400ZR: Enable 400G for Next-Generation DCI

To cope with large-scale cloud services and other growing data center storage and processing needs, the data center systems have become increasingly decentralized and difficult to manage. And applications like artificial intelligence (AI) urgently need low-latency, high-bandwidth network architectures to support the large number of machine-to-machine input/output (I/O) generated between servers. To ensure the basic performance of these applications, the maximum fiber propagation between these distributed data centers must be limited to about 100 km. Therefore, these data centers must be connected in distributed clusters. In order to ensure high-bandwidth and high-density data center interconnection at the same time, 400G ZR came into being. In this post, we will reveal what 400ZR is, how it works and the influences it brings about.

What Is 400ZR?

400ZR, or 400G ZR, is a standard that will enable the transmission of multiple 400GE payloads over Data Center Interconnect (DCI) links up to 80 km using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and higher-order modulation. It aims to ensure an affordable and long-term implementation based on single-carrier 400G using dual-polarization 16 QAM (16-state quadrature amplitude modulation) at approximately 60 gigabaud (Gbaud). Developed by Optical Interconnect Forum (OIF), the 400ZR project is essential to facilitate the reduction of the cost and complexity of high-bandwidth data center interconnects and to promote interoperability among optical module manufacturers.

400G ZR

Figure 1: 400G ZR Transceiver in DCI Switch or Router

How Does 400ZR Work?

400G ZR proposes a technology-driven solution for high-capacity data transmission, which could be matched with the 400GE switch port. It uses a unique design of advanced coherent optical technology for small, pluggable form factor modules. Although the product form factor is not specified in the IA (implementation agreement), the companies or groups contributing to the 400ZR have defined this specification to fit the solution. These form factors defined separately by Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) bodies specify compact mechanical transceivers like QSFP-DD and OSFP, which are connectorized and pluggable into a compatible socket in a system platform. That is to say, the compatible 400ZR solutions that come to market will also be interoperable since the OIF and form factor MSAs are industry-wide organizations. And the interoperability of the 400ZR solutions offers the dual benefit of simplified supply chain management and deployment.

400ZR+ for Longer-reach Optical Transmission

Like other 400G transceivers, the pluggable coherent 400ZR solution can support 400G Ethernet interconnection and multi-vendor interoperability. However, it is not suitable for next-generation metro-regional networks that need transmission over 80 km with a line capacity of 400 Gb/s. Under such circumstances, 400ZR+, or 400G ZR+ is proposed. The 400ZR+ is expected to further enhance modularity by supporting multiple different channel capacities based on coverage requirements and compatibility with installed metro optical infrastructure. With 400ZR+, both the transmission distance and line capacity could be assured.

What Influences Will 400ZR Bring About?

Although 400ZR technology is still in its infancy, once it is rolled out, it will have a significant impact on many industries as the following three: hyper-scale data centers, distributed campuses & metropolitan areas and telecommunications providers.

400ZR Helps Cloud and Hyperscale Data Centers Adapt to the Growing Demand for Higher Bandwidth

The development of DCI and 400ZR could help cloud and hyper-scale data centers adapt to the growing demand for higher bandwidth on the network. They could deal with the exponential growth of applications such as cloud services, IoT devices, and streaming video. As time goes by, 400G ZR will contribute more to the ever-growing applications and users for the whole networking.

400ZR Will Support Interconnects in Distributed Data Centers

As is mentioned above, 400ZR technology will support the necessary high-bandwidth interconnects to connect distributed data centers. With this connection, distributed data centers can communicate with each other, share data, balance workloads, provide backup, and expand data center capacity when needed.

400ZR Allows Telecommunications Companies to Backhaul Residential Traffic

400G ZR standard will allow telecommunications companies to backhaul residential traffic. When running at 200 Gb/s using 64 Gbaud signalings and QPSK modulation, 400ZR can increase the range of high loss spans. For 5G networks, 400G ZR provides mobile backhaul by aggregating multiple 25 Gb/s streams. 400ZR helps promote emerging 5G applications and markets.

