- All
- Product Name
- Product Keyword
- Product Model
- Product Summary
- Product Description
- Multi Field Search
Views: 399 Author: Addams Publish Time: 2025-07-21 Origin: Site
SFP modules are active components that consume power when running. Their power consumption is very small. The regular power consumption of 10G modules is about 1W, which looks very small, right? But you didn't take the quantity into consideration. A 48-port switch can be fully equipped with 48 10G SFP+ modules. The optical module consumes 50W of power. In addition, the high-density deployment of the module blocks requires the configuration of active cooling equipment to maintain the normal operation of the module. These may consume 150W of power in total. The increase in power consumption has led to a sharp decrease in power consumption. In the operating costs of data centers, the cost of electricity accounts for 57%. This high proportion of equipment power consumption has become an important part of data centers that cannot be ignored. Therefore, understanding the source, distribution and optimization of SFP module power consumption is an important means to improve the operating efficiency of data centers, and it is also a comprehensive game between data center deployment density, reliability and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).
Functional Components | Typical proportion | Main power consuming devices | Remark |
Transmitter | 50 %–65 % | Laser, Driver, Bias Circuit | Long-distance modules require large current bias, which increases power consumption dramatically |
Receiver | 15 %–25 % | TIA、LA、CDR | CDRs with a rate of 25G/50G or above account for a high proportion |
Power Conversion | 10 %–15 % | LDO or DC-DC | Efficiency 80%–90%, heat loss |
Taking YXFiber's 10G LR module YXF-PP-S31L-10D as an example, its normal power consumption is about 1W, of which the DFB laser at the transmitting end accounts for about 0.6W, the PIN receiver at the receiving end accounts for about 0.3W, and the remaining power loss and circuit board loss account for about 0.1W. These are the main sources of power consumption of SFP modules.
Take YXFiber's 10G-T RJ45 module YXF-PP-T as an example. They all use SFP+ packaging, but the main control chips used at different prices are inconsistent. Different PHY chips will have different power consumption performance. The specific power consumption comparison is as follows:
Chip Solution | Typical power consumption (10 G, 30 m) |
Realtek | 2.3W |
Marvell | 2.6 W |
For cost and safety reasons, modules with different transmission distances use different lasers. Currently, the most commonly used are VCSEL (short distance), DFB/EML (medium and long distance), and EML + SOA PIN (long distance). Their power consumption is as follows:
VCSEL (850 nm, multimode): < 1 W
DFB/EML (1310 nm/1550 nm, single mode): 1.2–2 W
EML + SOA (80 km): > 2 W
In order to save power consumption, extend the service life of SFP modules and reduce the failure rate of SFP modules, some manufacturers will turn off the power supply of the transmitter when the module is idle, so that the laser stops working. From the above, we can know that the power consumption of the laser accounts for 60% of the entire SFP module. When the laser stops working, the power consumption of the SFP module can be greatly reduced, but this requires the design and scheduling capabilities of the manufacturer. After all, if the design and scheduling are unreasonable, the SFP module needs to be re-inserted and unplugged to activate the laser after the module is in standby mode, which will increase the complexity and time of operation and maintenance. Usually, the link wake-up time will be designed to be < 100 ms.
The power consumption in the SFP module specification is the nominal power consumption, but when selecting, you should give priority to the "power consumption vs temperature curve" instead of only referring to the nominal value. After all, the real-time power consumption of the module is floating, and the power consumption may increase by 15% at high temperatures (> 70 °C).
Leave enough margin for the power budget in the BOM. SFP modules are consumables. For data centers, they will replace old modules with new ones every three years. The power consumption of modules from different suppliers is different, but even the slightest difference will become insignificant under the huge number of users. Therefore, it is important to leave enough margin for power consumption.
The difference between 0.8 W and 1 W of SFP modules will be magnified into hundreds of kilowatts in large-scale deployment, which means greater power investment and heat dissipation support. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the power consumption of SFP modules so that engineers can be well prepared when planning and reduce the subsequent maintenance funds.
