NBASE-T Alliance Celebrates One-Year Anniversary With New Specifications and Members

BEAVERTON, OR--(Marketwired - Dec 9, 2015) - The NBASE-T Alliance, an industry-wide cooperative effort to promote the development of 2.5 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) over twisted pair copper cabling (2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T), today celebrated its one-year anniversary with the release of a new MAC-PHY specification and the addition of 14 new members, bringing total membership to more than 45 companies. Its ongoing industry work continues to facilitate the widespread use and deployment of multigigabit Ethernet through promotion of the IEEE 802.3bz standard, continued publication of specifications, sponsorship and implementation of interoperability and certification programs, and general marketing activities.

"We have spent the last year building consensus with key industry leaders and individuals involved in the IEEE standards process, and providing the industry with specifications in order to begin real product development," said Peter Jones, Chairman of the NBASE-T Alliance. "We believe our work has accelerated the definition of the 802.3bz standard, and is facilitating the widespread deployment of multigigabit products. We expect 2016 will be a year of widespread product adoption and intend to deliver the supporting specifications and certification programs needed to develop a strong ecosystem around 2.5G and 5GBASE-T."

As part of its work to accelerate product development, the alliance is announcing availability of the first version of the USXGMII MAC-PHY specification. This key specification facilitates system development by enabling simple multivendor interconnection of MAC and PHY components. The first version of the specification defines a single-port interface. Dual and multi-port versions are expected in Q1 2016.

The alliance also continues to attract more members as industry leaders recognize the market opportunity for new multigigabit solutions. Some of the new members joining the alliance include Aukua Systems, CoMira Solutions, CZT, IDEAL Networks, Keysight Technologies, Liteconn Co., Ltd., Mentech, Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT), Speed Tech Corp, Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) and Tektronix, Inc.

NBASE-T solutions provide a low-cost path to multigigabit speeds and, according to IHS Infonetics, the market for this technology continues to expand exponentially.

"The transition to next generation 802.11ac Wave 2 access points will drive significant demand for 2.5G ports in the coming years as this technology will allow enterprises to cost-effectively deliver more bandwidth, while re-using parts of their existing infrastructure," said Matthias Machowinski, research director, Enterprise Networks and Video, IHS. "2.5G ports will be one of the bright spots in the switching market, growing at 175 percent compound annual growth rate through CY19."

The NBASE-T Specification: Providing the Foundation for a New Standard
 Work on a new IEEE standard began in earnest at the end of 2014, in concert with the formation of the NBASE-T Alliance and the release of the first version of the NBASE-T specification. By fostering collaboration among its many members, the alliance provided an industry forum for discussing and resolving technical issues in order to streamline discussions at IEEE meetings. The availability of the specification has allowed members to test drive their solutions, and accelerate standards development. 802.3bz technical baselines were adopted in May 2015, all of which were compatible with the NBASE-T specification. The 802.3bz draft is already substantially complete and at its last meeting, the Task Force agreed to accelerate its schedule aiming for approval of the standard in September 2016.

As work continues in the coming year to deliver an approved IEEE standard, the NBASE-T Alliance will continue to refine and augment its own specifications. There are also plans to formalize a certification program, working with a third-party to define test suites, facilitating testing and labeling of compliant products.

About the NBASE-T Alliance
The NBASE-T Alliance is an industry-wide cooperative effort that facilitates the widespread use and deployment of multigigabit Ethernet through promotion of the IEEE 802.3bz standard, continued publication of specifications, sponsorship and implementation of interoperability and certification programs, and general marketing activities. The alliance has developed and released the NBASE-T specification that is compatible with the technical baselines defined in the current draft of the IEEE 802.3bz amendment. The specification enables members companies to immediately develop and deploy 2.5G and 5GBASE-T products, making use of the large, installed base of copper cabling, such as Cat5e and Cat6, found in enterprise networks, home networks and service providers. The alliance was founded in 2014 and its current board of directors is composed of representatives from Aquantia, Cisco, Freescale, Intel, Marvell, and Xilinx. Visit us at www.nbaset.org or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.