Re: [802.3_ISAAC] Architectural inefficiency and PAR alignment of the 1

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In the camera-related discussions in which I participate, the missing finalization of the IEEE asymmetric Ethernet specification is already a significant concern. Programs need sufficient certainty regarding specification availability, implementation, and validation. Where that certainty is missing, alternative technologies are more likely to be favored.

I recognize that the proposed 1 Gb/s low-speed option may offer value for certain applications, and I appreciate the technical work invested in the proposal.

Nevertheless, introducing this option at the present stage creates a schedule risk that I cannot disregard. The recent technical discussions also indicate that further review and specification work would be necessary before the text could be considered mature.

Even a limited delay in finalizing the specification may affect technology decisions in automotive programs. Once an alternative technology has been selected, completing the IEEE specification at a later point may not reverse that decision.

For this reason, my primary concern is the timely completion of the currently defined specification and maintaining the planned transition to SA ballot. The 1 Gb/s option could still be studied separately without exposing the current project schedule to additional risk.

This is not a judgment against the technical concept. It is a prioritization based on the timing and planning needs of potential automotive users.

INTERNAL

From: Hossein Sedarat <000008c7cb0e9f44-dmarc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2026 1:13 PM
To: STDS-802-3-ISAAC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <STDS-802-3-ISAAC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [802.3_ISAAC] Architectural inefficiency and PAR alignment of the 1 Gb/s proposal

Hi everyone,

I would also like to share a quick summary of my view on this topic.

1- As we all know, the choice of the data rates affect every aspect of the PHY specifications. Any discussion about a new data rate should belong to the very early phases of standard development and not at the stage that text opens up for SA balloting. This is particularly true if the new rate is an order of magnitude higher than the baseline.

2- Additionally, for this task force, which is formed with the sole goal of optimality of the PHY for asymmetric traffic, there are even more reasons to think twice about introducing a new data rate which pushes the traffic more towards symmetry.

3- On top of all this, even if we have to move ahead and introduce the option of 1G for upstream, I highly doubt that anybody can make a reasonable argument for TDD to be the right choice to achieve the PHY optimality that is the center requirement for this asymmetric PHY type. As you know, I have had many contributions showing that TDD is not an optimal asymmetric PHY choice. All those arguments are much stronger when the upstream is 1G and data rates are less asymmetric. Here is a summary of those arguments:

a) Equalization becomes a much tougher problem in TDD, especially if data rates are less asymmetric

b) The dynamic range of the analog receive signal path becomes increasingly a bottleneck in TDD when the traffic is more symmetric

c) Transmitter linearity is more challenging when TDD needs to support a more symmetric throughput

c) PLL jitter tolerance budget is tighter with the excessive bandwidth requirements that come with TDD, particularly for more symmetric data rates

d) Meeting EMC requirements become increasingly harder with the inefficiently wider bandwidth needed to support TDD for more symmetric traffic

e) TDD is inherently not the right choice for small delay, particularly if the data rates are less asymmetric

Our colleagues affiliated with OEMs have told us many times that there was an immediate need for asymmetric PHY in the market which, in turn, argued for the urgency in ratifying an asymmetric spec to achieve the optimality goals for a PHY. To me, bringing up a new higher data rate with questionable applications with less asymmetry while we are about to open up the SA ballot goes against this urgency.

IEEE 802.3 has chosen full duplex schemes over and over for every symmetric PHY spec. Given all this precedence, it's hard to image TDD can be the optimal PHY when the data rate is less asymmetric. As William said in this email below, unless proven otherwise, 8023.ch with EEE should be the default choice for these applications.

Thanks,

-Hossein

On Monday, September 14, 2026 at 02:47:20 AM PDT, William Lo <00005d57449a68e9-dmarc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

All,

I’m looking at the reflector going back and forth going into technical details.

I have a couple of simple questions.

Is 1G back channel needed all the time? If so what is the use case?

If it is only needed once in a while what is the use case?

What is the market size needing 1G vs market size of not needing 1G.

