Panduit enables 100 Gigabit Ethernet transmission over 275 meters of multimode fiber

Wednesday, 13 October 2010 20:29

Panduit, a developer and provider of Unified Physical Infrastructure (UPI)-based solutions, participated in a recent interoperability event at Ixia Corp.’s iSimCity lab in Santa Clara from September 14 through 16, 2010. The event tested interoperability of 40 Gbps and 100Gbps Ethernet equipment compliant with the recently published standard by the IEEE 802.3ba committee. Panduit provided cabling and connectivity solutions that supported each of the five new Physical Media Dependent (PMD) variants tested at the event. In addition to supporting each of these new PMDs up to the specification length limit, Panduit supported an industry-best length of 275 meters of 100GBASE-SR10 operation over its own Opti-Core laser optimized multimode fiber-optic cable and connectivity. This 275-meter link, which exceeds the 150-meter specification, was comprised of seven concatenated lengths of fiber cable to validate both the media bandwidth and optimized 24-fiber MTP connectivity. Supporting error-free operation over a 275-meter link with a total of six 24-fiber interfaces highlights the superior quality of Panduit’s proprietary processing techniques used in the production of all its MTP connectors. This combination of fiber length and optical connectors demonstrated Panduit’s superior innovative fiber optic technology that enables data center architects the performance needed to maximize flexibility. The extended reach provided by Panduit’s Opti-Core fiber simplifies the migration to 40G/100G Ethernet networks. Fiber links supporting 10G Ethernet could reach past the 150-meter limit established for 40G/100G. 10G Ethernet links deployed using Panduit’s Opti-Core fiber-optic technology ensures that the link can be redeployed for 40G/100G. The interoperability setup included an Ixia K2 test system traffic generator and Reflex Photonics’ 100 Gbps CFP optical modules. Ixia’s K2 Higher Speed Ethernet (HSE) solution tests the functionality and interoperability of 100 GE and 40 GE fiber and copper cables, optical transceivers, and network equipment. The K2 test platform enables HSE technology adopters to test product compliance with industry standards from layer 1 through 7 through traffic generation and analysis. The K2 functionality includes IEEE802.3ba-2010-standard PCS lanes compliance validation, as well as unframed Bit Error Rate Tests (BERT). The Reflex 100 Gbps CFP module is designed to support the 802.3ba 100G Ethernet standard, as well as the 112G ITU OTU-4 standard while consuming only 7 watts of power. “The IEEE802.3ba operating reach range specification is 100 meters for 100 Gbps-rated 24-fiber cables. We were able to successfully test Panduit’s 275-meter cable which shows that the HSE ecosystem is rapidly maturing to meet or exceed industry standards,” says David Schneider, sr. market development manager at Ixia. Panduit also demonstrated compliant 40GBASE-CR4 Ethernet transmission over 8 meters on a QSFP direct attach passive copper cable assembly, exceeding the IEEE802.3ba 40Gigabit Ethernet standard. This cable assembly is based on proprietary advanced signal processing technology incorporated in the Panduit connectors. This length was also the longest passive QSFP connection successfully demonstrated at the event. Panduit’s fiber-optic and copper systems are part of its High Speed Data Transport (HSDT) systems for optimized physical infrastructure, supporting technology requirements, and business needs.