ICs for 100-Gb/s Serial Operation

Many of today's data communication services such as video streaming, peer-to-peer applications, storage, etc., are steadily increasing the need for more data throughput from routers and switches. This, in turn, is driving the need for input- and output signals (I/Os) operating at line rates well beyond 10Gb/s. Future service, such as high-definition internet protocol television, is expected to boost the bandwidth requirements even further. While comparing the growth of different Ethernet bandwidth consuming applications, the IEEE 802.3 higher-speed study group (HSSG) found that the internet backbone with wide area network (WAN) applications is the fastest growing segment; traffic is doubling every 12 to 18 months, while the service provider/enterprise/LAN data flows, which are more correlated to the CPU and I/O performance increases, double every 24 months. For the first time in the Ethernet history, the upcoming standard involves two media access control data rates: 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s, tailored specifically to scale with the growth and needs of the two market segments. Products compliant with the emerging IEEE 40 and 100 Gb/s [1, 2] Ethernet standard will thus find their first users in data centers for data aggregation (typically 40 Gb/s), and in carrier and service network providers (needs 100 Gb/s already now) respectively.