News Details
by Sam Oliver
Geneva, Switzerland played host to the IEEE 802.3 Interim Meetings as well as a workshop to discuss the future of Ethernet Transport which was jointly held by the IEEE and ITU. The conference was held from May24th through Friday, May 28th at the ITU Headquarters adjacent to the United Nations grounds in Geneva.
Having only attended one other IEEE standards meeting, I am still green to the whole Standards Creation process. P802.3ba only required approval from the IEEE review committee before formal acceptance and as such, there would be no further discussions around this proposal, which had been Avalon's focus in previous meetings. Instead, this conference would focus on meetings for the IEEE802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet Task Force, the formation of the IEEE 802.3bg Task Force for a 40G Ethernet single mode fibre PMD, and 802.3 Maintenance. The highlight of the week would be the joint workshop to discuss "The Next Rate".
The 802.3bg meetings started with a number of presentations highlighting the technical feasibility of two different wavelength choices (1310nm or 1550nm) along with the perceived advantages of each. The Task Force was divided as to what the best choice would be. However, through much discussion and negotiation, a consensus was reached, and a baseline for the draft text was accepted. This was an excellent example of members of the technical community with differing agendas coming together to achieve a worthwhile goal.
The joint workshop on the next Higher OTN Rate was much different from the other sessions I had attended, as it was being hosted by both the IEEE and ITU. There were also many more attendees, which, along with the topic of discussion, added some electricity to the atmosphere of this meeting. The morning session saw a number of presentations around protection switching as well as timing and synchronization. While the content was interesting, I was anxious to hear the thoughts of the other delegates on what the next transmission rate should be.
The afternoon session opened with a presentation around some potential projects for growing the XLGE/CGE family, as well as an introduction into what factors should be considered for developing the next rate. What followed were presentations by representatives of Google Networks (Vijay Vusirikala), the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (Henk Steenman) as well as Verizon (Martin Carroll) outlining the carrier perspective regarding the next rate. From the carrier perspective, Terabit Ethernet would be preferable, however it was acknowledged that this might not be technically feasible in the timelines required, and therefore an interim rate (maybe 400GbE) might be necessary.
The remaining presentations focused on the technical challenges of the next rate. Limitations in both electrical signaling and optical technology present a huge challenge to achieving either 400GbE or 1000GbE. However, there seemed to be consensus that 400GbE was achievable and, from a purely technical point of view, would be the logical choice for the next rate. The floor was then opened for questions and comments, which provided some spirited discussions. It was evident that this was the very first of many such discussions that will lead to the standardization of the "next rate".
Geneva is beautiful city, and I enjoyed many walks along the lake shore and some beautiful weather: a welcome departure from the Newfoundland Spring. The conference was well attended and I was once again impressed by how ordered and democratic the meetings were. Overall, I was left with a feeling that there are exciting times ahead in our industry.