The Development of 100G CFP Optical Transceiver

With the rapid development of Internet, mobile Internet and networking, the customers’ business needs are continuing expanding. As a result, data traffic keeps rising. 100G transceiver currently carries most of the network traffic. It is not exaggerating to say that 100G transceiver is the inevitable trend of the market. 100G transceiver offers 100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options for data center networking to customers. It is of great significance to the enterprise core aggregation, and services provider transport applications. The interface of the 100G transceiver is connected with CFP module. CFP, short for C form-factor pluggable, whose standard is mainly to develop for 100 Gigabit Ethernet systems, is hot-pluggable transceiver that supports a wide range of 40 and 100 Gb/s applications, including next-generation high speed Ethernet (40GbE and 100GbE). 

Compared with CFP module, the volume of CFP2 optical transceiver is smaller, only half the size of it. In addition, CFP2 optical transceiver provides users the same data rate as CFP module at up to a third of the power, reducing overall power consumption. CFP2 module is a new technology. From OFC in 2013, a lot of companies have introduced related products. Now CFP2 module has a wide range of applications in the field of data, communication, storage network, and even the popular current cloud computing. So in the next few years, CFP2 module will have a large application prospects and space.

CFP2 optical transceiver

Last year, CFP4 optical transceiver module came along. Its volume is even smaller than CFP2 module’s. The volume of CFP4 optical transceiver module is half of CFP2 module, a quarter of CFP module. And its power consumption declines sharply, so that it is more attractive in the new ultra-high-bandwidth data center and core routers field. Network equipment manufacturers can migrate from CFP2 to CFP4 interface, making the density of the front panel port doubled. 

But the problem is that the technology of CFP4 module is not very mature. A certain time still should be required. So for CFP2 module, it will have a certain application space, probably continuing for 2 years. On the other hand, if the equipment manufacturers still do not think about entering the core router market, then CFP module and CFP2 module can be enough to meet users’ needs. This status would be benefit for cost control and user procurement in that CFP module and CFP2 module are much cheaper than CFP4.