Peter Jones and Sam Johnson, Ethernet Alliance - Part 2

The Cabling Podcast

Earlier this month, Cabling Installation & Maintenance's Cabling Podcast sat down with Cisco's Peter Jones, Ethernet Alliance chair, and Intel's Sam Johnson, the consortium's High Speed Networking (HSN) subcommittee co-chair for a discussion of the latest industry trends and technology advancements emanating from the Ethernet Alliance (EA) -- of which there's been no shortage.

With all the high-speed fiber applications being developed, it's tempting to think that copper could eventually become a forgotten medium in the Ethernet landscape. From CI&M’s perspective, it looks like Power over Ethernet (PoE), and single pair applications might keep the market for copper cabling afloat for the near- to mid-term. CI&M chief editor and editorial director Patrick McLaughlin kicks off the questioning to ask if EA sees the case similarly.

Later in the podcast, the editors ask for a recap of the latest buzz heard within EA surrounding the expansion of Single Pair Ethernet for smart buildings and industrial sites. The discussion also takes time to go around the most recent iteration of EA's Ethernet technology roadmap, and inquires for a recap of in-progress Ethernet standards work for each segment.

On the High Speed Networking front, CI&M asks about major Ethernet cabling and connectivity upgrades that co-location, cloud, and hyperscale, as well as service provider data centers might be implementing this year, and probes for implications regarding deployed and imminent 800G and coherent terabit technologies for data center networks. Regarding HPC connectivity deployments, we find out during the course of the interview how perennial DAC and AOC technologies are co-existing, and much more.