The IEEE 802.3 committee isn’t very good at getting standards work completed so there is a pre-standards body called the Ethernet Alliance. Its like a “pre-meeting meeting” (yes, we have all had those) for Ethernet standards where vendors thrash out most of the obvious stuff so that the committee has less work to consider and, theoretically, should be able to work faster. Natch.

Recently, they published the 2016 version of the Ethernet Roadmap that highlights the slow progress of new Ethernet standards. It good to get some visibility here so that is can be included in your own design strategy.

Not much has changed since 2015 except that 25GbE, 5GbE and 2.5GbE standards show as completed.

Also included is this handy guide to the different SFP module types available today:

and the modules that are currently being hatched for the next generation:

These new SFP module types seem to rely on MPO connectors which I like a lot.

I think most network engineers and designers should keep a copy of this document in their favourite document storage system for reference but keep in mind that the IEEE 802.3 committee is slow, unpredictable and prone to endless delays. Add that into your planning.