Ethernet improvement

Ethernet was invented in 1973, but has continued to evolve as technology has improved. Speeds have steadily increased; maximum cable lengths have steadily grown; and inflexible, expensive coaxial cable has given way to low-cost flexible cable. The following timetable was adapted from a article summarizing Ethernet progress and discussing the future:

1973: Robert Metcalfe invents Ethernet at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center and work begins on the development of a LAN topology bus.
1976: Xerox builds an Ethernet-based LAN network to connect more than 100 PCs.
1980: Digital Equipment, Intel and Xerox release a standard for 10Mbps Ethernet.
1983: IEEE 802.3 10Base-5 — or thick Ethernet — the original Ethernet standard, is approved.
1986: IEEE 802.3 10Base-2 — or thin Ethernet — is approved.
(Note that Ethernet was competing against IBM's Token Ring architecture, which the market rejected in large part because it was proprietary).
1991: IEEE 802.3 10Base-T — Ethernet that runs over ordinary, twisted-pair wire — is approved.
1995: IEEE 802.3 100Base-T standard is approved, and Fast (100 Mbps) Ethernet products begin to hit the market.
1998: IEEE 802.3ac standard for Gigabit Ethernet over fiber is approved.
1999: IEEE 802.3ab standard for Gigabit Ethernet over copper is approved, and products start entering the market.
2000: IEEE 802.3ad standard for link aggregation is approved.
2002: IEEE 802.3ae standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet is approved.
June 2006: IEEE 802.3an standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper is approved.
July 2006: IEEE Higher Speed Study Group is formed to examine next versions of Ethernet, including 40G and 100G.

In case you doubt that we need 100 gbps links, the article points out that YouTube traffic hits 25gbps and will soon be 75. They add multiple 10gbps circuits each month. Similarly, the CTO at Equinix -- the host of our campus backbone exchange -- states that traffic is doubling every 12-14 months.

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