The XFP Multi-Source agreement specifies the next generation pluggable transceiver. The MSA document specifies the mechanical and electrical requirements for the pluggable modules, cage hardware, thermal heat sinks, and PCB connector. This technology converts serial electrical signals to external serial optical or electrical signals and is intended to be flexible enough to support OC192/STM-64, 10 G Fibre Channel, G.709, SONET and 10 G Ethernet. The module design and forecasted volumes are expected to enable very low cost 10 Gb/s solutions.
The goals of the XFP MSA are to provide a universal design for the transceiver that will be suitable for all applications (one size fits all).