What Are the Advantages of CFP4?

With the continuous upgrade of network from 10G-40G-100G, 40G and 100G optical components are also widely applied in various fields. According to the market demands on high bandwidth, transmission rate/distance, etc, it seems that 100G products are more suitable for the market trend than 40G products. It is believed that 100G products will continuously prevail in the market. In terms of 100G CFP optical transceiver series, Gigalight has three form factors: CFP,CFP2,CFP4.

The 100G CFP optical module, also called as the 100G client module, is a module with hot-pluggable form factor. The CFP series optical modules have experienced the development of CFP, CFP2, CFP4 since the CFP was launched. However, it seems that CFP4 optical module is the most cost-effective solution among them, and is widely praised. Then in this post, there will be an introduction to the advantages of CFP4.

What Is 100G CFP4 Optical Module?

The 100G CFP4 module is developed based on CFP, CFP4. It has the same rate as that of CFP/CFP2 optical module, but the transmission efficiency has been greatly improved. Besides, the power consumption is reduced, and the cost is also lower than that of CFP2. Therefore, CFP4 optical module has an irreplaceable advantage. Next, the advantages of CFP4 optical module will be involved in.

Advantages of CFP4 Optical Transceiver Module

By comparison, CFP4 optical transceiver is with the following outstanding advantages demanded by most of network users:

1. With higher transmission efficiency: the early 100G CFP optical module achieves the 100G transmission rate through 10*10G channels, and the 100G CFP4 optical module now achieves 100G transmission through 4 25G channels, so the transmission efficiency is higher and the stability is stronger.
2. With smaller volume: the volume of the CFP4 optical module is 1/4 of the CFP, which is the smallest optical module in the CFP series light module.
3. With higher integration of modules: the integration of CFP2 is 2 times that of CFP, and the integration of CFP4 is four times that of CFP.
4. With lower power consumption & cost: the transmission efficiency of CFP4 optical module is obviously improved, and the power consumption is decreased and the cost of system is lower than that of CFP2.

These advantages of CFP4 optical modules have attracted wide attention. Simultaneously, due to these merits, CFP4 will be preferred in the fields, such as data centers requiring ultra high bandwidth and core routers.

Summary

It is known to us that 100G is the trend of future network development. With the expansion of the scale of the 100G industry, the cost of the 100G optical module will also be reduced. At the same time, the cost of the whole 100G network deployment will be also reduced. Gigalight believes that the CFP4 series of optical modules bring new solutions for 100G applications and will promote faster development of 100G.

200G&400G: Which One Will Be the Rising Star in the Market after 100G optics?

With the rapid development of optical communication and Internet in recent years, users' demand for the network has also surged, which leads to the rapid growth of Telecom backbone traffic at a speed of 50% to 80% per year. In order to follow the development trend of 10G-40G-100G/10G-25G-100G in the optical communication market, 100G optical module arises with the trend and rises rapidly in the market. It plays a very important role in building 100G network system.

Since the advent of 100G network, the industry alliance institutions such as the IEEE, Multi Source Agreement(MSA) have formulated multiple standards for the 100G optical transceiver.

According to the differences of form factor, 100G optical transceivers can be divided into CFP/CFP2/CFP4, CXP and QSFP28 optics. The detailed parameters are shown as below:

Standard	Connector &Fiber Type	Transmission Distance
100GBASE-SR10	24 fiber MPO, parallel multimode fiber, with 10 transmitting ports and 10 receiving ports,850mn	OM3,100m OM4,150m
100GBASE-SR4	12 fiber MPO, parallel multimode fiber, with 4 transmitting ports and 4 receiving ports,850mn	OM4 100m
100GBASE-LR4	duplex LC, single mode fiber,1310mn,4x25G WDM	10km
100GBASE-ER4	12 fiber MPO, parallel multimode fiber, with 4 transmitting ports and 4 receiving ports,850mn	40km
100G PSM4	12 fiber MPO, parallel single mode fiber, with 4 transmitting ports and 4 receiving ports,1310mn	500m
100G CWDM4	duplex LC, single mode fiber,1271-1331mn,4x25GCWDM	2km
100G SWDM4	Duplex LC, multimode fiber,850-950mn,4x25G SWDM,	OM3,TBO WBMMF,4TBD
100G CLR4	duplex LC, single mode fiber,1271-1331mn,4x25G CWDM	2km

Thereinto, the QSFP28 optical module has the same design concept as the QSFP optical module. It is with four transmitting and receiving ports; the transmission rate of each channel reach up to 28Gbps. In addition, QSFP28 optic fiber transceiver is with these advantages such as small size, power consumption(no more than 3.5W). Currently, mainstream packaging of 100G optical module is paid more attention such as 100G QSFP28 optical module.

