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November 18, 2008
Ethernet Alliance and Road to 100G Alliance Intend to Merge
By Anshu Shrivastava TMCnet Contributing Editor
The Road to 100G Alliance has announced that it intends to transition into the Ethernet Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting industry acceptance and advancement of technology and products based on existing and emerging IEEE (News - Alert) 802 Ethernet standards.
IEEE 802Ethernet standards have been developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an ANSI accredited standards developer. The IEEE 802 refers to a family of IEEE standards dealing with local area networks (LAN) and metropolitan area networks.
As a non-profit corporation, Road to 100G Alliance provides seamless interoperability among the disparate, standards-based components required to build high capacity network elements.
This latest transition unites the two organizations that are committed to the promotion and advancement of high-performance Ethernet networking.
Bill Weisinger, chairman of Road to 100G Alliance, considers it to be the right time to partner with the Ethernet Alliance (News - Alert).
He expects this partnership to fulfill the balance of Road to 100G Alliance’s goal. The plan is to establish a comprehensive ecosystem of suppliers and users to accelerate the adoption and ongoing development of high-performance networking solutions.
Given the alignment of the both company’s visions and strategies, Brad Booth, chair of the board, Ethernet Alliance, explained that the combination of the two organizations will “greatly advance” the development of the high-speed Ethernet ecosystem, benefiting customers worldwide.
In November 2007, the IEEE 802.3 working group authorized the formation of the IEEE P802.3ba task force to begin work on a draft standard for 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet.
Last week, the Ethernet Alliance informed that the task force completed review of the first draft of IEEE P802.3ba. This keeps the task force on track for standard ratification which is scheduled for mid-2010.
In June, the Ethernet Alliance announced the formation of a Data Center subcommittee, chartered to be a reference and resource for IT professionals for both existing and emerging data center-focused Ethernet technologies and standards.
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Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Michelle Robart
