Ethernet over fiber, as written about in the IEEE 802.3 specification for Ethernet technology, isn’t for everyone at this point. Still, in many situations, it’s not only desirable, but absolutely necessary. Let’s briefly look at how it’s evolved, its pros and cons, and at how it may be useful.

The Ethernet standard is much more advanced than it was when the first adapter went on sale in 1981. Its initial speed of ten Megabits per second seemed wondrously fast then, but now looks agonizingly slow. This old technology used “thicknet” coaxial cable, which was fairly difficult to use because of its inflexibility.

As “thicknet” cables were replaced with easier-to-handle “thinnet” cables, speeds also increased. Later, “thinnet” was replaced by more modern “twisted-pair wire” cables, which are even easier to handle and can transmit data at even higher speeds. “Unshielded twisted-pair” cables, currently the most common kind of data transmission media, are now advanced enough to work with transmission speeds of up to ten Gigabits per second.

But, even the best twisted-pair wire cables are subject to both electromagnetic interference and cross-talk. Both of these phenomena can adversely affect the reliable transfer of network data. At high transmission rates, the problem gets even worse. A source of interference that doesn’t badly affect a lower speed network can have a disastrous effect on a higher-speed network. Deploying a ten-Gigabit network with twisted-pair wire cabling requires both careful planning and a rigid set of certification testing to ensure that all is working properly.

The initial cost of fiber may be higher, but even when operating at its fastest, it’s entirely immune to either cross-talk or electromagnetic interference. So, fiber provides a much more reliable way to transmit data at up to ten-Gigabit speeds. And, unlike when you use copper wire, you don’t need to be careful about keeping data cables separated from electrical cables. This makes planning the layout for your data cables much easier.

Granted, this newest technology may not be appropriate for everyone right now. If your company’s buildings are already wired with Cat 5 or Cat 6 twisted-pair cable, doing an upgrade to fiber might be just too expensive. And, it’s entirely possible that ten-Gigabit transfer speeds aren’t yet needed on your network.

However, in many applications it’s hardly possible to work without the high data transmission rates that are offered by Ethernet over fiber. If you’re building high-performance computing clusters, or if you’re at a research institute where extremely large quantities of research data are continuously transferred, then this newfangled technology is a requirement. If you’d like to find out more about it, there’s a ton of information on the web.