[matt-p]

It uses 128b/132b encoding so 10Gb/s USB ≈ 9.69Gb/s you do then have USB framing overhead but it's probably around 2% on typical 1500B ethernet frames. So all in you are losing probably 5% or so to overhead.

I am of the opinion that 5Gbe is a much more sensible speed for a laptop adapter right now as it uses half the power and can obviously run full wack on 10Gb/s USB so you're looking at like 5Gbe vs ~9.4Gbe.

[namibj]

Stop insisting on Cat.6A (and related) copper cables for speeds beyond 1000BASE-T (maybe beyond 2.5G by now), just use dumb multi mode fiber it's way easier technology-wise and if you want power you can have that as well.

At distances where Cat.6A is even an option the demands on the fiber are very low. And it uses less power than the BASE-T PHY. The cable at least without integrated power is very thin as well, unless you can't respect it enough to not kink it, in which case you'd want a thicker one just to prevent you from being able to break the fiber.

[BenjiWiebe]

In fact, just to for single mode fiber. Looking on fs.com, single mode cables are slightly cheaper, and the optics (for 10G) are $30 to MMF's $25.

And you get much better future proofing with SMF. And if you do need a long fast run, SMF is what you want.

[matt-p]

I kind of a agree, but it's not going to happen for a long long time. The practicalities are just a nightmare.

How do I power an access point with fiber? Ok we add an AC wall socket to the ceiling but now we need a 'brick' to convert to DC. How do I remotely hard reboot an access point if it were to crash?

Fiber termination requires a fusion splicer and a trained engineer, sharps box etc. The power socket needs an electrician. It's just such a nightmare in comparison, install is going to be more expensive, longer to fix faults, less flexible to move a socket etc

[Thews]

5GBASE-T interfaces often use 3x less power than 10GBASE-T

[matt-p]

Yes very true, 2X is with the most modern 10G chipsets only.