Ethernet Alliance panel discussion at OFC 2021 to explore ‘Why Ethernet? Why Now?’

 

BEAVERTON, OR, June 1, 2021 – The Ethernet Alliance, a global consortium dedicated to the continued success and advancement of Ethernet technologies, today announced details of its upcoming demonstration for the interactive, all-virtual 2021 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC). Showcasing 800 Gigabit per second (Gbps) capacity-per-port equipment and multivendor interoperability across 25 Gigabit Ethernet (25GbE), 50GbE, 100GbE, 200GbE and 400GbE technologies and solutions in a variety of form factors, media and reaches, the demonstration involving 11 Ethernet Alliance member companies will be staged and filmed at Teledyne LeCroy, Inc., in Austin, Texas, and then shown during OFC 2021, which is scheduled for June 6-10.

The Ethernet Alliance demonstration is planned to feature multivendor interoperability, an implementation of Flex Ethernet (FlexE), analysis of PAM4 signaling and a broad array of the latest Ethernet products and solutions. Components including routers, switches, active optical cables (AOCs), direct attach cables (DACs), splitter cables, optical modules, active copper cables and interconnects range across the OSFP, SFP28, SFP56, QSFP28, QSFP-DD and QSFP56 form factors. Several test and measurement solutions for ensuring systems’ compliance with Ethernet specifications also are to be demonstrated.

Representing all facets of the Ethernet ecosystem, the Ethernet Alliance demonstration at OFC 2021 is scheduled to feature equipment and solutions from 11 companies: Amphenol Corporation (NYSE: APH); Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO); Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR); Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS); Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL); Panduit; Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT); TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL); Tektronix, and Teledyne LeCroy, Inc. (NYSE: TDY).

“The OFC 2021 demonstration will put on display so many of the characteristics for which Ethernet is globally known, such as plug-and-play interoperability across a large ecosystem of providers and both legacy and leading-edge products,” said Michael Klempa, OFC 2021 technical leader, Ethernet Alliance, and electrical engineer, research and development, Amphenol Corporation. “This is the first time out for most of us in more than a year, and it will be great to get back in the lab and doing demo work together.”

In addition, the Ethernet Alliance at OFC 2021 will also host a panel discussion—“Why Ethernet? Why Now?”—which is scheduled to take place 5-6:30 p.m. Pacific June 9. David Rodgers, events chair, Ethernet Alliance, and senior product marketing manager, Teledyne LeCroy PSG, is scheduled to moderate the panel joined by Kent Lusted, principal engineer, Intel; Jim Theodoras, vice president research and development, HG Genuine USA, and Pavel Zivny, system engineer, Tektronix.

“Ethernet already is the world’s most ubiquitous method for networking computers and peripherals, and the coming of 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps speeds and the newest form factors illustrate the technology’s ongoing advancement,” David Rodgers said. “OFC 2021 will provide an opportunity for all of us to share and learn more about where and how Ethernet is evolving.”

OFC 2021 will feature an enhanced exhibition experience providing opportunities for stakeholders in telecom and data center optics to reach customers, connect with colleagues and demonstrate innovative products and solutions. To learn more about OFC 2021 and the Ethernet Alliance’s involvement in the event, please visit the website.

For more information about the Ethernet Alliance, please visit http://www.ethernetalliance.org, follow @EthernetAllianc on Twitter, visit its Facebook page, or follow its LinkedIn company page.

 

About the Ethernet Alliance

The Ethernet Alliance is a global consortium that includes system and component vendors, industry experts, and university and government professionals who are committed to the continued success and expansion of Ethernet technology. The Ethernet Alliance takes Ethernet standards to market by supporting activities that span from incubation of new Ethernet technologies to interoperability demonstrations and education. The organization’s plans for 2021 may be found on the Events page of its website.

 

###

 

Media Contact:

Melissa Power
Interprose Public Relations for Ethernet Alliance
P: 401-454-1314
E: melissa.power@interprosepr.com

 

Additional Quotes

“Amphenol is excited to partner with the Ethernet Alliance at this year’s OFC virtual conference. Amphenol, one of the largest manufacturers of interconnect products in the world, partnering with Ethernet Alliance, the preeminent voice of Ethernet in the industry, is a very effective way to highlight the latest advances in Ethernet to the world. Having the opportunity to demonstrate some of our latest 100Gb, 400Gb and 800Gb products in a virtual ‘live’ interoperability demo with other industry leaders in the EA booth at OFC is simply an opportunity that we could not pass up. As a member of the EA we are proud to participate in the virtual booth at this event.” – Chris Lyon, Amphenol business development manager – Americas

