What Is The Optical Module Used For? What's The Effect?

An optical module is an optical device used for photoelectric conversion and electro-optical conversion, which is composed of optoelectronic devices, functional circuits, and optical interfaces. Optoelectronic devices include two parts: transmitting and receiving. The transmitting end converts electrical signals into optical signals. After transmission through optical fibers, the receiving end converts optical signals into electrical signals. Therefore, optical modules are also called optical transceiver modules. Although the optical module is small in size and relatively simple in structure, it has high technical requirements. With the accelerated growth of Internet traffic in recent years, the market demand for optical modules is also expanding rapidly.

Types and applications of optical modules
According to the packaging form, there are five common types of optical modules: SFP, SFP+, SFP28, QSFP+, and QSFP28. Its main application range is Ethernet, Fiber Channel, SDH, SONET, etc., and can be used in optical transceivers, switches, optical routers, optical network cards, and other equipment. The transmission rate, transmission distance, and application range of different package types of optical modules are different, as shown in the table below.

Transmission rate and package type
The transmission rate of the optical module ranges from 100Mbps to 400Gbps, and usually, the transmission rate is determined according to the data transmission rate of the link. However, optical modules of the same rate have different encapsulation types, so in this case, it is necessary to consider the type of encapsulation port of the application device. For example, the connection between two 10G SFP+ switches should choose 10G SFP+ optical modules instead of 10G XFP /X2/XENPAK optical module.

Transfer Mode
Optical modules mainly have three data transmission methods: simplex, half-duplex and full-duplex. Simplex transmission only supports data transmission in one direction; half-duplex transmission allows data transmission in two directions, but at a certain moment Only data transmission in one direction is allowed; full-duplex transmission allows data transmission in both directions simultaneously. It is best to choose an optical module that supports full-duplex transmission.

Operating Temperature
Optical modules are divided into commercial-grade optical modules and industrial-grade optical modules according to different operating temperatures. The operating temperature of commercial-grade optical modules is between 0 ° C and 70 ° C, and the operating temperature of industrial optical modules is -40 ° C ~ 85 ° C. When purchasing, it should be selected according to the actual working environment temperature of the optical module. For harsh environments such as tunnels with large temperature differences, it is most suitable to choose industrial grade. For general indoor computer rooms, choose commercial grade. Because if the working temperature of the optical module exceeds the standard range, its performance will be easily damaged, and it will be scrapped directly in severe cases.