The explosive data traffic which is driven by IP video and "cloud computing” demands for optimized solutions in data centers. Such solutions taken for higher speed data rates (say 100Gbit/s) are based on advanced transceiver technologies which are engineered to make use of the full bandwidth of fibers. These advances lower costs, increase efficiency, and make 100G applicable to a wider variety of carrier and data center applications. Nowadays, as 100Gbps transmission is becoming accessible, 100G optics hit the headline the time when they are brought to the market. Just similar to 10G interconnect solutions, there are also a set of different optical transceivers that are designed for 100G transmission, like CXP, CFP, CPAK, and QSFP28. This article mainly talks about the pluggable form-factor CFP and its later generations: CFP2, and CFP4.

When the IEEE 802.3ba committee ratified the 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard, along with the general specification, and defined a number of fiber optic interfaces, the transceiver industry launched an alphabet soup of form factors. The CFP emerged first, "C" for 100, and FP for "Form factor, Pluggable”. Like the early versions of 10G transceivers, CFP optical transceiver form factor is huge, supporting data rates of 40 and 100Gbps. Aimed primarily at 40- and 100GbE applications, the CFP supports both single-mode fiber (SMF) and multi-mode fiber (MMF) and can accommodate a host of data rates, protocols, and link lengths.

The CFP multisource agreement (MSA) was formally launched at OFC/NFOEC 2009 in March by founding members Finisar, Opnext, and Sumitomo/ExceLight (now known as Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations USA following the merger of ExceLight and Eudyna Devices USA Inc..These founding members actually began meeting when the IEEE 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) was only focused on developing a standard for 100GbE. When that activity was expanded to include 40GbE in July 2007, the CFP MSA followed suit.

CFP form factor, as mentioned above, supports both SMF and MMF, as well as a variety of data rates, protocols, and link lengths, including all the physical media-dependent (PMD) interfaces encompassed in the IEEE 802.3ba Task Force, which was ratified in 2010. At 40GbE, target optical interfaces include the 40GBase-SR4 for 100 m and the 40GBase-LR4 for 10km. There are three PMDs for 100GbE: 100GBASE-SR10 for 100m, 100GBASE-LR4 for 10km (ie. CFP-100G-LR4), and 100GBASE-ER4 for 40km.

CFP form-factor enjoys several features which enable it to support a wide range of distances as well as various power dissipation. Firstly, its size is suitable for longer-reach interfaces and single-mode fiber applications. Technically, the CFP works with MMF for short-reach applications, but practically it is not really optimized in size for MMF market judging from its size, most notably because the MMF market requires high faceplatae density.

Secondly, the form factor includes a two-piece electrical connector. The connector itself features two rows, enabling improved density in its overall footprint.

The last point is that CFP is known as the riding heat sink, in which the heat sink is attached to rails on the host card and "rides" on top of the CFP, which is flat topped. The heat sink can be included or omitted depending on the thermal requirements of the host system. When included, the heat sink presses down on the module, providing a good conductive surface that is also low friction, making it very easy for the operator to insert the module into the host board.

CFP2, a new form factor specified by the CFP MSA, is also a hot-pluggable transceiver module that supports the IEEE 100GbE. Compared to the existing CFP, CFP2 is half the size of the CFP (image below) and consumes half the power. Besides, CFP2 doubles the front panel port density owing to integration of optics and ICs, and increase in electrical I/O rate from 10G to 25G.

CFP4 specifications document became available announced by MSA members in 2014. CFP4 enjoys the same features as CFP2 except that the CFP4 has a smaller size than CFP2. In addition, CFP4 quadruples front panel port density.

Pluggable CFP, CFP2 and CFP4 optical transceivers support the ultra-high bandwidth requirements of data communications and telecommunication networks that form the backbone of the Internet. CFP is widely available in the market, especially with the development of 100GbE in recent years. However, CFP2 and CFP4, due to the high cost of research and development, are still not so much widely available in the market.

100G CFP, CPF2 and CPF4 transceivers accelerate the data flow throughout your data centers, delivering significant reductions in power consumption. Fiberstore has a complete suite of 100G CFP transceivers (Cisco CFP-100G-LR4 mentioned above) for your 40G and 100G upgrading from 10G networks. Want to know more information about CFP optical transceivers and other 100G optics, you can visit Fiberstore.

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