Cisco Technology, Inc.

Carlo Mariotti

Carlo Tosetti

Damiano Rossetti

Federico Fontanella

Marco Mazzini

A method is provided to lower the overall power consumption of small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers. The method includes receiving an indication to operate the SFP transceiver in a low power mode, and setting the SFP transceiver to a low power mode in response to the indication by at least switching off a thermal electric cooler (TEC) that controls a temperature of a laser diode of the SFP transceiver. The proposed method may be implemented whenever a reach is not more than a predetermined distance, for example, 65 kilometers. At such reduced distances, the TEC of the SFP transceiver can be switched off while still guaranteeing link functionality. The instant low power mode has the benefit of reducing the power consumption of the SFP transceiver so that, for example, host platforms with lower power delivery budgets can support the SFP transceiver for at least some applications.

Low power consumption small form-factor pluggable transceiver

An apparatus for connecting a host device to an optical network, and to provide a bi-directional electro-optic interface to the host device. The apparatus comprises at least one optical network port for connection to the optical network, and a transceiver circuit configured to generate optical transmit signals for transmission via the at least one network port. The transceiver circuit is further configured to process optical receive signals received via the network port. The apparatus further comprises an optical connector configured to provide bi-directional transfer of optical data signals with the host device.

Pluggable module with bi-directional host-module optical interface

Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to one example embodiment, a method may include transmitting a semiconductor laser-generated optical signal from a first end of a multi-mode fiber (MMF) optical link to a second end of the link. The optical signal may have a reference bandwidth at the first end of the link. The method may further include converting the optical signal to an electrical signal. The method may further include analyzing the electrical signal with an electronic dispersion compensator to determine an effective modal bandwidth (EMBW) of the received optical signal. The method may further include analyzing the electrical signal with an electronic dispersion compensator to determine an intersymbol interference (ISI) penalty of the optical link. The method may further include comparing the EMBW and the ISI penalty to predetermined threshold values of a tolerable EMBW and a tolerable ISI penalty, respectively, to characterize the optical link as acceptable or unacceptable for use as a communications link with a predetermined communications protocol.

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Monza, Italy

Carlo Mariotti