex 100BASE-T when using HEVC.
While you're right, the current Apple TV doesn't support 4K anyway, it's using the Apple A8 CPU. The next gen Apple TV will probably move to the A9 or better, and the A9 does support HEVC. Even if they don't enable 4K at that point, there isn't much or anything hardware wise that would prevent a software update enabling 4K at that point. So, it's basically about planning ahead with the inherent capabilities of the next Apple TV.
I clearly stated in my very first sentence "in the next Apple TV," and only spoke in terms of what the future may hold for the future of Apple's media extender appliance.