Cost and power consumption are important driving forces for the development of optical communication market. For the differences between 100G CFP and QSFP28, this article will have an introduction to them in these aspects of definition, power consumption, port density, cost, and application.

CFP vs QSFP28 Round 1: Definition

CFP is a multi-source agreement (MSA) to define the form-factor of the optical transceivers for high-speed digital signal transmission. The electrical connection of a CFP uses 10x 10 Gbit/s lanes in each direction (RX, TX). While, the optical connection can support both 10x 10 Gbit/s and 4x 25 Gbit/s variants of 100 Gbit/s. 100G CFP modules offer connectivity options for a wide range of service provider transport, data center networking, and enterprise core aggregation applications.

QSFP28 transceiver module integrates 4 transmit and 4 receive channels. “28” means each lane carries up to 28G data rate. QSFP28 can do 4x 25G breakout connection, or 1x 100G connection depending on the transceiver used. For example, you can use 100G QSFP28 to 4 SFP28 DAC cables to realize 4x 25G breakout connection and LC-interface based QSFP28 with a single mode fiber (or MTP/MPO-interface based QSFP28 transceiver with a 12-fiber MTP/MPO patch cable) to get 1x 100G connection directly.

CFP vs QSFP28 Round 2: Power Consumption

Considering budget, network configuration, and overall bandwidth capabilities, power consumption plays an important role in transceiver hardware decision. The power consumption of QSFP28 optical module is usually lower than 3.5W, while the power consumption of other 100G optical modules is 6W to 24W.

CFP vs QSFP28 Round 3: Port Density

The size of QSFP28 is the smallest 100G transceiver on the market. CFP4 is only a quarter of the width of the first generation of CFP. But it is still about 66% larger than QSFP28 in packaging form. This difference in size indicates that QSFP28 is much more efficient in port utilization than CFP.

CFP vs QSFP28 Round 4: Cost

Considering the power consumption and the port density, it will cost less to use QSFP28 in the system. Also, QSFP28 is less expensive than CFP.

CFP vs QSFP28 Round 5: Application

CFP, one of the recommended 100G optical modules, is mainly applied in metro network and long-distance transmission (normally over 10km).