8F-Light MTP/MPO cabling

MTP/MPO fiber cables and related components are now widely deployed in high speed fiber optic transmission system. MTP/MPO cables really provide great performance during 40G and 100G transmission over both short and long transmission distances. But there are so many types of MTP/MPO components like MTP/MPO cables, MTP/MPO cassettes, MTP/MPO adapters, MTP/MPO patch panels, etc. And all of these products are available in different MTP/MPO polarity types. Customers can get confused easily by these MTP/MPO products.

In addition, unlike traditional duplex transmission on two fibers or BiDi transmission over a single fiber, MTP/MPO system transmits optical signal over 12, 24 or more fibers at the same time. More fibers and cables are employed in MTP/MPO cabling system. Thus, technicians in data center or server room are still facing a headache problem which is MTP/MPO cable management. This post is to offer the details of a commonly used MTP/MPO cabling system—8F-Light MTP/MPO cable system for better understanding, selecting and management of MTP products.


8F-Light MTP/MPO Cabling Solutions

The 8F-Light MTP/MPO Cabling Solutions are usually used for three solutions:Data center networking backbone,System equipment,Converge and protect interface.From the picture ,you can get a over view of each situation.


Direct Connection Program
This direct connection program is only recommended for using in a row of racks or cabinets.The following figure shows the parallel transceiver connected to four dual-port transceivers ,and parallel transceivers connected to the parallel transceiver.



Interconnection Program
In the base-8 structured cabling system ,Gigalight 8F-Light solution is widely used,especially in the cross-connection among racks .It is terminated with optical jumper to connect the transceiver of equipment,but in the optical mid-connections,we use the panel /cassette module/trunk cable to achieve cross-connection,which not only optimize the cabling ,but also make full use of resources for management ,upgrades and conversion.


Upgrade and Migration
Except the above application scenario,Gigalight 8F-light MTP/MPO solutions can also be used in 12-fiber and 24-fiber optical networking.The following pictures show the connection methods.

Compared with 12-fiber,Base-8 Shines the Light
Base-12 connectivity is common in data center, but here comes a problem when installed it in a parallel system. For example, if we need to use 40GBase-SR4 optics implemented in a 12-fiber infrastructure, four fibers for transmit, and four fibers for receive, leaving four fibers unused per connection, this will lead to a significant and costly loss in fiber network utilization. But Base-8 can be a more cost-effective option for end-to-end MPO to MPO channels and architectures. With 8-fiber infrastructure, the 40GBase-SR4 module will use all the 8 fibers. Base-8 connectivity makes use of fiber links in increment of 8 versus 12. The 12-fiber trunk cables are replaced with trunk cables in increment of 8: 8-fiber, 16-fiber, or 24-fiber trunk cables, etc. For some 40G and 100G applications, including SR4 (40G and 100G over parallel MMF) and PSM4 (100G over parallel SMF) supported eight-fiber transceivers, and SAN switch Base-8/Base-16 port arrangements, Base-8 connectivity is a more cost-effective choice. In these applications, Base-8 enables full fiber utilization for eight-fiber transceiver systems. But Base-8 connectivity is not optimized for all situations, including duplex protocols like 25G and 100G (duplex SMF).

Correct Co-existence of Base-8 and Base-12
If we are going to deploy Base-8 devices in our existing network, it is possible to have Base-12 and Base-8 connectivity at the same time as long as we do not mix them in the same link. On one hand, it is not wise to use conversion module between Base-12 and Base-8 devices, because the added cost and increased insertion loss will surpass the benefits it can brought. As mentioned before, the two systems are not interchangeable since they usually have different connector configurations and have unequal attachment requirements. Therefore, special care should be given when managing the data canter physical layer infrastructure, to ensure that the Base-12 and Base-8 components are used separately.


How are MPO cables connected?
To establish an MPO connection between two MPO cables, an MPO adapter is a must and the connectors should have opposing types. Which means only male to female connection is possible, not male-male or female-female. If a female connector is used on both sides of the adapter the performance would be very low because without male pins the fibers would not be aligned. On the other hand using two male connectors is not possible and might damage the connectors.

How to measure the quality of MPO cables?
After MPO cables are produced, they get cleaned and assessed both microscopically and geometrically to ensure they are clean and with high quality.
A VIAVI MPO test device is used to measure light transmittance and make sure the fiber connectors are providing standard values. In order to do the measurement.
We need 1 jumper cable fixed to the device, 1 master cable determined by the type of cable we seek to measure and the actual measured DUT cable.
The cables must be clean before the measurement and with the master cable in mind.
Afterwards, the measured cable is connected to master cable and the device in order to be tested, and a precise reading with the final measurement result is given by the device.

