With the rise of cloud computing, big data and mobile Internet, Internet traffic is increasing day by day. Therefore, the number of servers in global data centers is increasing, and the scale is also increasing. Data centers are also deploying to 100G Ethernet. Next, ETU-LINK will introduce the 100G Ethernet cabling scheme of the data center.

At present, 100G data center network cabling transmission solutions commonly used products are 100G QSFP28 DAC direct attach cable, 100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cable and 100G QSFP28 optical module, but the applicable scenarios of each product are different.

一、100G QSFP28 DAC high speed cable (1-5m)

The 100G QSFP28 DAC high-speed cables include 100G QSFP28 toQSFP28 DAC, 100G QSFP28 to 2*50G QSFP28 DAC and QSFP28 to 4*25G SFP28 DAC. The cable length is 1-5m. It is mainly used in the interconnection of servers, storage, switches and other equipment. When using high-speed cables, it should be noted that the distance between devices should not exceed 5m.

二、100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cable（3-70m）

The 100G QSFP28 AOC active optical cable includes 100G QSFP28 to QSFP28 AOC, QSFP28 to 4*25G SFP28 AOC, 100G QSFP28 to 2*50G QSFP28 AOC, with the length of 1-70m, the maximum transmission distance of QSFP28 to 4*25G SFP28 AOC used with OM3 patch cord is 70m, and 100m when used with OM4 patch cord. It is mainly used in the interconnection of servers, storage, switches and other equipment.

三、100G QSFP28 optical module

1、Equipment interconnection of 70m-2km

(1) 100G QSFP28 SR4 optical module, wavelength is 850nm, MPO connector, can be matched with 12 core mpo-mpo interface OM3 multimode fiber, the maximum transmission distance can reach 100m.

(2) 100G QSFP28 PSM4 optical module, wavelength 1310nm, MPO connector, can be matched with 12 core mpo-mpo interface OS2 single-mode fiber, the maximum transmission distance can reach 2km.

2、Equipment interconnection of 2KM—20KM

(3) 100G QSFP28 CLR4 optical module, CWDM4, LC connector, can be matched with LC duplex OS2 single mode fiber, the maximum transmission distance can reach 2km.

(4) 100G QSFP28 LR4 optical module, wavelength 1310nm, LC connector, can be matched with LC duplex OS2 single mode fiber, the maximum transmission distance can reach 20km.

3、Equipment interconnection of 20KM—40KM

(5) 100G QSFP28 ER4 optical module, wavelength 1310nm, LC connector, can be matched with duplex LC-LC OS2 single-mode fiber, the maximum transmission distance can reach 40km.

All the above products can be provided by ETU-LINK. To sum up, 100G Ethernet cabling in data center can be selected according to the transmission distance. For short distance transmission, DAC high-speed cable or AOC active optical cable can be selected, because the cost is more advantageous than optical module.