Source: Stuart Miniman, Wikibon.org, 2011
Physical infrastructure (Layer 1) is a critical piece of customer infrastructure. Changing technologies or adopting a new generation of existing technology can be limited by what environments users have today.
- Ethernet: Historically copper with RJ-45 connectors (8-pin connector, looks like a large phone jack). Until recently, 10Gb Ethernet was optical or Twinax; 10GBase-T products are hitting the market in 2011 which may extend the life of the billions of ports of existing copper infrastructure. Today 40Gb and 100Gb Ethernet do not have xxxBASE-T options
- Fibre Channel: Uses optical cabling, so convergence of 1Gb Ethernet and FC can allow customers to go to FC and 10Gb Ethernet in all-optical environments smoothly. Here's a video discussing cabling implications for FCoE
- InfiniBand: Single mode (long distance) optical and copper options
Know your cabling
Footnote: See Demartek's Networking Interface Reference
