Extending the reach of high speed ethernet

[Hon Wah Chin <HWChin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This might more appropriately go to 802.3 instead
of the HSSG, but discussions here have touched in
this area already.

The recent discussions about 10Gb/s and Gig Ethernet
show an interest in carrying these signals significantly
beyond LAN distance.  At some of the longer distances mentioned,
amplifiers, regenerators or repeaters might be useful.
Some of the links may actually be transported on DWDM channels.

For fault isolation, the SONET world has defined various
performance monitoring functions for regenerators.  Perhaps
layer management for higher speed repeaters should be
defined in 802.3.  For instance, a procedure for counting
and reporting code violations might be useful for GigE
line regenerators.  At MAN distances, communications with
the repeater/regenerator may have be be over the ethernet
link itself.  This might be an application for MAC control
frames.  [Of course, it should be an object to keep it
simple enough for two guys in a VW bus to deploy quickly.]

The alternative would be to rely on performance monitoring
and fault isolation from equipment providing optical transport
functions.  Is there anyone else interested in this?  


Hon Wah Chin