What is the new SFP-DD, and what is the difference with the emSFP non-MSA.

The SFP-DD is a new standard consisting of doubling the bandwith of an standard SFP28 and more. The SFP28 is capable of 28Gbps transport in both transmit and receive, the SFP-DD will be capable of 56Gbps and 112Gbps.

I remembered talking in a conference and I started that soon we will see Small form factor capable of transporting 56G and 112Gbps signals. In video transport we already doubling the bandwidth, we are doing 12G-SDI on 2 transmitter and 2 x 12G-SDI on dual receivers. The major difference between video transport and telecommunication transport, is the fact that video is unidirectional, so we often use 2 lasers or 2 photodiodes. Video industry have defined the non-MSA, pinout (https://www.embrionix.com/storage/app/media/tools/Embrionix_Pinout_Table.pdf).

The SFP-DD need to double both the transmitter and the receiver, so they added an extra connector, information can be found on the SFP-DD website. It can be summarized as: SFP-DD electrical interfaces will employ 2 lanes that operate up to 25 Gbps NRZ modulation or 56 Gbps PAM4 modulation, providing solutions up to 50 Gbps or 112 Gbps PAM4 aggregation.

I am not surprised of such bandwidth, but I am surprised how quickly the pluggables change.

Stay tune, soon the SFP56 and the SFP112 will be there! Renaud