Decoding

Standards
NCS Newsletter • February 2015
Connect to tomorrow
A new standard for 100Gb/s: IEEE 802.3bm
Preparing for the future with four fibre lanes instead of 10!

In the previous edition of Decoding Standards, we discussed 40GBase-T as an upcoming standard for 40Gb/s
over Twisted Pair copper cabling. In this issue, we would like to introduce the reader to a new standard for
transmission over optical fibre: IEEE 802.3bm

This “Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for 40Gb/s
and 100 Gb/s Operation Over Fibre Optic Cables” is currently under development by the IEEE P802.3bm
40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Fibre Optic Task Force.

For LAN cabling, 100GBASE-SR4 is the most interesting. 40GBASE-ER4 is primarily intended for telecom
applications.

If this fibre optic cabling standard is ratified, the migration path from 40G to 100G will become much
smoother because there won’t be a need for additional lanes to be introduced. Fibre infrastructure required for
40Gb/s will also support the new 100G standard - at a more attractive price point than the current 100Gb/s
standard (IEEE 802.3 ba), without sacrificing quality. IEEE 802.3ba requires 20 fibres, terminated with an
MPO connector. However, IEEE’s new proposal for 100Gb/s replaces this requirement with an eight fibre
infrastructure as is currently used for 40Gb/s.

The objective of IEEE 802.3bm is to add two new specifications into the standard.

1. 40GBASE-ER4: 40 Gb/s PHY using 40GBASE-R encoding over four WDM lanes on singlemode fibre, with
a reach of up to at least 40km.

2. 100GBASE-SR4: 100 Gb/s PHY using 100GBASE-R encoding over four lanes of multimode fibre, with a
reach of up to at least 100m.
In this case one lane requires 2 fibres, 1 to transmit & 1 to receive.

The difference between 100GBASE-SR10 and 100GBASE-SR4

100GBASE-SR10, defined in IEEE 802.3ba, uses ten lanes to transmit 100Gb/s, with each lane transmitting
10Gb/s on a OM3 or OM4 multimode fibre.
For 100GBASE-SR4, the challenge is to transmit 100G on four lanes with 4 x 25Gb/s on OM3 or OM4 fibre.

To make this possible, the following changes have been made:

1. The maximum channel length has been reduced.

For 100GBASE-SR10, the maximum length is 100m for an OM3 fibre and 150m for an OM4 fibre.
For 100GBASE-SR4, this is reduced to 70m and 100m respectively. Although the new standard supports
distances less than 100 metres, this is enough to accommodate virtually any data centre’s requirements.

2. The spectral width of the lasers has been reduced. The spectral width has a direct influence on link
penalties, and therefore decreasing it has a positive effect. The spectral width for 100GBASE-SR10 is
0.65nm and for 100GBASE-SR4 only 0.6nm.
 Link power budget
Connect to tomorrow

Why this new standard?

The actual standard for 100Gb/s (100GBASE-SR10) uses 10 fibres in each direction for the optical link and
utilizes a MPO connector. This gives two options:

1. Two connectors with one row of 12 fibres

2. One connector with two rows of 12 fibres

There is, however, a problem: an MPO connector with two rows is not easy to assemble. Using two MPO
connectors would not be practical.
The advantage of 100BASE-SR4 is the fact that it employs one MPO connector with one row of fibres, identical
to the connector used for 40GBASE-SR4. The link used for 40GBASE-SR4 can therefore also be used for
100GBASE-SR4.
Another advantage is the fact that only 2x4 fibres are required, compared to the 2x10 fibres for 100GBASE-
SR10 this reduces material costs.

MPO
(2 rows)

Summary

Optical connectivity based on multimode connectors can help create future-proof data centre infrastructure
which allows for expansion and scalability. In previous versions of the IEEE 802.3 standard, the only multimode
fibres included mentioned were OM3 and OM4. At the time, these were best specified to accommodate
VCSEL modulation which was limited to 850nm. 40Gb/s requires four lanes and 100Gb/s would require
ten lanes. Thanks to IEEE 802.3bm, 100Gb/s will be supported on a simplified infrastructure, making matters
easier for suppliers and their customers. Migration and scaling from 40 to 100 Gigabit Ethernet will be far
easier and more efficient thanks to the ability to use MPO multi-fibre connections. Less (costly) fibre cabling is
required and MPO connectors can be used, which are easy to handle in the field. Installations become more
future-proof and rollout cost can be lowered.

