NVMe over TCP 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 TCP Transport specification?

NVMe over TCP defines the mapping of NVMe queues, NVMe-oF capsules and data delivery over the IETF Transport Control Protocol (TCP). The NVMe over TCP transport offers optional enhancements such as inline data integrity (DIGEST) and online Transport Layer Security (TLS).

NVMe over TCP enables efficient end-to-end NVMe operations between NVMe-oF host(s) and NVMe-oF controller devices interconnected by any standard IP network with excellent performance and latency characteristics. This allows large-scale data centers to utilize their existing ubiquitous Ethernet infrastructure with multi-layered switch topologies and traditional Ethernet network adapters. NVMe over TCP is designed to layer over existing software-based TCP transport implementations and future hardware accelerated implementations.

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