Does the data center machine room choose high-speed cable or active optical cable?

First of all, let's talk about the DAC high-speed cable. Its advantages are mainly reflected in its cost. The DAC high-speed cable can be said to be the interconnection solution with the lowest cost for high-speed short distance. However, it also has some disadvantages. Its transmission medium is copper cable, and the transmission signal is electrical signal. In addition, the copper cable may be subject to electromagnetic interference during transmission. Therefore, high-speed cables must be designed with anti electromagnetic interference.

Compared with active optical cable (AOC), direct connect copper cable (DAC) has another disadvantage: it is larger in size and weight. If it is applied to a dense data center, it will take up more space.

At present, high-speed cable DAC can be divided into 10G, 25G, 50G, 100G and 200G direct copper cables according to the speed. In addition, branch copper cables have also emerged to meet different interconnection requirements, such as 40G to 4x10G, 50G to 2x25G cables.

AOC active optical cable has more advantages than DAC, but its cost is higher than DAC. Its 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 in the transceiver. In addition, optical fiber transmission is more stable than copper transmission, with lower transmission delay and longer transmission distance.

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

AOC active optical cables can be divided into 10G, 25G, 50G, 100G, 200G and other active optical cables according to the speed. In addition, in order to meet different interconnection requirements, there are also branch active optical cables, such as 40G to 4 * 10G, 50G to 2 * 25G, etc.