Development of 56Gbit/s QSFP Active Optical Cable
May 24, 2013
Fujikura Ltd. (Yoichi Nagahama, President & CEO) announces that it has developed 56Gbit/s QSFP active optical cable.
Data centers that support cloud services have been rapidly spreading out all over the world.
High speed communication networks that connect servers and storage systems within a data center
have been employing metal cables. The maximum length of such metal cables is 10m at 10Gbit/s,
which is one of the constraints to design communication networks within a data center.
In addition, it is a common challenge to find a way to decrease power consumption of various
devices in view of environmental burdens.
Fujikura Ltd. has developed an active optical cable that complies with Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable
(QSFP) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) to address the aforementioned issues by applying optical fiber
technologies and optical transceiver technologies that the company has been cultivating.
By adopting four-channel Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) array that operates
at 14Gbit/s per a channel, the new product consumes only 50% of power that metal cables
do while making full-duplex data communication at 56Gbit/s possible.
Moreover, the optical fibers used in the new product extend the maximum cable length
to 100m that is 10 times longer than that of metal cables'. At the same time, they reduce the weight
and the volume of the new product by less than half the metal ones.
On top of this, Fujikura's 56Gbit/s QSFP active optical cable fulfills the FDR high speed interface
requirements that is specified in INFINIBANDTM Architecture Specification* and has passed the
compliance test conducted by INFINIBANDSM Trade Association (IBTA).
Fujikura Ltd. will continue to contribute to the realization of cloud service-enabled society
and to the reduction of environmental burdens through development of active optical cables.
* INFINIBANDTM/SM is both a Trademark and a service mark of
INFINIBANDSM Trade Association.
