QSFP+ in the 40 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Optic Media Systems

As data centers consolidate into more complex systems, they take advantage of new speed increases and technologies. With speeds in the data center now increasing from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps and eventually to 100 Gbps, the application for 40 Gigabit Ethernet is becoming more and more popular. There are two 40 Gigabit fiber optic physical medium dependent (PMD) specifications in the standard, which provide 40 Gb/s Ethernet over multimode fiber optic (MMF) cable and single-mode fiber optic (SMF) cable. The 40GBase-SR4 short reach fiber optic system sends four lanes of PCS data over four pairs of multimode cables, for a total of eight fiber strands. The 40GBase-LR long-reach system sends four lanes of PCS data four wavelengths of light, carried over a single pair of fiber optic cables.

The most popular connection option for 40 Gb/s interfaces is the QSFP+ module: it takes up much less space on a switch or server interface, making it possible for vendors to provide multiple QSFP+ transceiver module for 40GBase-SR4 is provided with a multifiber push-on (MPO) media connector, carrying multiple pairs of fiber optic cables to support the four lanes of data for the short reach fiber standard. The 40GBase-LR4 long-reach system uses a QSFP+ transceiver equipped with a duplex fiber connector for connecting to the single pair of fiber cables.

QSFP+ transceiver is a hot-swappable, parallel fiber-optical module with four independent optical transmit and receive channels. These channels can terminate in another 40-Gigabit QSFP transceiver, or the channels can be broken out to four separate 10-Gigabit SFP+ transceivers. The QSFP+ transceiver link length for either 40 Gigabit Ethernet or high density 10 Gigabit Ethernet application is up to 100 m using OM3 fiber or 150 m using OM4 fiber. These modules are designed to operate over multimode fiber systems using a nominal wavelength of 850nm.

The QSFP+ cable assemblies are designed to accommodate stacked and ganged connector configurations in extremely high density requirements. They support 40G Ethernet, InfiniBand, SAS and SONET/SDH standards with different data rate options. The optical QSFP+ MTP cable assemblies and loopbacks meet the QSFP+ interface specification. Cables are constructed with 12-fiber 3.00mm round cable for data center interconnect cable assembly applications. QSFP+ breakout cable assemblies are available for SFP+ or patch panel installations. For example, Juniper EX-QSFP-40GE-DAC-50CM compatible QSFP+ to QSFP+ copper cable from Fiberstore is suitable for very short distances and offers a very cost-effective way to establish a 40-gigabit link between QSFP ports of Juniper switches within racks and across adjacent racks.

As the main fiber optical manufacturer and supplier in China, Fiberstore provides a wide range of QSFP+ transceivers are 100% compatible with major brands like Cisco, HP, Juniper, Nortel, Force10, D-link, 3Com. They are backed by a lifetime warranty, and you can buy with confidence. We also can customize optical transceivers to fit your specific requirements.