Highly Parallel
Speeds
Quad Speeds
Duo Speeds
Serial Speeds
2000 2010 2020 2030
October/November/December 2020 I 49
Ethernet Speeds
Data Rate
Gb/s
Ethernet Standard
Proprietary/MSA Module
IEEE
Standard/MSA/
# Fiber
Pairs # ’S Optical
Modulation
Reach (m)
OM3 OM4 OM5
100 100GBASE-SR4 Standard 4 1 25G NRZ 70 100 Same
as OM4
100 100G – SWDM4 MSA 1 4 25G NRZ 75 100 150
100 100G – BiDi Proprietary 1 2 50G PAM4 70 100 150
400 400GBASE-SR16
Standard
16 1 25G NRZ 70 100
Same
as OM4
50 50GBASE-SR 1 1 50G PAM4 70 100
100 100GBASE-SR2 2 1 50G PAM4 70 100
200 200GBASE-SR4 4 1 50G PAM4 70 100
400 400GBASE-SR8
Standard
8 1
50G PAM4 70 100
Same
as OM4
400 400GBASE-SR4.2 4 2 150
100 100GBASE-SR
IEEE 802.3
Study Group
1
1 100G PAM4 30? 50? Same
200 200GBASE-SR2 2 as OM4
400 400GBASE-SR4 4
800 800GBASE-SR8 Future
Technology
8 1 100G PAM4 50?
4/4/800/1600 4/800/1600GBASE-SRm.n. 1/2/4/8 TBD 100G PAM4 100M OVER MMF
TABLE 1: Common high-speed Ethernet modules. Question marks=the supported link distance is still not determined.
Also in 2018, a 400 Gb BiDi MSA was formed. Products
meeting this MSA are expected to also be compliant
with the 400GBASE-SR4.2 standard. Refer to Table 1 for
common Ethernet modules.
Figure 2 shows The Ethernet Alliance’s 2020 Ethernet
Roadmap,2 documenting the growth in Ethernet speeds
to satisfy the market needs of the largest enterprise data
center customers.
On the storage side, Fibre Channel (FC) remains
the dominant standard for enterprise networks. More
than 90 percent of FC links utilize MMF and VCSELs.3
The Dell’Oro Group4 estimates that 113 million ports
Standard Completed
10T
1T
400G
200G
100G
50G
25G
10G
FIGURE 2: The Ethernet Alliance’s 2020 Ethernet Roadmap.
of FC switches and adapters have
shipped since 2001 and that 46.2
million ports are still currently
in operation with continued
growth of FC links; 16 Gigabit
Fibre Channel (GFC) is being
deployed at a faster rate than
8 GFC, and 32 GFC is beginning
to ramp up.5
Link Speed (b/s)
Ethernet Speed Ethernet Speed Possible Future Speed
The T11 Technical Committee
of the InterNational Committee
for Information Technology Stand-
ards (INCITS) recently completed
FC-PI-7 standard specifications
for 64 GFC in small form-factor
pluggable (SFP) modules. It is
nearing completion of FC-PI-7P
specifications for parallel or quad
lane 256 GFC (4 x 64 GFC) and
is currently developing FC-PI-8