Ethernet Fabric Routing (UETS/EFR) - A Hierarchical, Scalable and Secure Ultrahigh Speed Switching Architecture

In this paper we try to answer a fundamental question: how to build the next generation network without disruption. The TCP/IP protocol stack has performance limits and the transparent bridge paradigm of Ethernets is complex to scale by lack of addressing hierarchy. To provide both full scalability and high performance, a new Ethernet switching architecture named universal Ethernet telecommunications service (UETS) is proposed, capable of performances in the range of terabits per second. It is based on hardware switching of Ethernet frames using topological and hierarchically assigned standard local MAC addresses, technique named Ethernet fabric routing (EFR). The architecture solves Ethernet's scalability and security problems, has low cost/performance ratio and is compatible with existing Ethernet and IP networks, providing a non disruptive migration path to high performance networks and overcoming TCP/IP performance limitations. The objective is to promote a new standard for UETS/EFR architecture, suitable for high performance specialized island networks that may operate together as an overlay network.