Re: Leveraging OC-192c - 802.3x flow control
Hon Wah,
I agree in general with your thoughts on leveraging elements of the OC-192
infrastructure including EDFAs and regenerators for use with 10 GbE equipment.
The only question I have is with respect to 802.3x flow control: My
understanding is that 802.3x flow control is limited to a single link. Is this
your understanding also? I believe we need to clear up this matter as we
continue to try and determine the correct HSSG speed objective.
A second point you make is to raise the possibility of using 802.3x AND other
pacing mechanisms in a link. I don't believe that it's a good idea to mix
mechanisms that control the flow of packets within a link. This speaks in favor
of 802.x as being the only flow control mechanism for 10 GbE.
Best Regards,
Rich
--
Hon Wah Chin wrote:
> The discussion about a MAC/PLS pacing mechanism would be more
> important if the interface were typically exposed. If it is
> not exposed (and that's my guess), how it works is an internal
> implementation issue. The PHY would clock information from the upper
> protocol layers however it needs to.
>
> This would simplify the discussion and eliminate the question of
> how 802.3x interacts. Use of the 802.3x mechanism in this pacing
> AND allowing flow control from the other end of the link probably
> conflicts with the assumption in 802.3x that flow control packets
> are not forwarded. As observed previously (Mick Seaman?), generating
> such packets at the MAC/PLS interface AND forwarding such packets (without
> extra internal state) received from the link can cause confusion.
>
> The "bit time" used in the various calculations (IFG, 802.3x pause..)
> can be defined at 10G or some other standard rate, probably with less
> controversy.
>
> Still, the question of a THROUGHPUT RATE TARGET interacts with
> the signaling rate and packet formating to be used on the link.
> Leveraging the OC-192 equipment still requires defining the packet
> formating, and without flexibility in the signalling rate we have to
> work on tradeoffs in the framing/formating vs throughput.
>
> It seems to me that the leverage from the OC-192 deployment is mostly in the
> regenerators. Current SONET ADMs would do not transport OC-192c trib
> traffic,
> The current LINE side is about 10Gb/s so there's no multiplexing or
> add/drop.
> The OC-192 components are ahead in volume right now, but the prospects
> for 10Gb/s Ethernets would provide enough volume on their own to justify
> tweaks to the component specifications, assuming no attempt is made
> to push the performance 25%. The other advantage of the defined OC-192
> structure is the overhead already reserved for link performance monitoring.
> This saves definition work if this style of OAM&P is desired for extending
> the reach of 10 Gb/s Ethernet using the deployed SONET OC-192 regenerators.
>
> Overall, if you believe in significant 10Gb/s Ethernet volumes, leveraging
> the deployed OC-192 regenerators is useful but not compelling. On a
> buildout
> of new links, new regnerators that clock at a slightly different clock
> rate can be installed as well as old design regenerators that do exactly
> what SONET OC-192 defines. Within the 40km target, regeneration would
> not typically be used at all. Maybe making the physical layer
> work with EDFAs will be more important than with OC-192 regenerators.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Taborek Sr. Tel: 650 210 8800 x101 or 408 370 9233
Principal Architect Fax: 650 940 1898 or 408 374 3645
Transcendata, Inc. Email: rtaborek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
1029 Corporation Way http://www.transcendata.com
Palo Alto, CA 94303-4305 Alt email: rtaborek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx