Due to the current rapid growth of cloud computing and big data services, the requirements for broadband in data centers are constantly increasing. Among them, optical fiber communication is one of the main transmission methods in the field of data communication, whether in terms of transmission time or transmission distance. As the key equipment in optical fiber communication, the optical transceiver module naturally requires continuous development and innovation to meet the growing big data transmission services. With the characteristics of small size and high integration density, the QSFP28 (Quad Small Formfactor Pluggable28) packaging mode has become the mainstream packaging method of 100G optical transceiver modules, and the total data transmission rate of 100Gbps is achieved by connecting four single-channel 25Gbps in parallel. Among them, the light emitting sub-module completes the electrical-optical signal conversion function, and the light-receiving sub-module realizes the photoelectric signal conversion function.
Form factors of 100G transceiver
CXP package, CFP package and QSFP28 package are the main 100G optical transceiver modules developed at home and abroad. Since the CXP optical transceiver module is only suitable for short-distance clusters and high-speed computing markets, and can only be used in the scenario of multi-mode data transmission with a wavelength of 850 nm and MTP/MPO interface with an interface type of 24 cores, it is not suitable for single-mode mass data transmission. And it is not applicable in the scenario of long-distance transmission. Therefore, the CFP series (CForm-factor Pluggable) optical transceiver modules were launched, including CFP, CFP2, and CFP4, of which ‘C’ represents the Latin letter C, which means the number 100Gbps, and ‘P’ also means that the module supports hot-plugging.
With the rapid development of (Transmitter Optical Sub-Assembly) optical emitting components, ROSA (Receiver Optical SubAssembly) optical receiving components and integrated circuits IC, the CFP optical transceiver modules that conform to the CFP MSA protocol have been updated to the CFP4 type. In 2013, Finisar presented the first 100G SR4 CFP optical module that complies with various CFP standards and specifications to the optical module industry. Compared with the CFP2 optical module, the size of the CFP4 optical module is from 37.9mm*10.4mm*79.5mm to 18.1mm*7.6mm*62.3mm, and the volume is basically reduced by half. Among them, the internal structure of the 100G CFP2 optical module is that both the transmitter and the receiver have 10 channels, and each channel supports 10Gbps transmission rate, while the transmitter and receiver inside the 100G CFP4 optical module have 4 channels. Each channel supports 25Gbps transmission rate. Compared with the previous CFP and CFP2, CFP4 has a smaller volume, is suitable for high-density optical module layout, and has higher transmission efficiency and stronger stability. Therefore, the CFP series in the current optical module market are mainly CFP4 optical modules. However, in the optical communication industry, low cost and low power consumption have always been the main goals of the development and improvement of protocol standards.
CFP VS QSFP28 Transceiver
Compared with the previous 100G CFP series optical module products, the QSFP28 optical module mainly has the following three advantages:
(1) Small size and high port density: the size of the QSFP28 optical transceiver module
It is 15.2mm*6.8mm*47.8mm. Compared with the previous first-generation large-volume CFP optical module, although CFP2 is half of its volume and CFP4 is half of CFP2, the size of QSFP28 is smaller. It means that it can have a higher plug density on the switch of optical modules, and can assemble multiple 100G optical modules at the same time for data transmission.
(2) Low power consumption: The power consumption of QSFP28 optical modules is usually lower than 3.5w.
The power consumption of high-speed optical modules is between 6w and 24w, which is much lower than other optical transceiver modules.
(3) Low cost:
At present, most data centers mainly use 10G network architecture, and the interconnection solutions are mainly 10GBASE-SR optical transceiver modules and duplex LC multi-mode lines. If the existing network architecture can be directly upgraded to 100G network, it will save a lot of time and cost. However, the quality of the QSFP28 series optical transceiver modules currently on the market, whether designed and produced at home or abroad, is uneven, and it is prone to transmit and receive performance failures in high or low temperature environments, resulting in poor transmission signal quality. This is because the pursuit of high-density and small-volume features leads to smaller and smaller optical transceiver modules, and higher requirements are placed on the TOSA and ROSA packages therein. Ecloudlight offers the best QFSP28 transceiver in reliable quality. Welcome to contact us.
