We all like that our Internet works properly, that it is fast and stable. Over time, technology has advanced and offers us a wide range of possibilities to connect to the network with security and guarantees. The devices have also improved in the face of wireless connections. Now where is the limit? In this article we are going to talk about Ethernet innovation . We are going to show how far speed could go.
How Far Ethernet Innovation Can Go
When we connect to the Internet, we basically have two options: Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable . The first option has gained weight in recent years mainly due to the rise of mobile devices. However, the cable is still very interesting to connect from a computer.
We can say that the wired option guarantees us greater stability in the connection. It is more complicated for us to have cuts, the latency is lower and, in addition, we will also achieve higher speed. That, always has to be said, on paper.
We have seen that Ethernet connections have also advanced over the years. Gone is the Fast Ethernet, limited to 100 Mbps and that today is only present in older equipment. Even Gigabit Ethernet, which allows up to 1 Gbps, seems to fall short if we look at the up to 10 Gbps options that we find.
We echo a report that raises the question of whether it would be possible to reach a speed of 1 Tbps of the Internet . We are talking about more than 1,000 times the speed that we could obtain with a Gigabit Ethernet network card that we have in any home computer.
Exceed 400G, the goal
Previously there have been tests that managed to reach what is known as 400G . Basically they are new, complex devices that have four lasers that each operate at 100 Gbps and together we would achieve 400 Gbps. This speed, at least to this day, is far from what a home user might imagine.
But if we go further, the visionaries of the Ethernet networks are already looking towards 800G. Will it be a reality? But they even venture past the 1,000 Gbps barrier . However, there are technical obstacles that may prevent this from becoming a reality, at least for the moment.
Two major challenges, optics and power , are required to achieve those speeds over Ethernet. However, network researchers believe that the need for improvements in this regard will increase in the coming years.
The truth is that large data centers , cloud storage that has gained so much weight lately, make it necessary to have greater speed. We are talking about platforms as important as Google, Amazon or Facebook, for example.
They also believe that there is a factor that will be key, and that is that they expect global IP traffic to reach 396 Exabytes per month by 2022, compared to 177 in 2017.
All this, they indicate, means that Ethernet technology must soon innovate and improve in order to offer speeds that adapt to current needs. They believe that the change will go far beyond those 400G that we mentioned earlier, although there will be obstacles that must be overcome.
How do you think the maximum speed over Ethernet will be in the coming years? Do you think it will change a lot for home users?
