Broadcom Corporation, today announced new enterprise Ethernet switches designed to deliver the faster data rates offered by 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi. The increased wireless speeds delivered by 802.11ac Wave 2 are exceeding the performance of today’s broadly deployed Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), driving enterprises to upgrade network edge switches. The most cost-effective solution is to run 2.5G Ethernet to the access point, thereby unlocking faster wireless speeds and enabling higher bandwidth without needing to re-cable an entire network. Broadcom’s new switches address the upgrade needs for both traditional and all-wireless enterprises, and are designed to work with Broadcom’s BCM84868 2.5 Gbps Ethernet PHY.
The new BCM56160 is the industry’s most integrated Ethernet switch chipset for traditional wired enterprises where desktop terminals, voice-over-IP phones and wireless access points are all connected. The BCM56160 enterprise switch adds 2.5 GbE access point connections to the popular 24 and 48 port Gigabit Ethernet form factors. To accommodate higher Wi-Fi traffic, the device also integrates more high speed 10 Gigabit interfaces for fiber uplinks and delivers double the stacking bandwidth of previous generation devices.
“There’s a strong 2.5G Ethernet ramp expected in the coming 5 years,” said Alan Weckel, VP Ethernet Switch Analyst at Dell Oro. “We expect 5 million 2.5G ports to be deployed next year and up to 25 million by 2019, driven by the transition to 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi.”
“For the all-wireless office built primarily on Wi-Fi access points with few wired terminals, Broadcom’s BCM56060 is the first switch product family optimized for 802.11ac Wave 2 enterprise environments. The BCM56060 enables a smaller form factor with low power consumption, providing multi-mode 1 GbE/2.5 GbE Ethernet interfaces with 10 Gigabit uplinks. Because it is designed to connect primarily to access points instead of wired PCs and phones, it cuts cost by eliminating the legacy 1 GbE Ethernet links.
