Recent trends in next generation terabit Ethernet and gigabit wireless local area network

Abstract

Bandwidth pressure on Ethernet has increased recently because of 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi standards applied to smart phones, tablets, Internet protocol television, social media, gaming etc. Due to above network industries are forced to standardize 100, 400 gigabit Ethernet speeds presently and Terabit Ethernet speeds in near future. According to Moore's law the network bandwidth is doubling every 18 months, and computer bandwidth is doubling every 24 months. This roadmap directs network industry that global network will need 10 Terabit Ethernet by 2020. Such bandwidth achievements are possible either by developing very high speed switches and routers which of course are very costly now, however, significant optical parallelization can provide a low cost solution in present situation. Demand is increasing for more number of PCs, tablets, and smart phones with HD video display day-by-day. Wired entertainment gadgets need complex cabling. To meet above requirements and to avoid complex cabling next generation wireless area networks(WLAN) standards like IEEE802.11ac/ax and 802.11ad can provide very high speed, reliability, and quality. Very high data rates can be obtained using wide frequency bands, high speed processors, and multi-input multi-output antennas. Very high attenuation because of using wide frequency band can be reduced by beam forming using large array of antennas. It results in high reliability at very high speed and wide range. This paper discusses next generation Gigabit Wi-Fi along with wired backhaul with 10, 100, and 400 Gigabit Ethernet extending to Terabit Ethernet which is expected to be available by 2020.