The Most Economical QSFP28 AOC and Switch Solution for 100G Network

Nowadays, most users choose to deploy 10G and 40G network that perform highly and efficiently in their systems. It cannot be denied that the bandwidth and capacity the 10G and 40G network provide are enough for their needs at present. However, due to the fast developing Ethernet network technology, the scale and traffic of Internet is rapidly expanding that will make the 10G and 40G network gradually obsolete and unsuitable for data centers, especially for the large-scale ones. Along with this trend, there is no doubt that the 100G network will become the mainstream in the near future. Are you now ready for the 100G network? Or still hesitating because of the high cost? In this paper, it will introduce some 100G QSFP28 AOC and switch solutions that can help you seek the most economical one to upgrade your system from 10G/40G to 100G.

100G QSFP28 AOC Solutions

QSFP28 AOC is a cost effective cable solution for 100G short distance transmission that consists of an OM4 multimode cable and two QSFP28 connectors, supporting 100G QSFP28 standards and compliant to the QSFP MSA (multi-source agreement). The length of the cable is usually available from 1 to 30 meters and its two QSFP28 connectors are fitted at each end of the OM4 multimode cable, very convenient for inserting into and removing from 100G QSFP28 ports. In data center, the QSFP28 AOC is really a low power alternative for 100G short distance transmission, which is highly recommended for the simplified intra rack and inter rack configurations. To seek the most economical QSFP28 AOC solution, the figure below shows the prices of several famous brands of QSFP28 AOC for your reference.

100G Switch Solutions

100G switch is an improved kind of network device designed for data center that offers the signal lane for any two 100G network nodes inserted into its ports. With the popularity of 100G network, it can be also available on many famous fiber optic manufactures like Cisco, Arista, Juniper, as well as the fiber optic manufacture FS.COM. With the aim of looking for a more economical 100G switch solution, the following will mainly introduce Cisco Nexus 3232C, Arista 7500R, Juniper QFX5110 and FS.COM S5850-48S2Q4C, both of which are fitted with QSFP28 ports to support QSFP28 AOCs.

The first type of switch–Cisco Nexus 3232C is a typical kind of low latency and high-performance 100G switch that can not only fulfill our current network needs but also suit for future applications such as big data, cloud and virtualization. And all its 100G QSFP28 ports can operate at 10, 25, 40, 50 and 100 GbE. The second type–Arista 7500R switch, including 7500R-36CQ, 7500R-36Q and 7500R-48S2CQ, is designed to lower power per 100GbE port and produce more reliable and dense network, which are available in a compact system design of 12, 8 and 4 slot. The third type–Juniper QFX5110 can be simply divided into QFX5110-48S and QFX5110-32Q, both of which have 100G QSFP28 ports to support QSFP28 AOC. All these three kinds of 100G switches are very expensive which can be learned from the following figure.

Compared to the previous three types, 100G switches like S5850-48S2Q4C and S5850-20Q4C provided by FS.COM can be available at a much lower cost. In details, the S5850-48S2Q4C has 48x10GbE SFP+ ports, 2x40GbE QSFP+ ports and 4x100GbE QSFP28 ports, while the S8050-20Q4C has 2x40GbE QSFP+ ports and 4x100GbE QSFP28 ports. Both of them are the cost effective switch solutions for building 100G network.

Discussion and Conclusion

From the text above, it can be easily learned that using Arista QSFP28 AOC and switch to deploy the 100G network would cost the most that can be as high as US$ 63,000.00, while the QSFP28 AOC and switch solution provided by FS.COM would be the most economical one, available at a quite low cost usually from US$ 7,440.00 to US$ 7,530.00. Considering that, you are recommendable to use the FS.COM QSFP28 AOC and switch solution for building your 100G network. If you have already had the switch like Cisco, Arista or Juniper, you are also suggested to choose FS.COM compatible QSFP28 AOC that has been tested to assure 100% compatibility, as a much more cost-effective cable solution.

