PLCA Multidrop Latency, Jitter, and Scalability Enhancements call for interest

The following request for agenda time for a PLCA Multidrop Latency, Jitter, and Scalability Enhancements call for interest has been received from Yong Kim. It will be discussed at the IEEE 802 LMSC July 2026 Plenary meeting in Montreal, QC, Canada.

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10BASE-T1-S multidrop are being widely adopted in automotive Ethernet applications across e.g., body, chassis, and powertrain control applications, whose functions span a broad range of latency and jitter requirements, from tightly bounded control loops to more timing-tolerant comfort and convenience functions. The Physical Layer Collision Avoidance (PLCA) layer developed as a part of 802.3cg and refined in 802.3da provides a fair and equal access to stations on the mixing segment while providing bounded maximum access latency. The maximum access latency is not sufficiently bounded for many of the tightly bounded control loops. Likewise, the variable length of the PLCA cycle results in high jitter (lack of determinism) that such applications cannot tolerate. PLCA as defined today is cannot treat traffic differently based on latency and jitter requirements. Additionally, adding traffic to multidrop networks engineered to meet latency and jitter requirements can change the latency and jitter of existing traffic in ways that are difficult to predict resulting in scalability issues and the need to frequently reengineer networks. Proprietary schemes are emerging in the market to address these needs.

The call for interest will take place during the IEEE 802.3 Opening Plenary on the morning of Monday 13th July. A call for interest consensus building meeting has been scheduled to occur from 19:00 to 21:00 on the evening of Tuesday 14th July. The vote to determine if a Study Group will be formed will take place at the IEEE 802.3 Closing Plenary on the afternoon of Thursday 16th July.