Author: Baudouin Bareel,

Senior Technical Manager, R&D,
Nexans Cabling Solutions
 Standards Round-up February 2015

ISO/IEC Cabling Standards

No meeting since the last Standards Round-Up

ISO/IEC Automated Infrastructure Management

Connect to tomorrow
ISO/IEC 18598 was circulated for a second CD in December. The main topic under discussion is the structure
of information used for exchange between systems and connected applications.

CENELEC Cabling Standards

No meeting since the last Standards Round-Up

CENELEC Data Centre Standards

Progress on the EN 50600 Series of standards continues at an impressive pace.

Part 2-4 (Data Centre Cabling) has passed its National Body vote and will be published in Early 2015.

Part 2-5 (Security) was looking like being delayed by some confusion over fire detection and suppression,
happily this was resolved in the November meeting and this part is back “on-track”.

The group is now concentrating on the development of Part 2-6 (Management) and beginning to address DC
KPIs.

IEEE

The following covers activity in the January Interim meeting of IEEE 802.3:

Fibre Protocols

802.3bs – Next Generation Ethernet

This proposal is for the definition of 400GB/s Ethernet over Duplex SM and Parallel MM fibre and includes
PHYs for:

• 100m of 32 cores of OM4 MM fibre (16 lanes of 25G over 2 MTPs)

• 70m of 32 cores of OM3 MM fibre (16 lanes of 25G over 2 MTPs)
• ≥500m of SM fibre (4 lane PSM)
• ≥2km of Duplex SM fibre
• ≥10km of Duplex SM fibre

No agreement reached on a chosen SMF solution – MMF ad-hoc have created a first draft based on current
technology

Copper Protocols

802.3bq – 40GBASE-T & 25GBase-T

Draft 1.1 comments were resolved and Draft 1.2 will be circulated in preparation for the March meeting.
25GBase-T will probably not be included in this first cycle. It is anticipated that 2nd working draft will contain
25GBase-T requirements.

802.3bt – 4 Pair Power over Ethernet

The purpose of this is to define a 4 Pair PoE protocol to deliver ≥51W and >100W to a PD

• Comply with SELV of ISO/IEC 60950 (IT safety)

• Operation @ up to 100m over Class D (or better):2002, Class D: 1995
• Include 10GBASE-T option

Standard is behind schedule and will probably not be completed until January 2017.
 Next Generation Enterprise
Access Study Group

This group has adopted the proposals for 2.5G and 5GBase-T over Category 5e and Category 6 respectively.
It is anticipated that this will become a task force following the March meeting.

Standards Calendar
Connect to tomorrow
Standard committee Covering Date
of meeting

Recent meetings

IEEE 802.3 802.3 Ethernet Working Group January 2015

802.3bm Next Generation 40Gb/s and Atlanta USA
100 Gb/s Optical Ethernet Task force
Next generation Base-T task force (and other topics)

TIA TR 42 Copper cabling Systems (42.7) 2-6 Feb

Sustainable information technologies (42.10) Tucson, AZ
USA



CENELEC TC 215 WG3 Data Centre Cabling, EN 50600 20th January 2015
Amsterdam Netherlands

Upcoming meetings

ISO/IEC SC25 WG3 Microprocessor systems; and O/F interfaces, 2-6 March 2015
protocols and associated interconnecting San Juan Puerto Rico
media for information technology equipment
7-11th September 2015
Milan Italy

CENELEC TC215 Plenary 25th March 2015
Bordeaux France

WG1 Cabling Systems Design 23-24th March 2015

WG2 Cabling Installation & Quality Assurance 26-27th March 2015

Bordeaux France

WG3 Data Centres Facilities & Infrastructure 9-10th June 2015

Frankfurt Germany

TIA TR 42 Copper cabling Systems (42.7) 2-6 Feb
Sustainable information technologies (42.10) Tucson, AZ USA

IEEE 802.3 40GBase-T task force 8 March 2015
IEEE P802.3bp task force Berlin Germany