Recent years have seen the evolution towards the Internet of Things (IoT) and the explosion of cloud computing and 5G, raising large pressure on data centers to ramp up both network capacity to 400G and driving cloud service providers and data centers to search for new solutions to achieve their 400G Data Center Interconnects (DCIs).

In order to provide a cost-optimized solution for connecting switches together in a rack or data center, Ethernet switch suppliers want to maximize the density of optical transceiver ports on their equipment. This allows them to offer the maximum number of channels and the lowest cost per bit of traffic.

The 200G QSFP56 optical module and the 200G QSFP-DD optical module are two mainstream solutions for 200G optical interconnects. The QSFP56 utilizes mainstream digital signal processors (DSPs) to help cloud data centers meet the tough challenges of achieving more efficient optical interconnects at a flexible and scalable scale and low cost.

With the unprecedented growth of networks such as data centers, high-performance computing networks, enterprise core, and distribution layers, and service provider applications, there is an urgent need for a cost-effective, high density, low power 100G Ethernet connectivity solution.

Today, the momentum of optical modules is unstoppable, with 100G optical modules taking up most of the market share, such as 100G CFP and QSFP28. So 100G CFP vs QSFP28, what are the differences and how to choose? This article will detail CFP and QSFP28 and the specific applications they cover.