We already have a solution with 5GBASE-T1 or 10GBASE-T1 with EEE if you need

burst of high speed reverse traffic from time to time. If a small fraction of the market requires 1G

backchannel, then just use the existing solution today.

Looking at what Ragnar pointed out, I tend to agree that the 1G modulation is not fully thought through.

Given that we want to go to SA in Nov, I recommend that we do not include the 1G.

In my opinion, there is too much risk with the 1G proposal as it stands as I

believe the working group is going to poke a lot of holes with this to prevent us from getting to SA.

Thanks,

William

From: Ragnar Jonsson <ragnar.jonsson@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2026 1:29 AM
To: STDS-802-3-ISAAC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [802.3_ISAAC] Architectural inefficiency and PAR alignment of the 1 Gb/s proposal

Dear 802.3dm colleagues,

I have been conducting a thorough review of the proposed 1 Gb/s addition to Clause 192. I have already shared my concerns regarding whether a 1 Gb/s return path is justified for camera applications (and hence whether it aligns with the 802.3dm project scope), as well as noting that the current text is not mature enough for SA ballot without risking project delays.

In this email, I want to highlight an equally fundamental issue: the proposed framing structure is technically unoptimized, regardless of how one views the scope.

As defined in our approved Project Authorization Request (PAR), the explicit scope of IEEE P802.3dm is to specify Physical Layer standards that are:

"optimized for automotive end-node camera links for operation up to 10 Gb/s in one direction and with a lower data rate in the other direction."

When reviewing the technical details in the draft text and proposals, the framing mechanisms required to force the 1 Gb/s return path into the 9.6 µs TDD grid depart significantly from an optimized PHY architecture:

Excessive Byte Padding: To force transmission times into the rigid 9.6 µs TDD cycle, the datapath relies on substantial arbitrary byte padding outside the RS-FEC boundaries. Specifically, 5G+1000 requires 726 bytes (5,808 bits) of end-of-burst padding, 7.5G+1000 requires 200 bytes (1,600 bits), and the 1 Gb/s LS path requires 8 bytes (64 bits). Transmitting thousands of dummy padding bits per burst wastes channel time and transmitter power without carrying client data.
Severe OAM Bandwidth Squandering: In the 1 Gb/s LS path, aggregating six interleaved (L=2) RS-FEC(130,124) superframes transmits 170 bits across the 17-bit OAM positions in the five standard superframes. However, because Clause 192.3.7 strictly defines OAM exchange as a single 10-bit symbol per TDD burst, 160 out of the 170 transmitted bits (over 94%) are permanently unutilized and reserved. Carrying this dead-weight overhead solely to avoid reformatting the 100 Mb/s frame structure is remarkably inefficient.
Standardization of "Dark Capacity": The proposal introduces unallocated RS-FEC superframes (1 extra superframe for 1 Gb/s LS and 7.5G+1000 HS; 2 extra superframes for 5G+1000 HS), designating them as "vendor-specific" and explicitly "outside the scope of IEEE 802.3" (subclauses 192.3.2.2 and 192.3.4). Allocating standard PHY line bandwidth to proprietary, non-interoperable data simply to make the math fit the cycle timing is contrary to traditional 802.3 architectural practices.
Avoidable Escalation of Modulation Orders: This framing overhead inflates the symbol load, forcing the forward path to jump to higher-order modulations—from PAM2 to PAM3 for 5 Gb/s, and from PAM3 to PAM4 for 7.5 Gb/s. Sacrificing receiver SNR and link margin to transmit thousands of dummy padding bits and unused OAM positions is not an optimal engineering tradeoff for cost- and power-constrained automotive links.

While I understand the desire to reuse existing PCS building blocks, the resulting datapath layers ad-hoc shims and non-standard dark fields onto an architecture originally designed for a 100 Mb/s return path.

Given our explicit PAR mandate to develop an optimized specification, I believe the Task Force should not adopt the 1 Gb/s proposal in its current form. Standardizing a framing structure with this degree of built-in inefficiency does not serve the long-term interests of the automotive Ethernet ecosystem.

Best regards,
Ragnar

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