Optics and Hardware Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, Cisco IOS XR Releases

400G digital coherent QSFP-DD optical modules

Updated: June 16, 2026

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Introduces 400G digital coherent QSFP-DD optical modules and explains the core idea and technical context. Highlights the main characteristics and usage guidance needed before configuration.

Cisco offers a range of the new 400G Digital Coherent QSFP-DD optical modules.

QDD-400G-ZR-S
QDD-400G-ZRP-S
DP04QSDD-HE0
DP04QSDD-HE0-A1
DP04QSDD-ER1
DP01QSDD-ZF1
DP04QSDD-ULH

Additional details

For more information about the optic module portfolio, see the Cisco 400G Digital Coherent Optics QSFP-DD Optical Modules Data Sheet.

The 400ZR-ULH modules support C-band and L-band operation and are managed entirely via OpenConfig, YANG models. You can configure and monitor modules using gNMI/gNOI protocols.

The 400G Digital Coherent QSFP-DD optical modules enable wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) functionality in the router. These optical modules are DWDM C-band (196.1 THz to 191.3 THz) tunable optical modules. They can be used in both transponder and muxponder modes.

Cisco IOS XR software creates optics and coherent DSP controllers to configure and monitor the performance of the 400G Digital Coherent QSFP-DD optical modules. Optics controllers are used to configure and monitor optical parameters, such as frequency, chromatic dispersion, transmitted output power, modulation, and so on. Coherent DSP controllers are used to monitor network performance parameters like pre- and post-forward error correction (FEC) bit-error rate (pre-FEC BER, post-FEC BER), error corrected bits (EC-BITS), and so on. Forward error correction (FEC) is configured using optical controllers and monitored using coherent DSP controllers.

The 400G Digital Coherent QSFP-DD optical modules support traffic configuration and firmware download. The Cisco IOS XR software collects performance monitoring data and alarms using versatile DOM (VDM).

Due to more power consumption by the 400G Digital Coherent QSFP-DD optical modules, the Cisco IOS XR software operates the fans at an higher speed to cool these optical modules.

The 400G Digital Coherent QSFP-DD optical module configuration is divided into these categories:

Traffic configuration – Comprises configuring DAC rate, muxponder mode, modulation, and FEC parameters. Applicable for optics controllers:
Optical configuration – Comprises configuring frequency, chromatic dispersion, and optical transmit power. Applicable for optics controllers:
Performance monitoring (PM) – Enables or disables performance monitoring in optical modules. You can also configure PM parameters that comprise signal power, chromatic dispersion, optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), and differential group delay (DGD). Applicable for optics controllers and coherent DSP controllers:
- Performance monitoring
- Configure PM parameters
Loopback configuration – Configures loopback. Applicable for coherent DSP controller:
- Configuring loopback
Alarms threshold configuration – Configures thresholds for monitoring alarms that include optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), differential group delay (DGD), chromatic dispersion (cd high and low), and so on. Applicable for optics controllers:
- Configure alarm thresholds
- FEC alarm thresholds

Feature history for 400G digital coherent optics

Provides reference information for feature history for 400g digital coherent optics, including key values, supported combinations, and related constraints.

This section describes key items, values, and supported options.