Things You Should Know to Deploy 100G Ethernet Network

Although the 10G and 40G Ethernet network still occupy the majority of fiber market at present, it is predicted that more and more users would deploy 100G Ethernet network in the following years for higher capacity and faster transmission data rate, and the 100G cabling network would finally make the 10G and 40G cabling network obsolete. Is there any evidence to support this prediction? Why to replace 10G and 40G cabling network and how to deploy the 100G cabling network? Does this statement take the cost issue into consideration since the 100G products like QSFP28 transceiver and QSFP28 breakout cable are much more expensive than the 10G and 40G products? Let’s talk about these topics and find the most cost effective way to deploy the 100G cabling network.

Why We Deploy 100G Cabling Network?

With the fast development of fiber technology, the capacity and transmission data rate that the 10G and 40G networks offer gradually can’t meet our needs and the Ethernet network is still driven to satisfy the increasing requirements of faster and easier access to larger volumes of data. Under this trend, the 100G network is come up with that enables unsurpassed bandwidth but can be only available at a high price. As the 100G technology is gradually matured, the cost for 100G network deployment is reduced a lot. Hence, more and more users would like to deploy the 100G network for bigger bandwidth, even it would still cost higher than 10G and 40G network deployment.

Which Transceiver Is the Best for Deploying 100G Network?

Before designing the 100G cabling network, we should choose the most proper 100G fiber transceiver to greatly ensure the performance of the network. Since there are four common kinds of 100G fiber transceivers–CFP, CFP2, CFP4 and QSFP28 transceiver available on the market, let’s study the basic knowledge of these 100G transceivers and discuss which one is the best choice for the 100G network deployment.

CFP transceiver is the first version of 100G transceiver which is published after the establishment of certification for the first 100G standard for Ethernet networks. The letter “C” means 100G, while the letters “FP” stand for Form factor Pluggable, just like the “FP” in the word SFP. In order to support the 100G network, it features very huge size which is much larger than 40G QSFP+ transceiver. Meanwhile, most of the CFP transceivers double the power consumption per bit and are ten times more expensive for per bit increased. All these shortcomings hinder the popularity of CFP transceiver and make the CFP2 and CFP4 transceiver published successively.

The CFP2 and CFP4 transceiver has no any improvement in the aspects like density, power consumption and cost, but be only advanced in the size aspect. From the following figure, you can learn that the size of the CFP family become more and more smaller. However, due to the high power consumption and cost, using CFP family to deploy 100G network still can’t meet the network requirement. Under this condition, experts put forward the QSFP28 transceiver solution which is much smaller and more economic than CFP family.

In contrast to the CFP family, QSFP28 transceiver is a better choice that offers four 25-Gbps lanes, totally achieving the whole 100G network. With use of this kind of 100G transceiver, the 100G network can be deployed as easy as the 10G and 40G network. Moreover, it completely eliminates the costly gearbox found in CFP and CFP2, while highly increasing density and decreasing power and price per bit. Hence, among all the 100G transceivers, the QSFP28 transceiver is the first choice for deploying 100G network, which should be considered as the most economical transceiver solution.

Which 100G Cabling Solution Should Be Selected?

After choosing the best 100G transceiver solution, it is also necessary to design the 100G cabling network. At present, there are basically two 100G cabling solutions. One is the direct cabling solution usually working with the QSFP28 cable, and the other is the breakout cabling solution that always uses the QSFP28 breakout cable. Considering that each solution has its own connection method and works with different fiber or copper cable, which one should be selected depends on the practical application.

As for the 100G direct cabling solution, it always uses the 100GBase-SR4 QSFP28 transceiver to finish short distance transmission, and 100GBASE-LR4 QSFP28 transceiver for long transmission. In short transmission case, the 100GBase-SR4 QSFP28 transceiver can support the 100G network through OM3 12 fiber multimode MTP cable at lengths up to 70 m, and 100 m through OM4 12 fiber multimode MTP cable. It can also work with the 100G QSFP28 to QSFP28 passive direct attach cable (DAC) for up to 5m transmission and with the 100G QSFP28 to QSFP28 active direct attach cable (AOC) for up to 10m transmission. While in the long transmission case, 100GBASE-LR4 QSFP28 transceiver enables the 100G network up to 10 km on single-mode LC patch cable. If much longer transmission distance is required, you are highly suggested to choose the 100GBASE-ER4 CFP transceiver that can transmit the 100G signal at lengths up to 40 km.

