400G PAM4 High-Speed Client-Side Interface GLOSSARY

256B/257B
400GE
PCS Transcoding block (before scrambling and FEC)
400 Gbps Ethernet interface (IEEE®802.bs)

OSFP & QSFP-DD Optical Transceiver Technologies

64B/66B PCS Transcoding Block
AOC Active Optical Cable
D
-D AM Alignment Marker
FP FP P8
QS OS
BiDi Bi-directional (single-fiber) transmission
CF CDR Clock and Data Recovery circuitry
cFEC Correctable FEC errors
CFP8 400G Form-factor Pluggable transceiver
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Code
CW FEC Codeword. Includes Data and Error Check symbols

PAM4 Modulation vs. Legacy NRZ-OOK 400G KP4 Forward Error Correction (FEC) 400G Interfaces
CWDM Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing
DAC Direct Attach Cable
DCI Data Center Interconnect links
DR4/DR8 Short (Datacenter) Reach (500 m) optical interface
with 4 or 8 independent lasers into multiple fiber
The Need for Modulation Pre & Post FEC Errors IEEE® 802.3bs 400GBASE-R (typ. MPO SMF connector)
EA Ethernet Alliance
PAM4 modulation is used in the electrical and optical interfaces to improve total bus bandwidth. High speed Ethernet interfaces are inherently prone to errors, as they push the limits of electronics, optics The 400G Ethernet interfaces (PHY or PMD) naming Structure follow an industry standard
FCS Frame Check Sum
and physical mediums. They all require error correction to be able to deliver error-free payloads end-to-end. notation, but new MSA variants continue to be defined. Recommended pull-tab colors may vary. FEC Forward Error Correction
KP4-FEC can correct up to 15 symbol errors within a codeword (correctable errors). If there are >15 errors FR4/FR8 Intermediate Reach (2 km) optical interface with 4 or
within a codeword, then the user data (payload) is affected (uncorrectable or pos-FEC errors). Since pre-FEC 8 WDM lasers into single fiber (typ. LC SMF connector)
errors will occur, link quality and performance testing focuses on lower symbol error distribution (symbol Gearbox M:N data lane conversion (e.g. 8x50G to 4x100G)

400G
Gray Code Reflected Binary Code (RBC) reorders the symbols so
errors per codeword statistics) and on any post-FEC errors that affect the payload.

400G

400G
As bit rates grow faster, the physical bits get smaller, carry less energy and face the that any two successive values differ by only one bit,
to reduce bit errors and facilitate error correction

400G

400G
switching and detection limits of electronics and optics, creating reach and error
HSE High-Speed Ethernet
challenges for simple OOK techniques, such as NRZ. This PCS/FEC flow diagram shows how

400G

400G
I2C IIC, Inter-Integrated Circuit interface (see also MDIO)
the 400GBASE-R host data is encoded and

400G

400G
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Although there is a 40 Gbps version of NRZ, 28 Gbps is now considered a safe limit decoded through the FEC/PCS sub-layers. KP4-FEC FEC (802.3.bj) a.k.a. RS-544 FEC or RS (544,514)

400G

400G
for reliable electrical and optical transmission. Multiple electrical and optical lanes KR4-FEC FEC (802.3bm) a.k.a. RS-528 FEC or RS (544,528)

400G

400G
are used to increase transceivers’ data rates to 100 Gbps (either multi-fiber or KP4 FEC is defined in IEEE 802.3bs. It can Line Side High-power ultra-long reach (ULR) optical interface
(e.g. used in transoceanic cables)
single-fiber WDM). fully correct up to 15 errored symbols in the

400G
LLC Logical Link Control
data within the codeword, which would LOA Loss Of Alignment
To break the 200 and 400 Gbps barrier an amplitude modulation scheme was not affect the payload. If the error count is IEEE® 802.3cm/cn/ct LOAMPS Loss of Alignment Marker Payload Sequence
introduced, PAM4, reducing the 56 Gbps lane rate to 28 Gbaud. >15, the data becomes uncorrectable and LOS Loss of Signal
will affect the (Ethernet) payload. LR4/LR8 Long Reach (10 km) optical interface with 4 or 8 WDM
lasers into single fiber (typ. LC SMF connector)
MAC Media Access Control

400G
Reed-Solomon FEC Notation Markers As 400G high-speed data is split into 16 slower lanes,

400G
GRAY CODING alignment markers are inserted to allow proper
FEC notation is RS(n,k,t,m), which for *Currently IEEE 400GBASE-ZR is not necessarily the same as OIF’s 400ZR or 400ZR+ reconstruction of the original data stream
Also known as Reflected Binary Code KP4 is RS(544,514,15,10), but it is often MDI Media Dependent Interface
(RBC), the Gray coding reorders the written as RS(544,514) or simply RS(544). Other Interfaces (MSAs) MDIO Management Data Input/Output (see also I2C)
symbols so that any two successive MII Media Independent Interface
Uses compatible PAM4 electrical bus. Created to lower cost, complexity and power requirements.
values differ by only one bit, to MMF Multi-Mode Fiber
n FEC Codeword (544 symbols) MPO Multi-fiber Push ON connector (IEC 61754-7, TIA 604-5)
reduce bit errors and facilitate error
k Data (514 symbols) MSA Multi-Source/Supplier industry Agreement
correction.
r Added checksum (n-k = 30 symbols) NRZ Non-Return to Zero, electrical or optical line coding
t Correctable errors per codeword (see OOK)
Passive & Active Direct Attach Cables OIF Optical Internetworking Forum
m Number of bits per symbol (10)
Used in local intra-connect (at switch and rack levels). OM3/4/5 Optical Mode. MMF cable grades with different min.
Modal Bandwidth (MBW) requirement (ISO 11801)
OM5 OMMF cable with optical and mechanical attributes
suitable for VCSEL and effective modal bandwidth
and attenuation at 953 nm
OOK On/Off Keying, electrical or optical line coding (see NRZ)

