NVMe over RDMA Transport Specification

Transport

The individual transport specifications allow NVM Express to isolate and independently evolve transports for evolving memory and fabric transports. The NVM Express® (NVMe®) 2.0 specifications define the theory of operations for transports in the NVMe Base specification and the mapping of specific transports to individual specifications.

What is the NVMe over RDMA Transport specification?

The NVMe over RDMA Transport specification uses Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and enables data and memory to be transferred between computer and storage devices across a fabric network. RDMA is a way of exchanging information between two computers’ main memory in a network without involving the processor, cache, or OS of either computer. Because RDMA avoids the OS, it is a fast and low-overhead mechanism for transmitting data across a network.

As of August 5, 2025, the set NVMe Specifications are as of the follows:

  • NVM Express® Base Specification, Revision 2.3
  • Command Set Specifications:
    • NVM Express® Computational Programs Command Set Specification, Revision 1.2
    • NVM Express® Key Value Command Set Specification, Revision 1.3
    • NVM Express® NVM Command Set Specification, Revision 1.2
    • NVM Express® Subsystem Local Memory Command Set Specification, Revision 1.2
    • NVM Express® Zoned Namespaces Command Set Specification, Revision 1.4
  • Transport Specifications:
    • NVM Express® NVMe over PCIe Transport Specification, Revision 1.3
    • NVM Express® NVMe over RDMA Transport Specification, Revision 1.2
    • NVM Express® NVMe over TCP Transport Specification, Revision 1.2
  • NVM Express® NVMe Boot Specification, Revision 1.3
  • NVM Express® NVM Express Management Interface Specification, Revision 2.1