Networking

40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ transceivers is now being widely used for 40G network interconnection in short distance. This is a highly integrated component which has small size and uses four channels to support conversions between optical signals and electrical signals over a high data rate up to 40G. However, another component which can replace this transceiver in network interconnection becomes popular in data center application. It is 40GBASE QSFP+ AOC (active optical cable). AOC is a kind of direct attached cable (DAC), which is available in 10G, 40G and even 120G. 40GBASE QSFP+ AOC contains a QSFP+ connector on one end and one QSFP+ connector on the other end which are linked by a length of fiber optic cable. There are also fanout versions of 40GBASE QSFP+ AOC with one end connected with a QSFP+ connector and the other end with several SFP+/XFP connectors. It looks like a fiber optic patch cable, but, it has a similar function of optical transceiver, and also can transmission signals with...

In today’s data center,  direct attached cable  (DAC) is widely used for interconnection. With 40G migration, DAC becomes more popular, because they can support the high data rate and complete the interconnection in short time effectively. Currently, there are three types of DACs: passive copper cable, active copper cable and active optical cable (AOC). However, different DAC have different performances and prices. Passive or active? Copper or optical? Which DAC is the one you need? In data center, the battle between performance, transmission distance and cost has never ended. This is also true to the selection of DAC for 40G data center interconnection. To find a cost-effective  40G DAC  solution for data center interconnection with reliability and stability, this article will provide you the solution by several rounds of battle between the three types of DAC. Battle Over Transmission Distance The first round of battle is transmission distance which is alwa...

Bandwidth usage is soaring, driven by the proliferation of Internet-connected devices. At this time, active optical cable (AOC) has emerged. Besides, the market of AOCs keeps growing and has a broad prospect. What’s active optical cables? Why should we use it? In this article, some knowledge of active optical cables will be provided. Introduction to Active Optical Cable (AOC) Active optical cable (AOC) is used for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications. Usually, the wire transmission of optical communication should belong to passive part, but AOC is an exception. AOC consist of multimode optical fiber, fiber optic transceivers, control chip and modules. It uses electrical-to-optical conversion on the cable ends to improve speed and distance performance of the cable without sacrificing compatibility with standard electrical interfaces. Since people expect more information to be available at their fingertips, our communications systems will need ...