The difference between QSFP28,CFP,CFP2 and CFP4

2019-08-31
Cost and power consumption are important driving forces for the development of optical communication market.100G optical module, including QSFP28,CFP,CFP2 and CFP4.Its development is based on low cost and power consumption.The common packaging types of 100G optical modules are QSFP28,CFP,CFP2 and CFP4.

In some markets, the QSFP28 optical module is the mainstream product, which transmits data through four 25Gbit/s transmission channels.Can be applied to a variety of transmission distance, also can meet the needs of a variety of application scenarios.Because of its small size, its heat dissipation condition is not very good.

The CFP module operates under requirements such as rate, protocol, and distance, and its design is based on small pluggable optical modules.CFP optical module can realize the transmission of single 100G signal, or multiple 40G signals and OTU3 signals.

Often used on 100G Ethernet transmission links, CFP2 is more efficient than the CFP optical module, and its smaller size gives it an advantage over high-density cabling.

CFP4 is the latest generation of optical module packaging, it is only a quarter of the width of the first generation of CFP, but in packaging form, it is very large.This indicates that CFP4 optical modules are less efficient in port utilization.

At present, the mainstream optical module on the market is 100G QSFP28 optical module, the packaging form is QSFP28, because of the advantages of small volume, port density, low power consumption received by the majority of manufacturers love.

QSFP28 optical module is one of the important components in 100G network, which can be applied to a variety of transmission distances and application scenarios, with a lot of selectivity. Due to its small size and concentrated optical devices, its heat dissipation is not good.

It transmits data over four 25Gbit/s transmission channels, mainly in 100G Ethernet and EDR InfiniBand applications.100G CFP optical module supports hot plugging, which is an external package pluggable module. Since its launch, CFP series optical modules have gone through CFP, CFP2 and so on.Today's CFP4 light module, however, its volume is still larger than QSFP28 light module, and it has fewer categories, weak heat dissipation, and low flexibility.

The difference between QSFP28 optical module and CFP4 optical module is that the transmission rate of each fiber channel of 100G QSFP28 optical module can reach 25Gbps at the highest, and 4 fiber channels are used to transmit data, mainly for 100G transmission applications.Compared to the 100G CFP4 optical module, the 100G QSFP28 optical module is better for high-density wiring, which is why most data centers prefer the 100G QSFP28 optical module.There are several categories derived from 100G QSFP28 optical module and 100G CFP4 optical module respectively. QSFP28 optical module has more applications than CFP4 optical module.

Secondly, in terms of transmission distance, QSFP28 optical module has longer transmission distance than CFP4 optical module.The power consumption of QSFP28 optical module is usually lower than 3.5w, while the power consumption of other 100G optical modules is 6W to 24W.

From this we can know that QSFP28 optical module has much lower power consumption than other 100G optical modules.CFP optical module can support a single 100G signal and one or more 40G signals. 100G CFP2 is commonly used as 100G Ethernet interconnection link, with higher transmission efficiency than CFP optical module.A 100G CFP4 light module has the same rate as a CFP/CFP2 light module.

The irreplaceable advantage of a CFP4 light module is that it consumes less power and costs less.The volume of CFP4 light module is only one half of that of CFP2 and one quarter of that of CFP, which is the smallest light module in CFP series.

CFP4 has higher transmission efficiency. The earliest 100G CFP optical module passed through 10 10G channels and reached the transmission rate of 100G, while the current 100G CFP4 optical module passed through 4 25G channels and adopted the mode of 4*25 to achieve the purpose of 100G transmission, so the transmission efficiency is higher and the stability is stronger.In terms of module integration, the integration of CFP2 is twice that of CFP, and the integration of CFP4 is four times that of CFP.

In terms of power consumption and cost, CFP4 optical module is compatible with MSA protocol, supports the same rate as CFP2 and CFP2s, and significantly improves the transmission efficiency.CFP optical module supports all c-band wavelength adjustable, and can complete link detection. The common optical dual-binary modulation pattern is selected, and the power consumption is less than 24W, which has a convenient layout.

The volume of CFP2 light module is half that of CFP light module, and its integration is twice that of CFP. It supports comprehensive CFP light module, and its power consumption is lower than 9W. It can achieve stable acceptance sensitivity within a wide dynamic input range based on SOA.The packaging style of QSFP28 optical module is smaller than that of CFP4 optical module.The cost of using QSFP28 optical module is lower, the power consumption is generally less than 3.5w when working, and using QSFP28 optical module can be directly upgraded from 25G to 100G without 40G.

In the past, many large devices were connected through circuits. At present, optical modules have reached more than 100G.In the future, it may be possible to use optical paths to communicate with higher capacity and safer.The first step in the development of future optical communication devices may be to integrate all devices with optical modules,The next step will be to integrate the optical module with IC.

At the same time, the switching chip will be upgraded from 25G to 50G, and may reach the level of 4×100G to 400G in the future.In addition, for optical module production, stronger integration will be the current development direction, because it can greatly reduce production cost and increase production efficiency.As the source and address of the signal, the optical module is the highlight of the three elements of communication.From the development history of optical modules, we can see that the upgrading of optical modules is an important symbol of the improvement of transmission rate.

Therefore, the future competition point of optical module market will be smaller package size and higher transmission rate.
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