XENPAK is a Multisource Agreement (MSA), instigated by Agilent Technologies and Agere Systems that defines a fiber-optic or copper transceiver module which conforms to the 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) standard as laid down by the IEEE 802.3ae. The MSA group received input from both transceiver and equipment manufacturers during the definition process.
XENPAKs come in a variety of physical layer interfaces, supporting multi-mode and single mode fiber optic cables and CX4 InfiniBand copper cables. Transmission distances vary from 100 metres to 80 kilometres for fiber and up to 15 metres on CX4 cable. Recently introduced XENPAKs using the 10GBase-LX4 standard operate using multiple wavelengths on legacy multi-mode fibres at distances of up to 300 metres, eliminating the need to reinstall cable in a building when upgrading certain 1 Gbit/s circuits to 10 Gbit/s.
The MSA was publicly announced on March 12, 2001 and the first revision of the document was publicly released on May 7, 2001. The most recent revision of the MSA, Issue 3.0, was published on September 18, 2002. The result covers all physical media dependent (PMD) types defined by the IEEE for 802.3ae 10GbE.
The XENPAK MSA website is no longer hosted on the web. Issue 3.0 of the XENPAK MSA has now been transferred to the Small Form Factor committee as document INF-8474.
The XENPAK form factor is supported by numerous Network Equipment manufacturers and module makers. However, advances in technology have led to more compact form factors for 10 Gigabit Ethernet applications such as X2 MSA, XFP MSA, XPAK MSA, and SFP+.
Since the standard was introduced in 2001, two successor standards emerged. XPAK and X2. These two standards have the same electrical interface as XENPAK but different mechanical properties (such as size and weight).
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