An Ethernet standard that transmits at 10 Gbps. Introduced in 2002 and abbreviated "10 GbE," "10GE" or "10G Ethernet," it extended the familiar and ubiquitous Ethernet used in local area networks (LANs) to high-speed storage networks (SANs) as well as backbones in large enterprise networks and wide area and metropolitan area networks. See LAN, SAN, WAN and MAN.
Full Duplex and No Collisions
10G Ethernet works only in full-duplex mode and does not support CSMA/CD, the common Ethernet collision method used to gain access to the physical medium. A "WAN interface sublayer" (WIS) makes 10G Ethernet compatible with the SONET transport at 10 Gbps (OC-192). See SONET.
Fiber or Copper
The 10GBASE-LX4 version (see below) carries four wavelengths of light on one pair of fibers. In 2004, 10G Ethernet over copper wire was introduced. Using four twinaxial cables, the copper version was designed for short distances between switches and storage devices in the datacenter. See Ethernet and FCoE.
10G ETHERNET OVER FIBER (802.3ae)
Fiber (F) Fiber Max
Version SONET (S) Type Distance
10GBASE-SR F MMF/850 nm 65 m
10GBASE-LRM F MMF/1310 nm 220 m
10GBASE-LRM F MMF/850 nm 260 m
10GBASE-LX4 F MMF/1310 nm 300 m
10GBASE-LR F SMF/1310 nm 10 km
10GBASE-ER F SMF/1550 nm 40 km
10GBASE-ZR** F SMF/1550 nm 80 km
10GBASE-LX4 F SMF/1310 nm 10 km
10GBASE-SW S MMF/850 nm 65 m
10GBASE-LW S SMF/1310 nm 10 km
10GBASE-EW S SMF/1550 nm 40 km
MMF = multimode fiber
SMF = singlemode fiber
ZR** = non standard
10G ETHERNET OVER COPPER (802.3ak)
FOR DATACENTER USE
Version Cable Max. Distance
10GBASE-CX4 Twinax 15 m
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