How to Apply Base-24 MTP/MPO Cabling for 40/100G
With 10G commonly used in larger enterprises, migration from 10G to 40G to 100G is underway to meet the demands for greater bandwidth. Under such circumstances, Base-24 MTP cabling plays an important role. What is Base-24 MTP cabling? How to apply 24-fiber MPO cabling in 40G/100G? Get details in this post.
What Is Base-24 MTP Cabling?
A Base-24 MTP/MPO cabling is a cabling solution based on 24-fiber MTP fiber optic connectors or fiber optical links based on increments of 24 fibers. In a Base-24 system, each Base-24 connector, or MTP-24 connector, offers twenty-four fibers and provides additional density versus three MTP-8 connectors or two MTP-12 connectors.
How to Apply Base-24 MTP Cabling in 40G/100G?
As network needs are getting increasing from 10G to 40G or 100G for more advanced applications, the traditional Base-2 cabling system tends to convert to Base-24 MTP cabling to some extent. Since a two-fiber duplex LC port takes the same space as a single MTP port, while the MTP port can contain up to 24 fibers with an MTP-24 connector, providing much higher connection density. With MTP-24 connectors, various Base-24 MTP cabling solutions are available for 40G/100G applications. Here are four typical Base-24 MTP cabling solutions:
Solution 1: MTP-24 Duplex Applications With MTP Cross Connections
As the figure shows below, the MTP-24 trunk cable could connect to a 24-fiber MPO-LC cassette module, realizing the conversion from Base-24 to Base-2 connectivity. The polarity B trunk cables manage the port polarity in a similar fashion to the MTP-8 and MTP-12. Using such MTP-24 trunks could get two and three times of port density than MTP-8 and MTP-12 trunks respectively. In addition, a 144-fiber trunk cable using MTP-24 subunits occupies approximately 30 percent less area than the MTP-12 equivalent, making MTP-24 trunk more popular for high density applications.
Solution 2: MTP-24 Duplex Applications With LC Cross Connections
Unlike the MTP-24 duplex applications with MTP cross connections, this Base-24 cabling solution uses two additional LC-LC connections in the middle, which increases network flexibility when you don’t have additional MTP-24 trunk cables. Supporting duplex LC, this design offers duplex and parallel configurations on optic fibers.
Solution 3: MTP-24 Connection With Conversion Cable
Actually, the MTP-LC duplex modules in solution 1 could be replaced by MTP/MPO conversion cables as shown in the following figure. This change increases the panel connectivity density greatly. In this new solution, the 12-port duplex LC module (or MTP-24 to 12x LC duplex MTP cassette) can be replaced with an adaptor housing 8 MTP ports. Thus, the eight MTP-24 connectors/trunks can support a total of 192 fibers in the same module space. Compared to MTP-8 ports in the same module space, MTP-24 solution is three times in panel density for QSFP applications.
Solution 4: MTP-24 MTP Cabling in Parallel Applications
Compared to MTP-8 or MTP-12 systems, MTP-24 systems can also support a wider range of parallel applications. For example, MTP-24 offers direct connection for 100G SR-10 application over ten pairs of MMF in a 10x 10G configuration. Even if some vendors have extended the 100G SR-10 application to 120G over 12x 10G, the Base-24 MTP cabling could also handle with no issue.
In the 120G parallel applications, the 120G ports can be configured as 12 individual 10G links for server connection over MTP-24 to 12 duplex LC harness cables. And they can be divided into three 40G links for network switch connection. These applications are best supported with MTP-24 trunks and MTP-24 harnesses or breakouts.
Conclusion
From all the above, the Base-24 MTP/MPO cabling using MTP-24 connector is perhaps the most cost effective solution to deploy both parallel and duplex fiber optic applications. The MTP-24 connector offers higher fiber density and expedites the cleaning and inspection time concerning the installation of the MTP systems when compared to three MTP-8 connectors or two MTP-12 connectors.
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