RE: Jumbo Frames in 10GbE?

[Bruce_Tolley@xxxxxxxx]

Brad:

You wrote: "Given that Jumbo Frames are already being used in the market by a
number
of companies,"

In terms of market acceptance of jumbo frames I think we need to stick to the
facts. By market acceptance I mean real end user customers using the feature in
real operational networks.

2 or 3 companies are shipping NICs that support jumbo frames.  One switch vendor
is shipping a switch that supports jumbo frames. For jumbo frames to work, my
understanding is that you need both the switch port and the  NIC to be jumbo
enabled.  This switch vendor does not have a large market presence according to
published third party market research reports.  I can only conclude that only a
small number of customers to date have hardware that could support jumbo frames.

Bruce Tolley
3Com Corp
408-326-5950
bruce_tolley@xxxxxxxx




the consortium (#1 solution) would probably be the fastest
way to generate a standard.  If there is a real need to have it as an
IEEE standard, then creating its own standard (#2 solution) would be the
best way to go.  The development would be similar to 802.3ac and could
probably be done in about the same time span.  Trying to roll it in to
the 10GbE is going to be the hardest to do, because there is already an
objective that the FrameSize will remain the same and there seems to be
a general feeling that this could impact the 10GbE development.