Why Active Optical Cable (AOC)?

The use of active optical cables is mainly due to the fact that active optical cable components replace copper technology in data center and high performance computing (HPC) applications.

As far as we know, passive copper cables are heavy and bulky, which do not meet the requirements of data centers for high density. Moreover, due to the nature of electrical signals, electromagnetic interference (EMI) limits the performance and reliability of copper. However, active optical cable breaks through the limitations of passive optical cable and plays an important role in high-speed data transmission.

What factors should be considered when selecting cost-effective active optical cable (AOC)? This is a concern of many people. I hope the following analysis can help you. If you have better suggestions, please contact us to discuss them.

AOC connection port

When selecting AOC, you must first determine whether the optical port of the device is SFP+or QSFP+.

Type and rate of data transmitted

AOC is applicable to Ethernet switch, LAN: 1G 10G 40G Ethernet;

Storage service, SAN: 1G 2G 4G 8G Fiber Channel;

Infini Band switch, Infini Band: SDR DDR QDR (2G 5G 10G).

transmission distance

For Ethernet service, 10G SFP+AOC, 40G QSFP+AOC cable: OM2 optical cable, transmission distance is within 20m; The optical cable of OM3 can reach 300m.

For storage service, 10G SFP+AOC: OM3 optical cable is used. 4G service transmission distance can reach 380m, and 8G service transmission distance can reach 150m.

Quality assurance

Common AOCs include H3C, Cisco, etc. The price of the original factory is prohibitive. At the same time, the market is a mixture of good and bad, with many second-hand and even fake goods. It is particularly important to choose a powerful manufacturer with compatible brands.