The Increasement of 100G Will Drive the Development of 400G

The widespread deployment of 100G Ethernet in data centers and networks is driving the demand for 400G solutions and providing a source of funding for 400G device developments. Those suppliers who have successfully developed competing 100G optical modules and components are expanding 100G while developing lower-cost 100G solutions and introducing 25G, 50G, 200G, 400G and 600G products.

The first 100G Ethernet solution was launched in 2010. Since then, 100G shipments have been slow to grow due to the costly optical module and demand constraints. By 2016, the introduction of 100G QSFP28 will significantly reduce the cost of 100G ports and the migration of the super-large data center to the cloud service has brought huge demand.

As a result, 2017 has been proved to be a "Hockey-stick Effect" year of 100G Ethernet and optical module suppliers are struggling to meet market demand. At this stage, the focus of optical modules and device suppliers is to increase 100G capacity and reduce costs to "cash in" from this wave of demand. The ways to reduce costs include innovative module packaging, silicon photonics, smaller form factor modules such as SFP-DD, and fewer channels / wavelengths.

The first 400G optical module for data centers and enterprises is CFP8 form factor and is being commercialized. The next generation will use QSFP-DD or OSFP. The 100G optical transceivers using DP-QPSK coherent receivers have been widely used in data center interconnection, MAN and Toll networks. The enhanced DSP can now achieve 200G with 16QAM modulation, while the next generation can support 400G and 600G with 64QAM modulation. These developments are critical to meeting the bandwidth needs of the data center.

Currently, nearly 30 suppliers offer QSFP28 modules and active optical cable for 100G data centers and enterprise applications. Many suppliers have also introduced SFP28 modules that support 25G Ethernet to server. Some vendors offer 100G CFP/CFP2/CFP4 and CXP modules. The largest shipments of QSFP28 optical modules are QSFP28 PSM4 and QSFP28 CWDM4 for very large data centers and other applications. The first 200G optical module introduced by manufacturers is QSFP56 and PAM4 coded, or QSFP-DD form factor and two 100G ports.

Data Center interconnection, MAN and long haul systems use DSPs integrated into line card modules or pluggable CFP-DCO modules. Most leading telecom system manufacturers have their own DSP designs. Several companies use DSPs integrated on the line card and pluggable CFP2-ACO modules that contain only analog and optical components. This is a key innovation area for vendors developing next-generation 400 / 600G DSP designs, 200G CFP2-DCO modules and 400G modules. OIF is working on a 400-120-km 400ZR interface standard and Ciena licenses three 400-G-coherent DSP chips to three optical module companies (Lumentum, NeoPhotonics and Oclaro).

Coherent transceivers DSP and Gearbox components, PAM4 PHY and CDR components, optical driver / receiver arrays, and packet optical transport platform components are the key to building these optical modules and line cards. Currently, the latest generation of devices uses 16nm CMOS technology, the next generation of DSP is expected to use 7nm technology. The PAM4 PHY and 50G CDRs enable dual wavelength 100G and four wavelength 200G solutions. Next-generation components will support single-wavelength 100G.

The demand for 100G in the data center and other application markets is very strong. As the cost of modules drops and the production capacity gradually increases to meet the demand, the 100G optical module market in 2018 will be highly competitive. At present, the first solution of 200G and 400G is already available. The industry is currently working to reduce 100G costs by developing higher density 400G and 800G and 1.6Tbit / s solutions. All methods are using advanced coding and modulation methods, especially PAM4 for data centers and enterprises, as well as 16 / 64QAM for Data Center interconnection, MAN and Toll networks. These developments require substantial investment by suppliers, which may lead to further consolidation in the industry.

What Is the Impact of 5G on Optical Communication

Since Ovum released its latest 5G subscriber forecast in December 2016, two major changes have taken place in the 5G market. First and foremost, in March of this year, 3GPP announced the acceleration of the development of some 5G standards to make it possible to standardize on commercial 5G deployments by 2019, one year ahead of the previous deployment schedule. In addition, with the acceleration of the 5G standard set-up, T-Mobile US, one of the major carriers, announced for the first time a nationwide 5G network deployment and the United States will be one of the largest in the world.

At present, 5G is in the crucial stage of the formation of technical standards. Major countries and operators in the world have started the 5G test in succession and successively issued strategic plans to carry out industrial layout and seize strategic high ground. China is also actively promoting the 5G technology research and industrialization, 5G technology research and development testing, international standardization support continue to make new progress. Recently, more than three major operators 5G infrastructure, total spending within seven years will reach 180 billion U.S. dollars heavy news came out, the 5G topic to an unprecedented peak.

As we all know, the future of 5G depends on small base stations. When the coverage of base stations is getting smaller and smaller, the number of base stations will increase exponentially. Taking the example of 3.5GHz, the number of base stations of 3.5GHz is more than the number of base stations of 800MHz and 1.8GHz Doubles. If it is planned more than 6GHz, the number of base stations will be more. If it is planned to 26GHz above, it does not know it will reach how many times. Therefore, a substantial increase in the number of base stations is an inevitable result, and the interconnection between base stations requires a lot of fiber. It is reported that at present, the number of base stations in China has reached more than 5 million, while the future development of 5G, conservative forecasts will reach 10 million or more, if the high-band, or even more.

