AOC—the Ideal High-Speed Interconnect Solution
The ideal high-speed interconnect solution should have such features as optimized for short distances, low cost, low power consumption, small cable bend radius, low cable weight, high density, and low link latency. The only one solution which can meet all the requirements is the direct attach active optical cables.
Direct attach active optical cables, or active optical cables for short, are direct-attach fiber assemblies with optical transceiver (SFP+, XFP, QSFP+, CXP etc.) connectors. They are suitable for short distances and offer a cost-effective way to connect within racks and across adjacent racks. Nowadays the Active Optical Cable (AOC) is accelerating data connectivity for storage, networking, and HPC applications. It leverages fiber optic technology for the transmission of data while reducing the weight, density and power consumption of traditional copper solutions. For example, the 40G active optical cable (AOC) is a type of active optical cable for 40GbE applications that is terminated with 40GBASE QSFP+ on one end, while on the other end, besides QSFP+ connector, it can be terminated with SFP+ connectors, LC connectors, etc. 40G active optical cables have great advantages over 40G copper QSFP+ cable when transmission distance reaches up to 7 meters. Moreover, 40G AOC has lower weight and tighter bend radius, which enables simpler cable management.
The AOC assemblies provide the lowest total cost solution for data centers by having the key advantages as following:
- Low weight for high port count architectures;
- Small bend radius for easy installations;
- Low power consumption enabling a greener environment.
2. Lower weight and tighter bend radius enable simpler cable management
3. Thinner cable allows better airflow for cooling
4. Lower power consumption
5. No need for power-hungry conditioning ICs on the host board
6. Can be used in architectures with challenging cable routing
1. Datacenter/Consumer friendly: No cleanliness issues in optical connector
2.Cost-optimized: Not constrained by optical interface specifications driven by longer reach applications
(Note: However, the active optical cables cannot be routed through fiber patch panels.)
Today’s enterprise data centers and networking environments are undergoing an infrastructure transformation, requiring higher speeds, greater scalability, and higher levels of performance and reliability to better meet the demands of business. As speed and performance demands increase, the AOC assemblies have become an integral part of the overall system design. However, AOC design margins and parameters vary widely, and can be the difference between an optimized, highly reliable fabric and the incompatibility issues that drive up support costs. There are various types of AOC assemblies for 10G, 40G, and 100G applications on the market. Judging from the cost performance, FS.COM can provide the most ideal high-speed interconnect solution of AOC assemblies including 10G SFP+ AOC, 40G QSFP+ AOC, 40G QSFP+ to 4×SFP+ AOC, 40G QSFP+ to 8×LC AOC, and 120G CXP AOC.