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from the they-are-just-using-extra-tiny-bits dept.
At the time in 2015, the 2.5G/5G standards were not yet ratified by IEEE. There were chips in the market, solely from Aquantia, for enterprise configurations that were happy to go with an evolving standard for their solution. From September 2016 this changed, and the standards have been ratified with Aquantia, Intel, Cisco and others all involved in the specification. Aquantia's earlier generation silicon adhered to the standard, and has been deployed in a number of enterprise backbone deployments to the tune of 5M ports a year. Today's announcement surrounds the launch of two new controllers based on the multi-gigabit standards aimed at more consumer level solutions – specifically 'client connectivity in enterprise, gaming and SMB applications'.
[...] For now, the AQtion 2.5G/5G controllers coming to market look to be a premium component, destined for high-end notebooks/PCs, and if the pricing is right, more expansive than the current array of 10G integrated options. One of the issues Aquantia will have, which they also acknowledge, is the switch problem that currently stops 10G being more widespread – the lack of consumer grade and consumer budget level switches. We were told that there are some enterprise models of 2.5G/5G switches currently for more backbone type of work, and it will be up to Aquantia's partners to spot opportunities in the consumer market. From a personal perspective, the switch side of the equation will be the slowest to change and be a defining aspect for the widespread adoption of this technology. We've seen this with 10G, or the fact that the Killer gaming NICs do not have corresponding switches/routers to assist in a number of features that might become irrelevant in a general network. Publicly Aquantia isn't stating which switch developers they are working with, and as before, leaving those companies to decide/announce their product lines, but I think the switch aspect will be more important to watch over 2017.
On performance metrics, Aquantia have told us that the AQ107 can achieve 9.5 Gbps in each direction in the 10G mode with a CPU utilization of 12-20%, and in 5G mode it can do 4.6 Gbps in each direction with 6-14% CPU use. Due to the higher clock rate of the controller, in 1G mode the controller is quoted as having has[sic] lower latency than standard 1G controllers. The AQC107, in 5G mode, will have a typical power consumption around 3W when in use.
Does anybody here need this caliber of Ethernet at home?
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @10:02PM
For businesses and public areas, this is, of course, great. Anything to increase the wireless capacity is going to be much needed. I am happy to see this on a upper end of the spectrum. 5GHz is great because I can boost power where it is needed but keep the signal within the scope of a room or area. 2.4Ghz leaks everywhere and most APs seem to be set to maximum power.
Most real AC transfer speeds seem to only hold up when you are within 20 feet or so with an unobstructed line of site. Real world performance on most of my AC equipment seems to be roughly 100Mb - 120Mb. This is a vast improvement over most N equipment, no doubt, but it would be really cool to see near-wireline speeds in actual production environments.
For consumers, though, it would be great to start to see some education with regards to AP placement and using multiple access points. I see people complaining about "bad speed" when they are using the Comcast AP in the corner of their basement; two access points strategically placed would solve most people's problems. They would need to cable their houses, though.
It does not help that consumer equipment is terrible. At home, I have been using Cisco and Juniper equipment because I can; when I see what most people are forced to deal with, I can understand why it is frustrating. I started using Ubiquiti UniFi AC Pros a few months ago and it is a damn good value for the money. I would not mind being able to buy a support contract from them, though. The radio are pretty slick and the configurator works well. I wold not mind seeing a true WAC and being able to buy support. They do have their issues but I certainly cannot argue with the value vs price.