What are the paths and cabling methods for the 100G network upgrade?

1. 10G wiring

The 10-gigabit Ethernet technology defined by the IEEE 802.3-AE-2002 standard is now mature, and 10Gb networks can be connected via copper cables or optical fibers. Gigabit bandwidth is usually Cat5e cable as transmission medium, and 10G bandwidth needs advanced copper cable, such as Cat6/Cat6a/Cat7 cable. For example, the 10G SFP+ electrical interface module needs to use twisted pair copper cable (Cat6a/Cat7), but the length of the copper cable cannot exceed 30 meters, because the 10-gigabit electrical interface module only supports the transmission distance of less than 30 meters. In addition, 10G optical fiber cabling can be used, such as 10G SFP+ active cable or 10-gigabit SFP+ optical module.

2. 25G cabling

The 25G single-channel rate increases the port density and cost requirements. 25GbE networks can support both copper and optical cables

3. 40G cabling

In this path, the previously invested 10G resources will be utilized. The 40G QSFP+ SR4 module is composed of four parallel 10G channels. The longer distance 40G QSFP+ LR4 and 40G QSFP+ ER4 optical modules reuse four channels of different wavelengths to one optical link through WDM technology for transmission.