Glen,
Thanks for this explanation.
--kan--
--
Kevin A. Noll
Sr. Director, Systems Architecture
Tibit Communications
kevin.noll@xxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Glen Kramer <glen.kramer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, August 17, 2020 at 6:08 PM
To: Kevin Noll <kevin.noll@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "STDS-1904-2-TF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <STDS-1904-2-TF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [1904.2 TF] MAC service interface names
Kevin,
Sorry, this turned out to be a long-ish answer.
We used different acronyms to represent sublayer interfaces because the acronyms in early 802.3 projects make no sense and are misleading.
“MCF” stands for MAC Client Frame. A MAC Client frame can pass through many interfaces, so it is not clear where exactly the “MCF” interface is located. And in fact, different 802.3 clauses show
it in different places. “MAC” as a label also used to represent different interfaces in different clauses. And it doesn’t provide any meaningful acronym as a label.
The problem with “MAC” and “MCF” in 802.3 is that these labels are not actual inter-layer interface names. Because of that, they are used inconsistently in different clauses. For example, in
Clause 31, MAC represents interface between MAC sublayer and MAC Control, and MCF represents interface between MAC Control and MAC Client (and by “MAC Client” they assumed both actual MAC Client, which uses MA_DATA, and MAC Control Client, which uses MA_CONTROL)
But in Clause 57, these labels are used very differently.
Here, interface between MAC Control and OAM Sublayer is called MAC (was MCF in Clause 31). I wonder if in this figure they wanted to also show the label on the interface between MAC and MAC Control,
what that label would be?
In 1904.2 we are fixing this. To distinguish similar primitives used between different sublayers, we use the proper acronyms for the correct inter-layer interface names. The 802.3 has also started
fixing it in more recent projects. For example, they define these service interfaces now:
MMSI = MAC Merge Service Interface
TSSI = Time Synchronization Service Interface
-Glen
From: Kevin Noll [mailto:kevin.noll@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2020 7:36 AM
To: STDS-1904-2-TF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [1904.2 TF] MAC service interface names
The D0.9 text labels the interface between the MAC Sublayer and the MAC Control Sublayer as MACSI:MA_DATA (see Fig 4-2).
Similarly, the text labels the interface between the MAC Control Sublayer and the VLC Sublayer as MACCSI:MA_DATA and MACCSI:MA_CONTROL.
Why does the text not use the same labels as is used in 802.3 - MAC:MA_DATA, MCF:MA_DATA, MCF:MA_CONTROL?
--kan--
--
Kevin A. Noll
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