Linear-Drive Pluggable Optics

Overview

Linear-Drive Pluggable Optics (LPO) is a pluggable transceiver standard that eliminates the power-hungry DSP retimer from the optical module, instead relying on the DSP embedded in the switch ASIC (such as Broadcom's Tomahawk series) to perform equalization. This reduces module power consumption versus conventional digital signal processing optics while preserving the pluggable form factor and supply chain flexibility that switch operators depend on.

LPO sits as an intermediate step between conventional pluggables and full Co-Packaged Optics (CPO). In a GB300 NVL72 rack context, LPO reduces per-rack networking power from ~8 kW (pluggable) to ~6 kW, compared to CPO's 1.5–2 kW. Arista Networks is a strong proponent of LPO; Micas Networks supports LPO on every port across its TH5 and TH6 switch portfolio.

Industry consensus at OCP 2025 was that LPO works at 200G per lane but will not scale to 400G per lane, making CPO adoption inevitable for the next switch generation. For the 1.6T generation, LPO is forecast to capture 50–60% market share versus CPO's 10–30%, making it the dominant near-term technology before CPO matures.