Optical fibre communication has fully replaced cable communication due to the advantages of high transmission quality, small size and weight, etc. As an important part of optical fibre communication, optical module mainly serves as an optoelectronic signal converter, which converts the electrical signal of the network equipment into an optical signal, so that the data can be transmitted in the optical fibre. The following Walsun optical communication (Walsun) will give you an introduction to the classification of optical modules.

First of all, we can classify optical modules into several categories, which are FC Fibre Channel Optical Module (which is mainly used in storage area network), Ethernet Optical Module, that is, we usually contact with grey optical module (ordinary optical module) and colour optical module (WDM), which is mainly used in equipment communication network.

FC Fibre Channel optical modules can be used in storage devices, servers, Fibre Channel switches and other equipment, and currently supports transmission rates of 8Gbps/16Gbps/32Gbps and so on.

Ethernet optical modules can be divided into dual-fibre optical modules, BIDI single-fibre optical modules, wave split optical modules (which contains CWDM optical modules, DWDM optical modules).

Learn more about CDWM Optical Modules：25G SFP28 CWDM LR

Dual-fiber optical module is more common transmission rate of 1.25G/10G/25G/40G/56G/100G/400G, according to the type of transmission fiber, can be divided into multi-mode optical module and single-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module transmission distance is relatively short, the central wavelength of the 850nm is mainly used, which needs to be used with multi-mode fiber (OM1/OM2/OM3/OM4) together, multi-mode optical module interface type, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module, multi-mode optical module. Single-mode optical module is used for long distance transmission, the central wavelength is mainly 1310nm, 1490nm, 1550nm, and it is mainly used with single-mode optical fibre OS2, and the interface type of single-mode optical module is mainly LC and SC.

1.25G dual-fibre optical module common package type for the SFP, 1.25G SFP dual-fibre optical module can transmit up to 160km;

10G dual-fibre optical module common package type for SFP +, XFP, of which 10G SFP + dual-fibre optical module can be transmitted up to 100km, 10G XFP dual-fibre optical module can be transmitted up to 100km;

The encapsulation type of 25G dual-fibre optical module is SFP28, which can transmit up to 40km; the encapsulation type of 40G dual-fibre optical module is QSFP+, which can transmit up to 40km; the encapsulation type of 100G dual-fibre optical module is QSFP28, which can transmit up to 40km.

The more common transmission rates of BIDI optical modules are 1.25G/10Gbps/25Gbps/40Gbps. 1.25G SFP BIDI optical modules can transmit up to 160km; 10G SFP+ BIDI optical modules can transmit up to 80km; 10G XFP BIDI single-fibre optical modules can transmit up to 100km; 25G SFP28 BIDI optical modules can transmit up to 100km; 10G XFP BIDI single-fibre optical modules can transmit up to 100km. SFP28 BIDI optical modules can transmit up to 40km; 40G QSFP+ BIDI optical modules can transmit up to 150m.

The most common WDM modules are CWDM optical module and DWDM optical module, the central wavelength range of CWDM optical module is 1270nm-1610nm, with a band spacing of 20nm, a total of 18 channels are available, usually 1470-1610nm band is used, the commonly used transmission distances are 40KM, 80KM, and 120KM.The transmission rates of CWDM optical module are 155M, 1.25G, 2.5G, 10G, corresponding to SFP, SFP+/XFP package type respectively.

The wavelength of DWDM optical module is located in C-band (C17-C61 channels), ranging from 1563.86-1528.77nm, with a band spacing of 0.8nm, and there are 45 channels to choose from, with a commonly used transmission distance of 40KM and 80KM. 10G DWDM optical module has two types of packaging: SFP+ and XFP.

The above is Walsun Optical Communications (Walsun) to give you a collation of the classification of optical modules, optical modules due to different application scenarios, is divided into a variety of models, you need to understand the relevant parameters of each model and application scenarios.