The ABC of Direct Attach Cables

Thomas Ko, RCDD Product Manager

TE Connectivity

Network Speed and Technology

10/40/100 Gbps the transition is occurring right now

What are Customers Saying about their 10/40/100 GbE Migration Plans?

10G 40G 100G

Year 100 Mbps 1G 10G 40G 100G

2011 23% 25% 25% 17% 9%

2013 9% 18% 24% 26% 23%

Source: BSRIA Global Data Center End User Study, 2011. 335 respondents in six countries

Copper- and Fiber-Based Equipment Interconnect Options Will Continue

Connection Speed:

Server speed adoption (x86 million server units)

LC MMF (with Transceiver)

SFP+ Twinax QSFP+ Twinax CXP Twinax

10G 40G 100G

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2016 2017 2019 2020 2018

10G

100G

1G

40G

MPO 12-F MMF (with Transceiver)

MPO 24-F MMF (with Transceiver)

Cat 6A

Fiber

Copper

LC Multimode

Fiber

SFP+ Twinax Copper

How They Connect

• Types of interfaces for Ethernet – Copper - RJ45 – Fiber : Build-in modules LC / SC / MPO – Pluggable Transceivers Modules

Introducing Pluggable Modules

OR

Example Picture from Cisco manual

Pluggable Transceivers

Some of the commonly available pluggables

Optical transceiver module

Optical cable

Active optical cable

Direct attach copper cable

Lightpipe Heatsink and clip

PT Connector

Cage

Components of a Pluggable Interface

Standards Drive the Market for High Speed interfaces…

Connectivity To Support Short Reach DC Applications?

XEN

PAK X2

XFP

SFP+

QSF

P+

CXP

CFP

(1st. G

ener

atio

n)

1 x 10Gb/s SC Duplex

40Gb/s 100Gb/s 40 / 100Gb/s 10Gb/s

1 x 10Gb/s SC Duplex

1 x 10Gb/s LC Duplex

4 x 10Gb/s MPO/MTP

4 x 10Gb/s 10 x 10Gb/s MPO/MTP

10 x 10Gb/s MPO/MTP

1 x 10Gb/s LC Duplex

~ 2001 Today

Direct Attach Twin Ax Cu to 15m

RJ45 Twisted Cu Pair

Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP)

• Supports applications up to 4 Gb/s

• Cages available in single port, ganged, and stacked configurations

• Stacked cages have integrated connectors, press-fit in one process step

• Uses 20 position PT (Pluggable Transceiver) connector

• Direct attach copper cable assemblies for lower cost with short reach

2012年11月29日星期四

page 14 /

SFP+

• Supports applications up to 10Gb/s, backward compatible with SFP • Cages offered in single port, ganged, and stacked configurations • Elastomeric gaskets and springs for EMI containment • Uses enhanced 20 position PT connector • Direct attach copper and fiber cable assemblies offered

2012年11月29日星期四

page 15 /

QSFP+ (Quad SFP)

• 4-channels in one interface, providing 3-4X density of XFP, SFP+ • Up to 10 Gb/s per channel, total 40G interface • Cages offered in single port and ganged configurations • Heatsinks and lightpipes available • Uses 38 position EVERCLEAR connector • Direct attach copper and PARALIGHT optical cable assemblies offered

•High density up to 12X, supporting 10Gb/s per channel

•Adopted for 120G InfiniBand and 100G Ethernet

•84 position dual row connector interface

•Designed to support copper and optical links

CXP

Direct Attach Cable Assemblies - Copper

Support higher data rates than traditional copper interfaces – from 4Gbps to 10Gbps per channel

Interchangeable and hot swappable with fiber optic modules

Cost effective solution over optical transceivers and cables for short reach applications

Support multiple protocols - Gigabit & 10G Ethernet; 8G FC; FCoE; InfiniBand SDR, DDR & QDR

CXP, SFP+, QSFP, XFP, SFP

• An alternative to optical transceivers - eliminates the separable interface between transceiver module and optical cable

• Meets Small Form-factor (SFF) standards

• No Equipment Upgrades

• Up to 40Gb/s throughput with QSFP+

• 100 meters plus reach

• Low latency (840ps + fiber prop delay)

• No EMI • Optical Cable Advantages

– 1/3 Size of Copper Cable 3.0 mm O.D. – 1/3 Weight of Copper Cable

Direct Attach Cable Assemblies - Fiber

Applications: High Speed Direct Attach Cable Assemblies

High Speed I/O applications in storage, networking and telecom markets

Switches, servers, routers, network interface cards (NICs), Host Bus Adapters (HBAs)

High Density and High Data Throughput

Direct Pluggable Cables include

Copper Cable Assemblies

Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies

Application: Data Center

Equipment Distribution Areas

Entrance Room

Main Distribution Area Horizontal

Distribution Area Equipment Distribution Area

Direct Attach Cable Assemblies Fiber Systems

Optical Jumpers Trunk Cables

Copper Systems

Cat 6A 10 Gigabit

Cat 6 Gigabit QSFP SFP+

Active Optical Cable

Assembly

ToR Connectivity Option – Direct Attach Cables

• Connects active platforms with no patching up to 15m.

• QSFP+ and SFP+ cords to switch, server and router for rack connections

– For speeds of up to 10G/s - SFP+ cables

– For speeds of up to 40G/s QSFP+ cables

• For distances greater than 15m fiber optic Direct Attach cables can be used.

