Next Generation Backplane and Copper Cable Challenges

This article provides an overview of some of the work that is ongoing in the IEEE P802.3bj 100 Gb/s Backplane and Copper Cable Task Force. The task force is standardizing Ethernet at 100 Gb/s over a 4-lane backplane channel as well as across a 4-lane copper cable. We first describe the background of the market drivers for this technology, and then give an overview of the various technologies that are used to solve the challenging problems of running across the various mediums at a data rate of 25 Gb/s. Also discussed are the details of the forward error correction, transcoding and physical layer coding that are employed to achieve robust links.