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October 18, 2005 Sardinia, Italy -- Transmode Systems, in cooperation with Sun Microsystems, has announced what it calls the world's first multi-vendor data replication over native 4G Fibre Channel and WDM demonstration at the Sun EMEA Storage Symposium.
According to a press release, the demonstration includes interconnection of switches from a wide range of vendors, including Brocade, McDATA, QLogic and StorageTek, with 4G Fibre Channel interfaces over a Transmode WDM system using 40 km 4-Gbit/sec WDM SFP pluggable optics. The companies say the demonstration is intended to reproduce typical customer SAN environments and show the advantages of native 4G Fibre Channel directly over WDM wavelengths.
"This is a great opportunity to show our customers and partners the next step in SAN extension techniques," says James Steele, senior manager of network storage at Sun Microsystems. "4G Fibre Channel is currently undergoing rapid growth and is predicted to overtake 2G Fibre Channel port shipments in 2006 to become the primary Fibre Channel port type shipped. Sun and our partners are at the forefront of developing solutions to meet these needs."
The companies cite recent analyst reports highlighting the rapid growth of 4G Fibre Channel deployments, with port sales rising from approximately 1 in 50 in 2004, to 1 in 3 in 2005, and 2 in 3 in 2006-2007. The companies see this growth as generated by 4G Fibre Channel port costs that are only a small premium over 2G Fibre Channel costs, representing a significant improvement in cost per bit. In addition, say the companies, 4G Fibre Channel achieves lower restrictions than 10G Fibre Channel in terms of credit buffer requirements, and the corresponding throughput/distance performance and lower cost optical transport, when compared to multiplexed 10G platforms.
"At Transmode, we are committed to continuing our tradition of pioneering research and development, and are pleased to be able to demonstrate a new technology that will bring great advantages to the SAN extension market," concludes Dirk Lutz, director of business development at Transmode. "SAN extension is a key application for both our enterprise and service provider customers, and 4G Fibre Channel is an important and logical next step for them to take in their network build-outs and service offerings."
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