Product category:
Optical Transceivers, Transponders and Repeaters
News Release from: Bookham | Subject: XFP transceivers
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 14 January 2004
Standardised transceivers speed
convergence
Transceivers based on the XFP multisource agreement are speeding the convergence of the telecomms and datacomms infrastructure.
Transceivers based on the XFP multisource agreement (MSA) are making high-speed optical interfaces so simple and cost effective that 10Gbit/s XFP products are becoming the de facto standard in optical access, metro and long-haul transmission systems and are speeding the convergence of the telecomms and datacomms infrastructure This will be the key message in a presentation by Dr Michael Lebby of Bookham Technology, today at the 12th OEIC and Optical Interconnection Workshop of the Optoelectronic Industry and Technology Development Association, in Tokyo
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 28 Feb 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Dr Lebby will tell an influential audience of leading Japanese optoelectronic manufacturers, researchers and government policymakers that the "impressive" fast-track development and validation of the XFP MSA during 2002 and 2003 has created a multiprotocol, multidistance technology that will bring more cost effective pricing to telecomms networks - with major benefits to components vendors, systems vendors and carriers.
In the late 1990s, the challenge emerged to develop a 10Gbit/s fibre-optic transceiver that had all of the performance of existing solutions, but at a lower price - a daunting prospect.
But the XFP form factor has recently emerged as the solution of choice to this challenge.
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"Since XFP transceivers were first introduced over a year ago, system manufacturers have driven suppliers to produce a full portfolio of link standards", says Dr Lebby.
"DWDM, and ever-increasing reaches in XFP transceivers, will bring this form-factor to bear on line-side (trunk) applications, complementing the current client-side (tributary) applications.
Uses for these optical plug-in modules are widespread in telecoms, switching and routing, enterprise and storage markets, covering Sonet OC-192, SDH STM-64, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel".
XFP brings serialisation, miniaturisation and cost reduction to the design of 10Gbit/s optical transceivers, according to Dr Lebby.
The associated XFI serial interface allows migration to quad- and octal-port ICs, allowing one IC to drive multiple transceiver ports for further cost and power savings.
Unlike 10Gbit/s transponder MSAs such as Xenpak, X2 and Xpak, XFP is a transceiver MSA and so allows an external IC chip to handle serialising and deserialising ("serdes") functions, making the optical technology more modular; whereas transponders integrate this chip within the optical module.
The XFP transceiver thus allows separate innovation and optimisation of the optical and electrical functions, and presents systems and linecard designers with a route to lower-cost designs.
A major attraction of XFP for systems vendors and network operators is that modules are hot-pluggable and do not use traditional expensive and inflexible fibre pigtail connections.
Dr Lebby will state that this gives savings in both capital and operations expenditure.
Carriers can add ports as traffic grows, and they can mix and match protocol types and link distances on the same linecard, while carrying lower inventories.
A combination of lower inventory, greater equipment flexibility and onboard digital diagnostics (DD) will help to minimise installation, maintenance and provisioning truckrolls.
"The advent of the XFP is allowing network architects to evolve the network away from conventional discrete optics and modules to more cost effective, hot-pluggable 10Gbit/s modular solutions.
This simplification and standardisation is by far the most exciting development in the industry right now", says Dr Lebby.
Interest is already strong - and growing - among Asia/Pacific carriers for high-speed packet-based optical networks, particularly Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Dr Lebby will praise the successful efforts of the optoelectronics industry in overcoming a series of technical hurdles to create the XFP-form-factor transceiver.
These include the creation of a new breed of clock-data-recovery (CDR) chips; proving that 10Gbit/s electrical signals maintain integrity over 12in FR4 printed-circuit boards; IC interoperability with multiple vendors; demonstrating extended transmission distances of up to 120km; multiprotocol performance; and power-efficient designs.
Bookham, as a leader in the development of optoelectronics for network systems, has participated in the industry-wide XFP effort, and has an established range of cost-effective 10Gbit/s technologies and products.
The successful acquisition of Ignis Optics in 2003 provided Bookham with the IGF Series of XFP modules, which provide Sonet/SDH (with or without forward error correction), 10Gbit/s Ethernet and 10Gbit/s Fibre Channel compliant links.
Bookham's market leading XFP modules have been carrying traffic in North American incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) networks since 2003, a strong indicator of industry acceptance.
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