6/5/2006 -- The Ethernet Alliance last week verged ever closer to relevancy by establishing new subcommittees to help support the 10G EPON and 10GBASE-T standards development processes. On top of this, the Ethernet Alliance added eight new members to an already Big Name-heavy roster, which analysts say helps to further burnish its legitimacy as an agenda-neutral vendor advocacy group.

Months after adding big-name players Cisco Systems Inc. and Extreme Networks to its lineup, the Ethernet Alliance looks to be open for business. Cisco and Extreme joined founding members 3Com Corp., Broadcom Corp., Foundry Networks Inc., Intel Corp. and 10 other backers.

The Ethernet Alliance says its 10G EPON subcommittee will support the IEEE's recently formed 10G EPON study group, while its 10GBASE-T subcommittee will support interoperability demonstrations for the IEEE's 10GBASE-T standards effort, which is nearing completion.

Analysts are positive on the announcements, saying that the fledgling Ethernet Alliance is starting to flex its muscles.

"[T]hese initiatives are some of the first real projects the Ethernet Alliance has tackled. The Ethernet Alliance's importance to end users and Ethernet vendors is based solely on its ability to promote standards to the public. Its upcoming activities to promote EPON and 10GBASE-T will be the scale on which the Ethernet Alliance's value is weighed," writes Steven Schuchart, a senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure with Current Analysis. As a result, Schuchart speculates, "the many companies who did not join the Ethernet Alliance will use the effectiveness of these activities to determine future membership."

The Ethernet Alliance's growing roster doesn't include any additions on the order of a Cisco or an Extreme, but computing and electronics giant Toshiba did lend its support this time around. Shuchart -- like alt rock icon David Barbe -- says every little bit helps, especially for a vendor-neutral, ostensibly open advocacy group such as the Ethernet Alliance. "It is also important to the Ethernet Alliance that it keep growing, and this release shows the continued membership activity required to bring the organization to a critical mass," he writes.

More to the point, says Schuchart, the Alliance seems to be undertaking some genuinely important standardization and interoperability work.

"[B]y promoting those two particular Ethernet standards efforts, the Ethernet Alliance is putting momentum behind two of the hottest areas of emerging interest in Ethernet. Ethernet in carriers and copper 10 Gigabit Ethernet for enterprises are sure to garner considerable attention from both customers as well as the vendors themselves as the standards emerge and we begin to see productization," he comments.

Not all is sweetness and light, of course. The Alliance's roster is currently missing a few big names, for starters. "While its membership is certainly growing, it has not attracted every major switching vendor. Nortel sticks out as a particular holdout. The Ethernet Alliance will need to continue to pick up members if it wishes to be the effective force in the industry that it envisions," he comments. "The Ethernet Alliance will also have the same image problem that many vendor-driven organizations have, and that's a perception of bias. Some customers will simply not accept that the Ethernet Alliance's goals are not to simply line the pockets of its membership. It's an old accusation against technology specific vendor driven groups and it will be hard to shake." -Stephen Swoyer