Tag Archives: SFP+ Direct Attach Cable

Introduction to 10G SFP+ Twinax Cabling

Driven by the never-ending requirement for faster data-rate transmission, Ethernet technology has continually evolved from 1GbE to 10GbE and eventually to 100GbE. This demand for faster application speed has also spurred technological evolution on data carrying techniques. Consequently, fiber and copper transmission standards has been progressed, providing greater bandwidth for transporting data over Ethernet architectures with reduced cost and complexity. In today’s article, some detailed information will be provided on 10G SFP+ twinax cabling.

Why Implementing 10G SFP+ Twinax Cabling?
Many research companies forecast that 2016 will be the year of 100G. So why implementing 10G twinax cabling here? There are several reasons which will help you sort this out. Regardless of cost, most LAN infrastructures employ a mixture of copper and fiber premises wiring. 10GbE bandwidth are generally sufficient to support the transfer and streaming of large data, video and audio files. Thus there are no demands for greater network performance or application bandwidth. What’s more, costs associated with re-cabling a network can be exorbitant and organizations should take precautions to ensure their cabling systems can last well into the future. 10GbE twinax cabling provides the best assurance for being able to support forthcoming technologies and delivers utmost investment protection.

What Is 10G SFP+ Direct Attach Twinax Cable?
SFP+ Direct Attach Cable (DAC) is a copper 10G Ethernet cable which comes in either an active or passive twinax cable. The difference between them is that an active twinax cable has active electronic components in the SFP+ housing to improve the signal quality while a passive twinax cable is just a straight “wire” and contains few components. As such, they support different transmission distance. SFP+ DAC cables use SFP+ MSA and copper “twinaxial” cable with SFP+ connectors on both sides providing 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity between devices with SFP+ interfaces, which is expected to be the optimum solution for 10G Ethernet reaches up to 10 m.

Passive SFP+ Twinax Cable Assemblies
The passive SFP+ twinax cable is designed to support connections for 10 Gigabit Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet switches with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink. Passive SFP+ cables, as noted before, have no electrical components and typical cover a distance of 1m, 3m, and 5m. For example, compatible Cisco SFP+ cables from Fiberstore like SFP-H10GB-CU3M, SFP-H10GB-CU1M, and MA-CBL-TA-1M, are programmed specifically to work with Cisco equipment. When these cables are plugged into Cisco equipment, they will not trigger the warning message that a non-Cisco transceiver has been detected. Figure 1 shows compatible Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU3M SFP+ to SFP+ passive copper cable with SFP+ connectors.

SFP+ Passive Copper Cable with SFP+ connectors

Active SFP+ Cable Assemblies
Active SFP+ twinax cables, compared with passive SFP+ cables can support longer transmission distance of 7m and 10m or up to 15m (distance may vary from vendors to vendors). For designs that only support SR and LR applications, active direct attach copper cable assemblies provide functions such as transmit disable and receiver loss of signal in addition to signal amplification, which makes it ideal for highly cost-effective networking connectivity between switches and servers. Figure 2 shows an active copper SFP+ DAC cable with SFP+ connectors.

SFP+ Active Copper Cable with SFP+ connectors

From these two pictures, we can see that there is no visual difference between active and passive SFP+ twinax cables. So, people should read the product specifications carefully before purchasing twinax cables.

Summary
SFP+ twinax cables offer a cost-effective way to interconnect 10G Ethernet devices within racks and across adjacent racks. These cables are usually accommodated into the SFP+ transceiver housing of a switch or server. Fiberstore SFP+ twinax DAC cables provide robust connections for leading edge 10GbE systems. We provide a full range of SFP+ DAC cables including SFP-H10GB-CU3M, SFP-H10GB-CU1M, EX-SFP-10GE-DAC-1M, JD097C, JD095C, etc. These SFP+ twinax cables are fully compatible with major brand. For more detailed information, please visit www.fs.com or contact us over sales@fs.com.

Introduction to SFP+ Direct Attach Cable

As the technology of virtualization advanced further, more bandwidth and increased data transmission are needed to accommodate the ever-growing number of operating systems and applications residing on individual servers in Data Center today. As a result, a cost-effective method to provide more bandwidth is urgently needed for Date Center. SFP+ direct attach cable as one of the high-speed data transmission solution for data center interconnection is now widely used for 10GbE. This post is going to give an introduction to SFP+ DAC.

What Is SFP+ Direct Attach Cable?

As the name implies, SFP+ direct attach cable uses the inexpensive copper twinaxial cable with SFP+ connectors on both sides, which is also based on SFP+ MSA (multi-source agreement), providing 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity between devices with SFP+ interfaces. In brief, it integrates SFP+ compatible connectors with a cable into a low-latency, energy-efficient, and low-cost solution. DAC is available in several lengths up to 10 meters and are currently the best cabling option for short 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections.

Types of SFP+ Direct Attach Cable

Generally, there are three types of 10G SFP+ direct attach cable: 10G SFP+ passive copper twinax cable (PCC), 10G SFP+ active copper twinax cable (ACC), and 10G SFP+ active optical cable (AOC). They are suitable for highly cost-effective networking connectivity within a rack and adjacent racks.

10G SFP+ Passive Copper Cable – SFP+ passive DAC cable offers a direct electrical connection between corresponding cable ends. It is an ideal choice for up to 12 meters. However, because of the problems of bulkiness, weight and signal integrity, it is often limited within seven and ten meters.

10G SFP+ Active Copper Cable – SFP+ active DAC cable provides signal processing electronics to avoid signal issue, thus to improve signal quality. And it can transmit data over a longer distance than SFP+ passive copper cable, which can extend to 15 to 20 meters.

10G SFP+ Active Optical Cable – Nowadays the Active Optical Cable (AOC) is accelerating data connectivity for storage, networking, and HPC (High Performance Computing) applications. It leverages fiber optic technology for the transmission of data while reducing the weight, density and power consumption of traditional copper solutions.

10GBASE SFP+ Direct Attach Cable

More Advantages Than 10GBASE-T

Currently, 10GBASE-T is not supported for OneConnect adapters due to power requirements and high latency of 10GBASE-T PHY chips. When compared with it, SFP+ direct attach cable has more advantages which is introduced below.

SFP+ Technology Ensures Optimal Performance and Lowest Latency – New dynamics within data centers mandate that the cable infrastructure handles latency sensitive applications anywhere. When comparing 10GBase-T technology with the alternative SFP+ technology, it is evident that SFP+ is the right technology to ensure optimal performance with lowest latency in the data center.

SFP+ technology lowers the power budget – SFP+ technology delivers far lower power usage than the 10GBase-T technology. The cost saving becomes obvious when deploying from 1000 to 10,000 cables in the data center.

FS.COM SFP+ Direct Attach Cable Solution

FS.COM offers high-speed direct attach solution for data center interconnection, especially the SFP+ direct attach cables for 10GbE with features such as optimizing power consumption and supporting modularity and scalability. Recently, FS.COM offers greatly discounts for Direct Attach Cable, which will save you a lot of money. And each kind of SFP+ Direct Attach Cables is full in stock so that you can make bulk orders. Of course, the more you buy, the more discounts you will get. For more information, Please contact us directly over e-mail sales@fs.com.