Ixia, a provider of network testing, visibility and security solutions, announced that as part of efforts to illustrate the readiness of the emerging technology it is showcasing for the first time a series of advanced 400 Gigabit Ethernet live demonstrations at Interop Tokyo in June at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.
During Interop Tokyo, leveraging its forward error correction (FEC) and physical coding sublayer (PCS) Ixia will showcase 400 Gigabit Ethernet technology via eight pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) electrical lanes, defined as 400GAUI-8 within IEEE802.3bs, utilising third party direct attached copper cable solutions, including:
1. What Ixia claims is the first public showcase of a 400 Gigabit Ethernet PAM4 OSFP test solution in partnership with TE Connectivity.
2. A 400 Gigabit Ethernet PAM4 QSFP-DD demonstration in collaboration with Cisco and Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT).
Ixia is also demonstrating its 400 Gigabit Ethernet CFP8 interface using the MSA-compliant LR8 extended reach transceiver module from Finisar operating over single mode fibre. The Ixia CFP8 test system is compliant with the IEEE802.3bs 400GAUI-16 electrical interface.
Ixia noted that it is supporting and collaborating with multiple multisource agreement (MSA) development groups to help improve the operation and efficiency of 400 Gigabit Ethernet technology, notably:
- Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable (OSFP), a new pluggable form factor featuring eight high speed electrical lanes that can support 400 Gbit/s rates and addresses the higher power requirements of 400 Gbit/s optics.
- Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD), a new pluggable form factor that offers backwards compatibility with QSFP28 while quadrupling aggregate switch bandwidth and maintaining port density.
* In March of this year, Ixia announced that at OFC 2017, in collaboration with Cisco and FIT, it would demonstrate 400 Gigabit Ethernet with QSFP-DD over PAM4 electrical lanes.
