10 Gigabit Ethernet is the most recent (as of 2002) and fastest of the Ethernet standards.
IEEE 802.3ae defines a version of Ethernet with a nominal data rate of 10 Gbit/s, ten times faster than Gigabit Ethernet.
The new 10 gigabit ethernet standard encompasses seven different media types for LAN, MAN and WAN. It is currently specified by a supplementary standard, IEEE 802.3ae, and will be incorporated into a future revision of the IEEE 802.3 standard.
- 10GBASE-SR -- designed to support short distances over deployed multi-mode fiber cabling, it has a range of between 26m and 82m depending on cable type. It also supports 300m operation over a new 2000MHz.km multi-mode fiber.
- 10GBASE-LX4 -- uses wavelength division multiplexing to support ranges of between 240m and 300m over deployed multi-mode cabling. Also supports 10km over single-mode fiber.
- 10GBASE-LR and 10GBASE-ER -- these standards support 10km and 40km respecively over single-mode fiber.
- 10GBASE-SW, 10GBASE-LW and 10GBASE-EW. These varieties use the WAN PHY, designed to interoperate with OC-192 / STM-64 SONET/SDH equipment. They correspond at the physical layer to 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LR and 10GBASE-ER respecively, and hence use the same types of fiber and support the same distances. (There is no WAN PHY standard corresponding to 10GBASE-LX4.)
10 gigabit Ethernet is very new, and it remains to be seen which of the standards will gain commercial acceptance.
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