An Ethernet standard that transmits at 10 gigabits per second (10 Gbps). Introduced in 2002 and abbreviated "10 GbE," "10GE" or "10G Ethernet," it extended Gigabit Ethernet by 10-fold for high-speed storage networks (SANs), enterprise backbones, as well as wide area and metropolitan area networks. By 2016, five ISPs in the U.S. offered 10 GbE to business and residential customers. See
Gigabit Ethernet,
LAN,
SAN,
WAN and
MAN.
Full Duplex and No Collisions
10GbE works only in full-duplex mode and does not support CSMA/CD, the common Ethernet collision method used to gain access to the physical medium. A "WAN interface sublayer" (WIS) makes 10GbE compatible with the SONET transport at 10 Gbps (OC-192). See
SONET.
Fiber or Copper
The 10GBASE-LX4 version (see below) carries four wavelengths of light on one pair of fibers. In 2004, 10GbE over copper wire was introduced. Using four twinaxial cables, the copper version was designed for short distances between switches and storage devices in the datacenter. See
25 Gigabit Ethernet,
Ethernet and
FCoE.
10GbE Over Copper Wire (802.3ak)
(Datacenter use)
Version Cable Maximum
Version Cable Distance
10GBASE-CX4 Twinax 15 m
10GbE Over Fiber (802.3ae)
Maximum
Version Fiber Distance
10GBASE-SR MMF/850nm 65 m
10GBASE-LRM MMF/1310nm 220 m
10GBASE-LRM MMF/850nm 260 m
10GBASE-LX4 MMF/1310nm 300 m
10GBASE-LR SMF/1310nm 10 km
10GBASE-ER SMF/1550nm 40 km
10GBASE-LX4 SMF/1310nm 10 km
10GBASE-ZR** SMF/1550nm 80 km
10GBE Over SONET Network
10GBASE-SW MMF/850nm 65 m
10GBASE-LW SMF/1310nm 10 km
10GBASE-EW SMF/1550nm 40 km
MMF = multimode fiber
SMF = singlemode fiber
ZR** = non standard