Standards Explorer

IEEE P802.3df 400 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s Ethernet Task Force Update

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IEEE Std 802.3df™: “Media Access Control Parameters for 800 Gb/s and Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 400 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s Operation” is currently under development by the IEEE P802.3df 400 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s Ethernet Task Force and anticipated to publish in June, 2024.

Summary: New and ‘instantaneous’ applications continue to fuel increased traffic in data centers, especially in hyperscale and fabric architecture environments, and drive the need to support increased bandwidth. This amendment will define seven Physical Layer (PHY) specifications and management parameters for 400 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s operation based on a 100 Gb/s per lane signaling rate.

400GBASE-DR4-2: 400 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission at 1310 nm over 8 single‑mode optical fibers, with reach up to at least 2 km

800GBASE-CR8: 800 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission over 8 lanes of shielded balanced twinaxial copper cables, with reach up to at least 2 m

800GBASE-DR8: 800 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission at 1310 nm over 16 single‑mode optical fibers, with reach up to at least 500 m

800GBASE-DR8-2: 800 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission at 1310 nm over 16 single‑mode optical fibers, with reach up to at least 2 km

800GBASE-KR8: 800 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission over 8 lanes of an electrical backplane

800GBASE-SR8: 800 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission at 850 nm over 16 multimode optical fibers, with reach up to at least 100 m

800GBASE-VR8: 400 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission at 850 nm over 16 multimode optical fibers, with reach up to at least 50 m

 

The Project Objectives, approved on November 17, 2022, are as follows:

Non-Rate Specific:

  • Supports full-duplex operation only
  • Preserves the Ethernet frame format utilizing the Ethernet MAC
  • Preserves minimum and maximum FrameSize of current 802.3 Standard for Ethernet
  • Supports a BER of better than or equal to 10-13 at the MAC/PLS service interface (or the frame loss ratio equivalent)
  • Provides support to enable mapping over optical transport networks (OTNs)

400 Gb/s Related:

  • Supports a MAC data rate of 400 Gb/s
  • Defines a physical layer specification that supports 400 Gb/s operation
–    over 4 pairs of SMF with lengths up to at least 2 km

800 Gb/s Related:

  • Supports a MAC data rate of 800 Gb/s
  • Supports optional eight-lane 800 Gb/s attachment unit interfaces for chip to module and chip to chip applications
  • Defines a physical layer specification that supports 800 Gb/s operation:
–    over eight lanes of twinaxial copper cables with a reach up to at least 2 m
–    over eight lanes over electrical backplanes supporting an insertion loss ≤ 28dB at 26.56 GHz
–    over 8 pairs of MMF with lengths up to at least 50 m
–    over 8 pairs of MMF with lengths up to at least 100 m
–    over 8 pairs of SMF with lengths up to at least 500 m
–    over 8 pairs of SMF with lengths up to at least 2 km

The IEEE 802.3 Beyond 400 Gb/s Ethernet Study Group Call-For-Interest Consensus Presentation can be found here.

Additional information on IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group activities may be found here.