If the latest Ethernet Alliance High Speed Networking (HSN) Plugfest is any indication, industry is making significant progress toward developing multivendor interoperable high-speed devices. The event, conducted the week of April 29, 2019 at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) in Durham, NH, attracted 13 companies looking to put their 25-Gbps to 400-Gbps products through a series of interoperability exercises. The overall pass rate was greater than 97%, says the Ethernet Alliance.
The third plugfest to address this range of transmission rates followed a similar event held last December (see “Ethernet Alliance wraps second Higher Speed Networking Plugfest of 2018”). Products for 25 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) through 400GbE were tested in such form factors as OSFP, QSFP, and QSFP-DD, the Ethernet Alliance reports. The interoperability exercises included electrical and optical interconnects, new signaling and modulation technologies, switches and NICs, cabling, and test and measurement platforms and methodologies. The Ethernet Alliance says Frame Error Rate (FER) tests produced a 100% pass rate and, overall, functional interoperability tests achieved an aggregated 97.5% pass rate.
Companies taking part included Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH); Anritsu Co. (TYO: 6754); Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE: ANET); Credo Semiconductor, Inc.; EXFO, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO); Fluke Corp. (NYSE: FTV); HG Genuine Co., Ltd.; Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC); The Siemon Co.; Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT); Tektronix, Inc.; Teledyne LeCroy, Inc. (NYSE: TDY); and Wilder Technologies, LLC.
“This latest Ethernet Alliance plugfest was a valuable opportunity for testing of both pre-release and market-ready products and solutions against IEEE standards in a confidential, non-competitive environment. The substantial turnout among member companies and high volume of successful tests speaks to Ethernet’s enduring legacy of continuous improvement,” said Dave Chalupsky, plugfest chair and board of directors member, Ethernet Alliance, and network product architect at Intel Corp. “Ethernet’s hallmark multivendor interoperability makes it ideal for addressing global demand for higher-speed connectivity. Test events like this are the key to unleashing that interoperability, so we’re definitely looking forward to our next HSN Plugfest in October 2019.”
The plugfests are open exclusively to Ethernet Alliance members. The group plans to recreate at least some of the plugfest activities during this fall’s ECOC 2019 in Dublin, Ireland, at Booth 134.
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