The Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP) is a compact, hot-pluggable transceiver used for data communications applications. It interfaces networking hardware to a fiber optic cable or active or passive electrical copper connection. It is an industry format jointly developed and supported by many network component vendors, allowing data rates from 4x10 Gbit/s.[1] The format specification is evolving to enable higher data rates; as of May 2013, highest possible rate is 4x28 Gbit/s (also known as QSFP28). The QSFP specification accommodates Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and SONET/SDH standards with different data rate options. QSFP+ transceivers are designed to carry Serial Attached SCSI, 40G Ethernet (100G using QSFP28), QDR (40G) and FDR (56G) Infiniband, and other communications standards. QSFP modules increase the port-density by 3x-4x compared to SFP+ modules.

Switch and router manufacturers implementing QSFP ports in their products frequently allow for the use of a single QSFP port as four independent 10 gigabit ethernet connections, greatly increasing port density in a 1U height 24-port switch (24 40Gb ports x 4 = 96 10GbE). QSFP has 38 pins with 4 high-speed TX pairs (CML-I) and 4 high-speed RX pairs (CML-O). Transceiver can be prepared as compatible with: Cisco, HP, Netgear, Avaya, D-Link, Brocade, Extreme Networks, Huawei, Enterasys, 3Com, Alcatel-Lucent and other. To confirm compatibility please contact technical support before ordering.

For more information please check categories of QSFP+ optical transceivers listed below.