Cabling for your data center of the future

Security, reliability, and durability are the cornerstones of professional data center cabling. Flexible solutions are a top priority for most customers, especially as quality expectations rise alongside increasing network loads. Customized planning and intelligent cable management allow for seamless optimization of data center infrastructure with minimal effort. This results in reduced latency and improved data throughput. In the medium to long term, investing in high-quality components for new network cabling pays off. Key factors to consider include high availability, scalability, and robust security to meet future demands effectively.

Studies reveal that nearly 50% of data center failures are caused by poor-quality connection technology. This can have devastating consequences for high-availability data centers, where operational demands are exceptionally stringent. In such environments, any changes to the data center infrastructure must avoid disrupting daily operations. A structured and transparent IT cabling system is crucial for seamless data transfer and the secure, reliable interaction of all active components and applications within the data center. Additionally, data centers must support connectivity to public communication networks, cloud providers, and the Internet, making high-quality cabling an indispensable foundation for success.

Factory-assembled Plug & Play systems deliver the highest level of consistent quality, ensuring optimal transmission performance. These preconfigured solutions are designed to offer the flexibility needed to adapt to future growth. As dynamic control hubs, data centers must evolve alongside business processes, newly implemented applications, and growing data volumes. In this context, it’s wise to invest in a well-structured, transparent IT solution that operates independently of the current “equipment pool.” This approach creates a physical, application-neutral IT cabling infrastructure, providing businesses with significantly greater flexibility and scalability.

Parallel optic cabling is gaining popularity in data centers, particularly with multimode solutions standardized by IEEE (Ethernet) for applications like 40 GBase-SR4, 100 GBase-SR10, and 100 GBase-SR4. With the adoption of 100 GBE-SR4, only four channels are required to enable parallel operation of 25 GBE serial connections. This makes the 12-fiber MPO push-on connector a highly efficient interface solution in these setups.

Further advancements in parallel optic solutions for data centers are expected, driven by IEEE 802.3 standardization efforts and ongoing developments in MSA transceivers. Future applications will likely include 400G and higher data streams transmitted over distances of up to 100 meters, utilizing the appropriate number of OM4 fibers as a standard solution.

The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group is actively developing multiple new Ethernet standards simultaneously. These include upcoming speeds like 200GBASE-SR4, 400GBASE-SR16, and 400GBASE-SR8, as well as 100GBASE-SR2, marking the third iteration of 100G. Intermediate speeds such as 25GBASE-SR and 50GBASE-SR also remain relevant.

The goal of these standardization efforts is to enable transmission over distances of at least 100 meters using multimode fiber (MMF), specifically graded-index 50/125µm OM4 fiber. Shorter distances achievable with OM3 fiber will also be defined, allowing users to assess whether existing OM3 cabling can still meet current and future requirements.

The Ethernet transmission protocol 100 GBE-PSM4 overcomes the strict length limitations of multimode variants, which are typically capped at 150 meters depending on the protocol (IEEE 802.3). PSM4 technology was developed as a cost-effective single-mode solution, enabling transmission distances of up to 500 meters with a channel attenuation of 3.26 dB (as specified in IEEE 802.3bm).

Rosenberger OSI has adapted its PreCONNECT^® OCTO cabling concept to support single-mode applications. Utilizing SR4 and PSM4 protocols, only eight fibers are required for connectivity, even when using the MTP^®/MPO 12-fiber push-on connector as the interface. Modern cabling infrastructures for parallel optic data transmission now favor cables with eight fibers (or multiples thereof), replacing the traditional twelve-fiber configurations typically used in MTP^®/MPO-based solutions.