Obviously, optical communication and 5G have met by chance. Accordingly, what is the impact of 5G on optical communications? The opportunities that 5G brings to optical communication are mainly including three parts: optical fibers, optical transceivers and optical network.

1. First, optical fiber is the first beneficiary. 5G band is high and the number of base stations may be 2-3 times. If following the full coverage requirements, according to Fiber Broadband Association estimates, 5G fiber usage will be 16 times more than 4G. Consider China's 4G base station density is very high, the urban area only a few hundred meters spacing, it is estimated that the amount of 5G fiber is 4G 2-3 times.

2. Second, optical transceiver module is the second beneficiary. Assuming that the 5G base station is 2-3 times as much as 4G, considering the medium / backhaul module, it is expected to bring tens of millions of 25GHz high-speed optical module usage. 5G flat architecture to the traditional huge capacity and cost pressures, which requires a large number of optical transceivers to support.

3. Moreover, high-speed optical access network systems and optical devices are the third beneficiaries. The 5G architecture enables several decades of backhaul / midamble / preamble capacity up to tens of hundreds of Gbps levels and requires the introduction of 25G / 50G based CWDM or WDM for tunable lasers, tunable filters and CWDM / WDM devices High cost performance requirements; for TWDM PON systems, the demand for eCPRI and even edge ROADM systems is likely to increase significantly.

To sum up, we are currently at the pinnacle of opportunities and challenges in the 5G era. As the leading optical communications industry and optical component manufacturer in the 5G era, Gigalight has been closely following the market and moving ahead of 2016 in preparation for the beginning of 5G optical device product lines. At present, Gigalight owns a complete line of professional optical modules and other products. In particular, a large number of high-speed new products are launched in last year: 100G QSFP28 CWDM4, 100G QSFP28 PSM4, and 200G QSFP DD SR8. For

What Is the Impact of 5G on Optical Communication

Since Ovum released its latest 5G subscriber forecast in December 2016, two major changes have taken place in the 5G market. First and foremost, in March of this year, 3GPP announced the acceleration of the development of some 5G standards to make it possible to standardize on commercial 5G deployments by 2019, one year ahead of the previous deployment schedule. In addition, with the acceleration of the 5G standard set-up, T-Mobile US, one of the major carriers, announced for the first time a nationwide 5G network deployment and the United States will be one of the largest in the world.

At present, 5G is in the crucial stage of the formation of technical standards. Major countries and operators in the world have started the 5G test in succession and successively issued strategic plans to carry out industrial layout and seize strategic high ground. China is also actively promoting the 5G technology research and industrialization, 5G technology research and development testing, international standardization support continue to make new progress. Recently, more than three major operators 5G infrastructure, total spending within seven years will reach 180 billion U.S. dollars heavy news came out, the 5G topic to an unprecedented peak.

As we all know, the future of 5G depends on small base stations. When the coverage of base stations is getting smaller and smaller, the number of base stations will increase exponentially. Taking the example of 3.5GHz, the number of base stations of 3.5GHz is more than the number of base stations of 800MHz and 1.8GHz Doubles. If it is planned more than 6GHz, the number of base stations will be more. If it is planned to 26GHz above, it does not know it will reach how many times. Therefore, a substantial increase in the number of base stations is an inevitable result, and the interconnection between base stations requires a lot of fiber. It is reported that at present, the number of base stations in China has reached more than 5 million, while the future development of 5G, conservative forecasts will reach 10 million or more, if the high-band, or even more.

Obviously, optical communication and 5G have met by chance. Accordingly, what is the impact of 5G on optical communications? The opportunities that 5G brings to optical communication are mainly including three parts: optical fibers, optical transceivers and optical network.

1. First, optical fiber is the first beneficiary. 5G band is high and the number of base stations may be 2-3 times. If following the full coverage requirements, according to Fiber Broadband Association estimates, 5G fiber usage will be 16 times more than 4G. Consider China's 4G base station density is very high, the urban area only a few hundred meters spacing, it is estimated that the amount of 5G fiber is 4G 2-3 times.

2. Second, optical transceiver module is the second beneficiary. Assuming that the 5G base station is 2-3 times as much as 4G, considering the medium / backhaul module, it is expected to bring tens of millions of 25GHz high-speed optical module usage. 5G flat architecture to the traditional huge capacity and cost pressures, which requires a large number of optical transceivers to support.

3. Moreover, high-speed optical access network systems and optical devices are the third beneficiaries. The 5G architecture enables several decades of backhaul / midamble / preamble capacity up to tens of hundreds of Gbps levels and requires the introduction of 25G / 50G based CWDM or WDM for tunable lasers, tunable filters and CWDM / WDM devices High cost performance requirements; for TWDM PON systems, the demand for eCPRI and even edge ROADM systems is likely to increase significantly.

