Under this multi-source agreement (MSA), participating companies are addressing the technical challenges of developing a dual-density SFP interface and ensuring the mechanical interoperability of modules produced by different manufacturers. The new SFP-DD-based network equipment will support both existing SFP cables and modules as well as the new dual-density products.
The founding members of the SFP-DD MSA Group include Alibaba, Broadcom, Brocade, Cisco, Dell EMC, Finisar, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, Intel, Juniper Networks, Lumentum, Mellanox Technologies, Molex, and TE Connectivity.
The companies participating in the MSA will establish operating parameters, signal transmission rate targets, and protocols for the SFP-DD interface, which will be a further development of the SFP pluggable form factor, an electrical interface widely used in data centers and other networking platforms. SFP assemblies and modules from multiple vendors are currently offered with varying data rates and ranges to support data transmission applications such as hubs, switches, routers, and servers.
The single electrical channel of the SFP interface operates at speeds up to 25 Gbps NRZ or 56 Gbps PAM4. The new SFP-DD electrical interfaces will be designed to support two channels, each capable of operating at either 25 Gbps NRZ or 56 Gbps PAM4, resulting in a solution with an aggregate speed of 50 Gbps NRZ or 112 Gbps PAM4. By doubling the channel density and data rate of SFP transceivers, the SFP-DD specification will address the increased port density and scalability of next-generation applications, with particular attention to server-side interconnects. An SFP-DD server port combined with QSFP-DD switch ports enables an overall doubling of port density in network applications.
The participation of industry leaders in the SFP-DD MSA will enable faster adoption of the new pluggable interface and simplify its use. Systems designed for SFP-DD modules will be backward compatible with SFP modules, offering end users, as well as network platform designers and integrators, maximum flexibility.
