At some point, an error rate would exceed the ability of forward error correction (FEC) overhead to compensate, resulting in CRC errors. You're not seeing those so all is technically well.

It's not so much how many packets come in with errors that causes a problem, but what percentage of each packet is corrupted. The former is usually indicative of the latter though.

Just as Tom said, we're talking about a whole new animal than the NRZ we're used to inside the building. Long-haul and DCI folks deal with this stuff pretty regularly. The secret is keep everything clean and mind your bend radii. We won't get away with some of what we used to get away with.

-Matt

On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 1:49 PM Aaron Gould <aaron1@gvtc.com> wrote:

fec cliff? is there a level of fec erros that i should be worried about then? not sure what you mean.

-Aaron

On 4/17/2024 2:46 PM, Matt Erculiani wrote:

I'm no TAC engineer, but the purpose of FEC is to take and correct errors when the port is going so fast that errors are simply inevitable. Working as Intended.

Easier (read: cheaper) to build in some error correction than make the bits wiggle more reliably.

No idea if that rate of increment is alarming or not, but you've not yet hit your FEC cliff so you appear to be fine.

-Matt

On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 1:40 PM Dominik Dobrowolski <dobrowolski.domino@gmail.com> wrote:

Open a JTAC case,

That looks like a work for them

Kind Regards,

Dominik

W dniu śr., 17.04.2024 o 21:36 Aaron Gould <aaron1@gvtc.com> napisał(a):

We recently added MPC10E-15C-MRATE cards to our MX960's to upgrade our core to 400g.  During initial testing of the 400g interface (400GBASE-FR4), I see constant FEC errors.  FEC is new to me.  Anyone know why this is occurring?  Shown below, is an interface with no traffic, but seeing constant FEC errors.  This is (2) MX960's cabled directly, no dwdm or anything between them... just a fiber patch cable.



{master}
me@mx960> clear interfaces statistics et-7/1/4

{master}
me@mx960> show interfaces et-7/1/4 | grep rror | refresh 2
---(refreshed at 2024-04-17 14:18:53 CDT)---
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, MRU: 1522, Speed: 400Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Loopback: Disabled, Source filtering: Disabled,
    Bit errors                             0
    Errored blocks                         0
  Ethernet FEC statistics              Errors
    FEC Corrected Errors                    0
    FEC Uncorrected Errors                  0
    FEC Corrected Errors Rate               0
    FEC Uncorrected Errors Rate             0
---(refreshed at 2024-04-17 14:18:55 CDT)---
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, MRU: 1522, Speed: 400Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Loopback: Disabled, Source filtering: Disabled,
    Bit errors                             0
    Errored blocks                         0
  Ethernet FEC statistics              Errors
    FEC Corrected Errors                 4302
    FEC Uncorrected Errors                  0
    FEC Corrected Errors Rate               8
    FEC Uncorrected Errors Rate             0
---(refreshed at 2024-04-17 14:18:57 CDT)---
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, MRU: 1522, Speed: 400Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Loopback: Disabled, Source filtering: Disabled,
    Bit errors                             0
    Errored blocks                         0
  Ethernet FEC statistics              Errors
    FEC Corrected Errors                 8796
    FEC Uncorrected Errors                  0
    FEC Corrected Errors Rate             146
    FEC Uncorrected Errors Rate             0
---(refreshed at 2024-04-17 14:18:59 CDT)---
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, MRU: 1522, Speed: 400Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Loopback: Disabled, Source filtering: Disabled,
    Bit errors                             0
    Errored blocks                         0
  Ethernet FEC statistics              Errors
    FEC Corrected Errors                15582
    FEC Uncorrected Errors                  0
    FEC Corrected Errors Rate             111
    FEC Uncorrected Errors Rate             0
---(refreshed at 2024-04-17 14:19:01 CDT)---
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, MRU: 1522, Speed: 400Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Loopback: Disabled, Source filtering: Disabled,
    Bit errors                             0
    Errored blocks                         0
  Ethernet FEC statistics              Errors
    FEC Corrected Errors                20342
    FEC Uncorrected Errors                  0
    FEC Corrected Errors Rate             256
    FEC Uncorrected Errors Rate             0

{master}
me@mx960> show interfaces et-7/1/4 | grep "put rate"
  Input rate     : 0 bps (0 pps)
  Output rate    : 0 bps (0 pps)

{master}
me@mx960> show interfaces et-7/1/4
Physical interface: et-7/1/4, Enabled, Physical link is Up
  Interface index: 226, SNMP ifIndex: 800
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, MRU: 1522, Speed: 400Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Loopback: Disabled, Source filtering: Disabled,
  Flow control: Enabled
  Pad to minimum frame size: Disabled
  Device flags   : Present Running
  Interface flags: SNMP-Traps Internal: 0x4000
  Link flags     : None
  CoS queues     : 8 supported, 8 maximum usable queues
  Schedulers     : 0
  Last flapped   : 2024-04-17 13:55:28 CDT (00:36:19 ago)
  Input rate     : 0 bps (0 pps)
  Output rate    : 0 bps (0 pps)
  Active alarms  : None
  Active defects : None
  PCS statistics                      Seconds
    Bit errors                             0
    Errored blocks                         0
  Ethernet FEC Mode  :                 FEC119
  Ethernet FEC statistics              Errors
    FEC Corrected Errors               801787
    FEC Uncorrected Errors                  0
    FEC Corrected Errors Rate            2054
    FEC Uncorrected Errors Rate             0
  Link Degrade :
    Link Monitoring                   :  Disable
  Interface transmit statistics: Disabled

  Logical interface et-7/1/4.0 (Index 420) (SNMP ifIndex 815)
    Flags: Up SNMP-Traps 0x4004000 Encapsulation: ENET2
    Input packets : 1
    Output packets: 1
    Protocol inet, MTU: 1500
    Max nh cache: 75000, New hold nh limit: 75000, Curr nh cnt: 1, Curr new hold cnt: 0, NH drop cnt: 0
      Flags: Sendbcast-pkt-to-re
      Addresses, Flags: Is-Preferred Is-Primary
        Destination: 10.10.10.76/30, Local: 10.10.10.77, Broadcast: 10.10.10.79

-- 
-Aaron

Matt Erculiani

-- 
-Aaron

Matt Erculiani