What are the common optical modules?

1) GBIC optical module

GBIC (Giga Bitrate Interface Converter) is an interface device that converts gigabit electrical signals into optical signals. GBIC is designed to be hot-swappable and is an interchangeable product that conforms to international standards.

2) XFP module

The XFP module is a hot-swappable, small footprint, serial-to-serial optical transceiver that supports SONET OC-192, 10 Gbps Ethernet, 10 Gbps Fibre Channel, and G.709 links .

3) SFP optical module

SFP optical module (Small Form-factor Pluggable) is a small hot-pluggable optical transceiver module. The volume of the SFP module is reduced by half compared to the GBIC module, and more than double the number of ports can be configured on the same panel.

The other functions of the SFP module are basically the same as those of the GBIC.

Special types of SFP optical modules include: BIDI-SFP, electrical SFP, CWDM SFP, DWDM SFP, SFP+ optical module, etc.

4) C-SFP

Compact SFP is a compact SFP, which is developed into a more advanced and compact CSFP package based on the existing SFP package.

CSFP MSA defines 3 kinds of C-SFP: 1ch/2ch/3ch Compact SFP

5) Electrical port module

The electrical port module is Copper SFP, SFP encapsulated electrical port module, 100 meters can support a maximum transmission distance of 100m

6) BIDI module

BiDi (Bidirectional) means single fiber bidirectional. With WDM technology, different center wavelengths are used in the sending and receiving directions. A single fiber can transmit optical signals in both directions. The optical module has only 1 port,

Filter through the filter in the optical module, and complete the emission of 1310nm optical signal and the reception of 1550nm optical signal at the same time, or vice versa. This module must be used in pairs, and the biggest advantage is to save fiber resources.

Applications: Conventional SFP, xWDM SFP, and PON SFP

7) CWDM module

The CWDM optical module adopts CWDM technology, and through an external wavelength division multiplexer, the optical signals of different wavelengths are combined together, and transmitted through a single fiber, thereby saving fiber resources. At the same time, the receiving end needs to use a wavelength demultiplexer to decompose the complex optical signal.

The CWDM SFP optical module is divided into 18 bands, from 1270nm to 1610nm, and the interval between each two bands is 20nm. Eight bands are commonly used, ranging from 1470nm to 1610nm, and the interval between each channel is 20nm.

8) DWDM module

DWDM SFP belongs to dense wavelength division multiplexing technology, which can couple light of different wavelengths into a single core fiber and transmit them together. The channel spacing of DWDM SFP has different spacings such as 0.4nm, 0.8nm, and 1.6nm according to the needs. The spacing is small and requires additional wavelength control devices.

A key advantage of DWDM SFP is that its protocol and transmission speed are independent.

9) SFP+ optical module

SFP+ optical module is a new generation of 10 Gigabit optical module, which can meet the application of 8.5G of Fibre Channel and 10G of Ethernet according to ANSI T11 protocol.

SFP+ has the same appearance as ordinary SFP optical modules. SFP+ only retains the basic electro-optical and photoelectric conversion functions, and reduces the SerDes, CDR, EDC, MAC and other signal control functions in the original XFP design, thereby simplifying the design of 10G optical modules and reducing power consumption.

The shielding requirements of SFP+ are stricter than SFP and require better shielding effect.

10) Xenpak optical module

The Xenpak optical module is connected to the circuit board through a 70pin SFP connector, and its data channel is an XAUI interface; Xenpak supports all optical interfaces defined by IEEE 802.3ae, and can provide 10.3 Gb/s, 9.95 Gb/s or 4×3.125 at the line end Gb/s rate.

11) Xpak and X2 optical modules

Both Xpak and X2 optical modules are evolved from the Xenpak standard. Their internal functional modules are basically the same as Xenpak, and the application on the circuit board is also the same. Both use one module to realize the function of the 10G Ethernet optical interface. Since the Xenpak optical module needs to be slotted on the circuit board when it is installed on the circuit board, the implementation is complicated and high-density applications cannot be realized. The improved Xpak and X2 optical modules are only about half the size of Xenpak, and can be directly placed on the circuit board, so they are suitable for high-density rack systems and PCI network card applications.