Driven by the enormous rise in networking access devices and applications, the total bandwidth requirements are also growing accordingly. Networking devices are needed to accommodate the higher port density. To meet these demands, several cabling solutions have been developed by network designers. Commonly used cabling options include fiber optic cables, direct attach cables and active optical cables. Of course, there also exist some other cabling solutions, like copper RJ45. But this article gives detailed information about the former three.

Fiber optic cables are primarily divided into two types based on transmission media: single-mode fiber (SMF) and multi-mode fiber (MMF).

Single-Mode Fiber—SMF, usually in yellow, has a small 8-10 micron glass core and one pathway of light, leading to the more focused light toward the center of a core instead of bouncing it off the edge of the core like MMF. Therefore, SMF is more suitable for transmitting data over longer distances, typically used in long-haul network connections when combined with transceivers. Take QSFP-40G-LR4 for example, this Fiberstore QSFP-40G-LR4 module compatible with Cisco can realize 10km link lengths when running over SMF. The figure below shows what a QSFP-40G-LR4 transceiver looks like.

Multi-Mode Fiber—MMF, usually in orange, has a larger core and more pathways of light. With multiple pathways of light, MMF can gather more light and signals than single-mode ones within shorter distances. The typical applications of MMF include general data and voice fiber, such as bringing finer to the desk, and alarm system.

Direct attach cable (DAC), a kind of optical transceiver assembly, is a form of high speed cable with "transceivers” on either end used to connect switches to routers or servers. The "transceivers” on both ends of DACs are not real optics and their components are without optical lasers. This term, DAC, is used for copper cables that can be of the passive or active type. Nowadays, direct attach copper cables still have wide applications in telecommunications, especially in 40Gigabit links, owing to their interchangeability, low cost and fast data rates. Like direct attach passive copper cable, Cisco QSFP-H40G-CU3M product is just the QSFP to QSFP direct attach passive copper cable assembly designed for 40 Gigabit links. This QSFP-H40G-CU3M product listed on Fiberstore offers you a cost-effective solution for short solution.

Active optical cable (AOC) is a cabling technology that accepts same electrical inputs as a traditional copper cable, converts the electrical signal to the optical signal—known as an electrical-to-optical conversion (i.e. E/O) in the transceiver assembly. That is to say, AOC uses electrical-to-optical conversion on the cable ends to improve speed and distance performance of the cable while mating with electrical interface standard.

With these detailed information about cabling solutions, it’s easier for you to find what kind of cabling solution you choose to build and expand your existing networking infrastructure, so as to increase bandwidth and ensure you good network performance. Fiberstore is a leading manufacturer and supplier of fiber optical products, including cabling assembly structured in both fiber and copper, like QSFP-H40G-CU3M mentioned above. You can choose the cost-effective cabling option for networking connectivity according to specific situations at Fiberstore. Please not hesitate to contact us when you come into any puzzle or question!

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