As for the breakout cabling solution, the connection method is very different from the previous one, which usually use the QSFP28 breakout cable to connect one QSFP28 transceiver on one side and four SFP28 transceivers on the opposite side. This kind of 100G cabling solution enables higher port bandwidth, density and configurability at a low cost and reduces power consumption in data centers. Besides, the QSFP28 breakout cables used for 100G breakout cabling can be simply divided into two types, QSFP28 to 4SFP28 DACs and AOCs. Both of the two kinds of QSFP28 breakout cables feature four individual 25G duplex cables to achieve 100G connections, similar to the 40G QSFP+ breakout cable that has four individual 10G duplex cables.

Conclusion

With the gradual mature of 100G Ethernet technology, the cost issue is not the obstacle for the popularization of 100G Ethernet network any more. If your network has a very low transmission speed and the capacity it offers can’t face your need, then you are recommendable to upgrade your network from 10G/40G to 100G, for faster and easier access to larger volumes of data. As for the transceiver used for 100G connection, the QSFP28 is the fist choice as the most cost effective solution at present. As for the 100G network cabling, the direct cabling for 100G to 100G connection and the breakout cabling for 100G to 4×25G connection are good solutions for 100G network deployment. Which one should be selected just depends on the practical application.

Originally source: http://www.chinacablesbuy.com

Third-party Transceiver Solutions for Ubiquiti Switches

As we all know, Ubiquiti is a famous company that provides various kinds of switches, including Edge Switch, Edge Router, UniFi Switch. What does attract more attention is, this company firstly published its own SFP and SFP+ fiber optic transceiver, compatible with its switches last year. Meanwhile, it also published that third-party fiber transceivers from some fiber optic transceiver manufacturers like Cisco, Brocade and FS.COM are compatible with the Ubiquiti switches, too. In this paper, it will mainly talk about which kinds of third-party fiber transceivers can support the Ubiquiti switches and which fiber optic transceiver manufacturers can offer the most reliable third-party fiber transceivers.

Transceiver Solutions for Ubiquiti Switches

Ubiquiti mainly provides switches for 1G and 10G Ethernet network. Until last year, they began to offer a small amount of single mode and multimode fiber transceivers to support the Ubiquiti switches. For instance, the UF-MM-1G and UF-SM-1G-S 1000Base SFP transceivers are used for the SFP ports on the Ubiquiti switches, while the UF-MM-10G, UF-SM-10G and UF-SM-10G-S 10GBase SFP+ transceivers are designed for connecting the SFP+ ports on the Ubiquiti switches.

Apart from their own fiber transceivers, there are also some other branded fiber transceivers tested on the Ubiquiti switches and confirmed to be compatible with Ubiquiti switches, such as Cisco, Brocade, Dell, HP, Finisar branded fiber transceivers. Just taking Cisco, the world famous fiber optic transceiver manufacturer as an example, it offers six kinds of SFP transceivers to support the Ubiquiti switches, Cisco GLC-LH-SM 30-1299-01 SFP, Cisco GLC-SX-MM, Cisco GLC-SX-MM 1000BASE-SX SFP, Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU1M, Cisco MGBSX1 Gigabit SX Mini-GBIC SFP Transceiver and Cisco GLC-T. Besides, for 10G network, the Cisco SFP-10G-SR can be inserted in SFP+ ports on the Ubiquiti switches.

After aquiring these basic information of transceivers for Ubiquiti switches, here also offers FS.COM transceiver solutions for Ubiquiti switches. FS.COM, a third-party fiber transceiver manufacturer, offers various kinds of SFP and SFP+ transceivers to support the Ubiquiti switches, such as, SFP1G-LX-31 1310nm (single mode SFPs), SFP-1G85-5M (multi-mode), SFP-GB-GE-T module, SFP-10G85-3M (multi-mode). These mentioned transceivers have been spoken highly of by many users at FS.COM.

