Do you choose high-speed cables or active optical cables for the data center computer room?

High speed cables and active optical cables are commonly used short distance interconnection products in data centers and enterprise computer rooms, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages. How do you choose high speed cables and active optical cables in data center computer rooms and compare their advantages?

Firstly, let's talk about DAC high-speed cables, whose advantages are mainly reflected in cost. DAC high-speed cables can be said to be the lowest cost interconnection solution for high-speed short distance. However, it also has some disadvantages. Its transmission medium is copper cable, and the transmitted signals are electrical signals. Moreover, copper cables may be subject to electromagnetic interference during transmission. Therefore, high-speed cables must be designed to resist electromagnetic interference.

Direct connected copper cable (DAC) has another drawback compared to active optical cable (AOC), which is its larger size and weight. If applied in dense data centers, it will occupy more space.

At present, high-speed cable DACs can be divided into 10G, 25G, 50G, and 100G direct connected copper cables according to their speed. In addition, to meet different interconnection requirements, branch copper cables have also emerged, such as 40G to 4x10G cables.

AOC active optical cable has more advantages than DAC, but its cost is higher than DAC. Its high cost is mainly reflected in the optical transceivers and transmission cables at both ends. AOC active optical cable uses optical signal transmission, so there are photoelectric conversion chips and optical devices inside the transceiver. In addition, fiber optic transmission has better stability, lower transmission delay, and longer transmission distance than copper cable transmission.

AOC active optical cable is small in size and light in weight, and can be used in data centers with high wiring density. However, we must not bend the optical cable excessively during use, so that it is easy to break small cores.

AOC active optical cables can be divided into 10G, 25G, 50G, 100G and other active optical cables according to their speed. In addition, to meet different interconnection requirements, branch active optical cables have also emerged, such as 40G to 4 * 10.