NetWare Connectionrecently interviewed Dr. Glenn Ricart, chief technology officer (CTO) at Novell Inc. Because Glenn is responsible for the development of Novell's current technologies and for shaping its future technologies, NetWare Connectionasked Glenn to predict how Gigabit Ethernet will affect the networking industry. We also asked Glenn to describe how Novell will take advantage of Gigabit Ethernet.
In this article, Glenn explains why he believes Gigabit Ethernet will be the catalyst for the "fabled convergence" of voice, video, and data. Glenn also predicts that Novell will be a leader in acting on this Gigabit Ethernet impetus because Novell has the fastest networking software available. As a result, Novell's 79 million users, most of whom have Ethernet networks, are well-poised to upgrade their 10 Mbit/s or 100 Mbit/s connections to Gigabit Ethernet--a step that Novell itself is already taking.
| NC: | What effect will the standardization of Gigabit Ethernet have on the networking industry? |
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Glenn: |
I think the most important thing about Gigabit Ethernet is that people had believed, until recently, that we were going to hit a limitation in local wiring at about 100 Mbit/s. What we're seeing with Gigabit Ethernet is a networking technology that can deliver high-quality voice and video directly to users' desktops. And that means we're going to see the fabled convergence of voice, video, and data connections. Gigabit Ethernet finally provides enough bandwidth to really make that combination of connections happen--even with multiple streams. Gigabit Ethernet--and this is an important point--will give rise to a new generation of Internet protocols. Internet protocols were designed for a 56 kbit/s backbone, so you now get 56 kbit/s to each workstation. Because Internet protocols were designed for that older world, they can't really use the speed Gigabit Ethernet offers. For example, the ability of IP to use Gigabit Ethernet is severely limited. IP cannot take full advantage of gigabit speeds because of the amount of overhead IP generates. So the new generation of Internet protocols will be designed to work well over fast connections. |
| NC: | How will Novell be affected by this "fabled convergence"? |
| Glenn: |
Novell, being an historic leader in networking protocols, will be among the first to help define and make the new generation of Internet protocols work. And these protocols will allow you to merge video, voice, and data seamlessly over the network. The result will be a series of communications appliances as opposed to separate telephones, televisions, and computers. Because Novell is such an important player in the Internet space, I think the standardization of Gigabit Ethernet and the subsequent convergence of these currently varied connections are going to be very positive for us. We are not a company that is beholden to voice, video, or data. Therefore, we arethe logical beneficiary of this convergence. |
| NC: | How will Novell's current and future technologies change to accommodate Gigabit Ethernet? |
| Glenn: | Very little, actually, because we already have the fastest
networking software on the planet. Novell alone needs Gigabit Ethernet;
no other networking company has servers that can use more than 100 Mbit/s
at this time. Novell is the only company that can actually take advantage
of the speed of Gigabit Ethernet.
For example, Novell's BorderManager FastCache is many times faster than any other proxy cache server because our networking software is so good at moving things off networks. In tests conducted at Novell's facility in Provo, Utah, one BorderManager FastCache server saturated 31/2 100 Mbit/s Ethernet ports. Normally, a server doesn't come with four network interface boards. So what's the solution? Gigabit Ethernet. We need Gigabit Ethernet to support the speed that we're building into our products. |
| NC: |
Will Novell conduct tests to determine how NetWare compares to other network operating systems when using Gigabit Ethernet connections? |
| Glenn: | We're always happy to talk about the kind of performance we get, which is completely outstanding. However, it's always somewhat suspicious if we release test results regarding the performance of other network operating systems. There are a lot of independent labs that do these comparisons, which we plaster on our walls because we always win. So we'll let them do the testing. But I can tell you this before they do: We will win on speed. |
| NC: | Does Novell have plans to use Gigabit Ethernet in its own facilities? |
| Glenn: |
Our oldest facility, the Provo facility, has been wired with 10 Mbit/s Ethernet for more than a decade. We have already upgraded selected servers and places where higher bandwidth is needed to 100 Mbit/s, but we have decided to put in a new, uniform Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure. We are wiring our Provo facility right now with Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop. During 1998, we're going to install 15,000 Gigabit Ethernet connections in our Provo facility. The facility in Orem, Utah, where my office is located, has been running 100 Mbit/s for more than two years, so we're in comparatively good shape. But over time, Novell is going to be focusing its energies in Provo, where we're constructing a new building, Building G. Of course, Building G will be wired with Gigabit Ethernet. In about two years, when construction is completed, I'm going to trade my 100 Mbit/s connection at the Orem facility for a Gigabit Ethernet connection in Building G. Novell is one of the leaders in installing Gigabit Ethernet, but we're
probably not more than two to four years ahead of the rest of the networking
industry. I think you'll see that the adoption rates for Gigabit Ethernet
will be comparable to the adoption rates for Fast Ethernet--which is to
say, faster than most of the network |
| NC: | Do you think Novell's customers will use Gigabit Ethernet for backbone connections? |
| Glenn: | To me, this is a no brainer. If you are putting in a backbone on a new network, you'll want to use the highest speed available. Right now, that means Gigabit Ethernet over copper or fiber. |
| NC: | Which would you choose for backbone connections--copper or fiber? |
| Glenn: |
I'm a big believer in fiber. When I was at the University of Maryland about eight years ago, I rewired the university with fiber. We put fiber in every office, classroom, and laboratory, making the university the world's largest fiber installation. Unfortunately, the University of Maryland is probably still the world's largest fiber installation. Fiber for local wiring has not yet taken off. Electrical connections are much less expensive. Even so, I would install fiber for backbone connections because weare nearing the end of copper bandwidth charts. With Gigabit Ethernet, we've extended copper capacity farther than many people thought possible. But we are just beginning to tap the bandwidth that can be accommodated over fiber. So I'd rather run on fiber at a lower rate than fiber can accommodate, knowing that I can upgrade to higher speeds. |
| NC: | Will most network administrators need to upgrade their company's cabling system for Gigabit Ethernet? |
| Glenn: |
It depends on what they're currently using and when they installed the cabling system. There are a large number of backbone fiber connections but not many desktop fiber connections. At Novell's Provo and Orem facilities, for example, we use fiber for backbone connections and to individual labs, but we use Category 5 UTP [unshielded twisted pair] cable to the desktop. However, many companies don't ºyet have Category 5 UTP cable to the desktop. Companies upgrade their cabling system pretty slowly--on average, every 15 years. The copper cable everyone originally installed was what we now know as Category 3 UTP cable, which doesn't support Gigabit Ethernet. For about the last four years, companies have been installing Category 5 UTP cable, which does support Gigabit Ethernet under the 802.3ab specification now being developed. That means anyone who installed a cabling system more than four years ago might have to upgrade this cabling system to support Gigabit Ethernet. The good news is, when network administrators install a new cabling system and upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet, they won't outrun us because NetWare is so fast. We know, and our customers know, that Novell has the highest-performing solution on the plane. |
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For more information, visit http://www.novell.com/nwc/advertis.html. NetWare Connection, April 1998, pp.26-27 |
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