Anybody know about 10 gbit switches? Makers?

[OSUBeaver]

I have been searchign the net for 10 gbit switches. I cant seem to find any manufacturers or models. Could somebody point me in the right direction? Also maybe a site with some good information about 10 gbit over copper and fiber. Thanks

 

[spidey07]

cisco, foundary and extreme should all have 10 gig switches.

10 gig over copper is still an infant but I've heard rumblings of special proprietary solutions over copper for short distances of say 50 feet.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: OSUBeaver
I have been searchign the net for 10 gbit switches. I cant seem to find any manufacturers or models.

You must be new at this internet thing.. A Google search for "10 gigabit ethernet switches" puts both Extreme and Foundry all over the first page of results.

 

[cmetz]

OSUBeaver, 10gea.com might be quite helpful. So would Google...

Cisco, Extreme, Foundry, and Force10 are the folks I know in the 10G space. Force10 is a start-up, and unfortunately in these times you probably still want to steer clear of start-up vendors -- too much risk of them going away. Among the rest, as far as I know all three have oversubscribed 10G line cards for their high-end modular chassis switches; that is to say, the line card might be a 10G interface, but the backplane connection is 4-8Gb/s depending on vendor, so you'll never move 10Gb/s on a current chassis system. So you need to think of 10G as being a standards-compliant multi-gigabit interconnect, rather than being a full 10G today. Obviously, everyone's net-gen systems will be able to handle a full 10G line rate interface.

The 10G interfaces I've worked with so far all have some gotchas - they're first-gen all the way. But they really do work.

10G over copper is solidly in the research phase in the IEEE. From the studies that I have seen, cat5e you can forget about, cat6 is very iffy at any useful distance, and cat7 is approaching practicality. It will probably be a couple of years before 10G over copper is a touchable reality and longer still until it's product.

 

[bgroff]

Originally posted by: cmetz
OSUBeaver, 10gea.com might be quite helpful. So would Google...

Cisco, Extreme, Foundry, and Force10 are the folks I know in the 10G space. Force10 is a start-up, and unfortunately in these times you probably still want to steer clear of start-up vendors -- too much risk of them going away. Among the rest, as far as I know all three have oversubscribed 10G line cards for their high-end modular chassis switches; that is to say, the line card might be a 10G interface, but the backplane connection is 4-8Gb/s depending on vendor, so you'll never move 10Gb/s on a current chassis system. So you need to think of 10G as being a standards-compliant multi-gigabit interconnect, rather than being a full 10G today. Obviously, everyone's net-gen systems will be able to handle a full 10G line rate interface.

So you're saying that Cisco's new-ish Sup720 is pushing less than 10Gb/s on the backplane? The Cat 6500 has been able to push 256Gb/s (not cheaply, mind you) for several years now. Properly equiped, with the proper fabric cards, blah blah...

A quick scan of Foundry's high end switches are also claiming MUCH higher than 10Gb/s on the backplane. I can't imagine that they are claiming two orders of magnitude higher without something to back it up...

 

[OSUBeaver]

hey thanks for all the info. We're currently looking for gbic solutions because we cannot afford $50,000+ switches to test, hopefully I'll be able to find out some good info. Thanks again

 

[cmetz]

bgroff,

"So you're saying that Cisco's new-ish Sup720 is pushing less than 10Gb/s on the backplane?"

Hook up an IXIA and form your own conclusions.