“Juniper Networks is a proud and active member of Ethernet Alliance. As an industry leader in automated, scalable, and secure network and data center solutions, we prioritize collaboration and interoperability in community-led, standards-based activities to drive meaningful and lasting innovation. We are honored to work alongside fellow industry experts to advance Ethernet technologies and IP solutions.” – Julius Francis, senior director service provider & cloud portfolio marketing, Juniper Networks

“Keysight is proud to participate in Ethernet Alliance’s OFC 2021 interoperability demonstrations. This year’s demos showcase our unique breadth of test capabilities from the physical layer up to the networking stack. Today’s hyperscale data centers demand 100G electrical lane-based products to gain higher Ethernet bandwidth performance, lower power consumption, and increased operational efficiency. Our demos include validation of an increasingly tight set of physical layer specifications such as IEEE 802.3bs and IEEE 802.3ck backplanes, connectors, and silicon, as well as demonstrating how 400GE technology has matured to successfully interoperate at multiple speeds with PAM4 encoding and Forward Error Correction. The AresONE-S 400GE QSFP-DD test system together with Keysight’s DCA-X Sampling Scopes N1000A/N1060A and M8040 64GBaud BERT will showcase how manufacturers of networking equipment, optical transceivers, passive fiber cables, and passive copper Direct Attached Cables can advance and accelerate their projects.” – Joachim Peerlings, vice president, network and data center solutions, Keysight Technologies

“As a long-standing member of the Ethernet Alliance, we are committed to continuing to advance Ethernet technologies through collaboration with the ecosystem and open standards. We are pleased to participate in this year’s OFC multi-vendor demo with our Prestera^® CX 8500 switch and Alaska^® C PHY devices, incorporating industry-leading 56G and 112G PAM4 SerDes technology in cutting edge process nodes, to showcase our state-of-the-art solutions and interoperability for the data infrastructure market spanning the cloud, enterprise and carrier segments.” – Venu Balasubramonian, senior director, product marketing, Marvell

“Panduit is excited to contribute to the Ethernet Alliance’s interoperability demonstration at OFC 2021. Panduit will showcase how our SFP28 / QSFP28 DAC (Direct Attach Cables) and AOC (Active Optical Cables) work seamlessly with our passive fiber cable assemblies and today’s highest data rate networking equipment from 10G to 400G and beyond.” – Bob Wagner, group manager for data center connectivity, Panduit

“Spirent is proud to participate in Ethernet Alliance’s multivendor interoperability demonstrations at OFC 2021. This year’s virtual showcase will cover the latest technological advances in Flex Ethernet (FlexE) and High-Speed Ethernet, enabling flexibility, reliability, and new services required to support next generation network evolution. Spirent will demonstrate its industry-leading test solutions for 400G and FlexE, delivering reliability and high performance, highlighting innovative test capabilities that are helping operators, network equipment manufacturers and device makers deploy leading-edge network technologies faster and more reliably.” – Abhitesh Kastuar, general manager, cloud & IP business unit, Spirent Communications

“As a founding principal member of the Ethernet Alliance, TE Connectivity™ (TE™) is proud to participate in the Ethernet Alliance physical interoperability demonstrations at the virtual OFC show in 2021. In this year’s demonstrations, we are showing our SFP56, QSFP56, OSFP, QSFP-DD and OSFP to QSFP-DD cable assemblies operating at 400 Gbps, and we are also demonstrating our 800G OSFP cable assembly and our 112Gbps per pair STRADA Whisper Absolute cabled backplane interconnect. These performance levels can be essential as Ethernet connectivity evolves to support the applications of the future, and TE innovations can pave the way.” – Nathan Tracy, technologist and manager of industry standards, TE Connectivity

“Tektronix solutions help the planet connect, and support for Ethernet is a big part of that connection. Ethernet Alliance at OFC brings us together with other companies who are essential to helping the world communicate through the pandemic and beyond. Tektronix is happy to play our part in uniting the world through technology.” – Tami Newcombe, president, Tektronix

“The emergence and adoption of PAM4 signaling and 50GbE links have really advanced the needs for the Test & Measurement community in support of the Ethernet market. The interoperation challenges faced by the Ethernet NEMs is reflected several-fold for the end users. Being able to come together, even for a hybrid-style demonstration as we are this year, is reassuring to both the consumers and producers of the technology on display. The commitment from Teledyne LeCroy to facilitate tools and technology for the current and coming rates is unwavering. Teledyne LeCroy is leveraging its industry leading and patented TAP probing and implementation experience, our extensive knowledge of both the physical and logical layers, to create tools that perfectly complement and add significant value to the development, validation, and integration operations for our customers. We’re very pleased the SierraNet line rate analyzers are facilitating the high-speed network solutions, and we are continuing our market leading efforts in support of the #NextEthernetEra.” – David J. Rodgers, senior program manager, network and storage protocol tool, Teledyne LeCroy