Along with the further development of virtualization technology, the demand for more bandwidth and data transmission to satisfy the ever-growing number of operating systems and applications is getting higher and higher in data center today. As a result, a cost-efficient method to provide more bandwidth rises in response to the proper time and condition. Popularization of SFP cable has been the trend of data center interconnection applications and can be ascribed to the domination of Cat5e copper cabling and 1000BASE-T over the years. So in this article, we will mainly focus on the brief introduction to the types and usage of SFP cable.
SFP cable, sometimes called as 10G SFP+ cable, SFP+ DAC twinax cable or SFP+ AOC cable, is a kind of high speed cable with Small Form Factor Pluggable Plus on either end. It is commonly used for connections between servers and switches. SFP twinax cable replaces two optical modules and an optical fiber with a twinaxial copper cable assembly which can offer higher density, lower cost and power 10 Gigabit Ethernet solution than other cable types, such as 10GBASE-CX4 and CAT6/CAT6A 10GBASE-T.
The SFP cables can be classified into two kinds: 10G SFP+ DAC cable and 10G SFP+ AOC cable.
Direct attach cable (DAC) is a type of sheathed high-speed cable with SFP connectors on each termination. It contains either an active or passive twinax cable. The difference between them is that an active twinax cable has active electronic components to improve the signal quality while a passive twinax cable is just a straight “wire” with few components.
10G active optical cable (AOC) assemblies are high performance and cost effective I/O solutions for 10G Ethernet and 10G Fibre Channel applications which can also be applied to an alternative solution to SFP+ passive and active copper cables and provide better signal integrity, longer distances and superior electromagnetic immunity.
Since 10G network is extensively utilized in today’s data center, 10G SFP cables are normally used in interconnect applications, such as server to switch or switch to switch interconnection.
For any short range connection which measures as small as 5 m to 10 m, direct attach cable offers easier and more affordable solution. Servers are typically connected to a switch within the same racks. DAC twinax cable supports link length up to 7 m, making it ideal for servers to switch connections.
Varying from DAC, which is often applied in short distance, AOC SFP+ cable can achieve transmission distance up to 100 m, so they often used in switch to switch connections.
Generally speaking, different kinds of 10G SFP+ cables are required for different distance and application. 10G DAC is excellent for short distance applications within racks, while AOCs are suitable for inter-racks connections between ToR and EoR switches. Fiberstore offers high speed direct attach solution for data center interconnection, especially the SFP+ direct attach cables for 10GbE. Moreover, they offer a good variety of high speed interconnect DAC assemblies including 40G/56G QSFP+ cable and 100G QSFP28 cables to satisfy the demands from 10G to 100G interconnection.