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High-Density 40G to 10G Breakout Cabling Solutions

Updated on Sep 2, 2020 by
16.6k

As datacom technology migrates from 10G to 40G and beyond, connecting 40G equipment with existing 10G equipment is often necessary. 40G to 10G breakout cabling solution is ideal for connecting high-speed switches populated with higher rate transceivers QSFP+, CFP, CXP, CFP2, etc. to existing 10G elements populated with SFP+ modules. How to achieve 40G to 10G breakout cabling? This article will introduce two breakout solutions for you.

40G to 10G Breakout Cabling Solutions

40G parallel optics transceivers (40GBASE-SR4) can support 4x10G modes. This feature allows new parallel optics active equipment to be compatible with existing 10G transceivers. Parallel optics 40GBASE-SR4 uses 8 out of 12 MPO/MTP® interface fibers transmitting 4 x duplex (DX) channels (4 x transmit and 4 x receive). On the side of 40G QSFP+, 12-fiber MTP® cable is used to connect the QSFP and on the 10G side, 4 LC fiber patch cords are used to connect SFP+ modules. With certain optical equipment, higher-speed equipment (40G QSFP+) can be connected successfully to slower-speed equipment (10G SFP+) successfully. For instance, 40G to 10G breakout cable and 40G QSFP+ breakout fiber patch panel are two cost-saving, simple and high-density breakout cabling solutions making 40G to 10G breakout cabling more efficient to manage.

Solution 1: Using MTP® to 4 LC Breakout Cable

MTP® to 4 LC harness cable is configured as an 8-fiber MTP® connector on one side and 4 duplex LC connectors on the other side. So 8-fiebr MTP® to 4 LC breakout cable is commonly used to directly connect 40G to 10G devices. As the following figure shows, the MTP® to 4 LC breakout cable achieves 40G to 10G breakout cabling by connecting single QSFP+ (40G transceiver with MTP® interface) and 4 SFP+ (10G transceivers with LC Duplex Interface). Since no additional network equipment applied, MTP® to 4 LC fiber breakout cable is a time-saving and money-saving solution for building complex 40G high-density network in the data center.

mtp-lc harness cable for 40g to 10g breakout

Figure 1: MTP®-LC Harness Cable for 40g to 10g Breakout Cabling

Solution 2: Using MTP® to LC Cassettes

As shown in the picture below, the high-density 40G breakout cassette has 48 duplex LC ports front and 12 MTP® rear ports. It is designed to connect 40G QSFP+ ports with MTP® fiber cable to the back of the cassette and then this breaks out as 48x10GE on the front with LC fiber cable. As mentioned above, every 40G QSFP+ transceiver is connected to 4x10G transceivers via 4 duplex LC connectors. Therefore, to make 40G to 10G breakout cabling more simple and stable, our 40G fiber breakout cassette logically groups the ports in 4 duplex LC ports as you can see in the following picture.

cabling

Figure 2: MTP® to LC Cassette for 40G to 10G Breakout Cabling

The high-density 40G QSFP+ breakout cassette is mainly used in 40G interconnect network hardware. With 12 QSFP+ MTP® rear ports and 48 SFP+ duplex LC ports in front, 12x40G multimode QSFP+ MTP® connections from the trunk cables easily break out as 48X10G LC connections. Therefore, it achieves 480G transmission in only one 1U cassette. Since the cassettes can be located in the same rack as the switches or closer to the network elements, it eliminates additional connections and you can then get the fastest bandwidth and greater connectivity in the space. Most importantly, the 40G QSFP+ breakout cassette simplifies your high-performance cable routing in a finished, professional manner and provides increased cable capacity in less rack space. It’s really a high-density cable management solution!

FS Products for 40G to 10G Breakout Cabling

Multimode 40G to 10G Cabling

As the picture shows below, the breakout cassette features 3 rear 8-fiber MTP® port connections and 6 quad LC ports in the front. The cabling solution deploys an MTP® multimode trunk cable connected to 40G transceiver on one end of the link. LC to LC multimode patch cables connected to 10G transceiver on the other end. With this flexible cabling, one can step down 40G channels to 10G channels as needed.

OM4

Figure 3: 40G to 10G Breakout Cabling Solution–Multimode

Item No. Recommended Products Description Price
1 QSFP 40G SR4 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ 850nm 150m MTP® Transceiver for MMF US$ 39.00
2 MTP® Cable MTP®-12 (Female) to MTP®-12 (Female) OM4 Multimode Trunk Cable US$ 43.00
3 MTP® to LC Breakout Cassette FHD® 3 x MTP®-8 Cassette, 24 Fibers OM4 Multimode, Universal Polarity, 3 x 8F MTP® to 6 x LC Quad (Aqua) US$ 189.00
4 LC LC LC-LC OM4 Duplex Multimode PVC/OFNP Fiber Patch Cable US$ 4.30
5 SFP-10G-SR 10GBASE-SR SFP+ 850nm 300m DOM Transceiver US$ 20.00

Single Mode 40G to 10G Cabling

As shown in the following figure, the cabling solution deploys an MTP® OS2 trunk cable connected to 40G transceiver on one end of the link. LC to LC single mode patch cables connected to 10G transceiver on the other end.

OS2

Figure 4: 40G to 10G Breakout Cabling Solution–Single Mode

Item No. Recommended Products Description Price
1 QSFP 40G SR4 QSFP-4X10G-LR-S 1310nm 10km MTP® Transceiver US$ 329.00
2 MTP® Cable MTP®-12 to MTP®-12 OS2 Single Mode Elite Trunk Cable,Plenum (OFNP) US$ 77.00
3 MTP® to LC Breakout Cassette FHD® 3 x MTP®-8 Cassette, 24 Fibers OS2 Single Mode, Universal Polarity, 3 x 8F MTP® to 12 x LC Duplex (Blue) US$ 269.00
4 LC LC LC-LC Duplex OS2 Single Mode PVC/OFNR Fiber Optic Patch Cable US$ 4.30
5 10GBASE-LR 10GBASE-LR SFP+ 1310nm 10km DOM Transceiver US$ 27.00

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