The Ethernet Alliance (News - Alert) announced that its next interoperability test event, the TeraFabric Plugfest, will take place at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL (News - Alert)).

The Ethernet Alliance is a global consortium which strives to expand IEEE 802 standards-based Ethernet technologies into new applications via tradeshows, webinars, interoperability demonstrations and educational programs.

Henry He, marketing chair, Ethernet in the data center subcommittee at Ethernet Alliance, recently explained that the flexibility and ease of use features of Ethernet makes it suitable for data center convergence strategies. This serves the needs of data center operations consolidation, which promises reduced expenses, unified visibility and management and easy maintenance.

“The majority of open standards-based testing has been highly focused on individual testing of each Ethernet technology domain,” said John D’Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance. “In real-world data centers, all of these components must work together as part of a single, seamless environment.”

“The Ethernet Alliance TeraFabric Plugfest presents a unique opportunity for the Ethernet ecosystem, as it unites a broad range of current and next-generation Ethernet components in a controlled test setting to illustrate the benefits that a converged network can bring to a data center,” D’Ambrosia added.

TeraFabric Plugfest will enable a comprehensive and cohesive interoperability test experience. The five-day event will showcase Ethernet technologies that suit converged data center requirements like Data Center Bridging (DCB), 10GBASE-T, 40GbE, high-speed cabling and Energy Efficient Ethernet.

The event, scheduled for October 22 - 26, 2012, is expected to optimize data center convergence besides featuring several Ethernet consolidation technologies.

As such plugfests offer a neutral, objective environment, they help advance technology standards as well as helping in locating and addressing issues and challenges, officials said.

According to an August 2011 TMCnet release, the Ethernet Alliance organized an Energy Efficient Ethernet subcommittee interoperability plugfest for products designed to support IEEE Std. 802.3azTM-2010 Energy Efficient Ethernet.

Ethernet Alliance members Broadcom, Intel (News - Alert), LSI, Marvell Technology Group, Qualcomm, Atheros and Vitesse Semiconductor participated in the interoperability test to verify interoperability of EEE devices that support the 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T EEE capabilities.

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