Category: Fiber Transceivers

Optical transceivers, Active Optic Cables, data center switches, and cable management in data centers.

The role of XFP transceivers

Popular explanation:

Assuming there is an Internet cafes from the operator (such as telecommunications) where the rent 10M bandwidth, then they will pull the cable from the telecommunications room to your Internet cafes, and then connected to the XFP transceiver, the other end of the transceiver cable, respectively Access to the data room and your Internet cafes switches or routers, and you can then switch through the switch network cable to the various machines. That is a long extension of the network cable equipment, the general single-mode 20KM, 25KM, 40KM, 60KM above is generally not a lot of long-distance demand is generally not a lot. Now more popular with the more popular is 10 / 100M, 1000M also have, but the use of the occasion is not a lot. Multi-mode is now basically rarely used, and now the cost of single-mode cable and multi-mode than the expensive, and multi-mode general distance of 2 km or less. Transceiver also sub-power built-in, external, optical sub-single, double fiber, as well as centralized and single-type, in short, according to customer needs and occasions to choose. Now the product quality on the market varies greatly, very confusing.

Terminology Explanation:

The XFP transceiver is an Ethernet transmission media conversion unit that switches short-range twisted-pair electrical signals and long-distance optical signals, and is known in many places as photoelectric converters. The product is generally used in the actual network environment where the Ethernet cable can not be covered and must be used to extend the transmission distance, and is usually located in the access layer application of the optical fiber broadband metro network; while helping to connect the last mile of the fiber to the city The network and the outer network also played a huge role.

Standards for 10Gb Ethernet

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 working group has published several standards relating to 10GbE (10Gb ETHERNET) in the last few years, now let us learn about these standards.
§ 802.3ae-2002  –  ETHERNET over Fiber  ( 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LR, 10GBASE-ER,10GBASE-SW, 10GBASE-LW, 10GBASE-EW and -LX4 PMDs )
§ 802.3ak-2004   – 10GBASE-CX4 COPPER TWIN-AX
§ 802.3an-2006   – 10GBASE-T- COPPER TWISTED PAIR
§ 802.3aq-2006 – 10GBASE-LRM 10 Gbit/s (1,250 MB/s) Ethernet over multimode fiber
§ 802.3ap-2007   – COPPER BACKPLANE –KR  AND KX4 PMDs
In order to support different 10GbE physical layer standards, many interfaces consist of a standard socket into which different PHY modules may be plugged. 10GbE has four defined transceiver types. These four types are:
§ XENPAK: The first MSA for 10GE and it had the largest form factor, they are used mainly in LAN switches.
§ XPAK: The later MSA with smaller form factors than XENPAK, they are used primarily in Network Interface Cards (NIC) and Host Bus Adapter (HBA) markets for use in Servers and NAS devices
§ X2: Later than XPAK MSA and with a much smaller form factors, they are also used mainly in LAN switches like XENPAK.
§ XFP: Came after X2 and it is smaller than X2
§ SFP+: The enhanced small form-factor pluggable transceiver, it is generally called SFP+ transceiver. Based on the SFP transceiver, it is smaller and utilizes lower power than XFP transceiver.It increases the capacity of port density and became a good alternative for XFP.
SFP+ transceivers have a common physical form factor with legacy SFP transceivers and allowing higher port density than XFP transceiver and the re-use of existing designs. To meet the growing market demand, SFP+ transceiver has become the most popular socket on 10GbE systems. One of the differences between XFP and SFP+ is that the SFP+ transceivers only does optical to electrical conversion, it doesn’t do any clock or data recovery like XFP transceiver.
SFP+ Transceivers are commonly available in below categories:
§ 10GBASE-SR: “Short Reach”,Multi-Mode Fiber
§ 10GBASE-LR : “Long Reach”,Single-Mode Fiber
§ 10GBASE-LRM: “Long Reach”,Multi-Mode Fiber
§ 10GBASE-ER: “Extended reach”,Single-Mode Fiber
§ 10GBASE-ZR: “Non-standardExtended reach”,Single-Mode Fiber

