Building awareness and understanding: An interview with Ethernet Alliance's Brad Booth

NSDL: You've been in operation for a matter of months and you already have 70 members. Why are people joining the Alliance?

For some it's a no-brainer, they understand the issues and want to get involved. For others, joining often involves an effort that is of some interest to them. For example, next year we plan to demonstrate backplane technology. Companies that are not yet members are looking to join since they want to be part of that demonstration and show that backplane Ethernet is working and here is what it looks like. Others want to participate in consensus building around such issues as high-speed Ethernet. We attempt through our discussions to develop consensus and proposals to take into the IEEE and give companies a way to meet outside of actual standards meetings. We have also had and will have interoperability events at trade shows and companies join to be able to participate.

NSDL: There are so many alliances, groups, and forums out there. Why should they choose the EA?

That's true, however there really isn't an alliance specifically focused on the marketing of IEEE 802 Ethernet technology. Other alliances use Ethernet, some don't. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), for example, is focused on inside the home and reference things like Ethernet specifications in some of their development. The Ethernet Alliance supports what IEEE 802 Ethernet efforts are across the board. There is no other organization that does that.

NSDL: What did the Alliance achieve in 2006?

We brought ourselves online and established a good representation of the EA. People know who we are and we have very good brand equity. Moving from a fledgling organization in January to what we are able to do within the industry now, and what we have planned for 2007, we've built a very good launching platform.

NSDL: What were the hot topics in Ethernet in 2006?

10GBASE-T was a real paradigm change for most people--doing 10G on unshielded twisted pair cabling, pushing not only the technology but also the way the industry treated that type of cabling.

As the year has progressed, the issues evolved to higher-speed Ethernet--looking at speeds around 100G or better--and also looking at energy-efficient Ethernet. Trying to answer such questions as how can we reduce the power requirements of networking equipment?

To date, the Alliance has had a lot of focus within the data center, but we've also seen an increase in the residential market's interest in Ethernet technology. And of course, Power over Ethernet is a technology that is growing slowly on its own, but we're receiving requests to help push the awareness of PoE. It's a radically different technology, actually providing power over an Ethernet cable and being able to power things from Web cams to electric razors.

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