Procedure for operating an ethylene cracking furnace mainly comprising a radiant section, a convection section, and TLEs (Transfer Line Exchangers), whereby, said radiation section is provided with at least one firebox with its bottom provided with a plurality of burners, said plurality of burners comprises a first, a second, a third and a fourth rows of burners arranged in sequence and parallel with each other, said firebox is provided with a first group of radiant coils and a second group of radiant coils, said first group of radiant coils is arranged between said first row of burners and said second row of burners, and said second group of radiant coils is arranged between said third row of burners and said fourth row of burners; and both said first group of radiant coils and said second group of radiant coils are arranged in two rows, such that said firebox is provided with four rows of radiant tubes in total; two furnace tube planes (a, a) in which said first group of radiant coils and said second group of radiant coils' inlet pass tube are located keep far away from said firebox 's side wall and adjoin said firebox's central line (c); two furnace tube planes (b, b) in which said first group of radiant coils and said second group of radiant coils' outlet pass tube are located keep far away from said firebox 's central line (c) and adjoin said firebox's side wall; the four furnace tube planes being parallel to each other; said firebox's side wall is provided with a plurality of peep doors, such that the temperature of the metal wall of all the outlet pass tubes can be measured directly through said peep doors; wherein said radiant coils are two-pass radiant coils or multi-pass radiant coils having more than two passes; said radiant coils comprise at least one inlet tube and one outlet tube, both said inlet tube and said outlet tube are straight tubes arranged vertically; when the radiant coils are two-pass radiant coils, said inlet tube and said outlet tube are connected by a bend tube, and there is no other radiant tube arranged vertically between said inlet tube and said outlet tube; when the radiant coils are multi-pass radiant coils, there are other straight radiant tubes arranged vertically between said inlet tube and said outlet tube, these radiant tubes arranged vertically are connected by bend tubes to constitute a group of radiant coil, wherein the amount of heat supply of burners on the side of said furnace tube plane (a) adjoining inlet pass tubes is larger than the amount of heat supply of burners on the side of said furnace tube plate (b) adjoining outlet pass tubes, whereby when operating the ethylene cracking furnace, a cracking feedstock enters the convection section firstly and is preheated by means of convection coil, after being preheated to 550°C - 700°C by means of a high temperature crossover pipe, the feedstock is conveyed to a manifold, and then enters by means of a flow distribution tube the radiation furnace coils for thermal cracking reaction, whereby the product of the cracking reaction is cracked gas, which enters the TLEs to have its temperature be decreased rapidly, so as to stop from secondary reaction of the cracked gas, whereby the cracked gas with lowered temperature, which, via a quench fitting, has its temperature further lowered, enters downstream processing equipment.