Beyond 400G. A preliminary study of the 800Gb/s and 1.6Tb/s technologies

Abstract

This paper provides a preliminary study of 800Gb/s and 1.6Tb/s Ethernet technologies as a result of the activities of the IEEE 802.3 Beyond 400Gb/s Ethernet Task Force (B400G TF), which was established in January 2021. The works of IEEE B400G TF are in preliminary level and are based on the IEEE Std 802.3 standard series. IEEE B400G TF voted in November 2021 the upcoming IEEE P802.3df standard, which provides an architecture capable of supporting both 800Gb/s and 1.6Tb/s Ethernet, while producing Physical Layer (PHY) specifications for communication across backplanes, copper cabling, multimode and single-mode fiber and use this work to define derivative physical layer specifications and management parameters for the transfer of Ethernet format frames at 100Gb/s, 200Gb/s and 400Gb/s. The first three chapters of this study provide an overview of the IEEE 802.3 architecture, regarding 100Gb/s, 200Gb/s and 400Gb/s Ethernet. IEEE 802.3 architecture has a relationship to the ISO/IEC Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model, starting from the Media Access Control (MAC) layer to the PHY, which consists of three sublayers and has access to the medium. These chapters give the opportunity to understand the requirements and specifications of IEEE 802.3 standard series, which will be the development precursor of the upcoming IEEE P802.3df and IEEE P802.3dj standards. The fourth chapter provides the architectural perspectives for the development of IEEE P802.3df and IEEE P802.3dj, through the proposals delivered from the IEEE B400G TF members. These proposals are part of the research and the latest developments in Ethernet technology. The structure of this chapter follows the format of the IEEE 802.3 standard series, provides a layer-based analysis, and gives the opportunity for a holistic view of the upcoming perspectives. Annexes A to M are included in this paper for informative purposes, since they are part of the IEEE 802.3 standards.