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I've been ranting about this for a while tbh. Network interfaces used to be one of the fastest interfaces on a computer. Now they're one of if not the slowest s

I've been ranting about this for a while tbh. Network interfaces used to be one of the fastest interfaces on a computer. Now they're one of if not the slowest save for USB2 or bluetooth. 1GbE networking is one of the slowest interfaces on modern computers. - The slowest USB3 spec is 5Gbps. USB3 is a mess, but you can easily far exceed 1Gbps with the absolute worst of it. - The current fastest USB spec is USB4, and is at least 20Gbps, and sometimes 40Gbps - Thunderbolt/Lightning both push 10's of gigabits depending on spec - 802.11ac ("Wifi 5"/"Wave 2") is capable of Gigabit speed, and 802.11ax ("Wifi 6") easily exceeds 1Gbps - Even Cellular connections can exceed 1Gbps these days with 5G, though admittedly realistically you're looking at 100Mbs-1000Mbps - Individual SAS/SATA rotational drive easily push passed 1Gbps in seq workloads - Individual SAS/SATA SSD's often push 3Gbps, and SATA itself supports up to 6Gbps, with SAS up to 12Gbps. - PCIe NVMe in it's slowest spec (Gen3 at 2 lanes) is still 16Gbps, most typically running at up to 32Gbps at Gen3 x4 - PCIe5 consumer devices have launched (Gen5x4 lane NVMe is 128Gbps) - PCIe6 is around the corner for enterprise To add insult to injury, in the consumer space they're trying to tout 2.5GbE as some sort of premium new NIC, despite it replacing 10GbE in the premium NIC space from several years ago (eg Asus X99-E-10G-WS). It's maddening. 10Gbase-T, 10Gbe, and Cat6a has been around for well over a decade (to say nothing of SFP+ 10G). Granted they're starting to reposition 2.5GbE as the new 1GbE, which is far more sensible, but still positions your NIC as one of your slowest interfaces 1GbE is the limiting factor to speeds these days, with internal storage/devices and nearly all alternative interfaces vastly outspeeding 1GbE. Even cheap external SATA SSD's and a common usb3 cable can greatly exceed your 1GbE network speed. If you have multiple devices, and want to transfer data between them, a network cable is supposed to be the superior choice. Not Wifi, Not USB, but a network cable over the local network. But it's actually much faster to plug a drive into one device with USB, transfer the data, unplug, plug into the other device, transfer again, than to use a standard 1GbE network interface. Shameful. Just because your WAN interface is likely 1Gbps or less doesn't mean there isn't a use at the prosumer level for >1Gbps network connections for use at the LAN level.

derekdahmer 5y ago
Ethernet is by far the longest connection out of all of those, supporting up to 100 meters for 10G over copper and over 300 meters for fiber [1] which is pretty impressive. No other commodity interface comes close to that kind of range at that speed. Wifi 6 officially has a real world limit of 700mbps [2] and drops to half that if you're more than a few feet from the router. Passive USB 3 and thunderbolt cables have a max length of 2 meters [3]. The rest of the interfaces you've listed like PCIe all operate on the scale of inches and plug straight into the motherboard. Plus it really isn't very expensive to upgrade to 10G given the use case is pretty niche for home use. You can get a budget SFP+ Switch and 2 NICs for ~$300. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Gigabit_Ethernet#10GBASE-SR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Gigabit_Ethernet#10GBASE-SR [2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/05/wifi6_700mbps_speeds/ https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/05/wifi6_700mbps_speeds/ [3] https://www.newnex.com/usb-cable-maximum-length-limits.php https://www.newnex.com/usb-cable-maximum-length-limits.php
- Zandikar 5y ago
  Yes. The connectors have different lengths, as some are internal and some are external interfaces, both of which are part of the chain in transferring data from storage device in one host to a storage device in another host. The point was to illustrate the bottleneck among all of the possible pieces in that chain, standard 1GbE ethernet is lagging behind. That's why I specifically referenced NVMe and 2/4Lane implementations when talking PCIe. In this context, run length is entirely irrelevant. It's more relevant to point out that you can network Ethernet connections, meanwhile USB, thunderbolt and Wifi are primarily client <> host connections. > You can get a budget SFP+ Switch and 2 NICs for ~$300. Yes, this is part of the problem. In 2016's we started to see mainstream adoption of 10G, which hopefully would lead to the more availabile, more affordable, consumer friendly ease of use twisted pair Cat6a and RJ45 10Gbase-T Switches. Instead, Enterprise had already largely moved on from 10G (largely supporting it as a legacy connector via SFP28 being backwards compatible with SFP+) and Mainstream/Prosumer manufacturers instead decided to regress from the 10Gbase-T deployments to 2.5GbE. As a result we're not seeing a lot of development in the 10G space, and in many ways a regression towards 2.5GbE. Sure, if you don't mind the noise and know your way around a cli, there are plenty of surplus enterprise switches on the cheap. And I don't mind Optics/DACs. I run 10G at home (cat6a, Intel X550's, Arista 7050T-64, which used to be a few hundred bucks) and 25G/100G in the lab (CX4 LX's/CX6 VPIs connected to an Arista 7260CX-64). But it is unfamiliar to most consumers. Not a huge hurdle, but a strange ask considering 10Gbase-T with familiar twisted pair and rj45 aint new by any means. Mikrotik and UBQT both have some options in the space, but the cost of these newer switches certainly doesn't fall in the $300 budget, unless you only need like 2-4 10G ports on the switch and are fine with SFP+. And yes, >4PHY 10G SFP+ and/or 10Gbase-t switches exist, but you're not getting them and NICs w/ DACs (or especially fiber if you need a longer run akin to a standard Cat5 deployment) inside your $300 budget, and there's very few on the market that'll fit in your budget even if you stretch it to $500. TL;DR: Yes, 10G is technically available, but it's a strangely esoteric niche that exists after the mainstream decided to regress from 10GbE towards 2.5GbE.

