At present, 100G optical transceivers on the market mainly include: CXP optical transceiver, CFP optical transceiver, CFP2 optical transceiver, CFP4 optical transceiver and QSFP28 optical transceiver. Here we are going to introduce you the several main types of 100G optical transceivers. How much do you know about 100G optical transceivers? The post may give you an answer.

1. How Much Do You Know about 100G Optical Transceivers?
In recent years, with the rapid growth of users' demand for transmission links of 40G and 100G
optical transceivers, cloud computing, mobile broadband and IPTV users have also increasingly
requested bandwidth. 40G links have been deployed for several years now and 40G optical
transceivers are ubiquitous in the data center. In the past two years, 100G optical transceivers
have been rapidly developed in the Data Center market due to the development of optical
industry centered on "100G network deployment." At present, 100G optical transceivers on the
market mainly include: CXP optical transceiver, CFP optical transceiver, CFP2 optical transceiver,
CFP4 optical transceiver and QSFP28 optical transceiver. Here we are going to introduce you the
several main types of 100G optical transceivers. How much do you know about 100G optical
transceivers? The post may give you an answer.
1. CXP Optical Transceiver
CXP optical transceiver transmission rate is up to 12 × 10Gbps and supports hot swappable. "C"
stands for 12 in hexadecimal, Roman "X" stands for 10 Gbps for each channel, and "P" for a hot
pluggable pluggable. The CXP optical transceivers are targeted at the high-speed computer
market and complement the CFP optical transceivers in Ethernet data centers. Technically, CFP
optical transceivers and multimode fiber are both used for short-distance data transmission.
Since multimode fiber markets require high-density panels, their dimensions have not been truly
optimized in the multimode fiber market.
CXP optical transceiver is 45 mm long and 27 mm wide. It has a larger size than XFP optical
transceiver or CFP optical transceiver and therefore it provides a higher density network interface.
In addition, CXP optical transceiver is a copper connector system designated by the Wireless
Broadband Trade Association that supports 12 ports for 100 GbE, 3 10G link for 40 GbE or 12
10GbE Fiber Channel or 12 × QDR link transmission of wireless broadband signals.

2. 2. CFP / CFP2 / CFP4 Optical Transceiver
The CFP Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) defines the requirements for hot-pluggable optical
transceivers that are used for 40G and 100G network transmission, including next-generation
high-speed Ethernet (40GbE and 100GbE). CFP optical transceiver supports transmission on a
single-mode and multi-mode fiber at a variety of rates, protocols, and link lengths, including all
the physical media dependent (PMD) interfaces in the IEEE 802.3ba standard. 100G network has
three PMDs: CFP 100GBASE-SR10 can transmit 100m, CFP 100GBASE-LR4 can transmit 10km, CFP
100GBASE-ER4 can transmit 40km.
CFP optical transceiver is based on the Small Form Factor Pluggable Optical transceiver (SFP)
interface and is larger in size to support 100Gbps data transmission. The electrical interface for
the CFP optical transceiver uses 10 x 10 Gbps channels for transmission in each direction (RX, TX)
and therefore supports 10 x 10 Gbps and 4 x 25 Gbps interworking. CFP optical transceiver can
support a single 100G signal, OTU4, one or more 40G signals, OTU3 or STM-256 / OC-768.
Although CFP optical transceiver can achieve 100G data applications, but its large size can no
longer meet the needs of high-density data center. In this case, the CFP-MSA committee defines
two other forms: CFP2 and CFP4 optical transceivers. The figure below shows the size comparison
of CFP, CFP2 and CFP4 optical transceivers:
3. QSFP28 Optical Transceiver
Similarly, as a small size 100G optical transceiver, QSFP28 optical transceiver is also receiving
more and more attention. As its name implies, the QSFP28 optical transceiver has the same
design philosophy as the QSFP optical transceiver. The first generation QSFP optical transceiver
has four Tx and Rx ports with a rate of 10 Gbps per channel. For QSFP28 optical transceivers,
QSFP optical transceivers can send and receive up to 28 Gbps of data per channel. Compared
with CFP4 optical transceiver, QSFP28 optical transceiver size is smaller than CFP4 optical
transceiver only. Although the QSFP28 optical transceiver offers a density advantage over the
CFP4 optical transceiver, the higher maximum power consumption of the CFP4 optical transceiver
gives it an advantage over longer distances for optical transmission. There are many kinds of
100G QSFP28 optical transceivers in the market, among them; QSFP28 CWDM4 and QSFP28
PSM4 are the latest most popular optical transceiver modules that are widely used for Data
Center.
4. CPAK Optical Transceiver
There is another 100G optical transceiver called CPAK on the market. The CPAK optical
transceiver is the new module type popular this year. The appearance is similar to the Cisco
optical transceiver, but the interface uses the IEEE standard and supports compatibility with
other interfaces.
100G optical transceivers are available in a wide range of options. In addition, 100G AOC (Active

3. Optical Cable) will also be introduced to the market for short-distance interconnection and 100G
migration applications, which will challenge 100G optical transceivers. At the same time, with the
rapid development of technology, 100G optical transceivers will become more cost-effective, and
100G network applications will be getting closer and closer to us. For more details about 100G
optical transceivers, please contact us.