Tag: AOC

25G SFP28 AOC: The Market and Trends

In general, there are three ways of 25G access of server, namely DAC (Direct Attach Cable), optical transceiver and AOC(Active Optical Cable).

DAC can reach no more than 5m, so it is difficult to meet the requirements of cross-rack wiring distance.

The optical transceiver can reach up to 100m or more using multi-mode fiber, but the cost is high.

AOC is an Active Optical Cable. AOC can reach up to 30m at a reasonable cost.

Therefore, AOC cable is a good choice for cross-rack server access, which is more suitable for China’s current data center rack power and network architecture. Here’s some information about the 25G AOC that you may be wondering about.

25G AOC provides a cost-effective solution for those same data center applications that require longer distance interconnect using active optical Ethernet technology. There are some advantages to 25G AOC.

The Advantages of 25G AOC

25G is the next trend from 10G to reduce the cost per Gbit/sec

25G provides 2.5 times the bandwidth of 10G using in the same SFP form factor

25G is ideal for data center top of the rack, wireless backhaul and enterprise interconnect applications

25G meets the newest server adapter requirements

10/25G transceivers are compatible with 10G, 25G, 40G and 100G transceivers

The Gigalight 25G SFP28 Active Optical Cables (AOCs) are direct-attach fiber assemblies with SFP28 connectors, compliant with 25G Ethernet IEEE 802.3by 25GBASE-SR standard. They are suitable for short distances and offer a cost-effective solution to connect within racks and across adjacent racks. The length is up to 70 meters using OM3 MMF and 100 meters using OM4 MMF. COB solution is used in the TX and RX.

The Highlights and Advantages of Gigalight 25G SFP28 AOC

Low power consumption<1W

The pre-FEC bit error ratio (BER) is guaranteed to meet E10-8 25.78125Gb/s@PRBS31, 55℃,  Better than the IEEE pre-FEC BER of less than 5 E-5.

Mature COB technology

Low Cost

High capacity, timely delivery

CE, UL,  RoHS, GR-468 test report

Active Optical Cables Market by Protocol Type

Ethernet

InfiniBand

HDMI PCI Express (PCIe)

Thunderbolt

Others

Application of AOC

Active Optical Cable assembly. Cable assemblies that use fiber–optic transceivers and fiber-optic interconnect to transmit high-speed serial data such as InfiniBand and Ethernet.

Data center

The data center is expected to lead the end-user segment of the active optical cable in recent years.

Active optical cables play a key role in the data center market. Active optical cables are largely used in the data center to meet the need for increased bandwidth and low power. The data center market also needs a broad portfolio of fiber optic modules to connect servers, switches, and storage, which is accomplished by an active optical cable. Therefore, the increase in the deployment of data centers is a key factor behind the growth of the active optical cable market.

High-Performance Computing

Consumer Electronics

Telecommunication

Global Key Region Production Market Share

China

China will be the leading country in the active optical cable market in the APAC region in recent years.

North America

North America is expected to hold the largest market share in recent years. Currently, North America holds the largest share of the active optical cable market. The U.S. invests heavily in the data center sector which is becoming a major hub for the integration of active optical cable. Huge numbers of the data center are seen in the U.S., where active optical cables are increasingly being used.

Europe

APAC

APAC is estimated to grow at the highest rate in the overall market till 2022. The data center and consumer electronics are major sectors driving the growth of the active optical cable market in the APAC.

RoW

Conclusion

Within the data center, AOCs continue to be deployed to optimize the existing infrastructure by providing higher data rates among servers, switches and storage facilities. Since China’s data center AOC commercialization in 2013, Gigalight has successfully developed a series of rich and comprehensive product portfolios that meet the requirements of next-generation data centers. As one of the global AOC providers around the world, Gigalight has a complete product line includes SFP, QSFP, SFP-DD, CXP, QSFP-DD form factor. The latest product portfolios include the ultra-high-speed 400G QSFP-DD AOC, 200G QSFP-DD AOC, 200G QSFP56 AOC, and 100G QSFP28 AOC, etc.. Gigalight also provides data center customers with customized products and services to meet the more extreme requirements.

