Comparison of the PreCONNECT^® OCTO cabling systems

Fiber-optic cables can be equipped with various connector types. Rosenberger OSI is able to supply the PreCONNECT^® OCTO cabling system factory-assembled with any of the four connector types described below - MTP^®, LC, SN^® Quad or MDC Quad. The following table provides an overview of the most important characteristics of the systems.

PreCONNECT^® OCTO is a comprehensive system for the parallel optics cabling of data centers and is perfectly suited for multimode SR4 and singlemode DR4/PSM4, InfiniBand^™ 4X applications. The cabling systems permit multifiber cabling thanks to the use of eight channels = four channels per trunk leg with MTP^® OCTO 4+4, LC-COMPACT, SN^® Quad and MDC Quad 4-channel granularity.

Contents:

• Description of the fiber-optic connectors
• Comparison of the PreCONNECT^® OCTO cabling systems - MTP^®, LC, SN^® Quad and MDC Quad
• Areas of application / Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand^™ standards
• Singlemode or multimode?

MPO/MTP^® connectors

MPO stands for “Multi-fibre Push-on Connector”. It is a push-on connector for multifiber cables consisting generally of 6, 8, 12 or 24 fibers. The MPO connector is also often referred to as an MTP^® push-on connector, with MTP^® being a registered trademark of US Conec Ltd. These push-on connectors are in widespread use in modern data centers because they represent a space-saving way of achieving high data transmission speeds.

LC connectors

The LC is a small-form-factor connector system for optical fiber cabling as defined in standard DIN EN 61754-20. It is available for both singlemode and multimode applications and can be supplied as an LC/PC or LC/APC variant. The LC/APC connector has a higher return loss, making it the preferred solution for singlemode cables. The most recent generation of LC Compact connectors has a compact end housing which protects the fibers and permits reliable strain relief for various cable types.

MDC connectors

The MDC (Miniature Duplex Connector) from US Conec is a genuine push-pull-boot duplex push-on connector and is standardized in IEC 61754-37. It is manufactured on the basis of 1.25-mm fully-ceramic ferrule technology and belongs to the category of Very Small Form Factor (VSFF) push-on connectors. Among other applications, it is used as an optical interface push-on connector for SFP-DD, OSFP and QSFP-DD transceivers and both the singlemode and multimode versions are available as MDC/PC and MDC/APC variants.

SN^® connectors

The SN^® (Senko Nano) from Senko is a genuine push-pull-boot duplex push-on connector and is standardized as an SAC connector in IEC 61754-36. It is manufactured on the basis of 1.25-mm fully-ceramic ferrule technology and belongs to the category of Very Small Form Factor (VSFF) push-on connectors. Among other applications, it was developed for use as an optical interface push-on connector for SFP-DD, OSFP and QSFP-DD transceivers and both the singlemode and multimode versions are available as SN^®/PC and SN^®/APC variants.

The PreCONNECT^® OCTO cabling systems are particularly suitable as infrastructure and IT room cabling for the following data center applications:

The trend is clearly towards singlemode cabling. Singlemode fibers outperform multimode fibers thanks to their high reach and their transmission capacity. Singlemode fibers are also more economical than their multimode counterparts.
Singlemode transceivers are still usually a little more expensive than the multimode variants.  Higher transmission speeds and lengths can be achieved using singlemode solutions. At the same transmission speed, the serial lane speed of singlemode transceivers is higher than that of multimode transceivers, meaning that fewer singlemode than multimode fibers are needed in parallel optics solutions of the same wavelength.