Data Center – DAC Application

• Low Cost for Short Reach – SFP+ Direct Attach the

optimal solution for short reach 10 G interconnects. Through aggregation, SFP+ Direct Attach also provides a low cost upgrade path for higher speed (40 G and 100 G) interconnects.

– Best apply ToR, and even EoR

Reach of DAC Cables

• For cables that operate at a data rate of 10Gb/s per differential pair the typical reach for 24 AWG cable is about 7 meters, for active copper cables a reach of about 15 meters can be achieved.

• For some applications customers desire smaller wire gauge for improved flexibility, which shortens the reach

• For new standards that are in process of being developed to support data rates of 25 to 28 Gb/s per differential pair the targeted reach is about 5 meters for 24 AWG cable (IEEE, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, etc)

40GBE over Copper

• QSFP Modular Interface • Included in 802.3ba standard • 8-pair Twin-ax Cable Assembly • 7m (23ft) reach • Similar application space as 10G

SFP+Cu for ToR/POD layouts • Larger OD vs. SFP+

QSFP Cable Assembly

QSFP OD: 0.36in/9.2mm (24AWG) SFP+ OD: 0.22in/5.6mm (24AWG)

100GBE over Copper

20-pair twinax, approx 0.5 in. OD

CXP Form Factor

• CXP Modular Interface (similar to 12X IB)

• 20-pair twin-ax cable assembly • Cable is large approx 0.5in (12mm)

OD • 7m (23ft) reach • Under research to understand

market need • May transition to 25G x 4 in QSFP

form factor in future

40GBE over Multimode Fiber

• QSFP transceiver with 12 fiber MTP/MPO connector – Uses outside 4 fibers on each side for Tx and

Rx

• OM3: 100m, OM4: 150m • QSFP Active Optical Cable

QSFP SR Transceiver

MTP Cable Assembly 01

12

100GBE over Multimode Fiber

• 100G over MMF requires CFP / CXP module

• Most CFP will use 24 fiber MTP interface

• CXP for Short Reach application • CFP for Longer Reach application

10GBASE-SR10 CFP with 24 fiber MTP Interface

CXP Interface

01

24

Hybrid (QSFP / SFP+)

Release and Roadmap Dates

Application Data Rate

Infiniband Ethernet

QDR (10G) 10GBASE-SR 40GBASE-SR4

• Product Type: Active Optical Cable

• QSFP (40GbE) to 4 x SFP+ (10GbE) Fan Out

Microsoft is in the process of connecting their servers with 10GbE fiber connections. With the number of connections they require, they are opting to purchase switches with 40GbE blades and splitting the connections into four individual 10 Gig channels.

40G – 100G Ethernet Reach 1m

Backplane 7m copper cable assembly

100m OM3/ 150m OM4

10km SMF 40km SMF

40 Gigabit Ethernet PMD Name 40GBASE-KR4 40GBASE-CR4 40GBASE-SR4 40GBASE-LR4

Signaling 4 x 10Gbps 4 x 10Gbps 4 x 10Gbps 4 x 10Gbps Media Backplane Twin-ax Parallel MMF Duplex SMF Module QSFP QSFP CFP/QSFP

100 Gigabit Ethernet PMD Name 100GBASE-CR10 100GBASE-SR10 100GBASE-

LR4 100GBASE-

ER4

Signaling 10 x 10Gbps 10 x 10Gbps 4 x 25Gbps 4 x 25Gbps Media Twin-ax Parallel MMF Duplex SMF Duplex SMF Module CXP CFP or CXP CFP CFP

100GbE Market Overview

Fibre Channel Industry Association Roadmap

page 33 / December 2011

“FC” used throughout all applications for Fibre Channel infrastructure and devices, including edge and ISL interconnects. Each speed maintains backward compatibility at least two previous generations (I.e., 8GFC backward compatible to 4GFC and 2GFC) †Line Rate: All “FC” speeds are single-lane serial stream ‡Dates: Future dates estimated

1GFC 200 1.0625 1996

2GFC 400 2.125 2000

4GFC 800 4.25 2003

8GFC 1600 8.5 2006

16GFC 3200 14.025 2009

Product Naming

Throughput (MBps)

Line Rate (GBaud)

T11 Spec Technically Completed

(Year)‡

Market Availability

(Year)‡

1997

2001

2005

2008

2011

32GFC 6400 28.05 2012

64GFC 12800 TBD 2015

128GFC 25600 TBD 2018

2014

Market Demand

Market Demand

256GFC 12800 TBD 2021

512GFC 25600 TBD 2024

Market Demand

Market Demand

SFP

SFP

SFP

SFP+ SFP+

LC Multimode jumper (with Transceiver)

SFP+, QSFP+

InfiniBand Trade Association Roadmap

CX4 QSFP

SFP LC Multimode jumper + SFP Transceiver

MPO Multimode + QSFP Transceiver

CXP

Summary

• DAC cables are a cost effective, proven solution for interconnecting networking applications

• Use the same port as an optical transceiver, but with significant cost savings and power savings in short reach applications

• The products are continuing to evolve to meet industry needs of higher data rates and densities with low power consumption

• Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand standards are increasing in speed to support this increase