Backplane Ethernet Consortium FAQBelow is a periodically updated list of frequently asked questions about the Backplane Ethernet Consortium (BP). For additional information, see the shortcut links on the Backplane home page, or forward any additional inquiries to Curtis Donahue.General introduction:
What is the Backplane Ethernet Consortium? The UNH-IOL Backplane Ethernet Consortium is an industry-supported organization that works in conjunction with its member companies to provide a neutral test environment and industry accepted test methodologies for the purpose of promoting and fostering interoperability of Backplane Ethernet (BP) devices. What companies are currently members? A list of current Backplane Ethernet Consortium members is available on our Members Page. What are the differences between the various membership types? There are three types of memberships listed on the Members Page: Full Members represent the most common and fundamental membership type, whereby companies reserve private testing sessions for their product, receive full execution of test suites, and receive detailed test reports containing the test results. Full Members have access to the Backplane Interoperability Test Bed, and are required to contribute a representative sample of their Backplane product(s) to the interoperability test bed. Founding Members represent the group of companies that were instrumental in supporting the initial establishment of the consortium. These companies receive special recognition on the membership roster for the duration of the existence of the consortium, but receive no additional benefits or rights. Contributing Members are a special category of membership, typically reserved for companies who have contributed significantly to the establishment and ongoing support of the consortium through the donation of significant test and measurement equipment, hardware, software, and/or other development resources. The determination of a significant contribution is left solely to the discretion of the UNH-IOL. Contributing members are typically not product manufacturers (i.e. they not contribute active devices to the interoperability test bed), but may produce test and measurement equipment for that technology, or provide the media over which that technology operates (e.g., cabling and infrastructure). Contributing Members generally receive exposure on their contributed products through their use in the consortium and at group test events. What is the relationship between the Backplane Ethernet Consortium and the Backplane Ethernet Standards bodies? The Backplane Ethernet Consortium is a separate entity from the IEEE 802.3 Working Group and 802.3ap Task Force. The test suites developed by the Backplane Ethernet Consortium are based heavily on the Backplane Ethernet standard. In addition, the Backplane Ethernet Consortium takes an active role in continuing to review and refine the Backplane Ethernet standard by submitting maintenance and interpretation requests to the IEEE 802.3 Working Group. Is this a certification program? No. The Backplane Ethernet Consortium is not a certification or logo program, and the UNH-IOL is in no way acting as a regulatory body for the various Backplane Ethernet standards (though it is not uncommon for the UNH-IOL to feed information back into the standards process when necessary, in cases where interoperability or conformance issues are discovered during testing, which are due to flaws and/or ambiguities in the standard.) Members of the Backplane Ethernet Consortium will receive formal reports documenting the results of the testing performed, these reports are intended for use in identifying and documenting issues pertaining to interoperability and conformance, so that companies may improve their products. Reports are also often used to verify to customers that a specific device or product has undergone third-party, independent testing at the UNH-IOL. A member may choose to circulate their own reports, consistent with the points addressed here. These reports are highly detailed and technical in nature and while they are more complex than a simple certificate, a vendor may claim that they have passed consistent with section 6.2.2 of the UNH-IOL Usage Agreement. What test suites does the Backplane Ethernet Consortium currently offer? A summary of Backplane Ethernet Consortium services can be viewed on our test suites Page. How can involvement in the Backplane Ethernet Consortium save my company money? Perhaps the primary financial benefit of the Backplane Ethernet Consortium lies in the assembly and maintenance of a Backplane Ethernet device interoperability test bed, which is a continually updated collection of representative products from all participating members. The mutually beneficial aspects of having a continuously available reference interoperability test bed which companies can use to verify proper operation of their new Backplane Ethernet products is the single most beneficial aspect of the Consortium. Because of the group nature of the consortium, the reference test bed can be built at a significantly lower cost per member than what it would cost for any single member to attempt to build the same caliber test bed on its own (provided it were even possible to get access to such a large collection of pre-release products, which isn't the case in the early stages of any new technology.) Also, the physical and protocol compliance test services, which are included as part of a full consortium membership, provide an additional cost-savings to vendors who do not wish to spend internal resources to develop this testing on their own. Members can benefit from the UNH-IOL expertise that has already been developed in these areas, and eliminate time spent "reinventing the wheel" internally. Plus, members get the added benefit of knowing that the test procedures and methodologies used have been reviewed and accepted by the member community, thus decreasing the potential for uncertainty in the interpretation of various aspects of the standard, or implementation of the tests. Furthermore, because the UNH-IOL does not require members to physically be present at the lab during scheduled testing (though attendance is certainly welcome), members save additionally in both travel expenses, and the work time that is reclaimed by not having to travel to an off-site facility for testing, as is the case with a plugfest. Members get plugfest-level testing without the travel costs, and time spent away from work. For a general list of benefits of joining a UNH-IOL consortium, see our our Benefits Page. How much does it cost? The annual membership fee for the Backplane Ethernet Consortium is $18,000, which covers the costs of research, development, and testing services provided by the UNH-IOL. Members must also provide at least one representative Backplane Ethernet product to the UNH-IOL for at least 18 months. The requirement to leave a product at the UNH-IOL allows other UNH-IOL participants to perform interoperability testing with current equipment throughout the year without having to make special legal arrangements with other participants in a technology area. How do I become a consortium member? Prospective members must read and agree to the Backplane Ethernet Consortium Charter, then complete, sign and send us the Membership Application along with payment or purchase order for the membership fee. For a more complete description on how to become a member, see our How To Join page. How many weeks can I schedule in a year? Test weeks are reserved on a first-come, first served basis. Members in good standing may have, at most, one active reservation per membership at any given point in time. In other words, additional weeks may not be reserved until the currently reserved week has been used. This allows for fair access to all consortium members. The number of weeks that any one member may use in one year is limited only by the number of total consortium members, and the overall frequency of requests.
For cases where members wish to bypass the existing scheduling mechanism when
time-critical services are required, overtime testing is also available. For
more information regarding this service, see section 4.2.3.2 of the
Backplane Ethernet Consortium
Charter.
Conformance testing refers to test services (i.e., test suites), whose tests are based on specific clauses of the reference standard on which the technology is based. Each conformance test suite typically focuses on a particular layer or aspect of the given technology (physical layer, coding layer, media access layer, etc). In general, for every "shall" statement found in the given clause, the test suite will contain a test (or sequence of tests) to verify that the Device Under Test (DUT) conforms to the requirements of that particular statement. Interoperability testing is a slightly different class of testing, whereby a DUT is tested against a set of reference devices that make up the Interoperability Test Bed. This is a system-level test in which an attempt is made to verify that the DUT can successfully interoperate with each of the selected link partners, under real world conditions, to some minimum predetermined performance metric, typically a target BER. This type of testing verifies the basic operation of the system as a whole, with a variety of link partners and configurations typical of what would be expected in the real world. A report is generated that shows the various link partners and configurations that were tested, and any issues that may have been observed. The conformance test tools and procedures can often be used to isolate and troubleshoot various issues that are discovered during the course of interoperability testing, thus helping to identify the root cause of the interoperability problem.
|