Conclusion
8-fiber MPO cabling system is a cost-effective and space saving solution for both 10G,40G and 100G transmission. As most of the MTP fiber products are factory pre-terminated, these products can provide fast installation and great network performance. Gigalight provides full range of MPO/MTP fiber optic products. You can visit GIGALIGHT.COM or contact sales@gigalight.com for more details about MPO/MTP fiber cabling.

What benefits will 120G CXP AOC bring ?

120G optical cable series integrate 12-channel VCSEL laser array and pin array design through the use of integrated optical engine core devices,and provide 12 parallel data channels,the maximum transmission rate per channel can support 10.5G,total bandwidth reach to 126G and transmission distance reach to 300m on OM3. 120G CXP optical cable complies with SFF-8648/EIA-965 and applied in 120G Ethernet and InfiniBand FDR and other data center interconnection scenarios.It has two solutions:


Solution 1：120G CXP to CXP Optical Cable

120G CXP to CXP Optical Cable directly uses a cable to connect a 120G CXP interface to another 120G CXP interface ,implement the interconnection between 120G and 120G devices for clients.It’s the best solution for short distance connection between 120G devices.


Solution 2：120G CXP to 3 QSFP+ active branch cable


One interface of 120G CXP to 3 QSFP+ active branch cable is 120G CXP，another interface is three 40G QSFP+ ,can implement the interconnection between 120G and 40G devices for clients which provide a economical and efficient optical interconnection solution for professional people ,and applied in adapter ,switch ,and server for 120G and 40G connection .Users can install this optical cable in 120G rated switches for power supply.

Due to the absence of exposed optical interfaces, there is no optical interface clean and contaminated issues,so 120Gb / s CXP AOC Active Cable can be flexibly and widely distributed in the data center with the cloud computer room. It has built-in DDM digital diagnostic function to meet low cost demands. Each interface power consumption is less than 2.5W,and meet the third standard of CXP protocol power level.It can be customized by customer design demands.

As we have learned two solutions of 120G CXP AOC ,but what’s the strength when compared with Copper cable and optical transceiver ?

Lighter weight --Compared with copper cable which has existed in the market for decades, it is lighter. For example, five meters of copper cable weighs about one kilogram. Ten meters of 120G CXP AOC weighs less than 150g. The weight difference is obvious. Thus, AOC has fewer chances of damage to switch ports. The lighter and thinner optical cables are easy to manage and maintain and requires less space. Besides, it allows better airflow for cooling and has lower power consumption.

Longer Distance --The other key characteristics of 120G CXP AOC is active. That’s also the big difference from copper cable. Passive copper will suffer excessive bit error rates when the distance is beyond five meters. 120G CXP AOC is in bit error rates over distance. And it can operate reliably over the distance up to 100 meters. Some AOC products can even extend the reach to 1 km.


Compared With Optical Transceiver,whether it can be still stand out ?
As the name implies, AOC comes with optical connectors on each end that provide electrical-optical conversion and optical transmission. So users can remove the pluggable copper-based transmission device (usually either a CX-4 or QSFP) and plug in the active cables transceiver/connector, whose form factor mirrors that of the copper device it replaces. Compared with the transceiver products, 120G CXP AOC can avoid some of the obstacles that fiber has encountered in data centers. What’s more, it has much greater simplicity and reliability, as it’s factory terminated. And there is no risk of mis-matching polarities, dirt entering the assemblies, or different manufacturers’ tolerance mismatching.

Because of these advantages, the demand for 120G CXP AOC is increasing as an alternative to copper cable. Some vendors such as Gigalight has rushed to develop products to meet this hot spot. Gigalight keeps improving its product line of AOC in order to better satisfy the application of 10G, 40G to 100G Ethernet. At present, there are a variety of AOCs in the market, such as 10GbE SFP+ AOCs, 40Gbps QSFP+ AOCs and 120G CXP AOCs.For more specifications ,welcome to visit Gigalight

Improve your network with 100G QSFP28 high-speed cables

Improve your network with 100G QSFP28 high-speed cables

With the universal application of 40G Ethernet ,to further achieve higher bandwidth and transmit capacity ,100G has become the trend of data transmission.Especially in OFC Fair 2016,the attention of 100G QSFP28 series has been increasing .The announcement of 100G QSFP28 standards also means that the migration of 10G/40G to 100G network adds a new solution.However ,since the market is influenced by technical difficulty and high R&D costs ,ect, QSFP28 series are available only in few of optical communication providers,and Gigalight as a company dedicated to optical communication products research and design, it is one of them.

