26Jun

50 Years of Ethernet – But It’s Far From Over The Hill

Last month was the 50th anniversary of Ethernet – Half a century of this useful bit of tech kit. And as it turns out – You can teach this old dog some new tricks.

Ethernet has proved its adaptability over the years, and continues to evolve along with technological developments including the worlds of AI, distributed computing and virtual reality.

The History of Ethernet

Ethernet is somewhat unrivalled – Can you think of another technology that has been as influential? Its usefulness and success has shown over the past 50 years and it looks like it’s journey is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Ethernet was invented by Bob Metcalf and David Boggs in 1973. Since then, Ethernet has been adapted and expanded across all industries, continuing to be the reliable Layer-2 protocol in computer networking.

It has literally been deployed everywhere – Including under the oceans and in outer space! This universality has led to further expansions, with the most impactful area currently using Ethernet being large cloud data centres. Part of this is the linking of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) clusters which is a rapidly growing area.

Why Does Ethernet Have Such Broad Applications?

The bottom line is that in the majority of cases, there is no need to invent another network in order to connect what you need to connect. Ethernet brings flexibility and adaptability – 2 of the most important characteristics of any technology or communication network.

Did you know that Ethernet was integral to business’ response to Covid?

When the pandemic hit, those who were able to work from home had to stay home. All of a sudden, we had a world full of distributed workforces all trying to stay connected. On top of that, we had a generation of home-learners thrust into online education and teachers teaching through video-conferencing. And let’s not forget that the strict social distancing measures meant more people connected through online gaming.

This shift to remote working on such a large scale saw Ethernet applications play a large role in keeping things going due to the huge pressure on communication service providers to offer enough bandwidth to keep everyone online.

Ethernet is the foundation of internet technology. Connecting through Ethernet meant that those who had to stay home – Whether they were working, learning or playing – could have their internet needs met in their own homes despite the increased demand.

Ethernet in Space

There are some really unique applications of Ethernet thanks to such widespread development.

For example, for more than 20 years Ethernet has been used in space for exploration and on the International Space Station. It has also been used for Mars missions and on satellites.

But why? The connectivity that Ethernet provides is seamless, which is vital for communication systems that are mission critical like sensors, cameras, controls and telemetry. When it comes to vehicles and devices like satellites and probes, Ethernet has been indispensable.

Ethernet has also proved itself to be a key part of ground-to-space and space-to-ground communication.

Ethernet for In-Vehicle Networks

It’s not just in outer space that Ethernet comes in useful – It’s the backbone of in-vehicle networks in the air (like f-45 fighter jets), on the ground and under the sea. It replaced Controller Area Network (CAN) and Local Interconnect Network (LIN) protocols as a more capable alternative.

Ethernet is relied upon to provide connectivity for UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and UUV’s (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles). These vehicles enable the monitoring of atmospheric conditions, tides and temperatures as well as providing next-generation surveillance and security systems – All because of Ethernet.

Why Ethernet?

Ethernet is replacing the majority of ‘specialised buses’ of data communication and storage across all industries.

But why is Ethernet so all-encompassing? It’s simple and effective.

Ethernet has simple connectors
It’s simple to make Ethernet work on existing twisted pair cabling
Simple frame types are easy to de-bug
It’s simple to encapsulate traffic on Ethernet
It’s simple to access control mechanisms

All these things have meant that Ethernet is a fast, cheap, easy-to-troubleshoot option for:

Embedded NICs in motherboards
Ethernet Switches of any size, speed flavour combo
Gigabit Ethernet NIC cards that pioneered jumbo frames
Ethernet NIC and Switch optimizations for all kinds of use cases
Features like EtherChannel – channel bonding sets of ports in a stat-mux config

What’s Next for Ethernet Development?

Not only have we seen how vitally useful Ethernet is currently, it’s also set to keep its value in the future.

We’re seeing high-level resources committed to Ethernet and the continued technical work to improve features and functionality further.

The IEEE P802.3dj Task Force is currently developing the next generation of Ethernet electrical and optical signalling.

