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Before the advent of the 100G QSFP28 optical module (an optical module that can be used to support 100G transmission), the development direction of the 100G network is 10G > 40G >100G. After the QSFP28 optical modules appeared, the development mode of 10G > 25G > 100G or 10G > 25G > 50G >100G began to become widespread in the industry. And now there are already some data centers that have began to adopt this method to achieve 10G to 100G upgrade.

The cost and power consumption of data center is an important driver of the optical communication market. Reviewing the development of 100G optical modules, the form factors (CFP, CFP2, and CFP4) and the standard development and improvement also mainly focus on low cost and low power consumption. 100G QSFP28 optical module meets these requirements. The post will compare 100G QSFP28 optical module and other 100G optical modules in terms of port density, power consumption, and cost respectively.

Port Density

The first generation of 100G optical modules was a very large CFP optical module, and then CFP2 and CFP4 optical modules were launched, among which CFP4 optical module was the latest generation of 100G optical modules and had a width of only 1/4 of the CFP optical modules. However, the form factor of 100G QSFP28 optical module is smaller than the CFP4 optical module, which means the 100G QSFP28 optical module has a higher port density on the switch.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of 100G QSFP28 optical module is usually lower than 3.5W while that of other 100G optical modules is usually between 6W and 24W. From this, 100G QSFP28 optical modules have much lower power consumption than other 100G optical modules.

Cost

Now the data center is mainly 10G network architecture, in which the interconnection solution is mainly 10GBASE-SR optical module and duplex LC multimode fiber jumper. If the existing 10G network architecture can be directly upgraded to 40 / 100G networks, it will save a lot of time and cost.

Although 100G QSFP28 optical modules have many advantages, it is only one of many solutions for 100G network. For data centers and server rooms, suit is best. Therefore, other 100G optical modules also have a place in the 100G network. Gigalight thinks that 100G QSFP28 optical module series, like 100G QSFP28 SR4, 100G QSFP28 LR4, 100G QSFP28 CWDM4 and 100G QSFP28 PSM4, have brought a new solution for 100G applications that will promote the faster development of 100G.