While IEEE P802.3cb completed comment resolution in September, one of the comments submitted generated a great deal of debate in respect to an interoperability issue between a 2.5GBASE-X implementation and 1000BASE-X running 2.5 times faster implementation as described in Annex 127A of the IEEE P802.3cb draft. As a result IEEE P802.3cb agreed not to request conditional approval for submission to the December 2017 RevCom meeting, and as a result will await completion of the revision project before submission to RevCom next year. This has resulted in some additional time in the schedule.
As a result of all of the above, the IEEE P802.3cb Chair, after consultation with the IEEE 802.3 Chair, did not progress the recirculation ballot immediately, and instead held a number of Ad Hoc calls to discuss the issue. After much discussion and analysis it was concluded that no changes were needed to be made to responses agreed to in September. However, by that point, it was then too late to conduct a recirculation ballot that would complete prior to the November interim. As a result IEEE P802.3cb will have no business to conduct at the November Plenary, except to further review the current Draft (D3.2), in preparation for recirculation #2, which will follow the Plenary. The Task Force meeting time, at the Plenary, will also be used to allow an audience to anyone who desires to continue the discussion on the interoperability issue. At this point, we feel the work is complete and we should proceed with recirculation #2.