The 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, originally established to develop 25, 50 and 100 Gbps Ethernet specifications, announced today it has changed its name to the Ethernet Technology Consortium in order to reflect a new focus on higher-speed Ethernet technologies.

The goal of the consortium is to enhance the Ethernet specification to operate at new speeds by utilizing specifications that are developed or in development. This allows the organization to work alongside other industry groups and standards bodies to adapt Ethernet at a pace that aligns with the rapidly evolving needs of the industry. The ETC has more than 45 members with top-level promoter members that include Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, Google, Mellanox and Microsoft.

The Ethernet Alliance, a global consortium dedicated to the continued success and advancement of Ethernet technologies, today commended the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group on the approval of IEEE 802.3bs, Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers, and Management Parameters for 200 gigabit per second (Gb/s) and 400 Gb/s Operation. The specification of 200 gigabit Ethernet (200GbE) and 400 gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) operation across various interconnects will help satisfy mounting bandwidth demands from cloud-scale data centers, internet exchanges, co-location services, service provider networks, and other bandwidth intensive application spaces, while delivering better economies of scale and lower cost-per-port performance.

"IEEE 802.3bs represents a transformational moment in the move to next generation of networks. The delivery of 200G and 400G is arriving just in time to meet growing needs for reliable, high-speed connectivity from a diverse array of applications and markets," said John D'Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance; and senior principal engineer, Huawei. "The exceptional effort resulting in the completion of this standard is only the start of the industry's investment in the networks of tomorrow. We've laid a firm foundation for 200G and 400G with our early interoperability demonstrations and plugfests, but it's time to kick things into high gear. The real work of testing and verifying multivendor interoperability begins now, and the Ethernet Alliance is ready. We look forward to building on past successes, and helping accelerate 200G and 400G Ethernet's rollout and adoption."