High-density MPO/MTP Cabling Assemblies in Data Centers

Along with the advent and heavy use of big data and cloud computing, the demand for high-speed transmission and great data capacity is growing more vigorously than ever before in this fast-changing mobile world. A large number of servers are housed in cloud-computing data centers of some big enterprises and organizations. Thus, today’s data centers are faced with such a major challenge: how to obtain the balance of high -capacity & -transmission data rate and low power consumption. As data throughput increases, 40/100Gbps are more common and now become a trend and hot-spot for data-center cabling system, with the MPO/MTP connector being the popular optical interface for 40/100GbE network. This article is aimed at introducing high-density MPO/MTP cabling assemblies in data centers.

MPO/MTP Cable Benefits

MPO/MTP cable, a significant part of structured cabling, is designed for the reliable and quick operations in Data Centers. The obvious benefits of these cables are less space occupation and improved scalability, providing significant space and cost savings, widely used in 40GbE and 100GbE network environment. MPO/MTP cabling assemblies include patch cables, trunk cables, harness (fan-out or breakout) cables, cassettes, etc..

MPO/MTP Patch Cables

MPO/MTP patch cables come into use when 40G or 100G transceivers are employed with MTP/MPO interface, say QSFP+ module (ie. 40G-QSFP-SR4) or QSFP28 optics (ie. JNP-QSFP-100G-SR4). The ends of MTP/MPO fiber cables are terminated with the customer's choice of 12-fiber or 24-fiber MPO connectors. Available in a male-to-male version (left with guide pins) and a female-to-female version (without pins), these cables are used in various applications such as all-optical networking and devices like the above-mentioned 40G/100G optics.

MPO/MTP Trunk Cables

MPO/MTP trunk cables function as a permanent link that connects MPO/MTP modules to each other. Available with 12, 24, 48 and 72 fibers, these cables are used to facilitate rapid deployment of high density backbone cabling in data centers and other high fiber environments reducing network installation or reconfiguration. A 72-fiber MPO/MTP trunk cable can be terminated with 6 MPO/MTP connectors which are manufactured specifically for multi-fiber loose tube or ribbon cable.

These cables can interconnect cassettes, panels or ruggedized MPO fan-outs, allowing for the flexibility in case any decision is made to change the connector style in the patch panels, new cassettes can be installed with the new connector style on the cross-connect side of the patch panel without having to change the connector on the cable trunk.

MPO/MTP Harness Cable

MPO/MTP harness cables provide a transition from multi-fiber cables to individual fibers or duplex connectors. They are suitable for many device needs like 100G modules, including CFP, CFP2 and CFP4 series. It provides a reliable, cost-effective cabling system for migrating from legacy 10G to higher speed 40G/100GbE. For instance, 12-fiber MPO to 4 duplex LC can be used to connect four 10G SFP+ (SFP-10G-SR) with one 40G QSFP+ (40G-QSFP-SR4).

MPO/MTP Cassette Modules

MPO/MTP cassette modules permit rapid deployment of high density data center infrastructure as well as improved troubleshooting and reconfiguration during moves, adds and changes. They enable users to take the fibers brought by a trunk cable and distribute them to a duplex cable. As already assembled units, the MPO cassette modules are fitted with 12 or 24 fibers and have LC, or SC adapters on the front side and MPO/MTP at the rear, this is to say, inside a standard LGX cassette module, there is a hydra cable.

MPO/MTP Cable Heavy Use

Now many big companies are replacing their existing infrastructure with MPO/MTP cassettes in their patch panels to route data for thousands of network electronics, all making MPO/MTP cassettes, patch-cords, connectors and adapters an essential backbone to their infrastructure. If you run one 12-fiber MPO/MTP cable from a cassette on one side of the building to one cassette on the other, you can supply data for 12 connections just like that. The high fiber count in one connector creates endless possibilities. By deploying these different types of MPO/MTP cable in different locations of a data center, there occur several solutions for structured cabling systems that are key to data centers.

Conclusion

MPO/MTP cables come as the solver to meet the demanding request for higher network capacity as data expenses than expected. SUNET, as a professional fiber optic product supplier, offers various high-density MPO/MTP cables, trunk and harness versions, patch cords, and cassette module all included. Besides MPO/MTP cables, other cables are also supplied, like LC ST patch cable, LC SC cable, SC SC fiber cable, and so on. You can visit our website for more information about numerous amounts of cabling assemblies.