At the same time that 100G optical transceivers achieve 100G optical transmission, a series of major technological changes happen, including polarization multiplexing phase modulation technology, the third generation super-strong error correction coding technology of digital coherent receiving technology, etc. On account that these techs adapt to the changes of market trends, they become the mainstream of market.

Meanwhile, the new applications, such as high-definition video 4K, live broadcast, VR etc, promote the fast growth of network traffic. Simultaneously, these emerging applications such as cloud computing, IaaS services, big data, etc, also raise higher requirements for data transmission in the interior of data center. These  promote the continuous development of 100G optical module market.

Although 100G optical module has become the market mainstream, and the requirements for bandwidth, port density, power   consumption of system are continuously improved, which further pushes the development of technology toward the system of 200G/400G/higher rate.

With the continuous revision of 200G/400G standard, the standard of 200G/400G optical module has always been synchronized. At present, there have been manufacturers pushed out module samples for advertisement. In fact, for the next-stage development, the adoption of 200G or 400G has always been the controversial object in the industry. It is believed that the competition among optical transceivers will be more  intense when it is in the commercial phase.

The main type of 400G optical module includes CDFP, CFP8, QSFP-DD and OSFP. CDFP is the earliest type of 400G optical module, which has already been in version 3.0 from 2014 to now. CFP8 is a new member of the CFP family after CFP4, which is with larger size. QSFP-DD is a popular type at present; in addition that its length is slightly longer, it is basically same as QSFP28.

OSFP is a new type of 400G optical module. It is with eight high-speed electrical channels; it still supports 32 OSFP ports in the front panel per 1U, and 12.8Tbps can be available per 1U. With the integrated radiator, the heat dissipation performance can be greatly improved, and the module with 15W power can be realized in the switch chassis with the traditional air flow.

Compared with 100G, the 400G system can further enhance the network capacity on the basis of 100G and reduce the transmission cost per bit. Because in the aspects of 40G/100G products, the four channel parallel architecture are taken as the most cost-effective high bandwidth optical packaging platform. It has been proven that whether 4x50Gx2 architecture or 4X100G architecture will also be most cost-effective in future.

Although the 400G module also supports the application of 200G, and the module type for the 200G application is MicroQSFP.

MicroQSFP is with 4 differential pairs in total; it can support the current 100G application. Compared with 100G QSFP28 optical transceiver, it is smaller in size but its panel density has increased by 33%. Thus, it will dominate in volume and panel density. In addition, it will achieve better cooling effect due to that it is with radiator.

With the rapid development of mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and other technologies, the whole communication industry needs to upgrade the network to a higher level after 10G-40G-100G or 10G-25G-100G. For 200G/400G, which one will be the rising star after 100G? It is still hard to draw the conclusion. However, in terms of the current market situation and technological development, the 400G optical module is with more advantages.


Note: More article resources are at gigalight.com

Do You Know These Advantages of CWDM?

With the development of data communication and telecommunication technology, the intension of MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)is no longer relative to the wide area network. Due to the high bandwidth and data transmission transparency of DWDM(Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) tech, people naturally hope to introduce DWDM as the platform of MAN. However, in the MAN, an optical amplifier is not needed on account of the short transmission distance. If the same DWDM devices as that of WAN(Wide Area Network) are adopted in the MAN, it will not be worth the candle. Thus, DWDM is not seemingly suitable for MAN. While as a simplified version of DWDM technology, CWDM can satisfy the requirements for the practical characteristic of Metropolitan Area Network(Metropolitan Area Network)in short transmission distance without the need of expensive devices such as amplifiers and transceivers. After that, the adoption of CWDM is undoubtedly the best choice to save cost. Then in this article, Gigalight will make an introduction to the advantages of CWDM tech.

What Is the CWDM?

CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing/sparse wavelength division multiplexing), as its name implies, is a close relative of dense wavelength division multiplexing. Because the transmission distance of the metropolitan area network is usually not more than 100km, system has low requirements for the transmission attenuation of the single mode fiber and the fiber amplifier is not also needed. In this way, the bandwidth window of 1200~1700nm can be used and the adjacent wavelength interval is relaxed to 10~20nm, which can also form dozens of wavelength division multiplexing systems. This is the coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) system.

What Are the Advantages of CWDM?

