Tag: Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 Optics

When purchasing the third party optics, customers usually suffer from the poor quality and compatibility issue, which is the major obstacle of OEM market. Just as a saying goes, what is good is not cheap. However, this article will prove that the cost-effective OEM optics from fiber-mart.COM are well worth the penny.

fiber-mart.COM, as a professional and reliable manufacturer and supplier of compatible optical transceiver, provides a series of self-developed products which can be highly compatible with many major brands, such as Cisco, HPE, Juniper, Brocade, Arista, etc. In this blog, we are going to present a compatibility testing of our hot-selling Cisco compatible QSFP-40G-SR4 optics on Cisco Nexus 9396PX.

Before we come to the major part, let’s have a brief overview of the 40G QSFP-40G-SR4 and the Cisco Nexus 9396PX switch. Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 Compatible 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ transceiver is a short-range transceiver for 40 Gigabit Ethernet. It supports link lengths of 100m and 150m on laser-optimized OM3 and OM4 multimode fiber, respectively. Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 enables high bandwidth 40G optical links over 12-fiber parallel fiber terminated with MPO/MTP multifiber connectors, which is also optimized to guarantee interoperability with any IEEE 40GBase-SR4 and 10GBase-SR.

Our Cisco compatible QSFP-40G-SR4 optics is fully tested with most Cisco platforms to ensure compatibility and compliance. Thus, it can be supported on a wide range of Cisco equipment, such as Cisco ASR 9000 series, Nexus 9000 series, Nexus 6000 series, and so on.

Cisco Nexus 9396PX Switch

Cisco Nexus 9396PX belongs to the Cisco Nexus 9000 series. It delivers a comprehensive line-rate layer 2 and layer 3 featuring in a two-rack-unit form factor. It can support 1/10/40 Gbps of switching capacity with forty-eight 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ port and twelve 40 GE QSFP+ nonblocking ports. The main advantage of this switch is that you can reuse the existing 10 Gigabit Ethernet multimode cabling for 40 Gigabit Ethernet by connecting the 40Gb bidirectional transceiver. Figure 1 shows the Cisco Nexus 9396PX switch.

The Testing Procedure of the Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 on Cisco Nexus 9396PX Switch

In fiber-mart.COM’s test center, we care of every detail from staff to facilities to ensure our customers to receive the optics with superior quality. Just take our hot-selling Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 optics as an example, the procedure can be quite simple that can be concluded in three steps:

1. Plug the Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 compatible QSFP+ into the 40-Gbps ports of the Nexus 9396PX

2. Plug the cleaned MTP patch cord into the optical ports of the transceivers

3. View the state of LED light and more information in the CLI.

Besides the above procedures, we also have a testing demo of QSFP-40G-SR4 Cisco compatible module testing on Nexus 9396PX.

Conclusion

At the end of the article, you must know the reason why fiber-mart.COM is the number one choice of compatible optical transceivers. Not only the Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 optics, but other reliable compatible fiber optic transceivers from fiber-mart.COM are the best-seller products over the past years. If you are the major brand user like Cisco, HPE or Juniper, and want to cut down your budget this time, you might want to have a look at our cost-effective compatible fiber optic transceiver.

Are you tired of messy network? As the world embraces the increasingly faster data-rate network, IT managers felt great stress over the inability to organize and create a neat rack mounted environment. Patch panels allows the easy management of patch cables and link the cabling distribution areas, which paves the way for a refreshing new approach to a neat optical network.

Patch panels are usually installed on enclosures or racks to provide an easy way to organize connections. Patch panels are available in many different variations. Key design variations include:

Jack module type

Patch panel material type

Unshielded patch panels vs. shielded patch panels

Flat patch panels vs. angled patch panels

Standard patch panels vs. high-density patch panels

Port labeling

Patch panels also allow several cable connectors to be used (LC for fiber and RJ45 for copper). Today’s article will be concentrated on the illustration of the copper patch panels, especially cat5e patch panels and cat6 patch panels.

Copper Patch Panels

The cat5e and cat6 shielded and unshielded patch panels are the commonly used copper patch panels on the market that are suitable for communication socket interconnection between equipment room, working area and crossover terminal connection. This patch panels use the copper patch cord to contains ports to connect and manage incoming and outgoing Ethernet cables. Besides the shielded and unshielded patch panels, copper patch panels include flat and angled types from appearance design.

Flat patch panels help horizontal cable managers to organize and route cables into vertical managers. Angled patch panels are easy for cable termination and can improve patch cord routing. They serve as alternatives for management that need no rack space for horizontal management. The angled design increases rack density, managing high-density applications in one-fourth the area needed for conventional cable management systems. But angled panels are not good for cabinet installation due to the front depth requirements.

Figure 1 shows the angled patch panels that allow cables to be mounted directly into the vertical cable manager. Angled patch panels do not need the additional cable manager to be installed above and below the patch panels, which makes them perfect for high-density areas. Next part will go on to talk about the cat5e and cat6 patch panels individually and specifically.

Cat5e Patch Panels

Cat5e patch panels allows fast and easy installation and cable management to copper Gigabit switches. It is compliant with TIA/EIA 568 industry specifications and features both T-568A and T-568B wiring configurations. Cat5e patch panels are ideal for Ethernet network applications. Figure 2 displays the 24 Ports Cat5e Feed-Through Patch Panel, UTP Unshielded, 1U Rack Mount.

This type of patch panel mount the patch panel using four rack screws. With the module design, feed-through module can easily achieve high density access. No punch down is required as well. Last but not the least, UTP network cable inserts directly, simple operation, to achieve seamless integration between cables.