Selecting the Most Reliable Third-party Fiber Transceivers

From the text above, we can learn that except for their own transceivers, there are also many third-party fiber transceivers designed for supporting the Ubiquiti switches, for instance, Cisco, Brocade and FS.COM. Then here comes an important question, which kind of third-party fiber transceiver is more reliable for the Ubiquiti switches? In this paper, the suggestion is FS.COM fiber transceiver and the following will give you the reasons.

The first reason is that there are enough SFP and SFP+ transceivers offered for their corresponding Ubiquiti switches and those SFP and SFP+ transceivers have been tested to be suitable for the Ubiquiti switches. The second reason is that the SFP and SFP+ transceivers offered FS.COM are of high quality and good price. If you have ever bought the SFP and SFP+ transceivers with low price from some other fiber optic transceiver manufacturers, you may experience the quality of those fiber transceivers which generally can’t be assured. But in FS.COM test center, each fiber transceiver offered by FS.COM before shipping has to go through strict test on the switches from Cisco, Dell, Extreme, Juniper and other famous brands to assure 100% compatibility and high performance. Here offers the figures that shows the feedback about the quality and price for FS.COM fiber transceivers from users.

Conclusion

When choosing SFP and SFP+ transceivers for your Ubiquiti switches, have you ever hesitated over which fiber optic transceiver manufacturer should be chosen? Buy from Ubiquiti? Or other third-party fiber transceiver manufacturer? In fact, the selection should be made after considering the quality and price of the transceiver and the after-sales service the fiber transceiver manufacturer offers. Taking these factors into consideration, FS.COM should be a good choice for meeting your fiber transceiver needs.

Direct Attach Cable Assemblies Solution in Data Center

In general, the direct attach cable assemblies can be simply divided into two types, fiber type that can be called active optical cable (AOC), and copper type which basically includes active and passive direct attach copper cable (DAC), designed to support high transfer rates between servers, switches and storage devices intra rack or inter rack in data center. These direct attach cable assemblies have the same ports as their corresponding fiber optical modules, for instance, the SFP+ passive copper cable is fitted with SFP+ port, and QSFP+ passive copper cable with QSFP+ port. They are the ideal alternative to the fiber optical modules in high transfer rate and short distance applications for much lower cost and power consumption. Thereby, the direct attach cable assemblies become more and more commonly used for short distance network deployment.

Active Optical Cable Solution

The active optical cable consists of active electrical and optical components, which can transmit signals at lengths up to 100 m through multimode fiber cable. The most special active optical cable is the cable designed with fan-out technology like QSFP to 4xSFP+ AOC and 40G QSFP+ to 8xLC AOC for better satisfying the requirement of network migration from 10G to 40G. As for the internal structure of the active optical cable, you can learn it from the following figure.

Direct Attach Copper Cable Solution

At present, there are two kinds of direct attach copper cable. One is the active direct attach copper cable like SFP+ active copper cable, and the other is passive direct attach copper cable like QSFP+ passive copper cable. Compared to the fiber one, these two kinds of direct attach copper cables can support the 10G and 40G signals with shorter distance. As for the active direct attach copper cable, it features active component that can achieve the interconnection up to 15 m at 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps, but it also requires more power to boost/receive signals. As for the passive direct attach copper cable, it has no any active circuitry components which can only reach 7 m at 10Gbps or 40 Gbps at most, with low power. The figure below shows the differences between active and passive direct attach copper.

Direct Attach Cable Assemblies Application

There is no doubt that the direct attach cable assemblies are good choices for short distance direct connection, usually applied in the EDA (Equipment Distribution Area) where the cabinets and racks house end equipment (servers) and where the horizontal cabling from the HDA (Horizontal Distribution Area) is terminated at patch panels. In details, the direct attach cable assemblies are used for connecting the server with the switch, the storage with the switch, or the switch with the switch in racks and between rows of racks. Besides, various length selections for the direct attach cable assemblies such as SFP+ passive copper cable and QSFP+ active copper cable can be ordered to meet different connection requirement.