400ZR+/400ZR- Will Provide Greater Convenience Based on 400ZR

In addition to the interoperable 400G mode, the 400ZR transceiver is also expected to support other modes to increase the range of addressable applications. These modes are called 400ZR + and 400ZR-. “+” indicates that the power consumption of the module exceeds the 15W required by IA and some pluggable devices, enabling the module to use more powerful signal processing technology to transmit over distances of hundreds of kilometers. “-” indicates that the module supports low-speed modes, such as 300G, 200G, and 100G, which provide network operators with more flexibility.

Will 400ZR Stay Popular In the Next Few Years?

According to the data source below from LightCounting, 400ZR will lead the growth of optical module sales in 2021-2024. The figure below shows the shipment data of high-speed (100G and above) and low-speed (10G and below) DWDM modules sold on the market. It is clear that modules used in Cloud or DCI have an increasing tendency in 2021-2024. That means 400ZR will lead annual growth from 2021.

Source

In addition, with the first 100Gbps SerDes implementation in switching chips expected in 2021, the necessary data rate will move to 800 Gbps within the next 1-2 years for the optics interface. Since the OSFP form factor has been defined to allow an 8x 100GE interface without changing the definition of the transceiver. Similarly, in parallel, the coherent optics on the line side will transition to support 128GBaud 16QAM within a similar time frame, making it easy to migrate from the current 400ZR to the next-generation 800ZR. Therefore, 400ZR is crucial no matter in the current or the future network development.

Article Source

https://community.fs.com/blog/400zr-enable-400g-for-next-generation-dci.html

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How Much Do You Know About QSFP56?

Over the past years, there have emerged various optical module form factor types with the growth of new technology and high-speed interconnects, among which QSFP56, as a member of the QSFP family, is a solution for 200G applications. What‘s the difference between QSFP56 with other QSFP family form factors? Is QSFP56 the same as QSFP56-DD? If you are wondering about these questions, this article is for you.

Figure 1: Transceiver form factor

QSFP56—Form Factor of 200G Transceivers

To make clear what QSFP56 is, let’s take a look at the QSFP form factor first. Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP) was developed after SFP, which was originally designed to replace the single-channel SFPs with high-density optical modules. Due to the fact that it denotes four lanes for up to 4 wavelengths, it provides higher bandwidth capacity compared with the SFP modules.

Developed on the basis of QSFP, 40G QSFP+ arose and then 100G QSFP28 came into use for high-density applications. With the rising of data traffic in data centers and advanced network applications, the market is urgent to achieve higher-speed general availability. There is more addition to QSFP family form factors, such as 200G QSFP56 and 400G QSFP56-DD.

Figure 2:Types of QSFP form factor

As an evolution of the previous 40G QSFP+ and 100G QSFP28, Quad 50 Gigabits Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP56) is the one designed for 200G Ethernet. QSFP56 denotes 4 x 50 to 56Gb/s in a QSFP form factor. Sometimes it can also be referred to as 200G QSFP for sake of simplicity. QSFP56 optical modules are similar to QSFP ones in terms of size and form factor. Classified by distance, QSFP56 modules can be divided into QSFP56 CR, SR, DR, FR, LR, which enables different transmission distances over a single mode fiber (SMF) or multimode fiber (MMF).

Generally, two QSFP56 modules can be used with an SMF or MMF to realize a 200G link. QSFP56 AOC/DAC is also a way to realize a 200G link by connecting QSFP56 ports on two devices in a simplified linking process. For bridging 200G QSFP56 ports with other speeds, there are 200G QSFP56 to 2x100G QSFP28 breakout cables and 200G QSFP56 to 4x50G SFP56 breakout cables to achieve 2x100G or 4x50G connections.

QSFP56 vs QSFP28 vs QSFP+

Seen from their industry names, QSFP56, QSFP28 and QSFP+ are very similar in that they share the same QSFP form factor as their postfix shows, and they have the same size as each other. However, their data center and connectivity capabilities are different. Below is a table listing the basic parameters of QSFP56, QSFP28, and QSFP+.

