This paper reviewed the recent progress in transmission of 400 Gb/s, wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) channels for optical networks based on the standard 50 GHz grid. We discussed the enabling modulation, coding, and line system technologies, as well as the existing challenges. It is shown that, 400 Gb/s per channel signal can be transmitted on the standard 50 GHz ITU-T grid at 8.4 b/ds/Hz net spectral efficiency (SE) over meaningful transmission reach for regional and metropolitan applications. However, further studies are needed to fully understand the potential for meeting the requirements of long-haul transmission applications.