Conclusion

With the popularity of 10G Ethernet network, the 10G SFP+ DAC (within 15 m) and 10G SFP+ AOC (within 100 m) occupy the major direct attach cable assemblies market for interconnection in the same rack or between rows of racks at present. Meanwhile, the SFP28 DAC is also designed for 25G Ethernet network which may gradually replace the 10G SFP+ DAC for higher transfer rate. What’s more, for meeting the fast development of Ethernet network, 40G QSFP+ DAC for short interconnection no longer than 15 m and 40G QSFP+ AOC for longer interconnect application that over 15 m but less than 100 m are also available for 40G Ethernet network. If these direct attach cable assemblies still can’t satisfy your requirement, then the 100G QSFP28 DAC and AOC are highly recommended for you to deploy in the 100G Ethernet network.

Two Suggestions for Deploying SFP+ Twinax Cable

Have you ever used the Cisco SFP+ twinax copper cable for connecting Cisco switches, as a cost-effective alternative to Cisco SFP+ transceivers for short-distance, high-speed connection? Or choosing other branded SFP+ twinax cables to connect their corresponding devices? In fact, SFP+ twinax cable becomes much more popular than ever before for its lower cost and easier installation than the SFP+ transceiver. You only need to incorporate the SFP+ twinax cables into the physical infrastructure directly, then the connection can be finished without any additional signal processing or conversion. However, although the SFP+ twinax cable is very easy to install, there are still two suggestions you should pay attention to if you choose it to deploy 10G short-distance connection.

Design the Length of the SFP+ Twinax Cables Your Network Needs

Before deploying your 10G short-distance connection, it is very important to design and calculate the length of the SFP+ twinax cables your network needs, avoiding many cables waste or lack of cables when deploying. How to calculate it? Just taking the single 84 in. 45 RU cabinet shown in the following figure as an example. As the cabinet is fitted with 2 top of rack switches and 20 2U servers with dual SFP+ NICs (Network Interface Cards), totally 40 SFP+ twinax cables are required. If you prepare to deploy SFP+ twinax cables in the cabinet, you should firstly calculate the longest connection from the top to the bottom of the cabinet, which is about 7 ft. or 2.1 m, and secondly the connection to any port on either end, approximately 1.5 ft. or 0.45 m. Then you can conclude that the longest cable required to reach the farthest port is 2.1+2×0.45≈3 m. Hence, the 3m SFP+ twinax cable should be long enough to connect any two ports within the cabinet.

Use Cable Management Tools to Support the SFP+ Twinax Cable

Since the bundled cable would be very heavy and tend to sag over time, the cable management tools like cable managers, strain relief bars and cable ties are the vital components to support the SFP+ twinax cables. Firstly, there is no doubt that the cable manager is designed for better cable management, as a very commonly used solution. And secondly, how about the strain relief bar? From its name, it is easy to learn that it is to support the cable by providing strain relief, which also facilitates the correct alignment of cable and connector into the port. Meanwhile, the strain relief bar also has the ability to keep the cables away from the spaces directly behind the server and switch equipment, reducing the thermal resistance through the equipment and promoting the effective cooling and airflow. Thirdly, cable ties should be used to hold the SFP+ twinax cables together and tie them to the strain relief bar and cable manager, although they looks so small and unimportant. What’s more, the cable tie installation should be done carefully to firmly place the cables, so that the cables will not move, and also not so tight as to deform or stress the cable jacket.

Conclusion

We all can’t deny that the SFP+ twinax cable provides an ideal low cost, low power and low latency solution for 10G short-distance connection deployment. In details, the cost of SFP+ twinax cable solution is up to three times less than that of fiber optical solution, the power it consumes is up to 50% less than that of current copper twisted-pair solution, and the latency is also lower than that of current copper twisted-pair solution. Furthermore, it features the smallest 10G form factor, as well as the overall cable diameter, designed for higher density and optimized rack space in 10G uplinks and 10G Fiber Channel SAN and NAS input/output connections. In short, the SFP+ twinax cable is an ideal solution to deploy 10G short-distance connection. If you are decide to deploy it, you are suggested to design and calculate the length of the SFP+ twinax cables your network needs and prepare the cable management tools to support the SFP+ twinax cables.