Industry nameYearoriginal meaningNumber of Electric LanesNumber of Optical LanesBit Rate/LaneModulationLine Rates
QSFP+2013Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable Plus4410GbpsNRZ40G
QSFP282016Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable 284425GbpsNRZ100G
QSFP562017Quad 50 Gigabits Small Form-factor Pluggable4450GbpsPAM4200G

From the comparison chart, it can be distinctly seen that compared with QSFP+ and QSFP28, the QSFP56 form factor performs a higher network speed as 200G QSFP supporting 4×50G channels. While QSFP+ is an evolution of QSFP to support 4×10G channels carrying 10G Ethernet, 10G fiber channel or QDR InfiniBand. It introduced the concept of multiplexing four lanes to increase the bandwidth, capable of handling 40Gbps line rates at 10GBaud NRZ per lane. QSFP28 supports 4×25G channels and contains 4-lane optical transmitter and 4-lane optical receiver as QSFP+ does.

The most significant change from QSFP+ and QSFP28 to QSFP56 is that QSFP56 made the change from NRZ encoding to PAM4 encoding. Though QSFP56 still uses 4 lanes as QSFP28, the modulation is doubled to 50G per channel, which enables more data on existing fiber, accordingly, more suitable for hyper-scale data center networks.

Shift from QSFP56 to QSFP56-DD (400G QSFP-DD)

With data centers undergoing rapid growth, the rising demand for data volume is pushing network components to support higher bandwidth and higher density. The latest iteration of optical module form factor is from QSFP56 to QSFP56-DD, which is also called 400G QSFP-DD. DD here refers to double density, representing reaching 400G (with 50G PAM4) by doubling data lanes of QSFP56, from 4 lanes to 8 lanes.

Though QSFP56-DD has the double density, its size is similar to QSFP56. 400G QSFP56-DD port is backward compatible with the QSFP transceiver which means as long as the switch supports, QSFP56 can work on the QSFP56-DD port. When using a QSFP56 module in an QSFP56-DD port, this port will be configured for a data rate of 200G, instead of 400G.

The QSFP56-DD form factor is now recognized by the 400G market as the 400G form factor that gets the most concern. Despite that nowadays 400G Ethernet is seen as a futureproofing solution for the next-generation data center, there is still a need for 200G QSFP56 for some organizations deploying 200G Ethernet.

Article Source

https://community.fs.com/blog/introduction-to-qsfp56-form-factor.html

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Why Choose FS Optics for 400G Deployment?

The increase in global data traffic has fostered the development of optical devices, which has led to data centers facing increasing challenges in cloud access, processing power, storage, and transmission bandwidth. Because of this, the 400G transceiver market is growing rapidly, and the choices of general optical modules are gradually diversifying. Customers also have many concerns when choosing optical products, so how do FS 400G transceivers solve these concerns to meet the needs, please read this article.

Concerns for Choosing 400G Transceivers

The choice of general 400G optical modules will face many problems. Customers usually struggle with how to choose good quality 400G optical modules and have some concerns, such as the choice of suppliers, the performance and compatibility of the optical module, etc.

General Transceivers or OEM Optics?

It is well known that general optical modules have cost advantages over their OEM counterparts and are provided on demand. In the rapidly growing 400G transceiver market, diversified suppliers have increased the difficulty of selecting general optical modules, and there also be some problems: incompatibility with existing equipment, prone to network delays leading to system restarts, or other unqualified after-sales services. Therefore, it is important to choose a supplier you trust.

400G Transceiver Quality Issues

The most common quality issues with 400G transceivers from general optical product suppliers are compatibility and reliability. Because ensuring compatibility means achieving high precision when coding optics to interoperate with OEM hardware, this problem is common among inexperienced suppliers. Failures caused by these quality issues can range from a lack of relevant functionality in equipment operation to catastrophic failures such as network, system reboots, or network outages. Whether the long-term performance of the optical module can remain as efficient as the first deployment is also a factor that customers need to consider. Otherwise, it will cause trouble later.

Consequences of Incorrect 400G Transceivers

OEM warranty is a recurring issue. There is a saying that using general products in their OEM hardware voids the warranty. But the optical module itself is unlikely to damage OEM equipment because 400G ethernet QSFP modules convert electrical data from devices into optical signals, which can prove that there is no input power from the optical port to damage the device.

