[10GBASE-T] Objectives
Brad,
I think one area where the objectives need work is with regard to MAC compatability. The only one I see that currently relates to it is:
Support a speed of 10.000 Gb/s at the MAC/PLS service interface
Given some of the proposals being made, I don't think this objective goes far enough. (I note that this doesn't even say that 10 Gb/s is the only speed that will be supported.) In the past we have occasionally tweaked the MAC definition to accomodate faster operation. When we are adding a new physical layer for an existing MAC speed, we have always been careful to design the new PHY so that it was entirely compatible with existing MACs. For instance, when we designed 10BASE-T, we made sure that the behavior the 10BASE-T MAU exhibited when a fault occurred matched behavior that coax MAUs produced for faults.
I propose adding an objective:
Compatible with existing MACs at XGMII and XAUI interfaces without modification.
If there are people who don't think that should be an objective, then they should explain what sort of modifications they expect to need and how a PHY that is not compatible with existing MACs (including switch ports) can have broad market potential.
Regards,
Pat
-----Original Message-----
From: Booth, Bradley [mailto:bradley.booth@intel.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 6:05 PM
To: stds-802-3-10gbt@ieee.org
Subject: Re: [10GBASE-T] PAR and 5 critters
Folks,
In my humble opinion, we're starting to degrade from the topic. We're tasked with a PAR and 5 Criteria with a set of Objectives to support. We are not selecting baseline proposals, nor are we creating a draft. We do have drafts of our required documents, and if you disagree with those, please relate the discussion to those documents. From the presentations that I have seen, all PHY vendors are on record as stating that they believed it was possible to transmit 10Gbps on Cat7 cabling. This is an extremely important base to build from because it is the one point that everyone seems to have bought into at one time or another. It is the basis from which the 10G PHY and multi-rate PHY were developed.
If an individual or group of individuals does not believe that this claim is true and wish to start a separate standards development endeavour, they are permitted to perform a call for interest at any time. Otherwise, the focus of this group is for the development of a 10GBASE-T PHY, and involvement means that you support the Study Group this effort.
Thanks,
Brad
Chair, 10GBASE-T SG
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