What is a 400G OSFP Transceiver?

The OSFP, which is also called the Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable, this new pluggable form factor that has eight channels of High-Speed Electrical that will provide 400G Ethernet (8x50G or 4x100G). Even though the 400G Ethernet has not been serviced for most data centers yet, the 400G Ethernet is going to be the future of the next leading Ethernet rate. Plenty of cloud service providers are ready with 400G QSFP-DD, CFP8, and OSFP transceivers to construct a 400G Ethernet system. This article will focus on 400G OSFP optical modules in more detail.

What is 400G Ethernet?

Social media, video streaming, and smartphone user bases are expanding rapidly, which means that data centers are facing a need to upgrade their bandwidth capacity and transmission data, while there are many new applications for the Internet such as 5G, cloud services, 4K video, and the Internet of Things (loT), and these next-generation applications and technologies are impacting the current infrastructure of data centers, most of which are currently Most data centers are currently using 100G as the dominant data rate, while 400G Ethernet offers higher speeds, more bandwidth, and lower latency.

400G Ethernet is currently a new upgrade and construction orientation for the deployment of next-generation backbone network systems, and a large percentage of next-generation data centers will use 400G data rate speed. According to the report, most data centers or service providers already have plans to expand and retrofit their existing data transmission to 400G networks. Powered by the requirements of data centers and enterprises, QSFPTEK is now also increasing its capacity to match the huge requirements of 400Gbps transceivers.

What Is OSFP Transceiver and How Does it Work?

OSFP means Octal Small Formfactor Pluggable, this model is designed with eight high-speed electrical channels to achieve 400G transmission rates (8x50G PAM4 or 4x100G PAM4), and OSFP optical modules support a maximum transmission distance of 10 km. Compared to the same 400G ultra-high-speed optical module, the OSFP transceiver is larger, wider, and deeper than the QSFP-DD optical module. Despite this, it also supports 36 OSFP ports per 1U front panel and 12.8Tb/s per switch slot. The 400G OSFP modules are linked by a direct double paddle board connection type.

In terms of design, the OSFP form factor allows it to have higher signal integrity and better thermal performance. This advancement is designed to allow this form factor to continue to support the next generation of OSFP 800G (8 channels 100Gbps) optical modules. In terms of backward compatibility, this OSFP transceiver supports backward compatibility with 100G QSFP transceivers. The current 400G OSFP is typically used for ultra-high-speed data transmission within data centers, campuses, and external metro networks for long-distance transmission.

There are many different models of 400G OSFP, and the following table will list the differences between OSFP DR4, OSFP SR8, OSFP FR4, OSFP DR4+, OSFP 2*FR4, and OSFP LR4.

How to Make a 400G Connection With OSFP Optical Module?

400G OSFP DR4

Connected 400G OSFP DR4 to 400G OSFP DR4 via MTP-12/MPO-12 cable.

Connected 400G OSFP DR4 to 4×100G DR4 via MTP-12/MPO-12, via 4×LC duplex tap cable.

400G OSFP XDR4/DR4+

Connected 400G OSFP DR4+ to the 400G OSFP DR4+ via the MTP-12/MPO-12 cable.

Connected 400G OSFP DR4+ to the 4× 100G DR via MTP-12/MPO-12 to 4× LC duplex breakout cable.

Figure 4: 400G OSFP XDR4&DR4+ Connection

400G OSFP FR4

Connected 400G OSFP FR4 to 400G OSFP FR4 via duplex LC cable.

400G OSFP 2FR4

OSFP 2FR4 can break out to 2× 200G and interop with 2× 200G-FR4 QSFP transceivers connection via 2× CS to 2× LC duplex cable.

400G OSFP SR8

Connected 400G OSFP SR8 to 400G OSFP SR8 via an MTP-16/MPO-16 cable.

Connected 400G OSFP SR8 to 2× 200G SR4 via an MPO-16 to 2× MPO-8 breakout cable.

Figure 8: 400G OSFP SR8 Connection

400G OSFP SR8 to 8× 50G SFP Connection via an MTP-16 to 8× LC duplex breakout cable.

What’s The Difference Between OSFP and QSFP-DD Optical Modules?

Define: QSFP56-DD is designed and defined by the QSFP-DD MSA consortium, and the OSFP module is defined by the OSFP MSA.

Power Consumption: Comparing the power consumption of these two, the OSFP optical module has a higher power consumption of 15W, while the QSFP-DD optical module has a power consumption of only 12W.

Backward Compatible: QSFP-DD offers more flexible backward compatibility than OSFP because OSFP transceivers are a little wider and deeper than QSFP-DD modules. QSFP-DD ports are backward compatible with QSFP+ (40G), QSFP28 (100G), and QSFP56 (200G), while OSFP connectors that need to be put into QSFP-DD ports require a passive OSFP- QSFP adapter.

Thermal Performance: The OSFP uses an innovative heat sink integrated directly into the form factor, which gives the OSFP optical module better thermal performance than the QSFP-DD, but also makes its power consumption higher.

Conclusion

Many data centers are still planning to increase their transmission rates to 100Gbps, but in the future, 400G optical modules will be a new trend. 400G optical modules can allow data centers to easily handle next-generation Internet applications, and QSFPTEK can provide optical modules at various rates including SFP, SFP+, QSFP+, QSFP28, QSFP-DD. If you still have questions about 400G OSFP modules, you can contact QSFPTEK via sales@qsfptek.com