At this point, the optical module will not function properly or appear to be incompatible with your equipment environment, and the IT manager needs to re-plan to take the necessary alternative strategies to resolve the failure. In this case, it takes a certain amount of time to communicate with optical product suppliers and arrange for engineers to conduct fault diagnosis. If a problem is diagnosed, the faulty product should be returned and a new product delivered for redeployment and equipment testing. Essentially, the resolution to these problems costs a lot of time and effort for IT managers, adding to the cost of wasted time.

Benefits of FS 400G Optical Modules

Compared with the existing optical module supplier market, FS optical modules have certain OEM equipment compatibility and reliability, can meet various transmission needs, and have high-quality after-sales service. At the same time, FS also has a one-stop procurement platform to support the procurement of a set of 400G optical products, which greatly improves your purchase efficiency and saves costs.

Transceiver Reliability

How FS ensures the reliability of its 400G optics? It is first reflected in their production process. FS 400G optical modules adopt the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) compatibility programming core capability, featuring interoperability with multiple suppliers. These transceivers provide high-quality optical connections at a lower cost and the same performance quality as the OEM brand. Also, the transceiver’s standardized features to OEM specifications ensure high component quality and suitability.

The second is the rigorous testing of the transceivers. FS optical modules are tested for compatibility on equipment by a professional technical team, as a way to eliminate errors and reduce the need for workarounds and system downtime. Even the equipment in use in your computer room can be tested to meet your expectations. This reduces the risk of network failures and ensures that the business remains up and running, providing uninterrupted service to customers. FS adheres to a 99.98% reliability rating, allowing you to enjoy quality products and services.

Multiple Choice and Trusted Services

FS can provide a variety of transceivers, and some may not be available from the OEM. FS has set up a global warehouse base with a large inventory of optical modules to connectivity needs of your network projects.

FS laboratory has an experienced team of professional technical experts and features perfect after-sales service. If you have any questions about the use of the product, you can directly contact the one-to-one sales representative to solve it. For example, if you want to know whether Juniper QSFP/OSFP works on Cisco platforms, FS will tell you based on specific lab tests and experience. Moreover, when you need to perform remote compatibility testing, the FS remote demo service can provide you with a better testing experience.

400G transceivers

Cost-effectiveness

When you choose optical products for your 400G project, 400G optical transceivers may not be the only thing you require, network devices, optical cables and corresponding accessories, such as switches, wiring, or other accessories are also needed. Of course, when applying these components, you also need to consider their loss and fit. To better solve this problem, the FS 400G product series supports one-stop procurement to help you solve your deployment problems and make the products perfectly fit your needs, which can improve your procurement efficiency and save manpower and material costs. In addition, with its professional capabilities, FS can complete the testing, collection, distribution, acceptance, after-sales, and other work of the products you need, which is convenient for your equipment maintenance and management.

A one-stop procurement approach can reduce a company’s overall cost of investment (COI). For example, replacing 9 individual SKUs with one SKU at a simple price can simplify the procurement, inventory, and operational issues of optical modules. This reduces the time spent on multiple 400G optical module suppliers, and a high-quality supplier like FS can spend valuable time in other more important places, you can save up to 70% of the cost.

FS 400G product family

Explore FS 400G Optics Solutions

Facing the diverse general optic product supplier market, you should choose a supplier you trust, which will have a huge influence on your business. FS can be one of your best options as a general optical product supplier. With a professional technical team, global warehousing capabilities, remote demo services, and 400G transceivers with the same OEM performance, FS can ensure your high-performance network, optimize your operational efficiency, and minimize waste of time, effort, and budget.

Article Source:

https://community.fs.com/news/why-choose-fs-optics-for-400g-deployment.html

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400G ZR & ZR+ – New Generation of Solutions for Longer-reach Optical Communications

400G

400G ZR and ZR+ coherent pluggable optics have become new solutions for high-density networks with data rates from 100G to 400G featuring low power and small space. Let’s see how the latest generation of 400G ZR and 400G ZR+ optics extends the economic benefits to meet the requirements of network operators, maximizes fiber utilization, and reduces the cost of data transport.

