NVIDIA Interconnect for Spectrum-6 Based Ethernet Switches | NVIDIA Spectrum-6 SN6000 Switch Systems Hardware User Manual

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview and prerequisites for installing Single-Mode and Multi-Mode transceivers, Optical Fibers and Active Copper Cables. The new 200G/400/800G Ethernet interconnects make extensive use of pluggable optical transceivers and detachable optical fibers for easier installation, inspection and debugging.

For more information on best practices and recommendations to ensure best performance of our cables, refer to NVIDIA Cable Management Guidelines.

Form Factor

NVIDIA's products utilize different type of ports:

Form Factor	Description	Spectrum-6 Usage
OSFP - Octal Small Form-factor Pluggable	Connected to the ASIC with 8 electrical lanes.	The usage of the lanes enables to set versatile ports speeds, for instance an 800G port can be configured as 4 lanes of 200G or 8 lanes of 100G.
QSFP - Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable	Connected to the ASIC with 4 electrical lanes.	Spectrum-6 switches' QSFP112 utilizes 2 electrical lanes only to provide 2 discrete 100G general-purpose ports.
SFP28 - Small Form-factor Pluggable	Utilizes 1 electrical lane to the ASIC.	Spectrum-6 switches may include a few SFP28 general purpose ports, supporting 25G speed.

Optical Transceiver Types

Internal Electronics

Type	Description
FRO - Full Retimed Optics	Employs DSP ICs on both transmit and receive paths
TRO - Transmit only Retimed Optics	Utilizes DSP ICs in transmit only

Transceiver Cooling

Type	Usage
Integrated Heat Sink	Used in air cooled switches in OSFP form-factor.
Riding Heat Sink	Used in liquid cool switches as well as server-side in OSFP and QSFP-112 form-factors.

Fibre Optic Cable Assemblies

Structured cabling eases servicing of the optical transceivers in the data center as transceivers are detachable from the cable. This also allows easier installation since there are no ESD sensitive or bulky transceivers involved in the cabling.
Patch panels and trunk cables add further flexibility to the infrastructure. Pluggable optical cables require special installation and cleaning procedures to avoid mishandling and bricking these products.
The maximum reach specifications of NVIDIA 400/800G Ethernet transceivers assume two optical connector junctions or patch panels in the link, a total of 4 ferule-to ferule connections.

Type	Description
MPO-12/APC: Multiple Push-On 12-fiber, Angled Polished Connector	Two MPO-12/APC optical connectors are used by both Single Mode and Multi-mode transceivers. Uses 8-fibers in the Angled Polished Connector (APC) with an ~8-degree polish on the fiber end that deflects laser back reflections in the fiber/connector to the cladding to avoid damaging the laser and distorting the signal. The transceivers use four transmission (Tx) fibers and 4 receive (Rx) fibers and 4 positions in the center connector block are not used and left blank.
MPO-12/UPC: Multiple Push-On 12-fiber, Ultra Flat Polished Connector	Two MPO-12/UPC optical connectors are more commonly used in lower Rates such as 100G (4x) Multi-Mode transceivers Ultra Flat Polished Connector (UPC) reducing signal reflection for high-performance optics connectivity.

Type

Description

MPO-12/APC: Multiple Push-On 12-fiber, Angled Polished Connector

Two MPO-12/APC optical connectors are used by both Single Mode and Multi-mode transceivers.
Uses 8-fibers in the Angled Polished Connector (APC) with an ~8-degree polish on the fiber end that deflects laser back reflections in the fiber/connector to the cladding to avoid damaging the laser and distorting the signal.
The transceivers use four transmission (Tx) fibers and 4 receive (Rx) fibers and 4 positions in the center connector block are not used and left blank.

MPO-12/UPC: Multiple Push-On 12-fiber, Ultra Flat Polished Connector

Two MPO-12/UPC optical connectors are more commonly used in lower Rates such as 100G (4x) Multi-Mode transceivers
Ultra Flat Polished Connector (UPC) reducing signal reflection for high-performance optics connectivity.

