800GBASE-VR8 Application Overview

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800GBASE-SR8, 800GBASE-VR8
800GBASE-VR8: 800 Gb/s PAM4 parallel transmission at 850 nm over 16 multimode optical fibers, with reach up to at least 50 m

800GBASE-VR8 supports short wavelength 4‑level pulse amplitude modulated (PAM4) serial transmission over eight lanes (16‑fibers) of multimode optical fiber cabling. The application’s equivalent symbol rate is 106.25 GBd per lane (PAM4 maps pairs of bits into a single symbol) and the supported distance varies according to the type of multimode cable used. Network equipment interface connections include a multi‑fiber push on (MPO) connector and standard sockets into which a physical (PHY) layer transceiver module may be plugged.

  • Connector type: MPO/MTP
  • Transceiver module: QSFP-DD, OSFP
  • Published as 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 in 2024

Optical Fiber Cabling (Channel) Characteristics:

800GBASE-VR8
Parameter OM3 OM4 OM5 Unit
Operating wavelength: 850 nm
Modal bandwidth (min): 2,000 4,700 MHz∙km
Operating range: 0.5 to 30 0.5 to 50 m
Insertion loss (max): 1.6 1.7 dB
Cabling skew (max): 79 ns
Cabling skew variation: 2.4 ns

Key Application Capabilities:

  • Defines an eight-lane 800 Gb/s PHY for operation over at least 50 m of MMF
  • 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
  • Provides support to enable mapping over optical transport networks (OTNs)
  • Supports a BER of better than or equal to 10-13 at the MAC/PLS service interface (or the frame loss ratio equivalent)

Related Applications:

The IEEE P802.3df Task Force also specified the following 400 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s Ethernet applications:

Application    Operating    Wavelength Media Operating Range1
400GBASE-DR4-2 1310 nm Single-mode up to 2 km
800GBASE-CR8 – Copper Twinax up to 2 m
800GBASE-DR8 1310 nm Single-mode up to 500 m
800GBASE-DR8-2 1310 nm Single-mode up to 2 km
800GBASE-KR8 – Backplane –
800GBASE-SR8 850 nm Multimode up to 100 m
1 Supported distance varies according to the type of optical fiber cable used.

Back to TIA FOTC IEEE 802.3 Multimode Optical Fiber Ethernet Standards Explorer