400G ZR & ZR+: Definitions

What Is 400G ZR?

400G ZR coherent optical modules are compliant with the OIF-400ZR standard, ensuring industry-wide interoperability. They provide 400Gbps of optical bandwidth over a single optical wavelength using DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) and higher-order modulation such as 16 QAM. Implemented predominantly in the QSFP-DD form factor, 400G ZR will serve the specific requirement for massively parallel data center interconnect of 400GbE with distances of 80-120km. To learn more about 400G transceivers: How Many 400G Transceiver Types Are in the Market?

Overview of 400G ZR+

ZR+ is a range of coherent pluggable solutions with line capacities up to 400Gbps and reaches well beyond 80km supporting various application requirements. The specific operational and performance requirements of different applications will determine what types of 400G ZR+ coherent plugs will be used in networks. Some applications will take advantage of interoperable, multi-vendor ecosystems defined by standards body or MSA specifications and others will rely on the maximum performance achievable in the constraints of a pluggable module package. Four categories of 400G ZR+ applications will be explained in the following part.

400G ZR & ZR+: Applications

400G ZR – Application Scenario

The arrival of 400G ZR modules has ushered in a new era of DWDM technology marked by open, standards based, and pluggable DWDM optics, enabling true IP-over-DWDM. 400G ZR is often applied for point-to-point DCI (up to 80km), making the task of interconnecting data centers as simple as connecting switches inside a data center (as shown below).

Figure 1: 400G ZR Applied in Single-span DCI

Four Primary Deployment Applications for 400G ZR+

Extended-reach P2P Packet

One definition of ZR+ is a straightforward extension of 400G ZR transcoded mappings of Ethernet with a higher performance FEC to support longer reaches. In this case, 400G ZR+ modules are narrowly defined as supporting a single-carrier 400Gbps optical line rate and transporting 400GbE, 2x 200GbE or 4x 100GbE client signals for point-to-point reaches (up to around 500km). This solution is specifically dedicated to packet transport applications and destined for router platforms.

Multi-span Metro OTN

Another definition of ZR+ is the inclusion of support for OTN, such as client mapping and multiplexing into FlexO interfaces. This coherent pluggable solution is intended to support the additional requirements of OTN networks, carry both Ethernet and OTN clients, and address transport in multi-span ROADM networks. This category of 400G ZR+ is required where demarcation is important to operators, and is destined primarily for multi-span metro ROADM networks.

Figure 2: 400G ZR+ Applied in Multi-span Metro OTN

Multi-span Metro Packet

The third definition of ZR+ is support for extended reach Ethernet or packet transcoded solution that is further optimized for critical performance such as latency. This 400G ZR+ coherent pluggable with high performance FEC and sophisticated coding algorithms supports the longest reach over 1000km multi-span metro packet transport.

Figure 3: 400G ZR+ Applied in Multi-span Metro Packet

Multi-span Metro Regional OTN

The fourth definition of ZR+ supports both Ethernet and OTN clients. This coherent pluggable also leverages high performance FEC and PCS, along with tunable optical filters and amplifiers for maximum reach. It supports a rich feature set of OTN network functions for deployment over both fixed and flex-grid line systems. This category of 400G ZR+ provides solutions with higher performance to address a much wider range of metro/regional packet networking requirements.

400G ZR & ZR+: What Makes Them Suitable for Longer-reach Transmission in Data Center?

Coherent Technology Adopted by 400G ZR & ZR+

Coherent technology uses the three degrees of freedom (amplitude, phase and polarization of light) to focus more data on the wave that is being transmitted. In this way, coherent optics can transport more data over a single fiber for greater distances using higher order modulation techniques, which results in better spectral efficiency. 400G ZR and ZR+ is a leap forward in the application of coherent technology. With higher-order modulation and DWDM unlocking high bandwidth, 400G ZR and ZR+ modules can reduce cost and complexity for high-level data center interconnects.

