Tag Archives: 12 fiber MPO connector

Focus on 100G QSFP28 Transceiver

To satisfy the increasing demand for high speed data transmission, network technology has been developed rapidly, from Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet to 10G, 40G, and even 100G Ethernet. And we know that 40G network technology has been widely applied for a long time. But now, the time of 100G is coming. Though for many data centers, 40G is enough for them now, the pace of development is unpredictable. In addition, some data centers have been already migrated to 100G and a range of 100G fiber optic transceivers are available on the market, among which 100G QSFP28 transceivers are considered to be the preference choice. This article will focus on 100G QSFP28 transceiver and help you choose a suitable 100G transceiver for your network deployment. First, let’s come to the basic knowledge of four 100G QSFP28 transceiver types.

100G-SR4 QSFP28 Transceiver

100G-SR4 transceiver offers four independent full-duplex transmit and receiver channels, each capable of running up to 25Gpbs data rate per channel. Like 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ transceiver, 100G-SR4 transceiver is structured with 12 fiber MPO connector interface and it can support 100G data transmission with link length up to 70 meters over OM3 and 100 meters over OM4.

100GBASE-PSM4 QSFP28 Transceiver

100GBASE-PSM4 is defined by MSA and it uses four independent parallel lanes for each signal direction, with each lane carrying 25G data transmission. Terminated with 12 fiber MPO connector interface, it can support 100G data transmission with link length up to 500 meters over single-mode fiber.

100GBASE-CWDM4 QSFP28 Transceiver

100GBASE-CWDM4 transceiver complies with the requirement of CWDM4 MSA. Based on CWDM technology, the 100GBASE-CWDM4 transceiver uses four lanes of 25Gbps. On the transmit side, the four 25G optical signals are multiplexed while on the receive side, the four 25G optical signals are de-multiplexed. Terminated with duplex LC interface, it can support 100G data transmission with link length up to 2 kilometers over single-mode fiber.

100G-LR4 QSFP28 Transceiver

100G-LR4 transceiver uses the WDM technologies for four 25G lanes transmission and the four 25G optical signals are being transmitted over four different wavelengths. Like 40G-LR4 QSFP+ transceiver, the 100G-LR4 transceiver has duplex LC interface and it can support 100G dual-way data transmission with link length up to 10 kilometers over single-mode fiber.

Which One to Choose?

From the above content, we can easily find that among four types of 100G QSFP28 transceivers, there are not only differences but also similarities. For example, 100G-SR4  and 100GBASE-PSM4 are with MTP/MPO interface, while 100G-CWDM4 and 100G-LR4 are with LC interface; 100G-SR4 is suitable for for short distance over multimode fiber, while 100GBASE-PSM4 QSFP28, 100G-CWDM4 and 100G-LR4 are suitable for long distance over single-mode fiber. Which one to choose depends on your specific requirements for network deployment. To better distinguish these four 100G transceiver types, here is a table for you.

four 100G QSFP28 transceiver types

Conclusion

100G QSFP28 transceiver is designed for high port density with small compact size and low power consumption. As 100G Ethernet is an inevitable trend, 100G QSFP28 transceiver is the key for 100G migration. Therefore, it is necessary to have a basic knowledge about 100G QSFP28 transceiver. Apart from this, before you carry out your network deployment, choosing a suitable transceiver is essential. All four 100G QSFP28 transceiver types mentioned in this article can be found in FS.COM. If you want to know more details, please visit our site.

Related article: Cabling Solutions for 100G QSFP28 Transceiver

MTP Connectivity — Low-loss Multifiber Connectivity

It is not difficult to understand that MTP connectivity is widely applied in 40G and 100G network applications because it is a multifiber connectivity, which can meet the demand for high-density cabling. As a matter of fact, there is another key advantage of MTP connectivity, that is low-loss. With the length and type of the fiber cable, number of connectors and splices all contributing to the link loss, there is no doubt that insertion loss is inevitable during the cabling process. Therefore, cabling solution with low-loss will be preferred by data center managers, who are now regarding optical insertion loss budgets as one of the top concerns. But what contributes to low-loss in MTP connectivity? This post will show you the answer.

Low-loss Connector

Typical MPO/MTP fiber connector, which is used for 40 and 100 GbE deployments, has insertion loss values that range from 0.3 dB to 0.5 dB. In addition, MPO/MTP connector is structured with MT ferrule which has low insertion loss and can provide accurate fiber alignment. Take 12 fiber MPO connector and 24 fiber MPO connector for example, with low-loss ferrules, the insertion loss of both two type of connectors can be rated at 0.35 dB maximum. Reading this, you may ask shouldn’t the result be that higher fiber count will lead to higher insertion loss? The answer is no. Because when using proper polishing techniques, 24-fiber MPO/MTP terminations can meet the same performance levels as 12-fiber MPO/MTP assemblies.

Low-loss Cable

We know that OM3 and OM4 fibers used in MTP connectivity utilize 850 nm source, and IEEE 40GBASE-SR4 and 100GBASE-SR10 standards for 40 and 100 GbE over multimode fiber have more stringent loss requirements for these two types of fibers, which lowers the overall channel loss. As shown in the following table, as speeds have increased from 1 Gb/s to 40 and 100 Gb/s, maximum channel distance and loss has decreased significantly. For OM3 fiber cabling, the 40 and 100 GbE standards allows for a channel distance of 100 meters with a maximum channel loss of 1.9 dB, including a maximum connector loss of 1.5 dB; for OM4 fiber cabling, the distance is increased to 150 meters but with a maximum channel loss of 1.5 dB, including a maximum connector loss of 1.0 dB.

channel loss of OM3 and OM4 fibers

Note: Current TIA and ISO standards require a minimum of OM3 fiber, while TIA recommends the use of OM4 due to its longer transmission capabilities. In fact, the 100GBASE-SR4 standard that uses eight fibers (four for transmitting and four for receiving) at 25 Gb/s is anticipated to be supported by OM4 fiber to 100 meters, but to only 70 meters using OM3.

Conclusion

In today’s large virtualized server environments with high speed 40 and 100 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) backbone switch-to-switch deployments for networking and storage area networks (SANs), staying within the loss budget is essential for ensuring that optical data signals can be properly transmitted from one switch to another without high bit error rates and performance degradation. MTP connectivity, based on low-loss MPO/MTP connector, OM3 and OM4 fibers, is able to reduce the insertion loss to a minimum, which makes this low-loss multifiber connectivity take its place on the market. FS.COM provides high-quality MTP assemblies, such as MTP/MPO fanout cable, MTP MPO trunk cable, MTP cassette and so on. If you want to know more details, please visit our site.