Table 1. Feature History Table
Feature Name	Release Information	Description
Support for DP04QSDD-ULH-A1 optical module	Release 25.2.1	This release introduces support for the Cisco 400G QSFP-DD Ultra Long-Haul (ULH) coherent optical module on these line cards: 88-LC0-36FH 88-LC0-36FH-M The 400G QSFP-DD ULH optics are supported on even-numbered ports only. The supported port numbers are: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34.
Extended Support for QDD-400G-ZR-S and QDD-400G-ZRP-S Optical Module	Release 25.1.1	This release introduces support for the QDD-400G-ZR-S and QDD-400G-ZRP-S optical module on these line cards: 88-LC1-12TH24FH-E 88-LC1-36EH
Extended Support for DP04QSDD-ER1 Optical Module	Release 24.4.1	This release introduces support for the Cisco 400G Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) optical module DP04QSDD-ER1 on these routers and line cards: Routers: Cisco 8201-32FH Cisco 8201-24H8FH Cisco 8608 Line cards: 88-LC1-36EH
Extended Support for DP04QSDD-HE0 Optical Module	Release 24.4.1	This release introduces support for the Cisco 400G QSFP-DD High-Power (Bright) Optical Module DP04QSDD-HE0, Ethernet Variant on these line card: 88-LC1-36EH
Added Support for DP04QSDD-ER1 and DP01QSDD-ZF1 Optical Modules	Release 24.3.1	This release introduces support for the following Optical Modules on the Cisco 8711-32FH-M router: DP04QSDD-ER1 - Cisco 400G Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) DP01QSDD-ZF1 - Cisco 100G Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD)
Support for DP04QSDD-HE0-A1 Optical Module	Release 24.2.11	This release introduces support for DP04QSDD-HE0-A1 optical module on these routers and line cards: Routers: Cisco 8201 Cisco 8202 Cisco 8201-32FH Cisco 8202-32FH-M Cisco 8201-24H8FH Line cards: 8800-LC-36FH 88-LC0-36FH-M 88-LC0-36FH 88-LC0-34H14FH
Extended Support for DP04QSDD-HE0 Optical Module	Release 24.1.1	This release introduces support for the Cisco 400G QSFP-DD High-Power (Bright) Optical Module DP04QSDD-HE0, Ethernet Variant on these routers and line cards: Routers: Cisco 8201 Cisco 8202 Line cards: 8800-LC-36FH 88-LC0-36FH-M
Extended Support for DP04QSDD-HE0 Optical Module	Release 7.10.2	From this release, the DP04QSDD-HE0 optical module is supported on these router and line cards: Router: Cisco 8202-32FH-M Line cards: 88-LC0-36FH
Extended Support for DP04QSDD-HE0 Optical Module	Release 7.10.1	This release introduces support for the Cisco 400G QSFP-DD High-Power (Bright) Optical Module DP04QSDD-HE0, Ethernet Variant on the Cisco 8608 router.
oFEC Traffic Configuration for QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.9.1	New Modulation and DAC Rate traffic configurations are supported on QDD-400G-ZRP-S optical module: 400G-TXP-1x1-16 QAM 4x100G-MXP-1x1-16 QAM 3x100G-MXP-1x1-8 QAM 2x100G-MXP-1x1-QPSK 2x100G-MXP-1x1.25-16 QAM This increases the interoperability of the QDD-400G-ZRP-S optical module across network components supporting these formats.
Support for DP04QSDD-HE0 Optical Module	Release 7.9.1	The Cisco 400G QSFP-DD High-Power (Bright) Optical Module is an enhanced version of the currently available QSFP-DD ZR+ Optical Module. It leverages the same operational modes but provides a major enhancement by increasing the Tx Optical Power up to +1dBm. From this release, the DP04QSDD-HE0 optical module is supported on the Cisco 8201-32FH and Cisco 8201-24H8FH routers.
Support for QDD-400G-ZRP-S Optical Module	Release 7.9.1	This release introduces support for the Cisco 400G QSFP-DD-ZRP-S Ethernet Variant on the Cisco 88-LC0-34H14FH line card.

Supported routers, line cards, and optical modules

This chapter describes various optical modules and their supported configurations. These fixed-port routers, line cards, from the indicated Cisco IOS XR software releases, support these optical modules.

Table 2. Fixed-port routers and optical modules support by Cisco IOS XR Release
Fixed-Port Routers	Optics PID	Minimum IOS XR Software Release
Cisco 8201	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 7.3.15
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.3.15
	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 24.1.1
	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
Cisco 8202	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 7.3.15
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.3.15
	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 24.1.1
	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
Cisco 8711-32FH-M	DP04QSDD-ER1 DP01QSDD-ZF1	Release 24.3.1
Cisco 8101-32FH	QDD-400G-ZR-S QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.3.2
Cisco 8201-32FH	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 7.9.1
Cisco 8201-32FH	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
Cisco 8201-24H8FH	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 7.9.1
Cisco 8201-24H8FH	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
Cisco 8608	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 7.10.1
Cisco 8202-32FH-M	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 7.10.2
Cisco 8202-32FH-M	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
Cisco 8212-48FH-M	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
Cisco 8212-48FH-M	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 24.3.1

Table 3. Line cards and optical modules support by Cisco IOS XR Release
Line Cards	Optics PID	Minimum IOS XR Software Release
8800-LC-36FH	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 7.3.15
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.3.15
	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 24.1.1
	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
88-LC0-36FH-M	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 7.3.15
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.3.15
	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 24.1.1
	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
	DP04QSDD-ULH	Release 25.2.1

88-LC0-36FH	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 7.3.2
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.3.2
	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 7.10.2
	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
	DP04QSDD-ULH	Release 25.2.1

88-LC1-36EH	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
	DP04QSDD-HE0	Release 24.4.1
	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 25.1.1
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 25.1.1
88-LC1-12TH24FH-E	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11
	QDD-400G-ZR-S	Release 25.1.1
	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 25.1.1
88-LC0-34H14FH	QDD-400G-ZRP-S	Release 7.9.1
88-LC0-34H14FH	DP04QSDD-HE0-A1	Release 24.2.11

This section explains functional behavior for the referenced items.

Restrictions for 400G digital coherent optics

Note

The Cisco 8010 Series Routers do not support this feature. For a list of supported features on the Cisco 8010 Series Routers, see Compatibility Matrix for Cisco 8010 Series Routers.

These restrictions apply to optics and routers:

Table 4. Restrictions on optics and routers
The...	not supported on...
QDD-400G-ZR-S and QDD-400G-ZRP-S optics are	Cisco 8102-64H fixed-port routers.
Tail Trace Identifier (TTI) feature is	QDD-400G-ZR-S and QDD-400G-ZRP-S optics.
QDD-400G-ZRP-S and DP04QSDD-HE0 optics are	odd-numbered ports of these routers and line cards: Cisco 8201 Cisco 8202 8800-LC-36FH 88-LC0-36FH-M

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