Over the past 50 years we’ve seen time and time again how Ethernet has solved problems across industries, bringing it all together with evolving developments. There is a strong likelihood that this will continue and only grow stronger.

Ethernet and Internet Speed

When we talk about internet speeds, we focus on speed – Everyone wants dast internet! Ethernet is always drawing attention for his top speeds which seems to only continue to increase.

But there is actually a market for the enhancement of slower speeds via Ethernet too on 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps and 25 Gbps.

Over the last 20 years, it’s reported that over 9 billion Ethernet switch ports have been shipped, with a market value of over $450 billion. Ethernet is responsible for connected people on a global level, playing a pivotal role in connectivity between things, devices and ultimately people.

What’s Next for Ethernet Expansions?

On the IEEE website it lists some future expansions for Ethernet which include:

Short reach
Optical interconnects based on 100 Gbps wavelengths
Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Timestamping clarifications
Automotive Optical Multigig
Next steps in Single-Pair ecosystem
100 Gbps over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) systems
400 Gbps over DWDM systems
A study group proposal for Automotive 10G+ Copper; and 200 Gbps, 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, and 1.6 Tbps Ethernet

There is continuing expansion of the Ethernet portfolio with some potentially game-changing advances, for example:

Power over Ethernet (PoE)
Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) (Handling Ethernet transmission via a single pair of copper wires)
Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) (A standard way to provide deterministic and guaranteed delivery of data over a network)

It’s Not Just Ethernet That’s Evolving

We know that in the world of technology, things move at a fast pace and are always evolving and advancing.

These evolving technologies rely on Ethernet. We spoke at the start of this article about the role Ethernet has to play in things like AI and VR. Advancements in these areas wouldn’t happen without Ethernet.

As with many things technological, latency can be a huge problem and it’s paramount that this is managed. Ethernet and Precision Time Protocol is expected to help address this latency issue by enabling Ethernet to evolve into a connectivity technology with defined latency objectives.

There are lots of instances industry-wide where time-precision and synchronised operations are vital. The telecommunications sector is just one of these, especially when it comes to 5G networks and the future 6G networks.

Enterprise LANs could also benefit from the predefined latency that Ethernet networks can provide, especially when addressing the requirements of AI technologies and synchronising GPU’s across data centres.

Ethernet is intertwined with emerging tech, heavily influencing how they function and evolve.

Ethernet and AI

AI technology requires multiple services all needing low-latency connections. Therefore, Ethernet expansion will also be a key area for AI computing infrastructure and application development.

You’re probably starting to see more AI in your day-to-day life. Things such as AI generative artwork are increasing in popularity. They use Ethernet as a foundational communications layer so these new AI services will need huge infrastructure investments.

AI and cloud computing tools are expected to drive the evolution of technology consumption, devices and networks – Both for work and leisure.

For Wireless, You Need Wired

Let’s not forget that you can’t have wireless without wired. Ethernet is at the heart of wireless networks as they continue to expand. All wireless AP’s need some kind of wired infrastructure.

The data centres that power cloud computing, AI and other future technologies are all connected together by wires and fibre connections. And where do they go back to? Ethernet switches.

Ethernet and Power Efficiency

Efficiency and power consumption are a big deal, especially currently. There is a need to reduce Ethernet power consumption and this also drives part of its ongoing development.

Minimising power consumption is essential, which is where Energy-Efficient Ethernet comes in. It powers down links when there is not a lot of traffic, thus minimising power consumption.

Ethernet as the Foundation of Engineering

Ethernet is hugely popular hence why so many IT professionals are training in using and deploying it.

Having celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, it’s no wonder that it continues to be the foundation that the engineering world is built on. With decades of development behind it, Ethernet technology is continuing to expand.

Whatever the future holds technology wise, Ethernet will likely be there to connect it all together in some form.

by admin

26th June 2023

17 Views00 Likes

19Jul

Will Wi-Fi 7 Replace Wired Ethernet?