Cat6 Patch Panels

Cat6 patch panels deliver a steady 250 MHz connection to copper Gigabit switches. Ideal for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Copper Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T) network applications. Backward compatible with Cat. 3, 4, 5, and 5e cabling. Cat6 patch panels also meet the TIA/EIA 568 industry specification. Each patch panel terminates with standard 110 termination tools on the rear, which allows quick installations. Cat6 patch panels are available in 6-port and 8-port module groupings, in 8, 12, 24, and 48-port sizes.

Conclusion

This article provided some detailed information about copper patch panels. When selecting between the cat5e and cat6 patch panels, you should consider the density supported (24 ports or 48 ports), shielded or unshielded and the compatibility with your racks. fiber-mart.COM provides the cost-effective cat5e and cat6 patch panels in 24 ports, 48 ports per 1U or 2U panel. If you have any interest, please contact us directly.

Currently, prices on 100G optical transceivers have been dropping faster than those devices at 40G, which drives customers to migrate to 100G directly instead of turning to the intermediate 40G Ethernet. For example, QSFP-40G-SR-BD ($300) costs higher than QSFP-100G-SR4-S ($269) at fiber-mart.COM. It is the same case as other vendors. QSFP28 and CFP optical transceivers as the main transmission media of 100G network, dominate 100G hardware market.

CPAK, released right after CFP2 100G modules, is the Cisco proprietary form factor, which greatly effect the popularity of this module type. However, in 2017, many third party optical solution vendors like fiber-mart.COM announce to help market to cut down this pricing and save budgets for services providers and operators. So will it thrive in 2017? Today’s article will describe CPAK 100G module in detail attached with the positive analytics of the future of this module type.

Unveiling CPAK Optical Transceiver Module

CPAK 100GBASE optical module, designed as a smaller, low-cost alternative to CFP transceiver, can be plugged into the CPAK ports of Cisco switches and routers. Besides, CPAK module is the first 100G optical transceivers that use CMOS Photonics technology. This type of 100GBASE modules can work in the following Cisco networking equipment—ASR 9000 Series Router; CRS-X Carrier Routing System; NCS 2000, 4000, and 6000 Series Routers; the Nexus 7000 and 7700 Series Switches, and the Cisco ONS Transport Platform.

CPAK optical transceiver incorporates IEEE standard interfaces available in several different types: 100GBASE-SR10, 100GBASE-ER4L, 100GBASE-LR4, 10x10G-ERL, 10x10GBASE-LR, etc. CPAK transceivers can support 10X10Gbps and 4X25Gbps mode for an aggregate of 100Gbps data rate. It can also operate high-density 10G breakout with MPO-24 cables. CPAK-100G-SR10 is backward compatible with 10GBASE-SR. While CPAK 10X10G-LR is compatible with 10GBASE-LR optics. CPAK LR4 module is compatible with other 100GBASE-LR4 compliant modules such as CFP to support high-bandwidth 100Gb optical links over standard single-mode fiber terminated with SC connectors. Table 1 shows the existing Cisco 100G CPAK Modules.

CPAK Out-Competes CFP/CFP2 for Smaller Footprint & Energy Economy

Once the CPAK transceiver module had been released, it was marked as the smallest 100G footprint providing higher-port density and low power consumption for 100G networks. When comparing with CFP modules, CPAK transceivers are less than one third the size of CFP modules, and dissipate less than one third the power. In a comparison with CFP2 modules, CPAK optical transceivers are 20% smaller and consume 40% less power. In other word, if you use CPAK other than CFP2 modules in your data center switches, it can offer 20% greater port density and front-panel bandwidth.

To sum up, CPAK optical module has smaller footprint than CXP, CFP and CFP2, but bigger than CFP4 and QSFP28 optics. Besides, CPAK 100GBASE-LR4 consumes less than 5.5W, which is less than CFP LR4 (24W), CFP2 LR4 (12W), CFP4 (9W) and CXP LR4 optics (6W) but a little higher than QSFP28 (3.5W). CPAK represents a significant advancement in optical networking, providing dramatic space and power efficiency.

CPAK Vs. QSFP28

QSFP28 optical transceiver is regarded as the most promising 100G optical module due to its smallest form factor and lowest power consumption. For example, Cisco CPAK 100GBASE-LR4 module supports link lengths of up to 10 km over standard single-mode fiber with SC connector with a nominal power consumption of less than 5.5W. QSFP28 100GBASE-LR4 supports up to 10km and consumes nearly 3.5W. CPAK optics obviously don’t have a shot when competing with QSFP28 optical transceivers.

What About the Future of CPAK Modules?

In 2017, 100G technology and relevant optical transceivers gradually become mature. 100G optics like CXP, CFP/CFP2/CFP4, 100G QSFP28 in different standards offers a huge selection for customers. Of which QSFP28 100G modules, thanks to the smallest form factor and reliable performance, maintain large market share in 100G hardware market. In addition, some newly released 100G switches only have QSFP28 ports which in turn promotes the popularity of 100G QSFP28 transceivers.

In such a fierce market environment, it is hard to say whether CPAK will be a hot star in 100G hardware market or not. Anyhow—CPAK module is the first optical transceivers that use CMOS electronic technology. Furthermore, Cisco and several other vendors offer CFP2 to CPAK adapter to support the conversion between CPAK and CFP2 modules. Third party vendors like ourselves are also beginning to supply 100G CPAK modules in 2017. We will see if such industry development will take place!

Summary

CPAK module was launched just days after the certification of CFP2 optics. It is popular for the smaller footprint and energy economy. However, when competing with open source MSA compatible 100G products (CFP/CFP2/CFP4 and QSFP28), CPAK is not the ideal one for 100G high-density connectivity.