Terabit Ethernet: A Time-Space Carrier Sense Multiple Access Method

To achieve Terabit and Petabit switching, both time (high transmission speed) and space (multi-stage interconnection network) technologies are required. We propose an Ethernet for which for both time and space are carrier sensed. We extend CSMA/CD to a time- space protocol called CSMA/TS. We call the space-time transmission medium Terabit Ethernet (TbE). This space sensing CSMA/TS protocol allows routing in ether to be done by the network interface card (NIC). The advantages are scalability, lower cost, and most importantly, reduced delay end-to-end. Simple analysis is given for evaluating throughput for 2-stage and 3-stage TbE networks.