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This is not for end users, it's for datacenters. Consumer hardware never has fiber ethernet as it is, because there's simply no need. Not only do consumers ha

by amalcon 14y ago

This is not for end users, it's for datacenters. Consumer hardware never has fiber ethernet as it is, because there's simply no need. Not only do consumers have no use for that amount of bandwidth, typical hardware has trouble saturating a gigabit connection anyway. Adding more unusable bandwidth isn't going to help. Of course, for some crazy reason consumer hardware often has fiber audio jacks. People are weird. In core routers, the landscape is entirely different. It's actually very easy to saturate a 40-gig connection coming out of a major interchange, and there are lots of BGP tricks to work around that. Individual ISPs routinely only have one, for political reasons. It would be difficult to saturate 400. (For now.)

Maakuth 14y ago
Emphasis on "for now". It wasn't that long ago when saturating 100Mbps link seemed distant. And I'm fairly sure home fiber installations, at least as WAN link, are going to grow pretty dramatically both because of the falling prices and because of the growing performance demands. DSL connections are growing increasingly insufficient and there's not that much room to grow in TV cable based home connections either, so fiber seems to be the way to go.
elithrar 14y ago
> Of course, for some crazy reason consumer hardware often has fiber audio jacks. People are weird. "Optical" audio connections are more about noise resistance than distance or throughput, especially if you're running cables behind gear with big magnets (speakers) and all that. (We use optical fibre in electrical substations and switchyards for its resistance to noise and induction; not for the capacity. Most switchroom-switchroom SCADA systems wouldn't saturate 10Mbit Ethernet!)
theatrus2 14y ago
Fiber audio (TOSLINK) isn't for bandwidth or even distance (both suck on TOSLINK for the record), but for allowing a ground isolated digital audio connection. Plus the red LED looks cool.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  For the truly lazy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK

by amalcon 14y ago

Maakuth 14y ago

Emphasis on "for now". It wasn't that long ago when saturating 100Mbps link seemed distant. And I'm fairly sure home fiber installations, at least as WAN link, are going to grow pretty dramatically both because of the falling prices and because of the growing performance demands. DSL connections are growing increasingly insufficient and there's not that much room to grow in TV cable based home connections either, so fiber seems to be the way to go.

elithrar 14y ago

> Of course, for some crazy reason consumer hardware often has fiber audio jacks. People are weird. "Optical" audio connections are more about noise resistance than distance or throughput, especially if you're running cables behind gear with big magnets (speakers) and all that. (We use optical fibre in electrical substations and switchyards for its resistance to noise and induction; not for the capacity. Most switchroom-switchroom SCADA systems wouldn't saturate 10Mbit Ethernet!)

theatrus2 14y ago

Fiber audio (TOSLINK) isn't for bandwidth or even distance (both suck on TOSLINK for the record), but for allowing a ground isolated digital audio connection. Plus the red LED looks cool.

Wingman4l7 14y ago
For the truly lazy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK