400G Coherent Pluggable Optics Use Cases At a Glance
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Supercharge and simplify high-speed transport networks
QSFP-DD pluggable transceivers with 400G coherent optical technology deliver breakthrough capabilities that transform how companies with high traffic demands architect their transport networks.
With ever-increasing data traffic, web-scale, metro-area, and long-haul network operators are realizing benefits from 400ZR and 400ZR+ coherent pluggable optics that provide cost-effective, compact, and power-efficient alternatives to standalone DWDM transponders. By integrating coherent technology into pluggable transceivers, DWDM functionality can be implemented directly in today’s high-scale/high-capacity routers and can be deployed in standard 400G QSFP-DD ports, yielding much lower cost per bit.
The Cisco® portfolio of QSFP-DD coherent pluggable optics supercharges and simplifies transport networks for an array of use cases across data center interconnect, metro-area access and aggregation, and long-haul networks and is a key component of the Cisco Routed Optical Networking solution. These compact, modular transceivers offer flexible plug-and-play deployment and growth options and are compliant with OIF 400ZR, 400G OpenZR+, and Open ROADM specifications.
Point-to-point and ROADM use cases for coherent pluggable optics
● Increase 400G wavelength capacity without interfering or changing existing line systems
● Reduce cost, complexity, and power consumption for high-capacity network transport
● Maximize router port density and wavelength utilization by plugging coherent optics into QSFP-DD ports
● Align coherent optics and routing life cycles across 400G, 800G and future high capacity platforms
Use cases for coherent pluggable optics
Cisco offers several models of 400G QSFP-DD coherent pluggable optics that are designed for increasing capacity across point-to-point or Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) networks characterized by varying distance and insertion loss:
1. Point-to-point connections
Cisco QSFP-DD 400G ZR transceiver modules
● Cost-optimized and standardized for simple network designs.
● Reach up to 120 km with amplified links with up to 25.6T capacity per fiber pair.
● Examples: data center interconnect and data center-to-peering sites.
Cisco QSFP-DD 400G ZR+ transceiver modules
● Configurable modulation and dispersion tolerance for optimization across various fiber links.
● High-performance Forward Error Correction (FEC) for longer transmission distances.
● Reach up to 1000km at 400G with amplified links to meet metro and regional needs.
● Examples: metro and regional networks and data center interconnect.
Cisco QSFP-DD ZR+ High-Tx Power transceiver modules
● Integrated optical amplifier offers higher transmission power and longer reach.
● Reach up to 1200km at 400G and compatible with any type of DWDM infrastructure.
● Examples: data center interconnect across longer reaches without amplification.
Cisco QSFP-DD 400G ER1
● Transmit a single wavelength of 400Gbps connectivity up to 45km distance
● Examples: unamplified point-to-point dark fiber applications including datacenter interconnect, campus interconnect, wireless backhaul and metro access/aggregation.
2. Existing ROADM infrastructure
Cisco QSFP-DD ZR+ High-Tx Power transceiver modules
● Designed for ROADM, long distance, and brownfield networks.
● High transmission power of 1dBM compatible with deployed ROADM networks.
● Reach up to 1200km at 400G and compatible with any type of DWDM infrastructure.
● Integrated optical amplifier offers higher transmission power and longer reach.
● Examples: metro and regional brownfield Colorless, Directionless, Contentionless (CDC) ROADM networks requiring interoperability with existing transponders and line systems.
See Cisco 400G QSFP-DD ZR/ZR+ modules 400G QSFP-DD ZR+ High-TX Power and 400G QSFP-DD ER1 modules for detailed product information.
Visit Cisco Optics to learn more about Cisco coherent pluggable optics.