Phone conference & Perspective on Objectives

["HANSON,DEL (HP-SanJose,ex1)" <del_hanson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

HSSG Distance Ad Hoc Colleagues,

Since some of you are new to this HSSG Distance Ad Hoc reflector, I want to
repeat the announcement in my first message to kick this off. I have
scheduled the following conference call:

Date: Monday, 6/28/99 
Time: 8-9 AM PST
Call in #: 650-857-6800
Access #: 8435
20 Lines

Objective of conference call: 
Using this reflector to raise and respond to issues, try to reach closure
during this conference call on distance and application space objectives
which are likely to gain a 75% approval by the full committee. If we cannot
accomplish this, we will undoubtedly need to meet early during plenary week
in Montreal to complete the process.

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My observations on status of reflector discussion of Jonathan's initial
proposed distance and application objectives are listed below. I have made
some slight modification of the statements.

1. Support the traditional LAN environment.

This seems to be generally supported on the reflector and is consistent with
IEEE 802.3 objectives. It does not mean that we need to support every PMD
media alternative which now exists.

2. Support the extended Ethernet environment as specified by 1000BASE-LX
link lengths and point-to-point links used in common practice to reach into
the MAN environment.

I believe this has been generally supported on the reflector and is
consistent with IEEE 802.3 objectives. The extended range would cover the
current proprietary links of 5 km to >50 km implemented in existing Gigabit
Ethernet (GbE) networks.

3. Support direct attachment to the WAN infrastructure.

This proposed objective has received the most diverse comment. Arguments
have ranged from this objective being outside the standards scope of IEEE
803 LAN/MAN applications to noting that it is vital for 10GbE to meet user
needs for lower cost 10GbE WAN connectivity. 
   The argument hinges on whether we consider it important for IEEE 802.3 to
facilitate user need for efficient 10GbE connectivity throughout WANs. There
seems to be merit in having a specification which maps 10GbE efficiently
into OC-48 and/or OC-192 by using traditional Ethernet LAN interfaces. A
pure Ethernet-based WAN specification extends well beyond this. This may
need to be considered in a follow-on phase.

Regards,
Del Hanson
408-435-6246

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