Abstract

The 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GE or 10GbE or 10 GigE) computer networking standard was first published in 2002. It defines a version of Ethernet with a nominal data rate of 10 Gbit/s (billion bits per second), ten times as fast as gigabit Ethernet.

10 gigabit Ethernet defines only full duplex links which are generally connected by network switches. Half duplex operation and CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access with collision detection) do not exist in 10GbE.

The 10 gigabit Ethernet standard encompasses a number of different physical layer (PHY) standards. However a networking device may support different PHY types by means of pluggable PHY modules and over time market forces narrow products to a few popular choices.
At the time that the 10 gigabit Ethernet standard was developed, interest in 10GbE as a wide area network (WAN) transport led to the introduction of a WAN PHY for 10GbE. This operates at a slightly slower data-rate than the local area network (LAN) PHY and adds some extra encapsulation. Both share the same Physical Medium Dependent sublayers so can use the same optics. Over time, the local area options became more popular.
From 2007 when only 1 million ports were shipped, 10 gigabit Ethernet deployments rose quickly to 124 million ports shipped in 2009. Other reports indicate the number of switch ports was slightly greater than two million ports in 2009.