Deciphering omnipresent ethernet: An all ethernet communication system - the control plane

Abstract

Omnipresent Ethernet was proposed as a technology solution for achieving end-to-end communication using an-all-Ethernet methodology. The journey traversed by Ethernet from CSMA/CD to Carrier Ethernet has led to the development of a plethora of technologies, some of which when coalesced together, lead to the Omnipresent Ethernet framework. By making use of network interconnection topology, we are able to achieve end-to-end communication using the all-Ethernet paradigm - Omnipresent Ethernet. In fact, the Omnipresent Ethernet solution is able to demonstrate not just layer-2 functions but also higher layer functions such as routing, error control and session support. By collapsing all the layers into a single layer and achieving the much desired scalability the Omnipresent Ethernet solution has the potential to revolutionize the protocol stack. The advantages of this approach have shown to yield cost and performance (speed, scale, simplicity, ubiquity and backward compatibility) benefits. The Omnipresent Ethernet concept has been studied and demonstrated as a pragmatic solution. The control plane is one aspect of the Omnipresent Ethernet framework that has yet not been the focus of investigation. In this paper, we discuss the role of the control plane as well as how different control plane tasks are performed. Simulation results validate our proposed control plane architecture.