100Gbps know-how has been current within the information middle for a number of years now because of the emergence of silicon photonics, which brings collectively electrical and lightweight alerts, paving the best way for sooner velocity transfers.
Quick ahead to April 2023 and 1000’s of silicon photonics modules from Intel and Israeli firm Colorchip have been flooding eBay with costs beginning as little as $4.50 excluding supply.
The C100QSFPCWDM400B (opens in new tab) is a scorching pluggable, 100GbE QSFP28 transceiver from Colorchip with a lightweight inexperienced CWDM pull tab and was commercialized again in March 2016. It used a proprietary optical integration know-how known as SystemOnGlass to attain absolutely automated photonic integration and a 2Km vary on a single mode fiber (SMF). It’s possible that these transceivers have been decommissioned alongside different elements (servers, switches), courtesy of a US hyperscaler (Fb, Amazon, Microsoft or Google most likely) as they embark on the journey to 400Gbps and past.
Hundreds of Intel 100GBASE-CWDM4 (opens in new tab) QSFP28 transceivers have been offered (or are nonetheless on sale) on eBay for just below $5. Launched in 207, they’ve an identical design to the Colorchip mannequin however have a a lot shorter vary (500m).
What does 100Gbps connectivity mean you can do?
Now, in order for you superfast 100Gbps connectivity, you will have suitable networking gear plus fiber optic cable. A brand new Intel Omni-Path Edge 48-Port 100GbE QSFP managed change can price as much as $12,000 however could be had for a fraction of its worth, used, on eBay (lower than $700) do you have to wish to go that method.
Companies will in fact wish to have entry to 100Gbps broadband to benefit from this chance. Google has plans to deploy 100Gbps web within the US sooner or later, Vodafone and Nokia demonstrated that velocity again in 2021 with Colt, Lumen and Spectrum Enterprise asserting restricted 100Gbps companies within the US. Within the UK, Vorboss offers a 100Gbps direct access line for a mere £2,999 (about $3,700) monthly though that’s restricted to sure elements of London.
100Gbps is 500x the velocity of the typical US broadband velocity and most significantly, the velocity stays the identical downstream and upstream, making this the perfect resolution for ultrafast information transfers between suitable factors, both on or off-premises.
It’s, in fact, completely overkilled for the overwhelming majority of households however having connectivity that’s truly sooner than your native storage (assume SSD) opens the door for an entire new world of prospects: 16K content material, 4K video conferencing, real-time metaverse, lifelike holograms and many others. Simply keep in mind that bottlenecks shall be prevalent.