Modern businesses are predominantly digital as all of their functions such as sales, marketing, support, services, etc. rely heavily on cloud-based applications and services. This implies that all business functions depend on reliable network and internet connectivity for carrying out a majority of their tasks.

As more and more applications, services, and databases rely on network connectivity, the Gigabit ethernet data rate is becoming less and less efficient in fulfilling the business requirements levied on the burgeoning networks.

Keeping up with the network performance demands means that businesses need to migrate to the 10 Gigabit network. In this blog post, we introduce the basics of a 10Gig network, its core components, and how to layout your brand new 10Gig network.

What is a 10 Gigabit Fiber Network?

A 10 Gigabit Ethernet, also known as 10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE, is a set of networking technologies that enable you to transmit data payloads at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. To put this in perspective, it is a ten times increase in speed compared to the 1 Gigabit per second (1Gb/s) speed, which is commonly used in business networks today. 

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard consists of different physical layer standards and requires special network hardware and high-grade cabling, which can be either copper or fiber cabling. Although this network standard has existed for a long time now, its adoption was hindered by the high price of its components. However, of late, this technology is becoming more affordable, but more importantly, the high network speeds are becoming a business requirement.

Why Do You Need 10 GbE Network?

Gigabit is the speed at which most network adapters are built. So if you have 2 computers hooked up to a Gigabit switch using a Gigabit Ethernet interface you can copy information from one computer to the other at about 100 megabytes per second. Considering that mechanical hard drives operate at between 1 and 200 megabytes per second, Gigabit Ethernet works pretty well for a computer to computer communication.

Imagine that you need to copy multiple gigabyte files or multiple employees in your office download and upload gigabyte files. Gigabit is not enough since it can’t keep up with such network demands. Even in a small office with 20 employees, if there are a number of simultaneous video calls, people moving large video files, using virtual reality technology, etc., Gigabit Ethernet starts to groan under the load. 

Now imagine a 10 Gigabit network that is 10 times faster than the Gigabit network, so you will be able to move a gigabyte per second.

What Are The Advantages Of A 10GE Network?

Here are some of the advantages of a 10Gig network:

1. Fast and reliable network infrastructure

2. Reduced congestion and improved network performance

3. Fast data transfers- upload and download, from network storage devices

4. Enhanced network security

What Components Are Required For A 10Gig Network?

The following are the core components of a 10Gig network:

1. 10Gig Switches

Network switches are indispensable components of any computer network in a business environment. 10 Gig network switches are different from regular switches in that they are manufactured with 10 Gig capable ports, where you plug in transceivers (we will talk about these later in this post).

Switches are of two basic types - managed and unmanaged. In a business environment, we can’t do without the security and management features offered by managed switches, so it has become the default option for switches.

Here are some other considerations for choosing a switch:

• Type and number of ports. Based on your requirements, you can go for full 10GbE uplink ports or a combination of 1GbE RJ45 and 10GbE SFP+. In addition, based on your connectivity requirements, you may need a 12, 24, or 48 port switch, and in many cases multiple switches.

• Power over Ethernet (PoE) support is another requirement and is crucial for simplifying cabling and layout flexibility.

• Fanless switches are popular because they are quiet and consume less power.

• Also, stackable switches help provide easy management and physical redundancy, both of which are important for business networks.

2. 10Gig Network Interface Controller

A Network Interface Controller (NIC) is a computer hardware that provides the capability to access transmission media and to process the data flowing through the network. In a 10 Gig network, because of the volume of data being transmitted, a NIC cannot simply serve as an interface, letting the CPU deal with it all. To be able to handle the volume of data, the controller needs intelligence. So a 10Gig controller has the components of a computer such as RAM and processor as well as a heat sink.

3. Cabling

For cabling, you can go either with copper cables or fiber optic cables. Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat6a are all reasonable choices for most use cases and for short-distance runs. However, if you have the budget, fiber optic cables are the best option for 10Gbps networks. Fiber optic cables send signals using beams of light, making them faster, more efficient over long distances, less susceptible to interference, and more secure than copper cables since light signals are much more difficult to hack.

4. Transceiver

The role of a transceiver (transmitter/receiver) in a 10GbE network is to translate the electrical signals from the switch to optical signals which can then be transmitted down the fiber cables and vice versa. Although there have been a number of different transceivers in use, the Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP+) transceiver has become the standard nowadays.

An SFP, Small form-factor pluggable, is a compact and hot-swappable transceiver used to connect a switch or other network device to copper or fiber cable. When searching for transceivers, you may come across SFP and SPF+ transceivers. The primary difference between the two is that SFP supports 10/1000Mbps Ethernet speed while SFP+ supports higher speeds up to 10Gbps. While both support copper as well as fiber interconnects, SPF is limited to 10 meters at 10 Gbps, while SFP+ specification supports single-mode fiber interconnects to 40 km.

5. Wireless Access Point

Although we are talking about primarily wired networks, no business network is without wireless connectivity. Therefore, you will have at the very least a few wireless access points. In order to make the most out of the 10 Gig network, you would want to switch to the new Wi-Fi 6E standard access points.

With the promise of up to 9.6 Gbps throughput, lower latency, and less susceptibility to interference, Wi-Fi 6E will bring parity between your wired and wireless networks. So users will get more bandwidth, faster speeds, and lower latency on the wired as well as wireless networks.

10Gig Network Diagram

Here are a couple of 10Gig network diagram examples:

Conclusion

Building a gigabit Ethernet network in a business environment is complicated. And building a 10 gigabit Ethernet network is a little more complicated than that. With gigabit Ethernet things are a little easier because the rest of the system is so much faster, that they can deal with gigabit Ethernet data rates. 10 gigabit Ethernet is 10 times faster, so it's a little bit of a struggle for the network to deal with the higher data rates. Therefore, you need special hardware and configurations to get the optimal performance from your network.

Are you looking to upgrade your network infrastructure to benefit from the latest network technologies? Do you need help to set up or upgrade your network? Click the button below to reach out to us and find out how we can help you with your computer network and Wi-Fi needs.

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