Start-up tries to breathe new life into fiber

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: JEFF CARUSO ON HIGH SPEED LANS
09/01/05
Today's focus: Start-up tries to breathe new life into fiber

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* ClariPhy's approach to 10 Gigabit Ethernet
* Links related to High Speed LANs
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Start-up tries to breathe new life into fiber

By Jeff Caruso

I've been asking whether fiber to the desktop ought to be
considered now as we look ahead to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and
mostly your answers have been "no." But a start-up recently
contacted me with a very different perspective.

The start-up is ClariPhy, which until now has been in what it
calls "stealth mode." The company was formed to make 10 Gigabit
Ethernet over fiber optics affordable for enterprise firms.

CEO Paul Voois says he looked at what other start-ups were doing
to bring 10 Gigabit to copper, and the technical hurdles
involved there - and realized that the hurdles with 10 Gigabit
on fiber had mainly to do with cost. If someone could cut that
cost, 10 Gigabit over fiber would be on more even footing with
10 Gigabit over copper. It might even have an edge.

To that end, ClariPhy is developing an integrated circuit to cut
the costs. The biggest cost associated with fiber today is in
the optical components - lasers and photodetectors and the like,
Voois says. ClariPhy's silicon will be designed to make it so
that you can use cheaper enterprise-grade rather than
carrier-grade components.

"The performance isn't as good, but that's OK because our
silicon makes up for it," he says.

The company plans to begin sampling its chips in a year, and
Voois predicts that the physical interface for fiber will cost
the same as the copper interface by 2008. By 2010, he thinks
fiber will be at a price point where you could start considering
it for the desktop.

With cost the same, fiber can win out on two other factors, he
says. The first is reach - the fiber-optic approach can get you
300 meters, while Category-6 copper is limited to 55 meters for
10 Gigabit. (As I've mentioned before, however, augmented
versions of Cat-6 are coming available to take 10 Gigabit to 100
meters.)

The second factor is power consumption. Voois says typical fiber
interfaces would use around 3 watts, while 10GBase-T operates at
10 watts to 20 watts.

Will these factors be enough to tilt the scales to fiber,
despite all the reservations outlined in previous newsletters?
That's unclear to me, but Voois thinks so.

"Sooner or later copper is going to run out of gas, and we think
that time is now," he says.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Google dives deeper into networking
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan6138>

2. 2005 salary survey
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan4008nllansalert4178>

3. VoIP rollouts generate heat, power concerns
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan6318>

4. Cisco aims to simplify switch mgmt.
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan6141>

5. VoIP season about to heat up
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan6140>

Today's most-forwarded story:

VoIP rollouts generate heat, power concerns
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan6319>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Jeff Caruso

Jeff Caruso is managing editor of online news for Network World.
He oversees daily online news posting and newsletter editing,
and writes the NetFlash daily news summary, the High-Speed LANs
newsletter and the Voices of Networking newsletter. Contact him
at <mailto:jcaruso@nww.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Avocent
Network World Executive Guide: Reviewing Trends and Insights for
SMB Executives

Life is different for IT professionals at small and mid-sized
businesses, which don't have the luxury of hiring legions of
network experts. Read how network executives are keeping a firm
footing on an ever-shifting product landscape. Learn about
trends and insights surrounding VoIP and VPNs; plus get
commentaries from leading experts on storage strategies for
smaller businesses.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111771
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

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LANs/Routers Research Center:
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Silver bullets for application acceleration?

Companies want integrated solutions. Packaged solutions that
answer their key problems more or less out of the box. See how
you can improve the performance of Web-based applications to
users wherever they are.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111526
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE
VoIP

For the latest in VoIP, check out NW's Research Center on this
very topic. Here you will find a collection of the latest news,
reviews, product testing results and more all related to keeping
VoIP networks performing at their best. Click here for more:
<http://www.networkworld.com/topics/voip.html>
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