400G BiDi MSA Group releases initial optical specification

The 400G Bidirectional (BiDi) MultiSource Agreement (MSA) Group on Sept. 17 announced the publication of release 1.0 of its 400G-BD4.2 Specification for a 400 Gb/s optical interface over 100 meters of multimode fiber.

The MSA group is dedicated to defining optical interface specifications based on a dual wavelength BiDi transmission technology, which enables a reduction in the fiber count relative to other solutions. The specification leverages 100 Gb/s BiDi for Ethernet applications and is compatible with the widely available and deployed parallel multimode fiber cabling infrastructure.

The members of the 400G BiDi MSA include Alibaba, Broadcom, Cisco, Corning Incorporated, Finisar, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, InnoLight Technology, Inphi Corporation and Sumitomo Electric.

The 400G BiDi MSA specification addresses short-reach applications including the critical high-volume reaches in modern data centers between switches. The 400G BiDi MSA participants are responding to an industry need for lower cost and lower power consumption solutions in 400 Gb/s form factors that bidirectional multimode technology can provide.

Visit www.400GBiDi-msa.org to download the specification or for more information about the 400G BiDi MSA Group. Companies are now invited to join the consortium as Contributor members.

Read Cisco's recent blog on this news.

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