Definition: 100 Gigabit Ethernet

An Ethernet standard that transmit at 100 gigabits per second (100 Gbps). Officially, the IEEE 802.3bm-2015 standard, which defines 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100 GbE) and also 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40 GbE) over fiber cables. The 40 Gbe is designed for use within the organization between servers and the Ethernet switch, while 100 GbE is geared to long-distance switch-to-switch transmission.

Multiple Lanes
For 100 GbE, the modulation scheme breaks 100 Gbps into four 25 Gbps data lanes by first splitting the 100 into two polarized streams, each of which is then modulated into two 25 Gbps streams. See 25 Gigabit Ethernet, Terabit Ethernet and Ethernet.

  Distance
    in
  Meters  Medium      Designation

    1     Copper       40GBASE-KR4
           Backplane  100GBASE-KR4

    7     Copper       40GBASE-CR4
                      100GBASE-CR10

  100-    Multimode    40GBASE-SR4
   125     Fiber      100GBASE-SR10

  10 km   Singlemode   40GBASE-LR4
           Fiber      100GBASE-LR10

 100 km   Singlemode  100GBASE-ER10
           Fiber