AOC Uses in Modern Data Centers

AOC is composed of integrated optoelectronic devices for high-speed, high-reliability interconnected transmission device between data centers, high-performance computers, and large-capacity memory devices. It usually meets the industry standard electrical interface and transmits data by the superiority of fiber optic cable and electrical-to-optical conversion.

While AOC reaches can extend to the limits of the optical technology used (100-200m), installing a long 100m cable, complete with an expensive transceiver end, is difficult in crowded data center racks so the average reach typically used is between 3-30m. Only one “oops” per cable allowed. Damaging the cable means replacing it as it cannot be repaired in the field. AOCs are typically deployed in open access areas such as within racks or in open cable trays for this reason.

Gigalight 25G SFP28 Active Optical Cables (AOCs) are direct-attach fiber assemblies with SFP28 connectors, compliant with 25G Ethernet IEEE 802.3by 25GBASE-SR standard. They are suitable for short distances and offer a cost-effective solution to connect within racks and across adjacent racks. The length is up to 70 meters using OM3 MMF and 100 meters using OM4 MMF.

The Advantages of Gigalight 25G SFP28 AOC

Low power consumption <1W

The pre-FEC bit error ratio (BER) is guaranteed to meet E10-8 25.78125Gb/s@PRBS31, 55℃,  Better than the IEEE pre-FEC BER of less than 5 E-5.

Mature COB technology

Low Cost

High capacity, timely delivery

CE, UL,  RoHS, GR-468 test report

Conclusion

The power and cost savings caught the eye of the Ethernet hyperscale and enterprise data center builders and has since become a popular way to link Top-of-Rack switches upwards to aggregation layer switches such as End-of-Row and leaf switches. Several hyperscale companies have publicly stated their preferred use of AOCs for linking Top-of-Rack switches. Additionally, single channel (SFP) AOCs have become very popular in high-speed, NVMe storage subsystems. Some hyperscale builders often run 10G or 25G AOCs from a Top-of-Rack switch to subsystems at reaches greater than DAC limits of 3-7m.

25G Low-Cost AOC

25G Ethernet, or 25Gigabit Ethernet (25GbE), is developed by IEEE 802.3 Task Force P802.3by. The IEEE 802.3by standard uses technology defined for 100Gigabit Ethernet implemented as four 25Gbps lanes (IEEE 802.3bj). Actually, 40G and 100G have already existed before the emergence of 25G. However, 25G Ethernet can provide a more convenient path to Ethernet speeds of 50G, 100G and beyond. With 25G, network operators are no longer to use 40G Ethernet (using four lanes of 10G) to migrate to 100G but using 4 lanes of 25G. The article introduces low-cost 25G AOC.

What Is A 25G AOC?

25G AOC can be overcome the bandwidth limitation of traditional high-speed cable, and the 25G AOC can provide an ideal alternative solution for high-speed cable and short-distance SFP28 optical transceiver, and the signal is more complete and higher performance. It is widely used in high-speed, high-density, and low-power data center networks.

The 25G AOC consists of optical transceiver devices at both ends and composed of different length of OM3 or OM4 multimode optical fibers. The transceiver devices at both ends can provide the function of photoelectric conversion and optical transmission. This function ensures data transmission stability and application flexibility.

The 25G SFP28 AOC is designed to operate over multimode fiber systems using a nominal wavelength of 850nm. The electrical interface uses a 20-contact edge type connector.

Features of Gigalight 25G SFP28 AOCs

● Hot-pluggable SFP28 form-factor connectors

● Transmission data rate up to 25.78Gbps

● 850nm VCSEL laser

● PIN photo-detector

● Internal CDR circuits on both receiver and transmitter channels

● Low power consumption < 1W per end

● Length up to 70m using OM3 MMF and 100m using OM4 MMF

● Operating case temperature range 0°C to +70°C

● 3.3V power supply voltage

● RoHS-6 compliant (lead-free)

Why Choosing Gigalight 25G SFP28 AOCs?

