Direct Attach Cable Assemblies for Data Center Interconnection

As direct attach cable assemblies use the same port as optical transceivers, but with significant cost savings and power savings in short reach applications, they are becoming more and more popular among data center operators. Direct attach cable assemblies are mainly used as media to support high transfer rates between servers, switches and storage devices in data centers. In this post, we will talk about usage of direct attach cable assemblies for data center interconnection.

Types of Direct Attach Cable Assemblies

Direct attach cable assemblies are terminated with transceiver-style plugs, such as SFP+ (enhanced small form-factor pluggable), SFP28, QSFP+ (quad small form-factor pluggable), QSFP28, and CXP, etc. Using the same port as transceiver optics, direct attach cables can support Ethernet, Infiniband and Fibre Channel but with independent protocols. In general, direct attach cable assemblies are divided into three families—direct attach passive copper cable, direct attach active copper cable and active optical cable (AOC).

Passive Direct Attach Copper Cable

Passive direct attach copper cables are without active circuitry component. They can achieve interconnections up to 7m at 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps with low power. Direct attach passive copper cable assemblies, like HP J9281B SFP+ passive direct attach copper cable, offer high-speed connectivity between equipment. They are compatible with hubs, switches, routers, servers, and network interface cards (NICs) from leading electronics manufacturers like Cisco, Juniper, etc.

Active Direct Attach Copper Cable

Active copper cables are designed in the same cable type as the passive one, but they contain low power circuitry in the connector to boost the signal and are driven from the port without additional power requirements. The active version provides a low cost alternative to optical transceivers, and are generally used for end of row or middle of row data center architectures for interconnect distances of up to 15 meters.

Active Optical Cable

Active optical cable (AOC) incorporates active electrical and optical components. It can achieve longer distance than the copper assemblies. In general, active optical cable can reach more than 100m via multimode fiber. Compared to direct attach copper cable, AOC, like Cisco SFP-10G-AOC10M SFP+ AOC, weighs less and can support longer transmission distance. It is immune to electromagnetic energy since the optical fiber is dielectric (not able to conduct electric current). And it is an alternative to optical transceivers and it can eliminate the separable interface between transceiver module and optical cable. However, it costs more than copper cable.

In addition, with the fan-out technology, both direct attach copper cable and active optical cable can be designed as breakout direct attach cable assemblies, like 40G QSFP+ to 4x10G SFP+ AOC, which can better satisfy the demands on network migration.

Direct Attach Cables for Data Center Interconnection

Direct attach cable assemblies are ideal choices for short-reach direct connection applications. Generally, they are used in the EDA (Equipment Distribution Area) where cabinets and racks house end equipment (servers) and where horizontal cabling from the HDA (Horizontal Distribution Area) are terminated at patch panels, as shown in the following picture:

For interconnection in racks and between rows of racks, direct attach cable assemblies are used to connect server to switch, storage to switch or switch to switch. Depending on different interconnect applications and distance requirements, direct attach copper cables, passive or active, active optical cable, or breakout direct attach cable assemblies with various length options can be used.

As 10G network is widely deployed in today's data center, 10G SFP+ DACs are commonly used in interconnect applications below 15m, such as server to switch or storage to switch interconnection in the same rack. And now 25GbE is popular and 25G direct attach cable assemblies, such as SFP28 DACs, are already available in the market. For 40GbE, 40G QSFP+ DACs and AOCs are used. Of course, higher speed and more bandwidth are needed for spine switches. Thus, 100G DACs, like QSFP28 DACs are used in this case.

Conclusion

There are a wide range of direct attach cable assemblies, including both direct attach copper cable assemblies and active optical cables which cover data rates of 10G, 25G, 40G, 100G and 120G. You can choose SFP+ direct attach cables for your 10G networks, or QSFP+ direct attach cables for your 40G networks. And both copper and optical fiber options are available.

The Basics of Dirrect Attach Cables

Dirrect attach cable (DAC), is a cost effective and proven solution for interconnecting networking applications. It can provide inexpensive and reliable connections using either copper cables or fiber cables. What is DAC? How copper DAC and fiber DAC differ from each other? Here is what you need to know about DACs.

DAC Definition

A direct attach cable is a fixed assembly that is purchased at a given length, with the connector modules permanently terminated to each end of the cable to connect switches to routers or servers. DACs are much cheaper than the regular optics, since the "transceivers" on both ends of DACs are not real optics and their components are without optical lasers. They are preferable choice for their low cost, low power consumption and high performances. DAC are made of the two kinds of cable materials: copper and optical fiber. They are respectively called direct attach copper cable and active optical cable.

DAC Assemblies—Copper

Direct attach copper cable is interchangeable and hot swappable with fiber optic modules. It is designed in either active or passive versions. It supports such multiple protocols as Gigabit & 10G Ethernet, 8G FC, FCoE and InfiniBand. Direct attach copper cable is a cost effective solution over optical transceivers and and cables for short reach applications. It can support higher data rates than traditional copper interfaces—from 4Gbps to 10Gbps per channel. The defect of direct attach copper cable is that it is heavy and bulky, making it difficult to be managed. Furthermore, due to the nature of electrical signals, direct attach copper cable is vulnerable to the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI), such as undesirable responses, degradation, or complete system failure. Fiberstore offers various QSFP+ direct attach copper cables with different lengths for your 40G applications. For example, lengths of Juniper EX-QSFP-40GE-DAC-50CM, QFX-QSFP-DAC-1M and QFX-QSFP-DAC-3M compatible QSFP+ to QSFP+ passive copper cables are respectively 0.5m, 1m, and 3m.

DAC Assemblies—Fiber

Active optical cable (AOC) is an alternative to optical transceivers, eliminating the separable interface between transceiver module and optical cable. It meets Small Form-factor (SFF) standards. Compaired to direct attach copper cable, AOC weighs less and can support longer transmission distance. It is immune to electromagnetic energy since the optical fiber is dielectric (not able to conduct electric current). What’s more, it is an alternative to optical transceivers and it can eliminate the separable interface between transceiver module and optical cable. AOC has no EMI. However, it costs more than copper cable.

Applications of DAC

Direct attach cables are widely applied in storage area network, data center, and high-performance computing connectivity. They suppoet high speed I/O applications in storage, networking and telecom markets. And they can also be sused in witches, servers, routers, network interface cards (NICs), and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs). There are many different kinds of DACs, they all have their specific applicayions. For example, 40G AOC is commonly used for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications.

Conclusion

Fiberstore offers a variety of high speed interconnect DAC assemblies including 10G SFP+ cables, 40G QSFP+ cables, and 120G CXP cables to satisfy the demands from 10G to 100G interconnection. Direct attach cables provided by Fiberstore can be customized to meet different requirements. And we also offer all kinds of high quality QSFP+ modules branded by many famous companies, like Brocade QSFP+, Dell QSFP+, Juniper QSFP+, Finisar QSFP+, Intel QSFP+, etc. You can buy from us with confidence.