400G

400G
OSFP Octal small Form Factor Pluggable transceiver
with 8x50 Gbps PAM4 interface
OTN Optical Transport Network (ITU-T G.709)
OTHER RESOURCES PAD Padding bits
That is, a KP4 FEC codeword contains 5440 PAM4 Pulse Amplitude Modulation, 4 levels

Optical Connectors & Cables bits (5140 data + 300 checksum). 400G IEEE®802.3bs www.ieee802.org PCS Payload Coding Sublayer
CWDM4 MSA www.cwdm4-msa.org PHY Physical Coding Sublayer
Ethernet Alliance www.ethernetalliance.org PMA Physical Media Attachment Sublayer
ITU-T https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC PMD Physical Medium Dependent Sublayer
Post-FEC Errors detected after error correction (uFEC)
Common Fiber Optics Connectors (as of 2020) OIF www.oiforum.com
Power Class Transceiver’s maximum allowed power consumption
MPO-12 MPO-16 MPO-24 LC-Duplex The (Simplified) Anatomy of 400G Transceivers OSFP MSA
QSFP-DD MSA
www.osfpmsa.org
www.qsfp-dd.com
PRBS
Pre-FEC
Pseudo-Random Bit Sequence test pattern
Errors detected before error correction (uFEC + cFEC)
SFP / SFF www.snia.org/sff/specifications QSFP Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable transceiver
SFP-DD MSA www.sfp-dd.com with 4x10 Gbps NRZ interface
FR4/LR4 (SMF) FR8/LR8 (SMF) SR4 (MMF)/DR4 (SMF) SR8 (MMF) SR4.2 (MMF) SWDM Alliance & MSA www.swdm.org QSFP28 QSFP with 4x25 Gbps NRZ interface
QSFP56 QSFP with 4x50 Gbps PAM4 interface
PAM4 Electrical Interfaces (Host Side) QSFP-DD QSFP Double Density with 2x4x50 Gbps PAM4 interface
RS-FEC Reed-Solomon FEC encoder-Error correction technique)
Scrambler Reversible mathematical manipulation of data stream
used to increase the density of 1s, 0s and physical
Newly Approved Duplex and Quadruplex Fiber Optics Connectors (2019) VeEX® 400G Test Solutions SER
pulses to help with data integrity and clock recovery
Symbol Error Rate
CS® SN™ MDC SFP Small Form-factor Pluggable transceiver with 1 Gbps
NRZ interface
SFP+ SFP with 10 Gbps NRZ interface
RXT-6400 400G SFP28 SFP with 25 Gbps NRZ interface
Handheld Test Set SFP56 SFP with 50 Gbps PAM4 interface
SFP-DD SFP with 25 Gbps NRZ double-density interface
MPA Rackmount Test System SMF Single-Mode Fiber
SR4/SR8 Short Reach (100~200 m) optical interface with 4 or 8
individual lasers into multiple fibers (typ. MPO MMF
connector)
SWDM Multi-mode WDM with four ƛ (850 to 940 nm)
• MPM-400AR: Dual QSFP-DD, QSFP56, SFP56 • First portable 400G test solution supporting OSFP & QSFP-DD Transcoder Converts data blocks from one format to another
• MPM-400G: CFP8 • Native PAM4 OSFP and QSFP-DD interfaces for Best-in- (e.g. a 64B/66B-to-256/257 transcoder removes the
• 400G Ethernet per IEEE 802.3bs Class signal integrity (no adapters required) 2-bit header from four 66-bit blocks, consolidates
• Advanced KP4 FEC stress testing and analysis • All-in-one 1G-to-400G Ethernet test solution them into a 256-bit block and ads a 1-bit header)
• Physical, PCS/FEC, and Ethernet layer verification • Advanced transceiver check uFEC Uncorrectable FEC error
• IC, transceiver, and board level testing • Ideal for NEMs’ SVT to FAEs assisting field demonstrations, VCSEL Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser
• Interoperability and product validation evaluations, deployment, and troubleshooting WDM Wavelength Division multiplexing
• System level integration • Mobility and efficiency in large COs, nodes and datacenter ZR/ZR+ Extended-reach coherent optical interface for DCI
• Multi-port traffic simulation and analysis • RXT modular test platform offers complete solutions from
PAM4 Optical Interfaces (Client Side) • Aggregation and load testing 10M to 400G, Fiber Optics, C/DWDM
*Actual commercial colors may vary

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Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMS) worldwide. Multiple VeEX 400G solutions target NEMS/Carrier Labs grade as well as Field Evaluation and Operations teams. ©2020 VeEX Inc. All Rights Reserved. All product names, trademarks, and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. D99-00-011P Rev. A00 | March 2020 visit www.veexinc.com