40G QSFP+ SR4 and 10G SFP+ SR networking connection solution

The branch deployment of the current port has become one of the popular network construction methods, and has promoted the development of the parallel optical module market. At present, the commonly used parallel modules are 40G QSFP+ SR4 and 100G QSFP28 SR4, which can be converted into 4 10G/25G links for linking. This parallel optical module is beneficial to multi-link applications, such as building a large-scale spine-leaf network structure that can be applied to high-density 10G/25G networks. This article will introduce the cost-effective port branch connection solution between 40G QSFP+ SR4 and 10G SFP+ SR.

Due to the explosion of wireless and mobile devices, cloud data centers and enterprises continue to upgrade their networks, so data centers are often the earliest adopters of the highest transfer rates. A density revolution is taking place in the world of structured cabling, where the density of passive fiber optic hardware in the data center has doubled to a port count of 288 fibers in a 4U fiber optic patch panel, be it LC or MTP connectors. This increase has been transferred to the switch side, deploying the port branch configuration can enable a switch board to achieve 3 times the processing power when processing a 10G network.

Before understanding the port branch deployment, we need to understand the type of optical module. The currently dominant high-density 1G and 10G optical modules, as the speed increases to 40G, the 4-channel small form-factor pluggable design (QSFP+) has become the choice for high-density optical modules. The 40G QSFP+ SR4 optical module is configured with four independent 10G optics that emit light from the front end of the optical module through an eight-core fiber. This design allows the 40G transceiver to operate as four independent 10G links or a native 40G link.

Running 10G networks on parallel ports, high-density SFP+ switch line cards are typically equipped with up to 48 ports. However, with 36 QSFP+ ports operating in breakout mode, each 40G port can act as four independent 10G ports, tripling the line card capacity to 144 10G ports on a single line card.