Thread Links Date Links
Thread Prev Thread Next Thread Index Date Prev Date Next Date Index

Re: [802.3_EPLCA] E-PLCA objectives



The alternative option is, instead of calling this “latency improvement” we could call this as “scheduling improvement” and one of the benefit could be latency improvement depending up on the application.

 

Thx,
Arvind.

 

 

From: George Zimmerman <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 2, 2026 11:34 AM
To: STDS-802-3-EPLCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [802.3_EPLCA] E-PLCA objectives

 

It would be nice to get some consensus on a minimum latency improvement, but I really don’t think we have seen material that allows us to set that goal.  It’s also not clear that such a measure would be useful given random traffic and node configurations.  However, contributions would be helpful on that.  I do not think we can limit traffic size (frames or otherwise), but we can present analyses of techniques under specific conditions in the task force.  With objectives you aren’t really asking the working group in general to measure the latency – only to look that the work has been done.  Presenting material supporting changes in the task force is generally sufficient.

 

The issue of what happens when you mix nodes with E-PLCA enabled and those without it on the same mixing segment is likewise one of analysis and definition.  How the two interact needs to be a subject of discussion in the task force.  It needs contributions and analysis.   I think what we need to get consensus on is whether we merely support backwards compatibility (fall-back to E-PLCA not enabled if there is even on non-E-PLCA node), or whether we have a graceful degradation.  A similar statement applies to D-PLCA.  Not breaking the existing protocol can be accomplished as simply as signaling & detecting whether all nodes have the new functionality enabled, and, if not, disabling the new functionality.  That isn’t my preferred path, but it is a path to compatibility.  Coexistence with graceful degradation of the new functionality’s benefits would be preferable.

 

Again, as we get into proposals, we will need analysis of these effect.

 

Regarding “what people expect”. I fear you are confusing marketing to the general public with objectives as a formal part of the standards process. Sometimes objectives are used that way, but when something is confusing, it is often useful to prepare a ‘tutorial presentation’ at or near the time of WG ballot to describe what the standard does.  That’s better than trying to put forward complex objectives statements.

 

George Zimmerman, Ph.D.

President & Principal

CME Consulting, Inc.

Experts in Advanced PHYsical Communications

george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

310-920-3860

 

From: Subramaniam Aravindhan <Subramaniam.Aravindhan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 2, 2026 11:15 AM
To: George Zimmerman <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; STDS-802-3-EPLCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: E-PLCA objectives

 

Thanks George for pointing to some of the reference materials.

 

802d3da_objectives.pdf

objectives_ems_260512.pptx

On the objective #4 of 802.3da

 

  • The objectives must be measurable. If we plan to improve latency, what is the measurable improvement? For example, in a current 8-node application if the current latency say is 2ms, are we going to improve it to 1ms?
    • I think what we are solving is, in a zonal application there are going to be nodes with different latency traffic requirements (example 2, 4, 8ms, etc..) and best-effort traffic classes. We are proposing new scheduling method which understands and makes use of it this, thereby improving latency.  For example, if all the nodes in a zonal application require 2ms latency, then there is no latency improvement expected.
      • We need to communicate this assumption clearly and what we are planning to solve; so that we are setting up correct expectations and they are measurable.
    • I assume we have to limit traffic size in a PLCA cycle to have any meaningful predictable latency?
  • Interop:
    • When there is new protocol improvement, the expectation is, one will get the benefit of the improvement and it still interop’s with older devices at the same time.  In a protocol with switches or hubs, since the older devices are isolated, it is possible to achieve both.  With the multidrop shared medium we don’t have the luxury and we need to clarify this.
    • If we just say we will interop with PLCA,  and later if one connects PLCA devices in a EPLCA setup and see the latency is not improving; they are going to point out this. If we say, yes, the interop is working and we never told you that the latency will improve, the next question is going to be, why didn’t you tell me this earlier?
      • It is good to list the know issues and risks ahead so that expectations are clear.

 

Thx,
Arvind.

 

  •  

 

From: George Zimmerman <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2026 4:20 PM
To: STDS-802-3-EPLCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [802.3_EPLCA] E-PLCA objectives

 

Arvindh – you need to understand what 802.3 objectives are.  Usually they are simple bullet points, not paragraphs with lots of caveats.  They generally aren’t an ordered list.

