What is LPO Transceiver?

With vast amounts of data being released by organizations and government departments, the need to organize and analyze data via data centers has grown. Handling such data transmission tasks while considering all the security aspects requires new-generation devices and technologies offering seamless connectivity and high speed.

These include advanced pluggable transceivers (LPOs), aside from switches, media converters, and so on, which together make a robust and safe network.

LPO stands for Linear-drive Pluggable Optics. These pluggable transceivers help simplify a network’s structural complexity, reduce power consumption, and enable high bandwidth for data transmission.

This post offers an overview of LPOs, their working, applications, and more.

What is LPO Technology and its Prospects?

LPO (Linear-drive Pluggable Optics) is a transceiver packaging technology. This technology is the driving factor of LPO transceivers and is beneficial for networks in many ways. It offers switch chip support to pluggable optics via an electrical link. It works based on a serializer-deserializer circuit in the switch chip that transmits the signals to the pluggable optical transceiver module.

This technology has shown to reduce the power consumption in data center networks. This is unlike traditional pluggable devices with DSP, which consume more power than LPO transceivers.

According to reports by prominent agencies, the market, while currently in the nascent stage of growth, has a huge upward trend and is projected to grow at a high compounded annual growth rate by 2030.

Applications that require high-speed internet, such as data centers, mobile communication technologies, IoT applications, and so on are the driving factors of growth in this market. LPO is also used in large and complex communication networks in mission-critical applications in defense, aerospace, and so on.

What is LPO Transceiver?

LPOs Transceiver address the challenges of modern and extensive networks in handling bulky data at high speeds. It uses linear analog components for data communication. These modules adopts the linear direct drive technology and digital signal processing (DSP), and clock and data recovery chip (CDR) are eliminated, and as a result power consumption and latency are reduced.

It eliminates the need for DSP and CDR because signal conversion, data restoration, and related functions are integrated into the chip on the device end. So, typically, LPO optical modules encompass TIA or trans-interference amplifiers with high linearity and the driver chip. The remaining functions of DSP, CDR, and time equalization are all integrated on the device end.

Also read: Optical Transceivers in Data Centers

Key Benefits of LPO Transceivers

Here are some key benefits of LPO transceivers over conventional ones.

• Reduced power consumption: According to data, 800G multimode transceivers with DSP functionality require at least 13W power. On the other hand, an LPO transceiver of the same capacity requires less than 4W as it does not have DSP. This shows, significant power saving if you choose an LPO transceiver.
• Low latency: The elimination of DSP also helps reduce data transmission latency.
• Cost-effectiveness: All these above factors, such as ease of maintenance and reduced power consumption, contribute to cost-effectiveness in the long run. While integrating equalizers may induce some cost initially, the overall performance of LPOs, and the elimination of DSP alone reduce their total cost.
• Network design simplification: This transceiver's pluggable format facilitates easy plugging and unplugging, increasing flexibility and reducing cabling.
• Low on maintenance: The flexibility and pluggable design makes it easy to maintain and upgrade the network.

Pluggable Module vs. LPO vs. CPO: Comparison Summary

Conclusion

Are you looking to expand your network or switch to fiber optics? If yes, consider using LPO transceivers, especially in network expansions and scalability. Also, ensure it is compatible with your existing connected devices. Since, this is a new technology and not yet a standard, there may be interoperability issues. Use fiber optics switches and media converters compatible with these transceiver modules. Ensure you source them from reliable manufacturers and suppliers. VERSITRON is a known name in this regard. You can partner with the company for all your requirements pertaining to fiber optic network devices. You can contact their team via phone or email for any further information you require.