The Gigalight 25G SFP28 AOCs are direct-attach fiber assemblies with SFP28 connectors, compliant with 25G Ethernet IEEE 802.3by 25GBASE-SR standard. They are suitable for short distances and offer a cost-effective solution to connect within racks and across adjacent racks. The length is up to 70 meters using OM3 MMF and 100 meters using OM4 MMF.

Conclusion

Gigalight offers 25G SFP28 AOC to enable short reach options, as well as a range of optical transceivers in an SFP form factor for various fiber types and reach requirements.

A Widely Recognized Innovator That Meets Tomorrow’s Demands

It is crucial that the ability of continuous innovation is the source of sustainable development for a company. Gigalight is able to provide cost-effective products keeping up the times for customers. Gigalight designs products that meet the increasing demands for network bandwidth, data storage and so on. As an innovator in optical communication, Gigalight delivers specialist service, dependability and performance at competitive prices.

Gigalight has founded in 2006, is headquartered in Shenzhen, China. We have opened the Wuhan R&D Center in 2017. And we have representative offices in Russia, Taiwan. North America, Europe and India centers are in preparation. We cooperate with key channel distribution partners around the world.

R1

We mainly focus on Internet operators such as Baidu, Alibaba, China Unicom, China Telecom and other traditional operators as well as data communications equipment manufacturers in China. Our overseas markets center on telecommunication, Internet operators and equipment suppliers in North America, Russia, Brazil, Israel, India, etc.

Our Innovation Road

In 2006–2009, Gigalight was committed to the R&D and production of optical components (from 100Mb to 10Gb/s) and built the global channel market of optical transceivers.

In 2010–2011, Gigalight launched 10G/40G/120G active optical cables for data center and high-performance computing applications.

In 2012–2013, Gigalight entered the passive optical components market and HD video communication market.

In 2014–2015, Gigalight completed the commercialization of its 10G/40G active optical cables in the data center.

In 2016–2017, Gigalight began to offer 25G/100G optical modules and active optical cables to customers worldwide.

In 2018, Gigalight was committed to large-scale production of 100G optical transceivers and accelerates the development of 200G/400G data center optics, coherent optics, 5G optical transceivers and 5G custom passive optical components.

In 2019, Gigalight is committed to developing 5G and the Next–Generation Data Center optical interconnection market.

At present, we obtained 5 items software copyright, invention patent more than 10 items and national patent total more than 100 items. The Gigalight R&D department has about 150 engineers which account for 25% of the company. And most of them are Master Degree or above.

R2

Innovative Design Concept

Conciseness

Creative optical engine design

Creative automatic producing

Aesthetics

Updated ID design

Updated Layout design

Reliability

Complete FEMA design

Complete TR-468 qualified

Uniformity

Performance uniformity

Continue developing

Our Creations

Optics Micro Design

Reliability Design of Hardware

Uniformity Design

Visual Manufacturing and Cloud Design

Our Strengths

Gigalight will also continue developing its automatic production line, a creative production solution including Array Eutectic Soldering and a Passive coupling system, which it hopes will lead to a 200% increase in production capacity. These new processes should bring more products to the market in 2019.

Conclusion

Gigalight have achieved remarkable growth and wide recognition around the world based on the decade’s experiences.

At present, we have successfully developed 200G AOC and 400G AOC products based on PAM4 modulation technology. And we also developed mini TO platform with innovate design, which greatly reduced the cost for 40G/100G/200G SM products. The self-research project has made a great success in the automated production line. At the same time, a great breakthrough has been made in the coherent field, 100G CFP–DCO digital coherent optical transceiver with ultralow power consumption have been successfully developed. In 2019, Gigalight will commit to the next–generation data center, 5G and so on.