Importance of 400G ZR & ZR+

400G ZR and 400G ZR+ coherent pluggable optics take implementation challenges to the next level by adding some of the elements for high-performance solutions while pushing component design for low-power, pluggability, and modularity.

Conclusion

Although there are still many challenges to making 400G ZR and 400G ZR+ transceiver modules that fit into the small size and power budget of OSFP or QSFP-DD packages and also achieving interoperation as well the costs and volume targets. With 400Gbps high optical bandwidth and low power consumption, 400G ZR & ZR+ may very well be the new generation in longer-reach optical communications.

Original Source: 400G ZR & ZR+ – New Generation of Solutions for Longer-reach Optical Communications

400G OSFP Transceiver Types Overview

400G

OSFP stands for Octal Small Form-factor Pluggable, which consists of 8 electrical lanes, running at 50Gb/s each, for a total of the bandwidth of 400Gb/s. This post will give an introduction of 400G OSFP transceiver types, the fiber connections, and some QAs about OSFP.

400G OSFP Transceiver Types

Below lists some current main 400G OSFP transceiver types: OSFP SR8, OSFP DR4, OSFP DR4+, OSFP FR4, OSFP 2*FR4, and OSFP LR4, which summarize OSFP transceiver according to the two transmission types (over multimode fiber and single-mode fiber) they support.

Fibers Connections for 400G OSFP Transceivers

400G OSFP SR8

Figure 1 OSFP SR8 to OSFP SR8.jpg
  • 400G OSFP SR8 to 2× 200G SR4 over MTP-16 to 2× MPO-8 breakout cable.
Figure 2 OSFP SR8 to 2 200G SR4.jpg
  • 400G OSFP SR8 to 8× 50G SFP via MTP-16 to 8× LC duplex breakout cable with up to 100m.
Figure 3 OSFP SR8 to 8 50G SFP.jpg

400G OSFP DR4

  • 400G OSFP DR4 to 400G OSFP DR4 over an MTP-12/MPO-12 cable.Figure 1 OSFP SR8 to OSFP SR8.jpg
  • 400G OSFP DR4 to 4× 100G DR4 over MTP-12/MPO-12 to 4× LC duplex breakout cable.
Figure 4 OSFP DR4 to 4 100G DR.jpg

400G OSFP XDR4/DR4+

  • 400G OSFP DR4+ to 400G OSFP DR4+ over an MTP-12/MPO-12 cable.
  • 400G OSFP DR4+ to 4× 100G DR over MTP-12/MPO-12 to 4× LC duplex breakout cable.
Figure 5 OSFP DR4+ to 4 100G DR.jpg

400G OSFP FR4

400G OSFP FR4 to 400G OSFP FR4 over duplex LC cable.

Figure 6 OSFP FR4 to OSFP FR4.jpg

400G OSFP 2FR4

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

400G OSFP Transceivers: Q&A

Q: What does “SR8”, “DR4”, “XDR4”, “FR4”, and “LR4” mean?

A: “SR” refers to short range, and “8” implies there are 8 optical channels. “DR” refers to 500m reach using single-mode fiber, and “4” implies there are 4 optical channels. “XDR4” is short for “eXtended reach DR4”. And “LR” refers to 10km reach using single-mode fiber.

Q: Can I plug an OSFP transceiver module into a QSFP-DD port?

A: No. QSFP-DD and OSFP are totally different form factors. For more information about QSFP-DD transceivers, you can refer to 400G QSFP-DD Transceiver Types Overview. You can use only one kind of form factor in the corresponding system. E.g., if you have an OSFP system, OSFP transceivers and cables must be used.

Q: Can I plug a 100G QSFP28 module into an OSFP port?

A: Yes. A QSFP28 module can be inserted into an OSFP port but with an adapter. When using a QSFP28 module in an OSFP port, the OSFP port must be configured for a data rate of 100G instead of 400G.

Q: What other breakout options are possible apart from using OSFP modules mentioned above?

A: OSFP 400G DACs & AOCs are possible for breakout 400G connections. See 400G Direct Attach Cables (DAC & AOC) Overview for more information about 400G DACs & AOCs.

Original Source: 400G OSFP Transceiver Types Overview