We all want the best connection possible – Whether that’s wireless or wired. Here at Geekabit, we love all things Wi-Fi, but even we will admit when a wired Ethernet connection could bring more stability and reliability.

The Wi-Fi cimmunity is all a-buzz with talk about Wi-Fi 7 and the latest improvements it will bring to the wireless world. But will it replace internet via wired Ethernet cables? Theoretically, Wi-Fi 7 should have a top speed that would make it a worthy opponent of LAN’s. But that wouldn’t be the case in all situations.

Let’s take a closer look.

What is Wi-Fi 7?

This next generation of wireless technology is well on the way. And with the promise of even higher data rates and lower latency than the current Wi-Fi 6 offering!

Wi-Fi 7 (or 802.11be to be technically correct), in comparison to Wi-Fi 6, will:

Use multi-band/ multi-channel aggregation and operation
Deliver higher spectrum and power efficiency
Have better interference mitigations
Offer higher capacity density
Have higher cost efficiency.

As a result of the projected ability for it to support up to 30Gbps throughput, this seventh generation of Wi-Fi is also being referred to as Wi-Fi Extremely High Throughput. It will be approximately 3 times faster than Wi-Fi 6.

How does Wi-Fi 7 work?

The Wi-Fi engineers over at IEEE are proving that there are still ways to enhance and improve Wi-Fi – Even since Wi-Fi 6. As we’ve set out above, Wi-Fi 7 will not only give another boost to Wi-Fi connectivity, but also significant improvements in performance whilst further reducing latency.

But how?

Wi-Fi 7 doubles the channel size

With Wi-Fi 7, we see the maximum channel size double, going from 160MHz to 320Mhz. This also means that the throughput is automatically doubled as well. Not only that, but it’s more flexible too, enabling networks to run with either one channel (at 320Mhz) or two channels (each at 160Mhz). Therefore you can match the network to the requirements of your applications.

Wi-Fi 7 doubles the number of MU-MIMO spatial streams

The throughout is also doubled via the available MU-MIMO spatial streams which increases from 8 to 16, again doubling what’s available. The connection is shared equally, dividing the bandwidth into separate streams using Multiple-user, multiple-input multiple output (MU-MIMO) technology.

We tend to see quite a bit of congestion from multiple endpoints attempting to access the wireless network at the same time – But MU-MIMO helps to reduce this congestion. Not only that, but it supports bi-directional functionality. This means that the router and both accet and send data at the same time. Something that was limited to just downlink transmission with Wi-Fi 5!

Wi-Fi 7 quadruples the QAM

Quadratic Amplitude Modulation (QAM) is increased with Wi-Fi 7 from 1024 to 4096. It is expected that this increase will enable the delivery of an additional 20% in throughput. It’s this that takes us from Wi-Fi 6’s 9.6Mbps to Wi-Fi 7’s 46Mbps.

Wi-Fi 7 offers Multi-link operation (MLO)

The great thing about MLO is that devices can transmit and receive across all of the available frequency bands (2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz), simultaneously. What does this mean?

It improves performance
It reduces latency
It boosts reliability
In IoT or IIoT environments, specific channels can have pre-assigned data flows based on the requirements of the application or device
Networks can be dynamically configured so that they can select the frequency band that has the lowest congestion in real time, sending data over that preferred channel

Wi-Fi 7 offers Multi-AP operation

The functionality available in current and previous Wi-Fi standards meant that each access point acted independently when accepting connection requests from endpoints and moving traffic back and forth to that endpoint. The Multi-AP operation with Wi-Fi 7 uses mesh technology to configure neighbouring AP’s so that they can coordinate with each, thus improving the utilisation of the spectrum and resources. Network engineers can use Multi-AP operation to program a set of APs to form a subsystem and accurately coordinate channel access and transmission schedules.

Time-sensitive networking (TSN) with Wi-Fi 7

What is TSN? Time-sensitive networking is an IEEE standard to help increase reliability and lower latency. Wi-Fi 7 supports this TSN. It was originally designed to help reduce buffering and latency in Ethernet networks by using time scheduling. This ensures the reliable delivery of packets in real-time applications.