MPO-12/APC and MPO-12/UPC are not compatible.

Optical Fibers Options

Type	Length
MPO Single-Mode straight cables	Total length up to 500m (inc. patch panels, trunk and cables).
MPO Single-Mode splitter cables	Total length up to 50m (inc. patch panels, trunk, and cables).
MMC Single-Mode straight cables	Total length up to 500m (inc. patch panels, trunk and cables).
LC Single-Mode straight cables	Total Lengths of 2km (FR4), 6km/10km (LR4) (inc. patch panels, trunk and cables).

Patch Panels

Patch panels have multiple ports that connect multiple devices together and help organize cables as well as introduce shuffling between end-points Servers to Leaves/Leaves to Spines.

Active Copper Cables Assemblies

Type	Description
LACC: Linear Active Copper Cables	The cables use built-in linear equalizer and amplifiers to extend the reachability. The LACC cables support OSFP to 4xOSFP (twin 800G to 4x400G) and OSFP to 2xOSFP (twin 800G to 2x800G) breakouts.
ACC: Active Electric Copper Cables	The cables use DSPs on each end-point. RHS to RHS and IHS to IHS versions of this cable are available, providing a direct connectivity of twin 800G ports.

Type

Description

LACC: Linear Active Copper Cables

The cables use built-in linear equalizer and amplifiers to extend the reachability. The LACC cables support OSFP to 4xOSFP (twin 800G to 4x400G) and OSFP to 2xOSFP (twin 800G to 2x800G) breakouts.

ACC: Active Electric Copper Cables

The cables use DSPs on each end-point. RHS to RHS and IHS to IHS versions of this cable are available, providing a direct connectivity of twin 800G ports.

Cable Orientation

SN6600:

SN6600-LD:

Splitting Options

SN6810-LD, SN6600-LD, and SN6600 systems, all ports support splitting according to the following configurations:

Port Speed	Split	Logical Ports	Lane Speed	Signaling
800GbE	N	128	4×224G	PAM4
400GbE	Y	256	2×224G	PAM4
400GbE	Y	128	4×112G	PAM4
200GbE	Y	512	1×224G	PAM4
200GbE	Y	256	2×112G	PAM4
100GbE	Y	512+2	1×112G	PAM4

SN6800-LD Support the following port speeds configurations:

Port Speed	Split	Logical Ports	Lane Speed	Signaling
200GbE	N	2048	2x224G	PAM4
100GbE	N	2048+8	1×112G	PAM4

The SN6800 system does not support additional port breakout modes.

Connector Numbering in a Belly-to-Belly Configuration

SN6600-LD and SN6600 systems use OSFP cages.

The OSFP-based optical transceivers have two distinctive ports that can be used as OSFP transceivers inserted to the switch in a "belly-to-belly" configuration, meaning that the transceiver on the top will be right side up, and the transceiver below it will be upside down.

The following illustration depicts the numbering of the ports:

Connector:

Twin 800G Port:

Port Configuration	Physical Connector	NOS Description	Examples
800G	C1	swp	swp1, swp2

Port Configuration

Physical Connector

NOS Description

Examples

800G

swp

swp1, swp2

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Breakout Ports Reflection in NOS

The illustration below shows the first two rows of the system’s OSFP carriers: the image on the left identifies the OSFP cage number as it is presented by the OS; the image on the right identifies the corresponding subinterfaces.

Connector # 2×800G	Connector # 8×200G

Port Configuration	Physical Connector	Sub-interface	Examples
2×800G	C1	S0	swp1s0, swp24s0
2×800G	C2	S1	swp1s1, swp64s1
4×400G	C1	S0, S1	swp2s0, swp2s1
4×400G	C2	S2, S3	swp8s2, swp8s3
8×200G	C1	S0, S1, S2, S3	swp60s0, swp60s1, swp60s2, swp60s3
8×200G	C2	S4, S5, S6, S7	swp55s4, swp55s5, swp55s6, swp55s7

For additional Information on NVIDIA Interconnect Solution, please refer to: https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/interconnect/index.html.

Last updated: May 13, 2026