Here are a few common 100G QSFP28 high-speed cable solutions and several popular products for your reference.

Solution 1: 100G OSFP28 to QSFP28 high-speed cable

100G QSFP28 high-speed cable directly through a cable to connect a QSFP28 interface with another QSFP28 interface , is suitable for short distance stacking and assembling among QSFP28 equipment, highly cost.100G OSFP28 to QSFP28 high-speed cable has four transport channels,due to it is 100G signal transmission, so the 100G signal can be divided into 4 road electric signals.Compared with the previous ten 10Gbps channels superimposed to reach 100G solution which has the advantage of more convenient operation and higher transmission efficiency.It includes 100G OSFP28 to QSFP28 AOC and 100G OSFP28 to QSFP28 PCC


Solution 2: 100G OSFP28 to 4SFP28 high-speed cable

Same like100G OSFP28 to QSFP28 high-speed cable , 100G OSFP28 to 4SFP28 high-speed cable also has four transport channels, each channel of transmission rate can be up to 25Gbps.The difference is 100G OSFP28 to 4SFP28 high-speed cable adopted four fan out type cable,to connect a QSFP28 interface with 4SFP28 interfaces, this makes the high-speed cable is no longer confined to their own connection between single type products, greatly improving the flexibility in the field of engineering application.It includes 100G OSFP28 to 4SFP28 AOC and 100G OSFP28 to 4SFP28 PCC


Gigalight owns a professional product research and development, systematic countermeasures to solve, and supply chain management team, now has been set up a partnership with more and more world famous enterprises , and they all gave a high evaluation for the products and services. The QSFP28 series provided by Gigalight has not only good quality certificate, but also the price is more affordable, which is recognized as a cost-effective product. Find more information ,welcome to visit Gigalight

Related articles:
Overview of 100G QSFP28 DAC Cables
Gigalight Products and Consideration on the Applications of 100GE QSFP28 in the Large-Scale Data Center（part 2）
How to optimize your cabling system to improve its performance ?

Why is 25G SFP28 optical module called newborns for data center

Most clients are looking for one optical module which is just tailored for their deployment of Data centers with higher density and low cost ,low consumption.The price of 40G optical module and 100G optical module is too high and the power consumption is too large, and the speed of 10G optical module can not meet the demand of network. Therefore, 25G SFP28 optical module was born in this case,just to make up for the deficiency between the them, greatly improve the port density and reduce the cost of network deployment, and the power consumption is relatively low.


it is a good choice for network connectivity indeed. So what is 25G Ethernet and its benefits? And what about its cables and optical modules? This article will make a brief comparison between 25G SFP28 SR & SFP28 LR optical transceiver modules, and analyze the utilization in 25G to 100G upgrading.



25G Ethernet was treated as the “new”10GbE technology once it came out in 2014. Similar to 10G Ethernet that was based on 1 x 10Gbps lane scheme, 25GbE physical interface delivers 1 x 25Gbps more data. 25GbE technology with one single lane obviously improves the port density and cost requirement. 25GbE network supports several 25Gbps capable form factors, such as CFP, CFP2, CFP4, SFP28 (1×25 Gbps) and QSFP28 transceiver (4×25 Gbps), which is also used for 100GbE. Of which 25G SFP28 SFP-25G-SR and SFP-25G-LR are two popular optical transceiver modules on the market. They are the optical transceiver with a transmission rate of 25Gbps. Mainly used in 25G Ethernet and 100G (4x25Gbps) Ethernet, and it provides the most energy efficient way to meet the growing demand of next-generation data center network.


The 25G SFP28 SR is designed to transfer data over short distance while the 25G SFP28 LR transceiver set for long distance transmission. The maximum transmission length of 25G SFP28 SR is 100 m over 50μm multimode optical fiber. The transmission distance of 25G SFP28 LR optical transceiver can be up to 10 km over single-mode fiber. Both the transceivers can be applied to data center, 10G&25G Ethernet, high-speed storage area networks and in-rack connection.The following figures show 25G SFP28 transceiver.




Advantage of 25G SFP28 transceivers:
1.Optimum input / output (I/O) performance and fiber capacity;
2.2.5 times of 10G Ethernet performance；
3.Higher port density;
4.Save capital and save operating expenses;
5.The required ToR switches and cables are less in number;
6.Lower cost and less power consumption;
7.25G more suitable Ethernet contracts standard, widely application.


