Cisco says 100G transceiver technology reduces space and power needs by 70%

Telecom Lead America: Cisco says its 100G transceiver technology reduces space and power requirements by over 70 percent compared with alternative transceiver form factors, such as CFP.

The new transceiver called Cisco CPAK will initially be available on the Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP 100G coherent transponder.

Cisco says its future routing and switching line cards will also incorporate CPAK technology, which is powered by Cisco’s nLight silicon.

According to Cisco, solutions based on Cisco CPAK technology are engineered to meet increasing bandwidth demands while improving port density and reducing power consumption requirements to deploy 100G services.

Recently, Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast indicated that IP traffic has increased eightfold over the past five years and will increase threefold over the next five years.

The small footprint and reduced power consumption significantly increase face-plate density for 100 G pluggable optics, helping enable network operators to cost-effectively support traffic levels predicted for the zettabyte era.

By using mature and highly reliable CMOS fabrication technology, Cisco is able to take advantage of more than 40 years and $400 billion in industry investment in proven CMOS IC technology, mitigating risks associated with esoteric fabrication technologies.

“Cisco’s CMOS design allows us to utilize the immense and highly evolved CMOS IC fabrication industry, which delivers low-cost, highly integrated and reliable components,” said Bill Gartner, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s High End Routing and Optical business unit.

Cisco’s first line card to incorporate CPAK technology is the 100Gbps CPAK Coherent DWDM line card, compatible with the ONS 15454 MSTP platform. The card uses Cisco’s 100GE IEEE standards-based LR4, SR10 and ER4 CPAK pluggables on the client interface and Cisco’s proven ultra long-haul coherent technology on the network facing (trunk) interface.

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