High Density Tapping in a 100Gbps World

By Joseph Collins, Product Manager

Network bandwidth utilization has been rapidly increasing. In one example, Dave Jameson, Principal Architect at Fujitsu Network Communications, writes that in “in 1995 there were approximately 5 million cell phone subscribers in the US, less than 2 percent of the population. By 2012, according to CTIA, there were more than 326 million subscribers. Of those, more than 123 million were smartphones.” Smartphones have made unlimited amounts of information available to create the “human centric network.” (Jameson, 2014)

Increase in data is not limited to the telecommunications market, however. In every industry we see increased bandwidth utilization and big data. This continued capacity has resulted in data centers increasing the capacity of their fiber links. Goldman Sachs has upgraded the stocks for a number of optical equipment manufacturers because of huge deals being made by organizations that need increased bandwidth. (Jackson, 2014) This increased need for speed has finally propelled 10GbE data center switching shipments to overtake 1GbE according to Crehan Research. (Crehan Research Inc., 2014)

Data Center Switch Port Shipments 2009-2013, Crehan Research Inc.

While bandwidth utilization growth is a major factor in the growth from 1GbE to 10GbE, so are form factor and lower prices. Growth also isn’t expected to stop at 10GbE. Goldman Sach’s Simona Jankowski writes that 100GbE will soon be an important revenue maker for the market, and is one of the reasons for their stock rating upgrades. (Jackson, 2014).

Data center specialists must have flexible and high port density solutions for network access. Products, such as network TAPs, need to address tapping needs for today while giving networking professionals the ability to prepare and upgrade for tomorrow. This translates into chassis that support tapping of Multimode and Singlemode links from 1Gbps up to 100Gbps at a high-port density with modularity to allow for scalable transitions and upgrades.

VSS Monitoring’s HD Fiber TAP provides such a solution to the network access problem. In a 1RU form factor, up to 24 links of 1-100Gbps Singlemode or 1-10Gbps Multimode, 16 links of 40Gbps or 100Gbps Singlemode, or a mix of the two can be passively tapped. This thoughtful design allows for expansion of 1Gbps to 10Gbps, and to 40Gbps and 100Gbps tapping access for network links for years to come.

Availability

The HD Fiber TAP chassis, 1Gbps-100Gbps MM and 1Gbps-40Gbps SM modules are shipping now; the 100G MM modules are to follow in April.

Learn more

HD Fiber TAP Product Brief (PDF)| A New Standard in TAP Link Options and Density (PPT)