25 Gb/s operation over a single lane call for interest

The following request for agenda time for a 25 Gb/s operation over a single lane call for interest has been received from Mark Nowell. It will be discussed at the IEEE 802 LMSC July 2014 Plenary meeting in San Diego, CA USA.

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The use of Top of Rack 4x10Gb/s breakout using 40Gb/s interfaces has become very popular over the last few years in hyper-scale data centers and cloud services providers. As these data centers prepare to transition to 100Gb/s Ethernet, there is an expectation to use the 100Gb/s 4x25Gb/s interface specified in IEEE P802.3bj and IEEE P802.3bm as effectively as is done with the 4x10Gb/s 40Gb/s Ethernet interface. Efficient and effective data center and cloud architectures would utilize the 25Gb/s technology within the 4x25Gb/s 100Gb/s interface technology and enable breakout to single lane 25Gb/s interfaces. At this time, there is no ability for data centers and cloud services providers to enable this network efficiency without a common specification for 25Gb/s Ethernet. This Call For Interest is a request for the formation of a study group to 1) explore enhancements that take advantage of interfaces within IEEE P802.3bj and IEEE P802.3bm to provide a single lane 25Gb/s Ethernet specification for server interconnects, and 2) the market requirements supporting the server-TOR application of a 25Gb/s Ethernet interface.

The call for interest will take place during the IEEE 802.3 Opening Plenary on the afternoon of Monday 14th July. A call for interest consensus building meeting has been scheduled to occur from 18:30 to 20:00 on the evening of Tuesday 15th July. The vote to determine if a Study Group will be formed will take place at the IEEE 802.3 Closing Plenary on the afternoon of Thursday 17th July.