 

You don’t need caveats, and detail should be light - we aren’t writing the standard here.  You don’t say How you’re going to do things in the objectives – you say What the standard is going to achieve.  For example, PLCA was never actually an objective in itself.  A multidrop PHY for automotive & industrial network environments was the objective, along with the speed (10 Mbps at the MAC/PLS service interface), reach, and rate.

 

The objectives are our commitment as a task force (when we become one) to the members of the working group on the minimum we are going to address.  For example, for a PHY they are bit rate, error rate, reach and medium.  They need to be voted on by the members of the working group – so they shouldn’t be too deep inside the development. 

 

They need to be at the level where when a working group member outside of the task force reads the standard, and can then make a judgement and base a vote on it – Voting could be on the WG ballot draft (whether it met the objectives), or even as simple as whether we are ‘technically complete’ so that we can us proceed to WG ballot.

In short, restrictions and caveats are assumed.

 

A “PHY project” objectives may not be a good example for us, although we can use some of 802.3da as a model.  802.3da had a number of PHY objectives but also had:

Specify an optional PLCA node ID allocation method

And

Support optional Time Synchronization Service Interface (TSSI).

 

These are high-level, don’t say how we are going to do it, or even what the caveats are on usage.

 

Another good example to look at would be the 802.3dt (Ethernet Metadata Services) objectives.  They have a pretty high level project which interacts with things outside our scope, similar to EPLCA.  Their key functional objective is in one line:

“ Define optional per-packet and packet-independent metadata services and associated modifications to the physical layers using the:” (and then with a list of the supported PCS’s intended).

 

Regarding PHY support, that is still needed (it could be replaced with a more detailed statement about the Clause 22 MII, as in 802.3-2022, but that’s not really what we are aiming at…).  Consider that you are modifying the RS (which is PLCA).  That includes the MII and interface to the PHY.  If we were, for example, to invent a new MII encoding to be used, the existing PHY clauses would not understand how to encode that. We wouldn’t be compatible with the PHYs as specified.

Therefore,   I think we need the statement about compatibility with the PHYs.

 

Backward compatibility with CSMA/CD and PLCA is with regards to the MAC and to the other nodes on the mixing segment.  Compatibility with the PHYs is on the local station, between the RS and the PHY.  It’s just a different thing.

 

Again, I hope this helps, but frankly, you’re overcomplicating this – and looking at what is needed here, and has been done, is not only useful, it’s an essential first step.

 

George Zimmerman, Ph.D.

President & Principal

CME Consulting, Inc.

Experts in Advanced PHYsical Communications

george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

310-920-3860

 

From: Subramaniam Aravindhan <Subramaniam.Aravindhan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2026 2:59 PM
To: George Zimmerman <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; STDS-802-3-EPLCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: E-PLCA objectives

 

Hi Yong, and all,

 

One recommendation to list the EPLCA first and backward compatibility later in the list.

 

  • Specify methods to improve access latency and latency variability. The possible methods being looked at are:
    • Specifying Cyclic and Best-Effort traffic classes
    • Allowing more than one traffic class per Device
    • Limiting transfer-size per PLCA cycle or Fixed duration PLCA cycle
  • Backward Compatibility with CSMA/CD Devices preserved with the following restriction:
    • EPLCA Latency predictability cannot be achieved as CSMA/CD nodes would cause collisions and retries.
  • Backward Compatibility with PLCA Devices preserved with the following restrictions:
    • May require additional PLCA Device transfer size limitations for ensuring EPLCA latency predictability. For example, if a PLCA node does 20-burst of 1500-byte packets, then EPLCA latency optimization or predictability cannot be achieved.
    • May require limiting the number of PLCA devices to couple for ensuring EPLCA latency predictability. For example, if most of the nodes are PLCA and only a few nodes are EPLCA, then EPLCA latency optimization and predictability cannot be achieved.
    • PLCA devices must be assigned to lower Node-IDs, from ID-1 onwards and they can’t be a coordinator.
  • Backward Compatibility with D-PLCA Devices preserved with the following restrictions:
    • Disable D-PLCA capability and enable only PLCA capability (aDPLCAAdminState=0 and aPLCAAdminState=1) – This probably is the best option
      • D-PLCA would not understand the Cyclic or Best-Effort Traffic types and Cyclic schedules associated with Hyper-Beacon Cycle. The following EPLCA spec workarounds are possible but still not clean.
        • We could specify EPLCA Devices to always to send one COMMIT per Age-Cycle if they don’t have data, in order not to lose its TO.
        • We could do a few dummy small-TO count PLCA cycles after power-up for the D-PLCA devices to pick the lowest nodes and then assign higher TOs for EPLCA devices. Coordinator-Role is not allowed for a D-PLCA device (aDPLCACoordinatorRoleAllowed=0).