The difference between a fiber optic transceiver and an optical transceiver

The role of fiber optic transceivers photoelectric conversion, do not change the code, not for other data processing, the transceiver is for Ethernet, run 802.3 protocol, only for point-to-point connection. You can achieve 0-120Km between the two switches or the connection between the computer, but the practical application has more expansion.
1, to achieve the interconnection between switches.
2, to achieve the exchange between the switch and the computer.
3, to achieve the interconnection between computers.
4, transmission relay: When the actual transmission distance exceeds the nominal transmission distance of the transceiver, especially when the actual transmission distance of more than 120Km, in the case of field conditions permit, the use of two transceivers back to back relay or use light – Optical converter for relaying, is a very cost-effective solution.
5, single multi-mode conversion: When the network needs a single multi-mode fiber connection, you can use a multi-mode transceiver and a single-mode transceiver back-to-back connection to solve the single multi-mode fiber conversion problem.
6, wavelength division multiplexing transmission: When the long-distance cable resources, in order to improve the use of cable, reduce the cost, the transceiver and WDM can be used in conjunction with the two information on the same fiber transmission.
Optical, in addition to the work of photoelectric conversion, but also on the data signal reuse and demultiplexing. Usually the optical machine is out of the many E1 lines. SDH, PDH optical transceiver is mainly used for telecom operators, to provide many pairs of point to the point of the data circuit; video Guangduan Ji mainly for security monitoring, distance education, video conferencing and other video transmission requirements of relatively high real-time areas, and can Transmission control, switch, voice, Ethernet and other signals to meet the needs of multi-service applications, so we sometimes call it Integrated Optical
What is 100G CFP?
With the continuous development of 5G communication technology, 100G modules are gradually becoming popular. We know that there are many kinds of packages for 100G optical modules. From 2000 to now, the optical module package types have been rapidly developed. Its main package types are: GBIC, SFP, XENPAK, SNAP12, X2, XFP, SFP+, QSFP/QSFP+, CFP, CXP. In the fast-developing network era, some 100G optical modules avoid the risk of being eliminated, and upgraded and revised with the wave of the Internet, such as 100G CFP optical modules.
What is CWDM SFP? Which areas does it mainly apply to?
1. What is the CWDM SFP? The CWDM optical module is an optical module using CWDM technology to implement the connection between the existing network device and the CWDM multiplexer/demultiplexer. When used with a CWDM multiplexer/demultiplexer, CWDM optical modules can increase network capacity by transmitting multiple data channels with separate optical wavelengths (1270 nm to 1610 nm) on the same single fiber.
What is AOC and DAC?
AOC is the abbreviation of Active Optical Cables, which is called Active Optical Cables in Chinese. AOC active optical is to encapsulate two optical modules and cable together. Because the medium of transmission in the middle is optical cable, AOC optical module, which contains laser devices, has a higher price for DAC. However, its optical aperture is not exposed, it has high reliability, and its working distance can be customized for a long distance of less than 100 meters.
What is DWDM SFP? What areas does it mainly apply to?
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology is capable of transmitting data in an optical fiber using bit wavelength parallel transmission or string line transmission using the wavelength of the laser.It is widely used in different fields of communication networks, including long-distance backbone networks, metropolitan area networks (MANs), residential access networks, and local area networks (LANs).The DWDM optical module is the optical module that uses this technology, so the DWDM optical module has high bandwidth and long-distance transmission characteristics.

Why are MTP/MPO patch cords widely used?

With the continuous development of big data and cloud computing, the demand for high bandwidth and high-speed network has increased greatly. However, solving this problem often costs a great deal, the emergence of MTP/MPO patch cords is a good solution to this problem. Following we will analyze the MTP/MPO patch cord for everyone.
What is MTP/MPO patch cord?
The MTP/MPO patch cord consists of a connector and a section of optical cable. According to the number of fiber core, it can be divided into 8 cores, 12 cores, 24 cores, 48 cores and 72 cores. And it has two types of connectors, male head connector and female head connector.The biggest difference between the two connectors is that the former has stitches, and the latter does not. In addition, the push and pull design of MTP/MPO optical fiber jumper can make insertion and disassembly more convenient and fast, thus saving wiring time.
Why use the MTP/MPO patch cord?
With the increasing demand for data centers, the traditional optical fiber not only reduces the space utilization of data centers, but also increases the difficulty of the management of the wiring system. The MTP/MPO fiber jumper greatly improved the space utilization of the data center, so now MTP/MPO patch cord is widely used.
Application of MTP/MPO patch cord
High density optical fiber link
Communications and CATV networks
Data center cabling system
LAN and WAN user side
Structure of MTP/MPO patch cord
Because the structure of MTP/MPO patch cord connector is complex, it should be used carefully. So it’s important to understand the structure of the MTP/MPO patch cord connector.
As shown below, the MTP/MPO connector has a key bond on the side. In this direction, each fiber hole in the connector is numbered from left to right, P1, P2, P3 etc. In addition, when the connector is inserted, a white spot on the connector points to the P1 side.
Advantages of MTP/MPO patch cord
Small diameter and smaller volume, so the wiring space is increased.
The connector’s special design can eliminate termination errors and substantially saves installation time.
According to the user’s different configuration requirements, can select the corresponding MTP/MPO patch cord structure to meet the different wiring requirements.
Its components have excellent optical and mechanical properties, so insertion loss is low in high speed network environments.
The use of micro cable to maximize the bending radius, and the size and volume are relatively small.
MTP/MPO patch cord is widely used in high-density cabling system, with small space occupancy, and can save installation time and cost. It is an ideal solution for high-density routing environment. As an important technology for upgrading to 40/100G Ethernet, MTP/MPO optical patch cord is being used by more and more people.

