Background
Hyperscale cloud service providers are encountered with video-intensive demands, but most of their data centers are still stacked by servers and switches with multiple 10 GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) interfaces. The hyperscale operators have realized that it is inadequate to just stack up servers and switches with conventional 10GbE ports. Thus, the 25 Gigabit Ethernet standard has been introduced by 25G Ethernet Consortium, participated by Arista, Microsoft, Broadcom, Google and Mellanox.
In 2014, the consortium announced the specification of single-lane 25 GbE Ethernet, along with dual-lane 50 GbE Ethernet connectivity for data center environments. In November 2014, the development of single-lane 25 GbE Ethernet standard began development process under an IEEE 802.3 task force. By 2017, single-lane 25 GbE specification has passed interoperability test among vendors from adapters, switches and interconnect industries.
Why 25G over 40G
Despite its later emergence, the 25G Ethernet standard is more favored by hyperscale cloud enterprises by the 40G interface. The reason is cost.
From 10GbE to 25GbE, system developers can leverage existing single lane standard, instead of multi-lane manufacturing process for 40GbE. The physical specification of 25GbE simplifies the hardware design and reduces the cost for production. Therefore, 25G Ethernet specification has recently become a popular option to enhance bandwidth.
Recommended Hardware
The successful interoperability test of 25G indicated that the vendors of data center hardware, including adapters, transceivers, servers and switches, can leverage existing single-lane form factor to upgrade and scale to 25GbE connectivity. For instance, the F.A.S.T (Flexibility, Adaptability, Scalability, and Transformability) module series by Lanner, offer complete compatibility to meet all the Ethernet standards, including 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbEand 100GbE. Besides the 10GbE SFP+ interface, Lanner also provides NIC modules with dual-port, SFP28 based 25GbE ports.
For hyperscale compute data centers, Lanner’s NCS2-IVM201, a NIC modular with Intel® Fortville XXV 710 and dual 25G fiber SFP28 ports, deserves the attention from the market. The NCS2 standard of NCS2-IVM201 is compatible with most of Intel® x86 open architecture servers, designed to enhance scalability and assure future-proof. The module is powered by Intel® Ethernet Controller XXV710, benefitting from hardware optimizations and Intel technologies such as Intel® Ethernet Flow Director and intelligent offloads for cloud and network virtualization deployment.
The NCS2-IVM201 is designed with 10/25GbE SFP28 connectivity, therefore meeting the needs of the next-generation agile data center by delivering high throughput, agility, flexibility and performance for both server and network virtualization.
Featured Product
NCS2-IVM201
Lanner NCS2 Standard NIC Modular with Intel® Fortville XXV710 & Dual 25G Fiber SFP28 Ports
| CPU | None |
| Chipset | Intel® Fortville XXV 710 |
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