Compared with the application of DWDM communication in the backbone network, CWDM communication increase the multiple light signal wavelength interval multi wavelength technology. It can take advantage of light source without temperature control, as well as build a communication system with low cost. The features and advantages of CWDM are as below:

1. The wide wavelength interval greatly reduces the requirements for the performance of optical devices, such as the corresponding lasers and filters.
2. Laser without cooling function, direct modulation, without wavelength locked.
3. Due to the short transmission distance(within 50KM), there is no need of an amplifier in general conditions.
4. Low cost: CWDM technology makes full use of the feature of metropolitan area network such as short transmission distance; it can be directly applied in the entire optical fiber transmission window of 1310~1560nm,and operates the wavelength division multiplexing based on the wider wavelength interval than DWDM system. On account of wide wavelength interval and short transmission distance, it is unnecessary for CWDM to choose expensive laser, which greatly reduces the cost of laser. Besides, CWDM needn't to utilize complex control techniques to maintain higher system requirements. It just needs to choose low-cost coarse wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer and multi-channel laser receiving/transmitting device as the relay. The reduction to the cost of components and the requirements of system leads to the lower cost in CWDM system than DWDM system. The cost of the CWDM filter is 70% less than that of the DWDM filter. The adoption of new filters and multiplexers/demultiplexers is possible to further reduce costs. The initial design of CWDM is aimed at low-cost wavelength division multiplexing tech, so that the advantage of CWDM in cost is the highlight of this tech.
5. Low Power Consumption: the operating cost of an optical transmission system depends on the maintenance and the power consumption of the system. In this respect, the power consumption of the CWDM system is much lower than that of DWDM system. For example, a DWDM laser with a cooler and control circuit needs to consume about 4W power per wavelength; while the CWDM laser without a cooler consumes only 0.5W power. The four waves of CWDM optical transmission system consumes about 10~15W power, while the power consumption of DWDM system similar to it is up to 30W. In the DWDM system, with the increases in the total number of multiplexed wavelength and single channel transmission rate, the power consumption and temperature management becomes a key problem in circuit board design.
6. Small Size: a CWDM laser is much smaller than a DWDM laser. CWDM uses a laser without cooler; the laser is usually composed of a laser sheet and a monitoring photodiode sealed in a metal container with a glass window. The size of the DWDM laser transmitter is about five times the size of the CWDM laser transmitter. In addition to the above six aspects, CWDM has more obvious advantages in security, network flexibility and etc.
7. Flexible Service Interface: the CWDM system is mainly used in the metropolitan area network; it provides multi-service transparent transmission. It is flexible in the client-side service interface, and can support the following services:

• SDH services: support the SDH service of the STM-x (x=1, 4 and 16) based on ITU-T G.707; Ethernet services: support 10M/100M and Gigabit Ethernet services;
• ATM services: support ATM services of STM-x (x=1, 4 and 16) based on ITU-T G.707 standard;
• other services possible to be widely applied in the future, such as Fiber Channel, ESCON, FICON, DigitalVideo, 10GE and so on); PDH service of 8/34/140Mb/s.

Summary

With various advantages, CWDM tech is naturally in great favor by many manufacturers and suppliers in the optical communication industry. It is believed that CWDM will be with more advantages with the future development of techs. In addition, Gigalight, as the professional supplier of optical components, has pushed out a series of CWDM products to follow the market’ trend, in which QSFP28 CWDM4 optical transceiver is the hottest one. More details are at gigalight.com

What Does 5G Mean for Optical Communication Industry: Opportunities or Challenges?

With the wave of digital transformation, communication technology has become an important driving force for the transformation and upgrading of all walks of life in the national economy. After that 5G is the future of the communication industry. However, what does 5G mean for optical communication industry: opportunities or challenges?

Undoubtedly, 5G surely promotes the development of optical industry. At the process of promotion, what it brings for optical communication industry is not only opportunities but also challenges. On the one hand, for optic fiber, optical module, optical access network, etc, 5G means the opportunity on account that they will benefit from the construction of 5G. While on the other hand, if wanting to achieve real implementation and large-scale application of optical fiber communication in 5G, we still need innovate in the tech and breakthrough in the economical level. Therefore, in some sense, it means the challenge. In the next contents, opportunities and challenges will be respectively introduced in detail.

The Opportunities 5G Brings for Optical Communication

Generally speaking, there exit three beneficiaries with the appearance of 5G in optical interconnection industry.

For one thing, in the optical communication industry, optic fiber is the first beneficiary in the construction of 5G. The frequency band of 5G is high, and the number of base stations possibly 2-3 times that of 4G. According to the requirement of full coverage, it is estimated by Fiber Broadband Association that the amount of optic fiber used in 5G will be 16 times more than 4G. Out of consideration for the coverage density of 4G base stations which is high in China and for the distance between urban areas is only hundreds of meters, it is estimated that the amount of 5G fiber will be 2-3 times that of 4G.

For another thing, The optical module is the second beneficiary. Assuming that the amount of 5G base station is 2-3 times that of 4G, when considering the inhaul/backhaul module, it is expected to bring tens millions of 25/50GHz high-speed module consumption. The flat structure of 5G will bring huge capacity and cost pressure to the system.

