A 100-Gb-Ethernet subsystem for next-generation metro-area network

An ultra high-speed Ethernet subsystem, which realizes 100-Gb/s throughput and transmission up to 40 km, is examined for next-generation metro-area networks. A parallel link of 12 10-Gb/s synchronized parallel optical lanes is proposed. The 10 optical lanes are used to transmit 10-bit parallel data. The one of redundant lanes transmits a forward error correction code ((132b, 140b) Hamming code) to achieve highly-reliable (BER < 10-12) data transmission, and the other lane transmits a parity data used for the fault-lane recovery. Here, a 64B/66B code-sequence-based de-skewing mechanism is proposed, and its effectiveness to realize low-latency compensation of the inter-lane skew (< 80 ns) is shown. We have implemented the 100-Gb-Ethernet interface architectures into FPGA circuits, and confirmed the performance of 100 Gb/s data communication with compact 385-kgates circuit size, which is practically small for implementation in a single LSI circuit.