Ethernet speeds raised to 100 gigabits per second

Our consumer-grade home DSL is starting to look pretty paltry compared to the records that are coming out of research labs these days. While we told you about the latest speed record of 14 terabits per second over fiber in Japan, that really doesn't help use mere mortals who are still using 100Base-T routers in our homes and offices -- even though about a month ago, we spied one of the first gigabit routers on the market, which raised our spirits a bit. Well our hopes have been kicked up a few more notches today, with the news from GigaOm that Infinera, the University of California Santa Cruz, Internet2 and Level3 Communications have just demoed a 100 gigabit per second Ethernet connection over a fiber network between Houston, Texas and Tampa, Florida. Now if only we could get the IEEE bureaucracy and networking manufacturers to move this fast -- we need at least a gigabit per second in our pads, like, last year.

[david @ Nov 15th 2006 1:40AM]

totally, just because im sort of happy with my 7 meg service doesnt mean i have to be :D

[patrick @ Nov 15th 2006 1:40AM]

Hum, maybe it's just me but I don't really need anything faster than what I have now. I have a 10 megabit connection and I can download a full sized DVD in litle over an hour and that is plenty fast enough for me.

[eni @ Nov 15th 2006 2:17AM]

Impressive, BUT... this is an optical path with a couple of Infinera OEO switches. No routers, no true ethernet switches etc. Great that they could do it. Great to see a telecom startup (Infinera) do so well and getting so much traction.

[DEEZNUTZ @ Nov 15th 2006 2:18AM]

Yeah but 10mb aint cuttin it for HD downloads and HD streams throughout the home... now thats sweet

[Mank @ Nov 15th 2006 2:29AM]

Bastards, I'm still on 512 kbps!

Stupid Australia.

[All thieves should be slaughtered @ Nov 15th 2006 2:34AM]

Patiently waiting for the first quantum entanglement network devices. Real-time communications no matter the size. I'll be 30 to 40 years older by that time, but it'll be worth the wait.

[Maxwell Scott-Slade @ Nov 15th 2006 3:19AM]

I found out a little nugget of information, it's routine in France to have a 24Mbit DSL connection while in the UK everyone is making a fuss about the 8Mbit service that's still crap considering BT has wires looping around trees or something, so most people (the lucky ones) are only getting 4-6Mbits connectivity anyway.

This entire phone network needs ripping out and starting over, my message to BT: Thanks for the DSL, now just do what NTL did and put in a fibre optics network, but this time make it country wide please.

[Isaac @ Nov 15th 2006 8:18AM]

24mb is widely available in the UK already and has been for a while, I'm with BeThere and they're rolling it out all over the place at a tremendous pace. Also ntl are merged with Telewest so they're network has just greatly increased and they're trialling 50mb at the moment in Ashford with 100MB coming by the end of 2007. BT shoudl be worried, they can't feasibly upgrade their infrastructure and the copper twisted pairs are never going to compete with the speeds that ntl/Telewest (soon to be Virgin Media) are going to be getting from their network. Say bye bye to ADSL in a couple of years, cable is the future.

[glacia00 @ Nov 15th 2006 3:20AM]

"Now if only we could get the IEEE bureaucracy and networking manufacturers"

I work for one of the companies involved in this experiment and trust me not having a Gigabit link to your home has nothing to do with the IEEE or networking manufacturers. If the public wanted it they would have it now.

[MPG @ Nov 15th 2006 4:27AM]

Yea, this is the second time in a week that Engadget uses the word "IEEE" and proves that they have no clue whatsoever about how the IEEE works.

[aka Wombat @ Nov 15th 2006 3:37AM]

show me the gigabits!!!!

[BigGeorge @ Nov 15th 2006 4:09AM]

oh really glacia00? just how does "the public" get it if nobody offers it, exactly? some mysterious force just makes a fast connection materialise inside your apartment which connects to an ISP which can't terminate the connection?

Of course people want it/would have it if they could!! stewpid.

[cosmicm @ Nov 15th 2006 4:19AM]

hell, why can't we just have 100mbps right now, or a few years ago?

