Speeding up internet connectivity is beneficial to everyone, including Bitcoin users. A new Ethernet standard is in development, which would allow for transfer speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps over standard cables. The IEEE has approved this new standard, which can achieve 5 Gbps Ethernet speeds when using Cat 6 cables.
Raising The Bar For Ethernet Speeds
As our society evolves, the need for faster Internet connectivity becomes more apparent. However, increasing the speeds hinges on using unified standards, which have to be approved by the IEEE. Now that the new 5Gbps standard has been approved, the future of Ethernet connectivity looks very different from what we are used to now.
Although gigabit Ethernet speeds are not new, the “speed cap” currently sits at 1 Gbps for home users. Even though the cables are capable of achieving much faster speeds, the old standard would not allow for much improvement. Users could reach up to 10 Gbps of Ethernet speeds by using special Cat 6a or even Cat 7 cables, which are far more expensive. In fact, this type of wiring is mostly designed for enterprise-level clients.
Home users will not upgrade to a whole new cabling system to squeeze out every last bit of Ethernet performance. A far better approach is to adapt the standards to make existing cables more suitable for higher speeds. This new standard will, other than achieving higher rates, allow for Power of Ethernet standards, which are quite useful for rolling out multiple Wi-Fi access points.
From a technical perspective there is a lot more to this specification than most people will realize. Instead of using 400MHZ of spectral bandwidth, which is used by the 10 Gbps standard right now, the new standard uses 100MHZ or 200MHZ. In doing so, there is no need for super-shielded cables, which are far too expensive for consumer homes.
Having this standard approved is just the first step along the way, though. Enterprise-level 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps hardware can be developed and shipped very soon. For the consumer, unfortunately, there will still be a longer wait time until consumer-grade hardware is available which supports the new standard. More importantly, the price point for these devices has yet to be determined.
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