Finally, the high-speed optical access network and optical component are the third beneficiary. The 5G architecture allows backhaul/inhaul/fronthaul capacity to expand dozens of times, reaching tens or hundreds of Gbps. It is necessary to introduce CWDM/WDM based on 25G/50G to raise the requirements of cost performance for tunable laser, tunable filter and CWDM/WDM device. Simultaneously, the demands on TWDMPON system, eCPRI system, and ROADM system are possibly increased. 5G's demands for transport network and IP network will be increased. and the demands of flexible routing on OTN/WDM and IP network will also be increased. Besides, some new routing function, such as SR, will be introduced with the trend.

The Challenges 5G Brings for Optical Communication

In the 5G era, the number of base stations will increase greatly. A large number of base stations need fiber optic interconnection, which brings new challenges to optical communication when it brings new opportunities. In the process of 5G development, the optical communication industry faces the challenge in the technology, fronthaul/backhaul capacity, and cost. The existing SAW/BAW/FBAR filters are difficult to be used in high frequency devices. The optical devices are the bottleneck of the fronthaul cost, especially the tunable lasers.

Summary

Currently, the peak period of investment on 4G has passed. 5G has become a hot topic and new breakthrough of development in communication industry; meanwhile, 5G is an important national strategy. It is an important factor to stimulate economic investment, leading scientific and technological innovation, realize industrial upgrading, promote economic prosperity. However, the expectations for 5G should be appropriate and timely. The collision of interests between manufacturers and other operators of devices and optical components generates excessive and premature expectations, making little of the inherent logic and the rule of market, technology and economy.

Why to Deploy 100G and What Are the Challenges?

With the acceleration and popularization of high-definition video, online games, cloud computing and Internet of things, the era of big data, network bandwidth will usher in unprecedented challenges. The pressure of these high bandwidth businesses on the network is particularly evident on the backbone network. The 10G/40G technology commonly used in the current network has been unable to meet the needs. After that, the 100G network is imperative.

Currently, various key joint operators in China have successively deployed 100G system in a large scale. The test demands of 100G has also been transferred from laboratory to the existing network, which also raises higher requirements for test manufacturers. Therefore, what challenges will 100G test face when 100G comes to the scale business? Is the test vendor ready for this? Then in this article, Gigalight(gigalight.com) will have an analysis on why to deploy 100G and what the challenges are.

Why Is 100G Needed?

In 2012, 100G network has been widely deployed in some areas of Europe and the United States, ushering in the first year of 100G for commercial use. In 2013, as China Mobile announced the plan about the large-scale central purchasing of 100G OTN , the commercial application of 100G was raised to a higher level. The 100G market is about to usher in a golden period.

In a comprehensive view, the driving force of 100G market mainly comes from five aspects:

• the rapid increase of IP flow;
• 100G can reduce the cost per bit.
• 100G can provide new revenue opportunities.
• 100G is beneficial for operators to use the existing fiber and to improve the rate of return on investment.
• 100G can reduce the time delay of the network.

Eitenne Gagnon, the vice president of EXFO physical layer and wireless product business, thinks, "in the later years, the main driving forces to promote the overall commercial use of 100G also emerge from 4 levels, including mobile backhaul, 4G/LTE, FTTH/VDSL2 and 40G/100G network upgrade.

The Challenges of Deploying 100G

It is known that the most essential difference between 100G and traditional optical communication is the utilization of coherent detection technology on the line side. At the same time, the standard group, OIF, defines that the 100G modulation technology adopts the unified DP-QPSK. Compared with 40G, the unified modulation mode provides an opportunity for 100G line interface to achieve standardization, and the DP-QPSK signal also becomes more complex. Based on the above characteristics, the test of 100G is also facing many challenges. For example, how to evaluate the signal quality of 100G system before deployment, and how to maintain the 100G system after deployment.

Since the 100G network has entered into the large-scale deployment stage, the new demands to the 100G test have been put forward. Communication experts pointed out that test instrumentation previously used by 100G is used in the laboratory, which may be relatively large in volume; while on the existing 100G network, we need to provide portable 100G test instruments that are more suitable for operators to use on the spot and support multi-service testing. Meanwhile, operators need a test solution to establish, verify and diagnose 100G networks.

In addition, Eitenne Gagnon said, "the biggest challenge for 100G testing is in the physical layer, especially the part of the CFP."

Summary

Although 100G network is faced with a series of challenges, and it is a fact that 100G network has been the development trend in nowadays’ networks. It is believed that these challenges will be overcome with the advancement of techs. Furthermore, if you are interested in solutions for 100G network, gigalight is here for you.