December 21, 2024

 

OSFP also called Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable is a new pluggable form factor with eight high-speed electrical lanes that will support 400G Ethernet (8x50G or 4x100G). Though 400G Ethernet is not currently used by most data centers, it will become the next major Ethernet speed. A large number of cloud service providers are prepared to build 400G Ethernet through 400G QSFP-DD, CFP8, OSFP transceivers. This post will discuss in more detail the 400G OSFP transceiver. 

400G Ethernet Overview

Due to the rapid growth of the number of users of social media, video streaming, and smartphones, the bandwidth capacity of current data centers is facing tremendous pressure. Many data centers are adapting to 5G, cloud services, 4K video, the Internet of Things( IoT), and other next-generation applications and technologies. They have upgraded from 100G to 400G Ethernet with higher speed, greater bandwidth, and lower latency.

400G has become the new upgrading and new construction direction of the next-generation backbone network deploying and it will become the popular trend of the development of the data centers. More and more data center service providers make plans to expand and transform the existing data transmission into a 400G network. 

What Is OSFP Transceiver?

OSFP stands for Octal Small Formfactor Pluggable, which is a new pluggable form factor with eight high-speed electrical lanes that support 400G(8x50G PAM4 or 4x100G PAM4) optical links distances up to 10km. In terms of size, OSFP transceivers are slightly wider and deeper than QSFP-DD modules. However, it still supports 36 OSFP ports per 1U front panel and 12.8 Tb/s per switch slot. The 400G OSFP module is a dual paddleboard direct-attachment type connection.

In addition, the design of the OSFP form factor has the characteristics of higher signal integrity and thermal performance, which will enable this form factor to still support the next generation OSFP 800G(8 lanes of 100Gbps) optics. The OSFP transceiver also supports backward compatibility with the 100G QSFP transceivers. The 400G OSFP optical data links are mostly deployed inside data centers, campuses and external metro long reach.

The following table lists some of the mainstream 400G OSFP connector types: OSFP DR4, OSFP SR8, OSFP FR4, OSFP DR4+, OSFP 2*FR4, and OSFP LR4:

Transmission Type OSFP Product Type Distance Optical Connector Cable Type Optical Modulation Wavelength Protocol
Multimode fiber 400G OSFP SR8 Up to 100m MTP-16/MPO-16 parallel MMF 50G PAM4 850nm IEEE P802.3cm;IEEE 802.3cd
Single-mode fiber 400G OSFP DR4 Up to 500m MTP-12/MPO-12 parallel MMF 100G PAM4 1310nm IEEE 802.3bs
4000G OSFP XDR4/DR4+ Up to 2km MTP-12/MPO-12 parallel MMF 100G PAM4 1310nm /
400G OSFP FR4 Up to 2km LC duplex SMF 100G PAM4 CWDM4 wavelength 100Glambda MSA
400G OSFP 2FR4 Up to 2km CS duplex SMF 50G PAM4 CWDM4 wavelength IEEE 802.3bs
400G OSFP LR4 Up to 10km LC duplex SMF 100G PAM4 CWDM4 wavelength 100Glambda MSA
400G OSFP DAC Up to 3 m OSFP to OSFP Copper / / /
400G OSFP Breakout DAC Up to 3 m OSFP to 2x 200G QSFP56, OSFP to 4x100G QSFPs, OSFP to 8x 50G SFP56 Copper / / /
400G OSFP AOC Up to 100 m OSFP to OSFP Parallel MMF 50G PAM4 / /
400G Breakout AOC Up to 100 m OSFP to 2x 200G QSFP56, OSFP to 4x100G QSFPs, OSFP to 8x 50G SFP56 Parallel MMF / / /

400G Connection with OSFP Transceiver

400G OSFP DR4

400G OSFP DR4 to 400G OSFP DR4 connection over an MTP-12/MPO-12 cable.

400G OSFP DR4 to 4× 100G DR4 over MTP-12/MPO-12 connection over 4× LC duplex breakout cable.

400G OSFP XDR4/DR4+

400G OSFP DR4+ to 400G OSFP DR4+ connection over an MTP-12/MPO-12 cable.

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

400G OSFP FR4

400G OSFP FR4 to 400G OSFP FR4 connection over 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

Connect a 400G OSFP SR8 transceiver with another 400G OSFP SR8 transceiver over an MTP-16/MPO-16 cable.

400G OSFP SR8 to 2× 200G SR4 connection over MPO-16 to 2× MPO-8 breakout cable.

Connect a 400G OSFP SR8 to 8× 50G SFP via MTP-16 to 8× LC duplex breakout cable with up to 100m.

The Differences Between OSFP and QSFP-DD

There are two types of 400G form factors:

QSFP-DD: It’s also called QSFP56-DD, which stands for Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density; OSFP: Octal SFP. The difference between them will be introduced below:

Defined: The QSFP56-DD is defined by the QSFP-DD MSA alliance, while the OSFP is defined by the OSFP MSA group.

Power consumption: The power consumption of the OSFP connector is 15W, while the power consumption of the QSFP-DD module is lower at only 12W.

Backward Compatible: Since OSFP transceivers are slightly wider and deeper than QSFP-DD modules, QSFP-DD has more flexible backward compatibility than OSFP. The QSFP-DD port is backward compatible with QSFP+ (40G), QSFP28 (100G), and QSFP56 (200G), while the OSFP connector needs to put in QSFP-DD ports requires a passive OSFP-QSFP adapter.

Thermal Performance: The OSFP integrates a heat-sink directly into the form factor that greatly improves thermal performance, and QSFP-DD does not. The heat-sink gives a better thermal performance to OSFP modules. This also enables the OSFP module to have 15W power consumption in a switch chassis with traditional airflow.

Conclusion

While many data centers are still increasing the transmit rate to 100Gbps, 400G transceivers will become a popular trend in the future. At present, many suppliers are improving their production capacity and preparing for mass production, and 400G optical modules will meet the rapidly growing needs of customers for applications such as 5G, cloud services, 4K video, the Internet of Things( IoT). if you have any questions, you can contact sales@fiberstanding.com.