Multi-RU and WI-Fi 7

Using OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access), Resource Units are assigned to individual clients to enable access points to communicate simultaneously with multiple clients. Multi Resouce Units increase the spectrum efficiency, ensuring that traffic avoids any interference on congested channels.

Wi-Fi 7 and deterministic low latency

Wi-Fi 7 will be able to support real-time applications like AR, VR and IoT due to the combination of the above technologies decreasing latency. In certain situations, for example some industrial automation applications, it’s important that there is not a wide variance in latency. Deterministic low latency with Wi-Fi 7 will be great for this – It means that it will not spike beyond a certain limit.

What are the benefits of Wi-Fi 7?

You might be thinking that the current Wi-Fi standard is good enough for you and your business connection needs. But the thing is, the wireless traffic load is only going to grow year on year and over time, organisations are going to have no choice but to embrace (and need) digital transformation. So whilst what you have now may well be sufficient, it might not be the case in forever.

We are all well aware that the business operations that were once done manually are now being done digitally. This also means that the amount of data we use and need to move is growing all the time.

Digital transformation means that not only has paper turned digital, but processes that were once quite simple are now much more complex, interconnected with others and across multiple applications.

The improvements and enhancements we will see with Wi-Fi 7 have been designed to accommodate the increased traffic and data we are seeing from digital transformation.

So – Will Wi-Fi 7 replace Ethernet?

Perhaps the biggest gane changer when it comes to Wi-Fi 7 is that it could in fact replace wired Ethernet in certain circumstances. We’re thinking in offices where everything is all completely wireless, everything unplugged, IT staff could use Wi-Fi 7 instead of having ti run wires and cables through ceilings, walls and office space. Pretty handy!

We also talked about the speed of Wi-Fi 7 earlier. Theoretically the maximum speed is 46Gbps. Even in real-world estimates where we’re talking much lower speeds of 6Gbps, Wi-Fi 7 is still faster than Gigabit Ethernet.

When it comes to comparing Wi-Fi 7 and Ethernet, it’s worth considering bandwidth and endpoints. Wirelessly, the bandwidth is shared among endpoints. With Gigabit Ethernet, each endpoint has dedicated delivery of gigabit circuits.

Whilst this may sway you back towards Ethernet, don’t forget that wireless networks, particularly ones using Wi-Fi 7, can use multiple antennas and streams. With the meshing of AP’s with Wi-Fi 7, it might be wise to test the real-world performance to analyse what is necessary for your environment. It can get quite complex, but is definitely necessary when designing and deploying a new network or updating your current malfunctioning one.

There are tech experts that are expecting Wi-Fi 7 to be a strong contender to replace Ethernet connections for super-high-bandwidth applications. It’s expected that the advances we’ll be seeing with Wi-Fi 7 will make it a very attractive option for a broad range of devices, applications and industries.

Here at Geekabit, our Wi-Fi experts think it’s a bit early to predict whether or not Wi-Fi 7 will replace Ethernet on a large scale for enterprise LAN connectivity. On paper there may be a chance, but the low-maintenance predictability of Ethernet may make IT teams hold off replacing it for Wi-Fi 7.

Many IT departments already enjoy the best of both worlds, utilising a pre-existing Ethernet LAN with a wireless network added on top. We don’t see why Wi-Fi 7 and Ethernet can’t co-exist, with Wi-Fi 7 being the primary network and good old, trusty Ethernet in the background quietly waiting as a backup.

Get in touch with our Wi-Fi Experts

If you are wondering whether you should repace your Ethernet cables with Wi-Fi, or the other way around, then do get in touch with our Wi-Fi experts here at Geekabit. We can help advise what would work best for you and get a network designed and installed for your individual needs. Let’s solve your Wi-Fi woes and get reliable internet into your home office! You can get in touch on 0203 322 2443 (London), 01962 657 390 (Hampshire) or 02920 676712 (Cardiff).