Tunable Optical Transceivers – When To Use?

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

Already for some time tunable optical transceivers for use in DWDM systems, such as XFP and SFP+ are available for optical networking industry. Current evolution of tunable optical transceivers typically support full ITU-T C-band, allowing dynamically tune transmitter wavelength with 50GHz steps. However, even longer time conventional or fixed wavelength DWDM transceivers are in market. We feel that some of our customers are puzzled about choosing between fixed and tunable optical transceivers. I will try to shed some light on this by expressing my opinion.
What I believed when first heard about tunable optical transceivers? Well, I was thinking that it is revolutionary and that tunable transceivers will be part of future Metro Ethernet and Optical Transport Networks. I was imaging that in ecosystem of Software Defined Networks network intelligence will make decisions about required bandwidths in different directions, will dynamically add or drop some wavelengths and that essential part of that will become tunable optical transceivers. What is reality now, after some years with tunable optics in market?
At first Metro Ethernet. Nowadays metro Ethernet mainly consists of IP nodes, such as switches and routers interconnected by numbers of 10G interfaces. Main use case of DWDM in metro networks is economy of black fiber. Usually operators implement DWDM by using colored transceivers directly in 10G ports and connect to line trough Passive optical multiplexers. These IP nodes focusing on L2/L3 packet processing, but their optical network functionality is quite limited. From currently popular IP platforms, only few actually support tuning of wavelengths by CLI commands.
Then is Optical Transport Networks (OTN) which is focusing on carrying payload and multiplexing, switching and supervising networks in optical Layer 1 domain. Focus of current systems is packaging of payload in most effective transport containers and for Layer 1 management OTN use packages of Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS) called also ROADM (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer), which allow switching wavelengths in multi-direction nodes from ring to ring, branch to branch. WSS/ROADM technologies allow rapid implementations of backup hot standby transport optical routes. But what about tunable XFP transceivers in OTN..? Still – mainstream is conventional fixed wavelength DWDM transceivers.
How many optical ports from total implemented actually are with tunable optical transceivers? Hard to say about this research precision, but we found out such graph online, saying that from all optical ports shipped only about 0.5% are tunable and we tend to believe it:
So – what is current use case for tunable optical transceivers? When to consider implementation of all DWDM network based on tunable transceivers? Take in account – tunable transceivers are much more expensive compared to conventional fixed wavelength DWDM transceivers. I see two main applications:
Spare Part – when You running big DWDM network with high number of nodes and let’s say use up to 80 (50GHz spacing) different wavelengths, spare part management quickly could become nightmare. You need to have couple of transceivers of each wavelength and possibly in different locations, as You wish that Your field technicians can access network nodes quickly enough. In this case few tunable modules in place of few hundred fixed ones are very good and cost efficient idea. If Your platform supports in-port tuning it’s excellent – if no, You additionally will need special programming board allow to tune module to necessary wavelength. (As us – we can deliver compatible tunable optical XFP and SFP+ modules and corresponding boards).
Really big transport network with 400G or 1T applications on horizon. Yes, with already now available coherent optical technologies, such as Dual-Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DP-QPSK) is possible to fit 100G transmission bandwidth within DWDM 50 GHz channel. So if 100G is too less for you, then future 400G and 1T transmission formats are expected to be bulky and not fit within 50GHz spacing. These future new data rate formats require that channel plan/spacing is flexible, that Your OTN system can adapt to new rates and can re-arrange channel spacing to find place for new rates in it.

Fiber Optic Tool – Industry’s smallest package 10G XFP module

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

Optical module is an important device in optical fiber communication. It is composed of three parts: optical receiving function, light transmitting function and digital diagnosis function. It realizes the function of optical signal and electrical signal conversion signal. In the data communication, transmission network, Storage network, cloud computing and other fields have a wide range of applications.
As the XFP module uses limited space, the control component volume is the key, XJX for your selection of XFP transceiver with 5 × 5mm industry’s smallest package, low power consumption, low jitter and other excellent performance, small size, more effective Cost savings!
[Preferred]
Small and low cost 10G XFP optical module preferred device program
• EFM8LB series 8-bit MCUs with digital diagnostics, up to 72MHz, 14-bit precision ADCs, 4 12-bit precision DACs and hardware high-speed I2C peripherals (up to 3.4Mbps), internal FLASH can achieve EEPROM function, can save external EEPROM, further reduce the product size, small package (QFN24 3 * 3mm);
• The SI5040 is used to implement the CDR function. The chip integrates LA (limiting amplifier), low power consumption (only 575mW) and small package (5 * 5mm LGA).