Three Cabling Solutions for 40G Network

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Network technology has been developed
rapidly and many data centers are utilizing 40G network to satisfy their needs
for high density cabling and high speed data transmission. When it comes to 40G
network cabling solutions, MPO
fiber optic cable assemblies are most used by data center managers.
This article is going to introduce three cabling solutions for 40G
network—cabling with no conversion component, cabling with conversion module
and cabling with conversion harness.

 

Cabling With No Conversion Component

For cabling with no conversion
component solution, in fact, it is a Base-12 MTP connectivity solution. The
12-fiber MTP trunk cables are deployed in the whole 40G connectivity. But in
this cabling solution, four fibers are not used. Apart from this, there will be
additional cost associated with the purchase of additional fibers. Though this
solution does notuse 33% of the installed fiber and may require more cable
raceway congestion, it does have the advantage of simplicity and lowest link
attenuation.

 

Cabling With Conversion Module

With the use of conversion module MPO
patch panel, the unused fibers can be converted into usable fiber links. For
every two 12-fiber MTP connectors in the backbone cable, we can create three
8-fiber links. Using Base-12 connectivity and Base-8 connectivity together
realizes 100% fiber utilization. When reusing existing deployed MTP cabling,
great value will be gained if using conversion module to use all previously
deployed fibers, and we can eliminate the cost of having to deploy additional
cabling.

 

Cabling With Conversion Harness

The cabling with conversion harness
solution uses standard MPO patch panel and 2×3 MPO conversion harness. It can
achieve full fiber utilization. Although it seems attractive, it involves
considerable cabling challenges. For instance, if you only need two 40G
connections to the equipment, what do you do with the third 8-fiber MTP
connection? Or what if the 40G ports are in different chassis blades or
completely different chassis switches? The result will be long assemblies,
which will be difficult to manage in an organized way. For this reason, this
kind of solution is expected to be the least desirable and so the least
deployed method.

 

Which One to Choose?

If you are installing new cabling, then
you can consider cabling with no conversion component solution, assuming that
the cable raceway is not a concern. If you are using previously installed MTP
trunks, cabling with conversion module solution is recommended which can
realize 100% fiber utilization while maintaining any port to any port patching.
The cabling with conversion harness solution is typically deployed only in
specific applications, such as at the ToR switch, where 40G ports are in a
close cluster and patching between blades in a chassis switch is not required.

 

Conclusion

It is not difficult to find that each
type of cabling solution has their own advantages and disadvantages. As for
which on to choose, it all depends on your specific network deployment
environment and requirements. After reading the content above, I hope you can
have a better understanding of these three cabling solutions for 40G network
and choose a suitable cabling solution for your network deployment.