IEEE P802.3bz: New Ethernet standard brings five times faster using existing cable read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1119-ieee-p802-3bz-new-ethernet-standard-brings-five-times-faster-using-existing-cable

The Ethernet Alliance has announced that the new P802.3bz standard, also called NBASE-T, that brings 2.5 Gbit/sec and 5 Gbit/sec speeds to older cabling has been ratified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Sachin Gupta, Cisco vice-president of product management, said, The Cat5e and Cat6 installed in just the last 15 years now exceeds an estimated 70 billion meters of cabling.

It is easy to imagine the value of delivering multi-gigabit speeds to the more than 1.3 billion Cat 5e/6 outlets worldwide if it doesn't require the huge headaches and expense of a major cable replacement.

The new Ethernet standard IEEE P802.3bz boosts the theoretical bandwidth over the existing twisted pair copper wires to 2.5Gbps (2.5GBASE-T) and 5Gbps (5GBASE-T). That's five times the current theoretical bandwidth achieved on cables designed according to the 1000BASE-T standard.

The two groups behind the new Ethernet speeds the Ethernet Alliance and the NBASE-T Alliance will work together and share post-event results of the interoperability testing performed.

The NBASE-T Alliance is an industry-wide effort focused for enabling development and deployment of products that support 2.5G and 5GBASE-T Ethernet. The IEEE P802.3bz approved in September is compatible with specs published by the NBASE-T Alliance.