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Using Ethernet for AI Networking - CISCOU-2038#

Cisco Live Europe 2025 (Amsterdam) digest Program Core pick Amsterdam · 9–14 February 2025

Abstract

Speakers: Peter Jones (Cisco)

  • Why: The Ethernet-vs-InfiniBand question for AI clusters is the defining physical-DC debate of this cycle, and Peter Jones is a long-time standards hand at Cisco; this frames what Ethernet still needs to solve to win the AI fabric.
  • What: A short strategic session on the unprecedented GenAI-driven build-out of AI-focused datacenters, InfiniBand's incumbency, and what it will take for standards-based Ethernet to displace it — a requirements list for Ethernet-based AI networking. (from abstract only)
  • How: Expected to cover the well-known gaps (lossless behavior without fabric-wide PFC pathology, congestion control, multi-job performance isolation, scale-out topology) and how standards efforts (e.g., the Ultra Ethernet direction) aim to close them; the abstract itself is short, so depth must be verified from the recording.
  • Where applicable: Strategic rather than a how-to; relevant to anyone planning AI-cluster fabrics or evaluating vendor AI-Ethernet offerings. Cisco-employee speaker means expect a pro-Ethernet (and pro-Cisco) framing.