7. Conclusion

This paper has described Inter-frame Ling Signaling (ILS) protocol technology and its LSI/module implementation. The ILS can realize SDH/SONET-compatible operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) functions for PHY of 10GbE networks. ILS can extend 10GbE LANs to MANs and WANs seamlessly. It adds transport OAM&P functions to Ethernet, including bit error monitoring, alarm indications, and protection switching by inserting OAM&P information in the inter-frame gap between Ethernet frames. In the protocol coding, the ILS ordered sets were designed and selected carefully and brute-forcely to achieve 10GbE PHY upper compatibility, error detection capability, and disparity neutral characteristics. A 10GbE PHY LSI with ILS function was fabricated using 0.18-um HTI-SOI CMOS technology and high-speed circuit design techniques, such as an inductive-load buffer, a high-speed clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit, and pre-emphasis & equalizer circuits, to achieve both high-speed and very low-power performance. The LSI meets IEEE 802.3ae specifications with very low-power consumption of about 1.2W. The power increase by the adding ILS function is less than 4% and almost negligible. An XENPAK transceiver with the ILS function using the LSI was also fabricated to implement cost-effectively the ILS function in L2/L3 switches and routers, and in the future, optical transport network systems such as WDM, OADM, OXC systems. ILS protocol operation was verified by a system experiment with XENPAK modules, which emulated the co-operation of an optical transport network and 10GbE network. The ILS protocol and the LSI/modules are expected to play an important role in achieving highly reliable...