Before the advent of the 100GBASE QSFP28 Optical Transceiver (an optical transceiver that can be used to support 100G transmission), the development direction of the 100G network is 10G → 40G → 100G. After the 100GBASE QSFP28 optical transceiver appears, 10G → 25G → 100G or 10G → 25G → 50G → 100G development model began to spread widely in the industry, and now there are already some data centers began to adopt this method to achieve 10G to 100G upgrade. There are all kinds of 100G QSFP28 optical transceivers in the market, like QSFP28 CWDM4, QSFP28 PSM4, QSFP28 100GBASE-SR4, and QSFP28 100GBASE-LR4, etc.
So, the question is why 100GBASE QSFP28 optical transceiver is so ideal for 100G optical network? Will QSFP28 optical transceiver completely replace other 100G optical transceiver? Will QSFP28 optical transceiver change the development of data center? Maybe the post can give you an answer if you are interested.
The Advantages of QSFP28 Optical Transceiver
The cost and power consumption of data center is one of the important factors that its builder needs to consider, which is also an important driving force for the development of the optical communication market. Reviewing the development of 100G optical transceivers, the packaging styles (CFP, CFP2, CFP4) and the standard development and improvement also mainly focus on low cost and low power consumption. The QSFP28 optical transceiver meets these requirements. Compared with other 100G optical transceivers, QSFP28 optical transceiver has following advantages: port density, power consumption, and cost.
- Port density
The first generation of 100G optical transceiver is a very large CFP optical transceiver, and then appeared CFP2 and CFP4 optical transceiver, CFP4 optical transceiver which is the latest generation of 100G optical transceiver, the width of only CFP optical transceiver 1/4, package Size and QSFP + optical transceiver package size. The QSFP28 optical transceiver is packaged in a smaller package than the CFP4 optical transceiver, which means that the QSFP28 optical transceiver has a higher port density on the switch. In fact, a total of 36 QSFP28 optical transceivers can be installed on the front panel of a 1RU switch.
- Power Consumption
The power consumption of QSFP28 optical transceiver usually does not exceed 3.5W while that of other 100G optical transceivers is usually between 6W and 24W. From this, QSFP28 optical transceiver consumes much lower power than other 100G optical transceivers.
- Cost
Now the data center is mainly 10G network architecture, the interconnection solutions are mainly 10GBASE-SR optical transceiver and duplex LC multimode fiber jumper, if the existing 10G network architecture based on the direct upgrade to 40 / 100G network Will save a lot of time and cost. Therefore, one of the major interconnection trends in data centers is to upgrade from 10G network to 40 / 100G network without changing the existing duplex multimode infrastructure. In this case, MPO / MTP branch able optical cable is undoubtedly the ideal solution for 10G to 40 / 100G upgrade.
Will QSFP28 Optical Transceiver Change Data Center?
QSFP28 optical transceiver can be used without going through the 40G directly from 25G to 100G. In addition, the four 25Gb / s transmission channels of the QSFP28 optical transceiver also comply with the 100G Ethernet standard. In the 100G optical fiber link consisting of QSFP28 optical transceivers, the 100G uplink is composed of four 25G links, and the network structure of each 25G downlink is exactly the same as that of the 10G network. The transmission capacity of the entire network greatly increased. Therefore, the 10G → 25G → 100G upgrade can greatly simplify the data center cabling system and reduce the cost and cable density of the cabling system compared with the 10G → 40G → 100G upgrade.
Does QSFP28 Completely Replace Other 100G Optical Transceivers?
Although the QSFP28 optical transceiver has many advantages, it is only one of many solutions for a 100G network and is best for specific applications such as data centers and server rooms. Therefore, other 100G optical transceivers will also have a place in the 100G network. For more details about 100G optical transceivers, please visit Infiberone.
