Ethernet Alliance Plans FCoE Plugfest

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The Ethernet Alliance Ethernet in the Data Center and Backplane Ethernet subcommittees will host interoperability plugfests at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL) in Durham, NH the first week of May 2009.

The Data Center Bridging plugfest will be held May 4-8 and provides both Ethernet Alliance members and non-members the opportunity to participate in the first data center bridging plugfest. This plugfest targets interoperability testing of Ethernet draft standards being developed by IEEE 802.1 Data Center Bridging task force that includes projects such as IEEE P802.1Qbb and IEEE P802.1Qaz. The plugfest will perform testing across a broad vendor community and will exercise data center bridging features such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet, iSCSI, and latency-sensitive applications. This interoperability testing will be used as a baseline to help define the testing criteria for certification testing targeted for later this year. Interested participants have until April 20 to express their desire to participate in this plugfest.

The trend towards storage transport over Ethernet infrastructure drives a new wave of product development activity,” said Thomas Scheibe, President of the Ethernet Alliance. “The Ethernet Alliance takes IEEE 802 Ethernet standards to market by helping its members verify equipment interoperability and compatibility to the IEEE standards.”

The Ethernet Alliance