T11/02-708v0 FC-FS Bit Error Rate Thresholding Rev 1.

0 November 19, 2002

Scott Kipp scott.kipp@mcdata.com 303.460.3452 310 Interlocken Parkway Broomfield, Co. 80021-3464

Bit Error Rate Thresholding

121.2.7 Bit-Error-Rate Thresholding 21.2.7.1 Introduction The bit-error-rate thresholding process is designed to detect an increased error rate before performance degradation becomes serious. When the specified bit-error-rate threshold is reached, a Registered Link Incident Report (RLIR) ELS shall be generated as required by the RLIR ELS. (see 12.3.2.31) The bit-error rate is measured during frame, Primitive Signal, and Primitive Sequence reception. The bit-error rate is not calculated during times when transmission word synchronization has been lost, when in the Offline State, or when in a Link-Failure State. 21.2.7.2 Types of Link Errors Caused by Bit Errors Bit errors are not detected directly, however they usually result in the recognition of invalid transmission Words, Primitive Sequence protocol errors, CRC errors, or other events. Only recognition of invalid transmission words are counted toward the bit-error-rate threshold. 21.2.7.3 Error Intervals A single error may result in several related errors occurring closely together which in turn may result in multiple counts. A character might have a single bit error in it that causes a code-violation error. A disparity error might occur on a following character, caused by the same single error. To prevent multiple error counts from a single cause, the following concept of an error interval is introduced: a) An error interval is a time period during which one or more invalid transmission Words are recognized. This time may be exceeded due to infrequent or unusual conditions. The default value for the Error Interval is 1.5 seconds. b) Only one error in an Error Interval is counted toward the Error Threshold. 21.2.7.4 Bit-Error-Rate-Thresholding Measurement Measurement of bit-error-rate thresholding shall be accomplished by counting the number of Error Intervals that occur in an Error Window. When the Error Interval count equals the Error Threshold, the Bit-Error-Rage threshold is exceeded and an RLIR shall be generated. The Error Threshold depends on the speed at which the link is operating. The operating speed of the

T11/02-708v0 FC-FS Bit Error Rate Thresholding Rev 1.0 November 19, 2002 Port, in gigabits per second, shall be rounded to an integer number. The product of the Error Threshold value and the integer number of the speed shall be used in the comparison. (e.g., if the Error Threshold is set to 00001111 b, at 1 gigabit per second the comparison value would be hex 00 00 01 00 or decimal 256; at 10 gigabits per second the comparison value would be hex 00 00 0A 00 or decimal 2560). The default value for the Error Threshold is 15 at 1 062,5 Mbits/s, 30 error bursts for 2 125 Mbits/s and 150 error bursts for 10 GFC. The default value for the Error Window is 5 minutes and the required accuracy is +/- 0.3 seconds. The bit-error-counting process shall be restarted when Active State is entered and when a vendordependent amount of time has elapsed after an Error Threshold is detected. After an Error Threshold is detected, at least 15 additional Error Intervals shall occur before the next Error Threshold is detected. In addition, the bit-error-counting process may be restarted whenever the Error Window has expired even though an Error Threshold is not reached. The bit-error-counting process may also be reset and restarted when an initialization procedure occurs.
NOTE 81 - The delay in restarting bit-error counting after an Error Threshold is detected is to prevent thresholdexceeded conditions from being reported at an excessive frequency.

12.3.2.51 Set Bit-error Reporting Parameters (SBRP) 12.3.2.51.1 Description Set SBRP ELS shall be used to communicate a set of bit error reporting parameters to a Port or to all Ports in a particular Domain in a Fabric. There are 3 parameters, Error Interval, Error Window, and Error Threshold. Error Interval is the time period over which bit error bursts are integrated to produce a single reported error. An Error Window is composed of one or more Error Intervals. The Error Interval Count is the number of Error Intervals occurring in an Error Window. If the Error Interval Count is equal or greater than the Error Threshold, a Registered Link Incident Report (RLIR) is generated with an Incident Code specifying Bit-error-rate threshold exceeded. (see 21.2.7) At the end of the Error Window, the count is set to zero and the process is repeated. See figure 15 for illustration of the parameters.