How to Distinguish CFP and CXP Optical Transceivers

Even though CFP and CXP have similar abbreviations and appear almost simultaneously, their
form factor is different in size, density and target applications. CFP and CXP form factors are both
hot-swappable, support for sending and receiving functions, and support for data rates of
40Gbps and 100Gbps. CFP is mainly targeted at 40G and 100G Ethernet applications, supports
single-mode or multimode fiber, and can adapt to a series of data rates, protocols and link
lengths. On the contrary, CXP is mainly targeted at the cluster and high-speed computing markets.
Therefore, judging from these aspects, CFP and CXP complement each other, not competing. In
this article, Gigalight (gigalight.com) will take a look at these two optical transceiver transceivers,
and to help you better distinguish them.

What Is CFP Optical Transceiver?

Designed primarily for the 100G market, the CFP optical transceiver is specifically sized for long
range interfaces and single-mode fiber applications. It is 120mm long and 86mm wide. It is the
same length as a 10G XENPAK optical transceiver but twice as wide. At the same time this optical
transceiver has good thermal performance, making it in the process of using small power
consumption.

Gigalight can provide several kinds of mainstream CFP optical transceivers: CFP 100GBASE-SR10,
CFP 100GBASE-LR4, CFP2 100GBASE-SR10, CFP2 100GBASE-LR4, and 100GBASE-SR4 CFP4.
Besides, it will release the latest 100G CFP2 ER4/100G CFP ER4 in January, 2018. These optical
transceivers can achieve different transmission distances by connecting with different types of
optical fibers.

Module Connector Transmission Distance

CFP 100GBASE-SR10 MPO 400M
CFP 100GBASE-LR4 Dual LC 10KM
CFP2 100GBASE-SR10 MPO 400M
CFP2 100GBASE-LR4 Dual LC 10KM
CFP4 100GBASE-SR4 MDIO 100M

What Is CXP Optical Transceiver?

CXP optical transceiver is 45 mm long and 27 mm wide and optically larger in size than the XFP
optical transceiver. Built-in 12 transmission channels, each channel to 10Gb / s speed, the
maximum rate of up to 120G, mainly used to meet the high density of data centers, usually with
multi-mode fiber optic ribbon used in parallel, the transmission distance up to 100 meters. The
following table will take CXP 100GBASE-SR10 as an example to understand the parameters of this
optical transceiver.

Module CXP 100GBASE-SR10 Supplier inFiberone

Form Factor CXP Wavelength 850nm
Connector MPO Data Rate 120G
Transmission Distance 400m Maximum Link Length 300m on OM3 or
400m on OM4

What Is the Relationship between CFP and CXP?

There are many similarities and differences between CFP optical transceivers and CXP optical
transceivers, and in some cases, there is competition between CFP optical transceivers and CXP
optical transceivers because CFP can also be used with multimode optical fibers. The specific
depends on the user's choice, if you need to build a network that can adapt to a variety of speeds
then use the CFP optical transceiver; if it is mainly used for short-distance transmission, then may
need more CXP optical transceiver. CFP and CXP form factors are complementary, CFP is mainly
used in Ethernet switches, core routers and optical transmission equipment, and CXP is used in
the Data Center market.

No matter which optical transceiver you need, Gigalight can meet your needs. There are also
other optical communication products like 100G optical transceivers that can help you solve
optical network issues.