A recent technical paper from high-bandwidth 100G network communications systems specialist Xilinx addresses the ways in which, to address the world's insatiable demand for bandwidth, the communications industry is accelerating development of Nx100G line cards for networking systems. The paper addresses how, as most of today's network infrastructure is connected via optical fiber, hence the bandwidth and cost of optical interfaces are major development considerations.
In charting the move to next-generation optics for Nx100G cards, blades and chassis, the type of optical modules that can be used depends on the architecture of the application's line cards. To scale infrastructure economically and effectively, equipment manufacturers and other technicians are now leveraging emerging optical interconnect technologies such as CFP2 and, in the future, CFP4 to increase network bandwidth while lowering system power and cost.
See: OIF targets risk reduction for optical interconnect technology investment
More news: Keynotes announced for TIA 2013
The analysis estimates that the consumer market's relentless demand for network bandwidth compels the communications industry to double system capacity every three years, largely driven by streaming video, HD video, cloud computing and mobile networking applications. Three well known optical module standards including SFP+,CFP, and CFP2 are described by the paper in terms of varying throughput, cost per bit, power efficiency, and form factors.
View/Download the white paper.