LXI Standard Evolution David Owen, Technical Committee Chair LXI Consortium Business Development Manager Pickering Interfaces LXI – “It’s About Your Time”

Page 2 LXI Evolution Describe the latest changes to the specification Revision 1.2 to Revision 1.3 voting has now successfully completed Where LXI goes to from here

Page 3 The drivers for change Adoption of To improve timing performance in the presence of LAN traffic Follow the path being taken by network infrastructure providers Does not impact Class C products Addition of mDNS To improve Discovery Conversion of 1.2 Future Rules to Rules During creation another primary driver emerged Re-organisation of specification Make it easier to read Make preparation for any future evolution

Page 4 Specification Re-organization Sections renumbered Rules and text grouped together by features to improve readability Rule numbers have changed! References to roadmap items have been removed Intention is to handle in a different way No future rules Intention is to handle in a different way Deal with a problem identified by LXI vendors Deprecated clauses have been removed Improve readability and flow of the specification Simplified reorganizing the numbering specification

Page 5 Migration to IEEE Standard simply refers to IEEE1588 Interpret as the latest version IEEE (1588V2) Creation of LXI IEEE1588 Profile Separate stand alone specification Defines the parameter ranges and detail of the IEEE1588 aspects Separating provides easier maintenance of IEEE1588 aspects

Page 6 IEEE1558 Web Page Changes Changes to what appears on web pages Web page examples in Appendix updated These are simply guideline examples They do reflect the minimum content required for devices supporting IEEE1588

Page 7 What impact does 1588 change have? It improves the timing accuracy in the presence of network delays It accounts for the delays through infrastructure devices with high traffic loads Measures the incoming and outgoing control message timing It can coexist with using separated domains White paper on the issue will be available from the LXI Consortium

Page 8 Adoption of mDNS Discovery Discovery improvements Standard used for discovery of devices like printers Also known as Apple Bonjour, Rendezvous in earlier descriptions Provides much faster Discovery Easier programmatic integration There is a limited time waiver on mDNS for some implementations

Page 9 Section 2 LXI Unit Deletion LXI Unit was an effort at defining half rack width dimensions and mechanical interface References to LXI Unit removed The standard has no physical restrictions on mechanical sizes or definitions Still has guidance on other issues and rules governing indicators and interconnect locations

Page 10 Changes to C Extended Features Features that can be added to Class C that are usually part of Class B or Class A In version1.2 WTB and LAN messaging identified as extended features In 1.3 additional features are identified (Section 1.9) 5 features – (LXI) 1588, WTB, LAN Messaging, Event Log, Time Stamping Compliance requirements of features are positively identified Helps organize the standard

Page 11 Changes Class C Extended Features Class model does NOT change Class A,B,C are the class declarations that will be made It will continue to be the focus of LXI The 5 additional features are precisely defined to have a meaning in the standard Use the protection of “LXI” in their description Market forces will define how much take up there will be Implementing all 5 features takes a Class C product to Class A

Page 12 Why the Extended features? It allows vendors to pick a smaller added feature set in support of specific markets Saves investment in a full feature set Particularly useful for Devices with low cost controller systems It ensures these features have been third party tested for interoperability Protects the feature description Protects the LXI brand The Device remains as Class C

Page 13 Updated Conformance Sections Simply reflect current rather past practice Expect this to be moved to a separate document on a future revision

Page 14 NVS and PVE Dates NVS (New Version Start) Consortium tests to 1.3 from October 2008 Continues to test to 1.2 PVE (Previous Version End) November 2009 is the last time we test new products to 1.2 mDNS Waiver For products otherwise compliant to 1.3 waiver scheme in place Vendor must be compliant by PVE date

Page 15 Where does the standard go from here? (1) Class C is unlikely to change from Version 1.3 It will be the baseline for future versions Change will only occur due to enforced change caused by technology migration

Page 16 Where does the standard go from here? (2) Focus moves to System level issues Resource management Arbitrate between different test processes demanding access to the same resources Improved Web support for triggering Aid to Debugging system level problems with trigger events between devices LAN Triggers WTB Event Log Make it easy to grab log data from multiple devices and combine the data in a meaningful way

Page 17 Where does the standard go from here? (3) The Consortium will continue to follow technology changes that could have an impact IPV6 PoE None of these will have a short or medium term impact The IT legacy of Ethernet will ensure continued support

Page 18 Compliance Evolution Great deal of ongoing work on compliance issues Developing IEEE1588 procedures Preparing for a date when self certification might be permitted At present it is not, and that will not change for at least a year It is likely to only apply to experienced members

Page 19 System Level Analysis Analyse the other system level issues that may need attention Might include other features State Management Script management Peer to Peer Communications Any other issues found to influence adoption rates Intent is still to use 1.3 as the baseline specification for Class C

Page 20 When is the next Version? Maybe two years away But new features will be published in the interim Vendors may chose to implement them New features will be subject to testing before claiming as an LXI feature Backward compatibility will be maintained The LXI Consortium will continue to support an active and thriving specification evolution