Putting 2.5GE & 5GE to the Test

What is the “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy?

In offices all over the world, the use of WI-FI connected devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets and bandwidth-hungry applications has grown rapidly while many companies support a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, permitting employees to use personally owned, WIFI connected devices at work.

How to increase data rates between the wifi access points and the connected end devices?

To alleviate performance bottlenecks a new WIFI standard IEEE 802.11ac increases data rates between the WIFI Access Points (AP) and the connected end devices. As the industry moves to 802.11ac Wave 2 even more bandwidth between the APs and switches in the access network will be needed.

What makes this connection possible?

In most WI-FI installations the connection between AP and switch is a 1 Gigabit/s Ethernet link carried over an electrical cable.

The need for bandwidth could be solved by upgrading the connection between AP and switch to 10 Gigabit/s Ethernet, being the next higher data rate with the current standards.

Is this the right option retrofitting buildings with cables that support 10 Gigabits/s ethernet?

Unfortunately the cables between AP and switch will in most cases be unable to support 10 Gigabit/s Ethernet reliably. Refitting buildings with cables supporting 10 Gigabit/s Ethernet will be an expensive option.

This has created a need for Ethernet rates higher than 1 Gigabit/s, which can run on existing cables and provide increased bandwidth.

A lower-cost, more efficient solution?

As a result 2.5 Gigabit/s Ethernet (2.5GE) and 5 Gigabit/s Ethernet (5GE) over electrical cables are now standardized providing 2.5 or 5 times more bandwidth on existing cables allowing companies to protect their infrastructure investment. This creates a demand for test solutions that can verify the new speeds.

Testing 2.5 and 5.0 Gigabit Ethernet White Paper – content