IXIA + Arista = 10GBASE-T
IXIA announced a test, which they will be showing at Interop this week, of Arista Networks’ new 48-port 10GBASE-T solution. They used their IxYukon 10GBASE-T solution, which can be scaled up to 96 ports per chassis.
From a pure deployment scenario, I haven’t been seeing a lot of folks using 10GBASE-T yet, but it is an interesting choice. In thinking about fiber versus copper, most of the solutions I’ve seen have been focused on fiber, and most people have built the infrastructure to support that. I can see 10GBASE-T being popular within an individual rack itself, as it is much easier to cable, and not as prone to problems with damage, etc.
However, most of the articles I’ve read focus on folks re-using CAT5e/6 architecture for 10GBASE-T which is also an interesting idea. I think we’ll see this pick up over the next year or two as folks add more and more virtual computing clusters that require larger data connections, but I’m not sure how many people actually use it now…
Anyhow, interesting test, and definitely an interesting switch from Arista. For those of you at Interop, you should stop by IXIA’s booth and check it out. I’m not there this year, so it’d be great if someone can post here any of their thoughts on the test itself at Interop.