December 18, 2015
With the continued requirement for expansion and scalability in the data center, deployment of an optical connectivity solution must allow the infrastructure to meet these requirements for current and future data rates. 40 Gigabit cabling solutions just permit the physical expansion of the data center with respect to additional servers, switches or storage devices, as well as the scalability of the infrastructure to support a migration path for increasing data rates. This discussion now shifts towards higher speed interconnects compared with 10G solutions—namely 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE).
Just as 10GbE is going through widespread deployment in the data center, 40GbE is also becoming inescapably compelling in terms of business case in telecommunication market. Actually, one of my last articles has introduced some information about 40GbE technology and its physical standards. So, today’s introduction starts from another different aspects, such as its background, the applications, etc.
In 2006, the IEEE 802.3 working group formed the Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) and found that the Ethernet ecosystem needed something faster than 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The growth in bandwidth for network aggregation applications was found to be outpacing the capabilities of networks employing link aggregation with 10 Gigabit Ethernet. As the HSSG studied the issue, it was determined that computing and network aggregation applications were growing at different rates. For the first time in the history of Ethernet, a Higher Speed Study Group determined that one new rate was needed: 40 gigabit per second for server and computing applications.
Parallel optics transmission, compared to traditional serial transmission, uses a parallel optical interface where data is simultaneously transmitted and received over multiple fibers. The 40GbE interfaces are 4 x 10G channels on four fibers per direction. OM3 and OM4 are the generally recommended multi-mode fibers included in the 40GbE standard.
Cabling for 40GbE can be optical fiber or copper. As for optical fibers, single-mode fibers can also be the cabling solutions for 40GbE transmission, besides multi-mode fibers mentioned above.
When talking about copper cabling solutions, twinax copper cable, widely used for Gigabit transmission, is typically applied for SFP+/QSFP+ direct attach copper cable solutions. Direct attach copper cable comes in either active or passive copper cable assembly. Take 40G-QSFP-QSFP-C-0301, Fiberstore compatible Brocade 40G-QSFP-QSFP-C-0301 runs over active copper cable to establish a 40-gigabit link. And Extreme Networks 10311 listed in Fiberstore operates over passive copper cable. The figure below shows what QSFP+ to QSFP+passive copper cable assembly (Extreme Networks 10311) is.
Additionally, active optic cable, one kind of direct attach cable, can also serve as the alternative cabling solution for 40GbG transmission. For instance, Cisco QSFP-4X10G-AOC2M is QSFP+ to 4SFP+ active optical cable assembly, designed for very short distances.
Similar to the push behind 10G Ethernet, the drivers for Ethernet speeds of 40G are the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as virtualization, high-performance computing, business continuity, video on demand, etc. Video-based applications in particular continue to dominate network bandwidth needs.
40GbE helps to guarantee the performance of data transmission at high-speed. Fiberstore offers various 40GbE transmission products, including 40G transceivers and 40G cabling (eg 40G-QSFP-QSFP-C-0301, Extreme Networks 10311, QSFP-4X10G-AOC2M). For more information about 40GbE solutions, please visit Fiberstore.
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