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50GbE support on E810

jeschiefer
Beginner
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Hello,

I got an E810-CQDA2, that I need to set up for 50GBASE-LR with PAM4. This is on Ubuntu 20.04.3 with all the latest drivers/NVM/etc from the 26.8 Driver Pack. The QSFP module that I have on hand is an fs.com QSFP28-LR-50G (https://www.fs.com/products/97237.html). The datasheet says that this module is compliant to CAUI-4 (IEEE 820.3bm Annex 83E). The pinout shows that only lanes 1 and 2 are brought out on the electrical interface of the QSFP, the pins for the others are not connected.

For the life of me I cannot figure out what an appropriate card configuration is, and none of the options available in the EPCT seem quite right. I know that the E810 supports 50G; it also supports CAUI-4 (at least for 100G), but the combination of the two seems a little unusual.

Is there a way to make this work?

Thank you very much,

   Jan Schiefer

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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
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Hello jeschiefer,


Thank you for posting on Intel Ethernet Communities. 


Can we request for you to provide us a photo of the markings of your network adapter both front and back so we can validate first if you are using a genuine Intel adapter or a 3rd party OEM kit before we can provide you our recommendations. 


Kindly refer to the link below as reference.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000007022/ethernet-products/500-series-network-adapters-up-to-10gbe.html 


If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further


Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!



Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support



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jeschiefer
Beginner
4,178 Views

Hi Zigfreid,

 

Of course, here you are.

 

Thanks,

     Jan

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jeschiefer
Beginner
4,171 Views

Here is a hex dump of the eeprom of the fs.com 50G-QSFP28-LR module, in case it helps.

 

Best,

     Jan

 

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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
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Hello jeschiefer,


Thank you very much for providing the markings of your NIC. Please provide us some time to check your concern before we provide you our recommendations.


Is it ok if we can ask for 2-3 business days for this? Once we have all the information that we need, we will notify you immediately instead. Thank you and have a nice day!



Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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jeschiefer
Beginner
4,133 Views

Hi Zigfreid,

Yes, this timescale is perfectly acceptable. Thank you for looking into this!

Best regards,

    Jan

 

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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
4,129 Views

Hello jeschiefer,



Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We would like to ask some additional questions to further check on the issue at hand.


1. Can you provide us the output of epct -nic=1 -get?


2. Also, since you mentioned that you are already using the latest driver and NVM for Ubuntu 20.04.3, can you advise us where you have download the latest driver and NVM? Can you share the links as well?


Hoping to hear from you soon.


Should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
4,093 Views

Hello jeschiefer,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We'd like to follow up the requested information for us to proceed checking your query. Feel free to let us know if you have additional questions or clarifications on this request. 


Hoping to hear from you soon.


We will wait for your reply within 3 business days in case we don't hear from you, we will proceed closing this request.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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jeschiefer
Beginner
4,064 Views

Hi Zigfreid,

My apologies, this fell through the cracks. Here is the information you requested:

root@Deskjockey2:~# epct64e -nic=1 -get
Ethernet Port Configuration Tool
EPCT version: v1.37.34.03
Copyright 2019 - 2021 Intel Corporation.

Available Port Options:
==========================================================================
Port Quad 0 Quad 1
Option Option (Gbps) L0 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7
======= ============================= ================ ================
Active 2x1x100 -> 100 - - - 100 - - -
2x50 -> 50 - 50 - - - - -
4x25 -> 25 25 25 25 - - - -
2x2x25 -> 25 25 - - 25 25 - -
8x10 -> 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
100 -> 100 - - - - - - -

Warning: Any changes to the port option configuration will require a reboot before the device will function correctly.

All actions succeeded.
root@Deskjockey2:~#

I have also tried the 2x50 and 4x25 options, to no avail.

I downloaded the driver and NVM as part of the complete driver pack, version 26.8, from here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15084/intel-ethernet-adapter-complete-driver-pack.html. The NVM version reports as v3.10, the driver version is ice-1.7.16.

 

Meanwhile I got some more information from a colleague, who put one of these modules on a Keysight/Ixia tester. Apparently this module is for a mode of operation that is apparently popular in China, sometimes referred to as "China 50G". You run KP4-FEC over two lanes of 25G NRZ, which the module converts to 50G PAM4. I could probably get more detail if it helps.

 

Thanks again, and my apologies for the delayed response.

Jan

 

 

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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
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Hi jeschiefer,


Thank you for providing us the information that we have requested and we do apologized as well for the delay on responding since our system was not able to detect the new message that you posted for some reason. However, please rest assure that we are now checking on this and we will provide you updates as soon as we can. 


Please provide us some time to have this check. Is it ok if we can ask for 2-3 business days for this? Once we have all the information that we need, we will notify you immediately instead. Thank you and have a nice day!



Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,990 Views

Hello jeschiefer,

 

Based on further validation, you are using a 50G PAM4 optics. Unfortunately, this is not supported based on E810 Feature Support Matrix.

 

Please refer to this picture as well as the PDF file that we have attached on this response.  

MicrosoftTeams-image (4).png

 

 

If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further

 

Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!

 

 

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

 

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jeschiefer
Beginner
3,977 Views

Hi Zigfreid,

Oh no, this not what I was hoping to hear! So from looking at the feature summary, it seems like the e810 has no support at all for 50G PAM4 optics? As your product brief mentions IEEE 50GAUI-2 (and others) under "Supported Physical Layer Interfaces" in the 50 Gbps column, I would have expected, well, something to be supported? Did I misunderstand this? Or are there any plans to support 50 Gbps PAM4 optics in the future?

Thanks,

     Jan

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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,932 Views


Hello jeschiefer,


We do apologize if 50G PAM4 optics is not supported based on E810 Feature Support Matrix. We also cannot guarantee if this will be supported in the future however we will try to confirm with our engineers if we have further updates on this. 


Please provide some time to double check on this, can we ask if you can provide us another 2-3 business days so we can confirm? Thank you and have a nice day! 


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,919 Views

Hello jeschiefer,

 

As per checking with our engineers, we do apologize unfortunately it is confirmed that 50G PAM4 optics is not currently supported and there's no information yet when this support will be added. As for product brief document, we will further check on it to make sure that it is in line with the feature matrix.

 

If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further

 

Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!

 

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,838 Views

Hello jeschiefer,


As per further checking, our engineers provided additional information that PAM4 signaling is not supported for 50GAUI at this time according to the Feature Support Matrix. This may change in a future update however we do not have definite time, and the Feature Support Matrix will be updated at that time as well.


If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further.


Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,822 Views

Hello jeschiefer,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We'd like to know if you have any other questions or clarifications please let us know so we would know if we can close the thread.


Hoping to hear from you soon.


We will wait for your reply within 3 business days in case we don't hear from you, we will proceed closing this request.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support



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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,784 Views

Hello jeschiefer,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


Please be informed that we will now close this request since we haven't received any response from our previous follow ups. Just feel free to post a new question if you have any other inquiry in the future as this thread will no longer be monitored.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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