 

  Since we are supporting backward compatibility with CSMA/CD and PLCA, there is no explicit need to specify “Clause 147 & 188 multidrop PHYs” now. If we are committing to have changes only in 148 and no changes in 147 and 188, then we could word it as “Only changes in Clause 148 and no changes in Clause 147 and Clause 188”.

 

Thx,
Arvind

 

From: George Zimmerman <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2026 5:12 PM
To: STDS-802-3-EPLCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [802.3_EPLCA] E-PLCA objectives

 

I’m starting this as a new thread so people can keep it clear on the discussion.

Regarding the objectives, I think at least Arvind and I agree that we need some clarification. 

 

Support interoperability with Clause 147 & 188 multidrop PHYs:

I think that in light of the 802.3 definition of PHY, rather than the “chip” definition of PHY (which can be different for any implementer) “Support interoperability with Clause 147 & 188 multidrop PHYs”  is OK.  PHY means the PCS & PMA in IEEE Std 802.3, and that’s the audience – the working group.

 

However, in the other basic objectives, we have some work to do:

 

Preserve PLCA method:

I agree we need something better than “Preserve PLCA method”  Objectives need to be clear as to what we mean.  There are a variety of meanings I could take from this.  Less is more in objectives – we don’t want to write how the spec will come out, but looking at what you have, I think we mean:

    • Preserve interoperability with legacy PLCA nodes on the same mixing segment.

 

I suspect that we agree that this means something like your Backward compatible with PLCA; but EPLCA latency predictability will not be guaranteed… because interoperability doesn’t mean the benefits of the enhanced technique are maintained.  Most understand that performance goes to the lowest level…

 

DPLCA:

I think we need to discuss D-PLCA. I would suggest:

    • “Preserve interoperability with nodes running D-PLCA on the same mixing segment.”

 

Given that D-PLCA can have a set of statically assigned ID’s we ought to be able to set up a working performance regime which doesn’t completely fail when E-PLCA is enabled on some nodes and D-PLCA nodes are on the mixing segment.  Whether we can come up with a way to preserve E-PLCA benefits with D-PLCA active is an item for work.  Not sure we need to decide that now, but we shouldn’t have the network crash if you have both, and an objective to “Preserve interoperability” does that.

 

Specify PLCA selection service client to be used by upper layer:

I think we need a little wordsmithing here.  I believe we specify a client interface (primitives) to communicate priorities.  This way implementers, and specifications like 802.1 can control the mechanisms of PLCA to do this.  We haven’t defined what the client actually is, and the innards are probably out of scope for IEEE Std 802.3.  We also can’t define who uses it – that is above the scope of 802.3 (we can give them the tools, but we can’t make them use them).

 

Hence, I’d suggest we focus on the interfaces to parts that are actually in 802.3:

    • Specify interfaces to a PLCA priority service client

 

When we know more about the PLCA priority service client we might be able to say more here.  It might be best to wait a little on this objective.

 

-george


To unsubscribe from the STDS-802-3-EPLCA list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=STDS-802-3-EPLCA&A=1


To unsubscribe from the STDS-802-3-EPLCA list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=STDS-802-3-EPLCA&A=1


To unsubscribe from the STDS-802-3-EPLCA list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=STDS-802-3-EPLCA&A=1


To unsubscribe from the STDS-802-3-EPLCA list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=STDS-802-3-EPLCA&A=1