Introduction to 100G Optical Network Card and Optical Module Solution

In the 1990s and early 2000s, network cards were generally used on computers, but they were slowly used on servers and workstations until later. During this period, wireless network cards were gradually widely used on computers because of the maturity of wireless technology and the popularity of wireless networks. However, due to the reliability of the connection, wired network cards were still dominant in network devices that did not need to move.

In recent years, the industry has also been constantly introducing new network cards to meet different Ethernet needs, such as 100M network cards, gigabit network cards, 10M network cards, 25G network cards, 100G network cards, etc. This article will take you to understand the 100G optical network card and its solution.

The 100G optical fiber network card, also called the server network card, is a printed circuit board that can provide the computer with network communication functions. It is usually used as a separate network adapter and inserted into the motherboard slot of the server. At present, the common 100G optical fiber network cards in the market are single port and dual port. Generally speaking, the single port 100G network card can be selected. However, considering the security and reliability of the network, the dual port 100G network card is also a good choice, which can provide redundancy and avoid network paralysis due to network card failure.

When selecting a 100G optical fiber network card, we'd better choose a 100G optical fiber network card that supports hot swapping, because this optical fiber network card can be installed and removed without shutting down the system. It can immediately replace the failed network card to minimize the failure time.

In addition, because each server supports different operating systems, such as Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, etc., you need to determine whether the Server's operating system can be supported before purchasing a 100G network card.

The 100G optical network card can be connected and transmitted with 100G QSFP28 DAC high-speed cable, 100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cable, 100G QSFP28 optical module and other optical communication products. The transmission distance of the 100G DAC high-speed cable is within 7 meters. Because the high-speed cable uses the electrical signal transmission mode, the internal components of the DAC do not include various expensive optical components, and the price of the copper cable is lower than that of the optical cable. Therefore, the high-speed cable has a very high cost performance ratio in the short distance transmission scheme.

The 100G AOC active optical cable (multi-mode OM4) can be transmitted to 300 meters, which is farther than the transmission distance of the DAC. Because the DAC high-speed cable belongs to the transmission of electrical signals, which will be severely attenuated in the transmission process, it limits the transmission distance of the DAC. However, the AOC active optical cable is optical signal transmission, and the optical signal is attenuated very little in the transmission process, so the transmission distance of the AOC is longer than that of the DAC.