To sum up, we are currently at the pinnacle of opportunities and challenges in the 5G era. As the leading optical communications industry and optical component manufacturer in the 5G era, Gigalight has been closely following the market and moving ahead of 2016 in preparation for the beginning of 5G optical device product lines. At present, Gigalight owns a complete line of professional optical modules and other products. In particular, a large number of high-speed new products are launched in last year: 100G QSFP28 CWDM4, 100G QSFP28 PSM4, and 200G QSFP DD SR8. For

QSFP28 Optical Transceiver Is a More Ideal Solution for 100G Optical Network?

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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. 

Types and Standards of 100G Optical Transceivers

As people demand higher and higher bandwidth, 100G networks has been developed rapidly. 100G optical module is an important part of 100G network. Now, there are several important standards and types of 100G optical transceivers. This post will introduce the related knowledge of 100G optical module in detail.

Types of 100G Optical Transceivers

The form factors of 100G optical transceivers mainly include: CFP, CFP2, CFP4 and QSFP28. To compare their advantages, the main factor to consider is the data center costs and power consumption.

CFP optical transceiver supports all C-band wavelengths tunable. It is able to complete the link detection by using a common optical dual binary modulation format ODB. The power consumption is less than 24W.

The volume of CFP2 optical module is one-half the CFP, whose integration is 2 times of CFP. It can complete the wide dynamic input range based on SOA to achieve stable admission sensitivity. It supports a full CFP optical module and its low power consumption is lower than 9W.

The volume of CFP4 optical transceiver is one-half the CFP2’s, its integration is twice that of CFP2. The front panel port density is also doubled compared with CFP2. CFP4 optical module MSA protocol supports the same rate of CFP2 and CFP2s. The transmission power has increased significantly, but the power consumption has dropped significantly, only about half of the original, the system cost is lower than the CFP2. In addition, CFP4 optical module select 4 * 25 form, through the 425G channel to complete 100G transmission, higher transmission power, more stable.

QSFP28 optical transceiver module form factor style is smaller than the CFP4 optical module. QSFP28 optical module power consumption is generally not more than 3.5W; the use of QSFP28 optical module can directly upgrade through the 40G to 100G, the cost is lower. There are all kinds of 100G QSFP28 optical transceivers in the market, like QSFP28 100GBASE-CWDM4, QSFP28 100GBASE-PSM4, QSFP28 100GBASE-SR4, and QSFP28 100GBASE-LR4, etc.

What Is the 100G Optical Transceiver Standard

Since the coming of 100G networks, IEEE, Multi-SAource Agreement (MSA) industry alliances and other agencies have formulated a number of standards for 100G optical modules. Among the many standards, the PSM4 and CWDM4 standards are developed by the Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) industry group, which are more suitable for the mainstream 100G QSFP28 optical modules on the market today. The following table is the specific circumstances of some common 100G optical transceiver standard:

Standard	Group	Connector and Fiber	Cabling Reach
100GBASE-SR10	IEEE	24f MPO, pinned parallel MMF, 10-fiber Tx, 10-fiber Rx 850 nm	100 meters on OM3150 meters on OM4
100GBASE-SR4	IEEE	12f MPO, pinned parallel MMF, 4-fiber Tx, 4-fiber Rx 850 nm	100 meters on OM4
100GBASE-LR4	IEEE	LC receptacles duplex (2) SMF, 1310 nm, 4λx25G WDM	10 kilometers on SMF
100GBASE-ER4	IEEE	12f MPO, pinned parallel MMF, 4-fiber Tx, 4-fiber Rx 850 nm	40 kilometers on SMF
100G PSM4	100G PSM4 MSA	12f MPO, pinned parallel SMF, 4-fiber Tx, 4-fiber Rx 1310 nm	500 meters on SMF
100G CWDM4	CWDM4 MSA	LC receptacles duplex (2) SMF, 1271–1331 nm, 4λx25G CWDM	2 kilometers on SMF
100G SWDM4	SWDM Alliance(preproduction)	LC, receptacles duplex (2) MMF, 850–950 nm, 4λx25G SWDM	TBD on OM3/4TBD on WBMMF
100G CLR4	100G CLR4 Alliance	LC receptacles duplex (2) SMF, 1271–1331 nm, 4λx25G CWDM	2 kilometers on SMF

Note:

The 100G PSM4 standard is introduced primarily to reduce the cost of expensive 100GBASE-LR4 optical modules. The 100G PSM4 optical transceiver is a single-mode, parallel, four-channel optical module designed for applications in the data center of 500 meters.

The 100G CWDM4 standard is mainly formulated for the deployment of a 2km 100G link in a data center. The interface of a 100G CWDM4 optical transceiver conforms to the 2km 100G optical interface specification of duplex single mode optical fiber, and the transmission distance can reach 2km.