Except 25G SFP28 SR &LR transceivers ,there are another kinds of SFP28 optics, 25G SFP28 AOC and DAC cables .The 25G SFP28 active optical cable is designed to overcome the bandwidth limitation of traditional copper cable so as to meet the high bandwidth in data center. It is hot pluggable and preterminated twin axial cable/fiber cable. The transmission distance can be 70 m by active optical cable with OM3 fiber. It is applicable to 25G and 10G Ethernet, data center and in-rack connection. For SFP28 DAC cable, there are two types: 25G SFP28 to SFP28 DAC and 100G QSFP28 to four SFP28 breakout DAC. These copper cables provide a cost-effective solution for connection with Top of Rack switches.The following figure shows 25G SFP28 cables.



So far, 25G Ethernet has become more and more popular in the industry, SFP28 SR and SFP28 LR are favored by data center users because they can provide economical and efficient solutions for 25G and 100G networks. Gigalight can provide a variety of brands of 25G SFP28 optical module, not only cost-effective, compatibility is also very good.Click here to find more details.

Overview of 100G QSFP28 DAC Cables

With the development of data center and optical network ,for most data centers and network service providers, if they want to remain competitive, they must upgrade their network to higher speed to deliver operational services. In the past years, we talked more about 10G and 40G. Now, the time of 100G is coming according to the latest researches from HIS. It predicts that the service providers expect their 100G ports to be 38% in 2018. There are many ways to transfer the network to 100G with various switches and standards being published, among which 100G QSFP28 modules are considered to be the preferred choice. This post will offer a specific introduction for 100G QSFP28 DAC.


QSFP28 DAC are provided in the market to further decrease the costing of 100G connections over short distance. There are mainly two types of QSFP28 direct attach cables: QSFP28 to QSFP28 DAC and QSFP28 to 4xSFP28 DAC. The former is length of copper cable terminated with a QSFP28 connector on each end. The latter is a length of breakout cable with one end terminated with QSFP28 connector and the other terminated with four SFP28 modules. QSFP28 to 4xSFP28 DAC can achieve the 25G to 100G transmission. The length of QSFP28 DAC is usually up to 5 meters which can cover a wide range of applications in data center.In stead of discrete components, QSFP28 DACs offers a complete cable assembly for short distance connectivity in a cost-effective manner. If your 100GbE deployment is within 5m intra racks, the QSFP28 DAC is ideal for you.




QSFP28 copper cables assembly features eight differential copper pairs, providing four data transmission channels at speeds up to 28Gbps per channel, and meets 100G Ethernet (4x25Gbps) and InfiniBand EDR (Enhanced Data Rate ) requirements. These 100G copper cable assembly features a unique construction with individually wrapped QSFP28 twinax cables, resulting in low insertion loss and low cross talk.

Both of them have the following --
characters:
• Supports aggregate data rates of 100 Gbps
• Compatible with all major brands
• Low insertion loss and low cross talk

Models available:
• 100G QSFP28 to 100G QSFP28 DAC passive Copper Cable
• 100G QSFP28 to 4x 25G QSFP28 DAC passive Copper Cable

Compliant:
• 100G Ethernet (IEEE 802.3bj)
• InfiniBand EDR
• SFF-8665
• RoHS compliant

Applications:
• Low EMI radiation Switches, servers and routers
• Data Center networks
• Storage area networks
• High performance computing
• Telecommunication and wireless infrastructure
• Medical diagnostics and networking
• Test and measurement equipment


Generally, they are used in the EDA (Equipment Distribution Area) where cabinets and racks house end equipment (servers) and where horizontal cabling from the HDA (Horizontal Distribution Area) is terminated at patch panels, as shown in the following picture:


Nothing can be perfect, so do the QSFP28 copper cables. Although they can save space and cost for data center managers, the drawbacks still exist. As the mainly element of DACs is copper, it is heavy and bulky, causing difficulties for management. What’s more, if DACs are deployed in high volume, the cable diameter and cable stiffness are another problem that should be considered. In this case, active optical cables (AOCs) seem to be a better choice, for they are made of thinner and more pliable optical cable.


Anyway ,though it did exists some drawbacks,it is indispensable playing role of 100G connections. If you are in the absence of one-one port cable, QSFP28 to QSFP28 100G passive DAC cable will be nice. When the one-four ports are required, and then 100G QSFP28 to 4×25G SFP28 fan-out passive DAC cable is highly recommended. For more details ,welcome to visit Gigalight’s online store ----Infiberone