derekdahmer 5y ago

Ethernet is by far the longest connection out of all of those, supporting up to 100 meters for 10G over copper and over 300 meters for fiber [1] which is pretty impressive. No other commodity interface comes close to that kind of range at that speed. Wifi 6 officially has a real world limit of 700mbps [2] and drops to half that if you're more than a few feet from the router. Passive USB 3 and thunderbolt cables have a max length of 2 meters [3]. The rest of the interfaces you've listed like PCIe all operate on the scale of inches and plug straight into the motherboard. Plus it really isn't very expensive to upgrade to 10G given the use case is pretty niche for home use. You can get a budget SFP+ Switch and 2 NICs for ~$300. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Gigabit_Ethernet#10GBASE-SR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Gigabit_Ethernet#10GBASE-SR [2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/05/wifi6_700mbps_speeds/ https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/05/wifi6_700mbps_speeds/ [3] https://www.newnex.com/usb-cable-maximum-length-limits.php https://www.newnex.com/usb-cable-maximum-length-limits.php

Zandikar 5y ago
Yes. The connectors have different lengths, as some are internal and some are external interfaces, both of which are part of the chain in transferring data from storage device in one host to a storage device in another host. The point was to illustrate the bottleneck among all of the possible pieces in that chain, standard 1GbE ethernet is lagging behind. That's why I specifically referenced NVMe and 2/4Lane implementations when talking PCIe. In this context, run length is entirely irrelevant. It's more relevant to point out that you can network Ethernet connections, meanwhile USB, thunderbolt and Wifi are primarily client <> host connections. > You can get a budget SFP+ Switch and 2 NICs for ~$300. Yes, this is part of the problem. In 2016's we started to see mainstream adoption of 10G, which hopefully would lead to the more availabile, more affordable, consumer friendly ease of use twisted pair Cat6a and RJ45 10Gbase-T Switches. Instead, Enterprise had already largely moved on from 10G (largely supporting it as a legacy connector via SFP28 being backwards compatible with SFP+) and Mainstream/Prosumer manufacturers instead decided to regress from the 10Gbase-T deployments to 2.5GbE. As a result we're not seeing a lot of development in the 10G space, and in many ways a regression towards 2.5GbE. Sure, if you don't mind the noise and know your way around a cli, there are plenty of surplus enterprise switches on the cheap. And I don't mind Optics/DACs. I run 10G at home (cat6a, Intel X550's, Arista 7050T-64, which used to be a few hundred bucks) and 25G/100G in the lab (CX4 LX's/CX6 VPIs connected to an Arista 7260CX-64). But it is unfamiliar to most consumers. Not a huge hurdle, but a strange ask considering 10Gbase-T with familiar twisted pair and rj45 aint new by any means. Mikrotik and UBQT both have some options in the space, but the cost of these newer switches certainly doesn't fall in the $300 budget, unless you only need like 2-4 10G ports on the switch and are fine with SFP+. And yes, >4PHY 10G SFP+ and/or 10Gbase-t switches exist, but you're not getting them and NICs w/ DACs (or especially fiber if you need a longer run akin to a standard Cat5 deployment) inside your $300 budget, and there's very few on the market that'll fit in your budget even if you stretch it to $500. TL;DR: Yes, 10G is technically available, but it's a strangely esoteric niche that exists after the mainstream decided to regress from 10GbE towards 2.5GbE.