[802.3_50G] Ad Hoc Chair perspective of 50G/NGOATH progress
Dear Colleagues,
As the 50G/NGOATH Study Groups Ad Hoc Chair, I have been talking with Mark on a path to advance the Study Groups at the January interim meeting. It is apparent to me that the meeting will be lively, passionate and full of discussion over the many choices that we, as a Study Group, must make to complete the necessary documentation.
To help the 50G/NGOATH Study Group progress towards the next step, I plan to work with interested participants to prepare some documentation and proposals for consensus building. The goal is to have baseline documents (i.e. par / csd / objectives) ready for the SGs to review, discuss, and possibly adopt (or demolish) at the interim.
Before I get too far, there are a number of different potential scenarios and it would be impossible to prepare for all of them. Therefore, it is my intention to make my plan clear so that participants can choose to support my effort or do their own work on other areas/scenarios that won't be covered by what I'm proposing. :)
First of all, my assessment from the discussion today is that there is consensus building around the formation of a Task Force with the 50 Gb/s objectives and the 200 Gb/s multi-lane media PMDs that will be leveraging that 50 Gb/s single lane work. This will form my initial target for a set of documentation on objectives, CSD and PAR drafts.
Secondly, interest was expressed in the ad hoc calls that the NGOATH study group propose the 200 Gb/s SMF objectives be handled by the P802.3bs Task Force. (Specifically, the proposal was to propose a PAR modification of P802.3bs to the 802.3 Working Group and the EC for consideration at the March Plenary meeting.) In order to do this with minimal impact to P802.3bs schedule, the PAR modification would _need_ to be approved by the NGOATH Study Group in January. However, it is uncertain at this juncture that this will be a successful path, so I also will also try to explore the modifications to the above 50G/200G documentation to include the 200Gb/s SMF if it fails.
Lastly, I'm not planning to develop any documentation nor baseline proposals for 100 Gb/s objectives based on my assessment on consensus and because the aforementioned work should keep me busy enough. I strongly encourage others to bring in contributions in that area if they would like to champion it.
By no means is this the only possible path. However, I do hope that this work spurs the necessary conversation and consensus formation to move us forward. :)
Please let me know if you are interested in working with me on this approach.
With regards,
-Kent
50G & NGOATH Study Groups Ad Hoc Chair