[Keaton @ Nov 15th 2006 4:51AM]

ummm... I feel really stupid now... I've got a 1.5 megabit dsl connection... and I thought I was cool too...

[Zorque @ Nov 15th 2006 4:55AM]

Guys, I don't think they're talking about wanting internet speeds up to a gigabit. Sure, that'd be nice, but this story is about networking, and its main use would probably be file transfer and distributed computing in lab and corporate environments.

[GhostDoggy @ Nov 15th 2006 5:56AM]

Isn't this a little misrepresenting in achievement? First, they simply bonded ten 10GigE links, and not a true 100GigE link. This is like saying I achieved a DS3 by using a sufficient number of DS1 links on an IMA card to bond them.

glacia00, I am doubting that in this democratic republic that the wish of the people can drive private sector. I think you are misleading in your comments. Sure, if the majority of consumers were willing to spend $10,000 per month on bandwith I would also conclude we would get what we want, but that is a rational conclusion to draw upon.

Personally, I'd much rather spend the $200-300 per month on a GigE optical link to my home than the $200-300 I pay into the public school system every month when I am not using it. I'd much rather be invoiced for using the public school system then expect someone else to pay for my moments of indiscretions (I have none).

[zverg @ Nov 15th 2006 6:38AM]

one of the first gigabit routers?? I've been using the D-Link DGL-4300 with it's full gigabit switching capabilities (on all ports) for a year and a half now. EXCELLENT router, even though I haven't really touched it's "gamefuel" QOS engine. I'm happy with my gigabit, SPI-enabled, AES-encrypting with WPA2 powerhouse router.

[Paul @ Nov 15th 2006 7:20AM]

It should be worth noting that they achieved these speeds by trunking 10 Ethernet cables together, so it isn't like you are going to get these speeds over a single cat5.

[Robert Fielder @ Nov 15th 2006 7:35AM]

The people writing these articles need to get caught up with home elestronics.

Gigabit switches over cat5 have been around - and cheap! - for a couple of years. All my PCs have been at gig speed for about 18 months, using an 8 port D-Link switch.

Very nice for moving video files around as needed!

C'mon, guys, GET WITH IT!

[Baffled @ Nov 15th 2006 8:31AM]

My apartment just got upgraded from 4 mbps to 10 mbps, for free!! The speed is amazing!

I'm still waiting for my 100 mbps, though. I guess I could always just move to Korea, right? If I am gonna be there, i might as well pick up a sweet cellular while I'm at it. Too bad I don't speak Korean...

[sr @ Nov 15th 2006 8:33AM]

Is the author retarded? One of the first gigabit routers - last month? I had to check the date of the article to make sure it wasn't 2 years old.

[scott @ Nov 15th 2006 10:45AM]

Erm, what can write that fast? Certainly not SATA 3.0 let alone SATA 2.0... You'd need an amazing RAID 5 array to see any difference...

[... @ Nov 15th 2006 11:44AM]

Umm, combining the signal from multiple transmitters isn't exactly 'new' technology... We were been developing a system that run 50 sepereate signals down the fiber years ago...

[glacia00 @ Nov 15th 2006 6:53PM]

BigGeorge if you're done with infantile insults - the hardware has existed for years with companies and institutions being the only customers because they invest in the infrastructure. The technology
is there but what is missing and will continue to be missing for the general public is that infrastructure.

What most people don't understand is that going from 10MB/s to 1GB/s is not the incremental increase we have seen in the past. And the path to 1GB/s is not going to look anything like the path that brought you 10MB/s. That path was a repurposing existing infrastructure. But you're not going to do 1GB/s on phone lines or even cable.

If the general public was willing to invest in that infrastructure as a community they would have it but as you can see even here the majority of people are happy with 4 or 6 MB/s they're getting now and see no need for the investment.

[Domititdus @ Nov 16th 2006 7:07AM]

Oh..La..La ! . we still using 56k dial-up here in Saudi :P .

[UCSC student @ Nov 16th 2006 3:05PM]

I go to the University of California, Santa Cruz and our internet is barely working. I can't believe my school came out with this stuff.