The amount of information transmission and exchange is increasing day by day, and there are more and more high-density and broadband applications. Traditional copper cables can no longer meet the needs of communication. Compared to traditional cables, active optical cables can help communication equipment enjoy the huge advantages of optical transmission. What is the difference between AOC active optical cables? Let's learn about the relevant knowledge of AOC active optical cables today!

What is active optical cable?

AOC is the abbreviation for active optical cable, consisting of integrated optoelectronic devices (two optical transceivers and multimode optical fibers), used for high-speed and high reliability interconnections between data centers, high-performance computers, large capacity memory, and other equipment.

However, compared to traditional cables, active optical cables are more convenient to use, have better reliability, and have lower energy consumption compared to traditional cables. They also have the characteristics of long transmission distance and high transmission rate, bringing great convenience to communication equipment. They are also ideal transmission cables in fields such as data centers.

Classification of active optical cables

1. 10G SFP+ AOC active optical cables

The shell of 10G SFP+ AOC is a metal shell with EMI resistance and electromagnetic interference. It is packaged with SFP+ that supports hot swapping, as well as a highly reliable 850nm VCSEL laser and PIN receiver. Compared with traditional copper cables, its maximum transmission distance can reach 300M, overcoming the broadband limitations of traditional copper cables.

2. 25G SFP28 AOC active optical cables

25G SFP28 AOC active fiber optic cable is suitable for connecting 25G and 10G Ethernet, high-capacity IO and SFP+ interfaces, data centers, and racks. It has a throughput of up to 25Gbps, and its volume and weight are half and quarter of those of 25G high-speed cables, making it lighter and more lightweight; At the same time, it does not require device upgrades, and has better transmission performance and bit error rate. It is widely used in high-performance computing, data centers, and storage area networks.

3. 40G QSFP+ AOC active optical cables

40G QSFP+ AOC adopts four channel full duplex active optical cables, with a maximum transmission rate of 11.36bit/s per channel. Multimode optical fibers are connected to high-performance VCSEL light sources, and in short distance network transmission applications, compared with 40G optical modules, there is no insertion loss and echo loss. Its material and maintenance costs are relatively low, which can help users save more costs. It is mainly used in cloud computing systems and data center computer rooms.

4. 100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cables

The 100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cable and the 40G QSFP+ AOC both use four channel full duplex active optical cables. The 100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cable has a bandwidth of 100 Gbps and uses a multimode fiber system with a wavelength of 850nm. It is composed of two optical transceivers and a fiber jumper, with a 100G optical module receiver at both ends, which can achieve one-to-one transmission. Mainly used in data centers, high-performance computing, and storage area networks, it is compatible with servers, switches, and other major brands.

Application of active optical cables

At present, the market for active optical cables is also constantly expanding, starting from high-performance computers at the beginning, and now having multiple protocols has spread to traditional data centers. The application has gradually become widespread, not only allowing multiple machines to connect to hosts, but also in cloud computing, big data centers, high-speed data transmission, digital signage and other fields. This not only ensures high-speed data transmission, but also relies on its long transmission distance, The advantages of good transmission performance have played a role in more fields.

The above is the relevant knowledge of AOC active optical cables introduced by ETU-LINK. If have any questions, welcome to leave a message on the website.