Two High-Density MTP Components for 10G to 40G Cabling

Nowadays, people's daily life has been inseparable from the network. With the rapid development of network technology, migration from 10GbE to 40GbE has become a hotspot. For data centers which are in the process of such migration, connecting 40GbE equipment with existing 10GbE equipment is what must be experienced. In addition, carrying out the migration smoothly is the greatest concern of many data center managers. In order to solve this problem, this article is going to introduce two high-density MTP components and their advantages in 10GbE to 40GbE cabling.

MTP-LC harness cable is terminated with a male/female MTP connector on one side and several duplex LC connectors on the other side, providing a transmission from multi-fiber cables to individual fibers or duplex connectors. It is typically used to connect equipment in racks to MTP terminated backbone cables. As shown in the following figure, the MTP to 4x LC harness cable uses a pinless MTP connector on one end for interfacing with the 40G QSFP+ port on the switch. While the other end contains 4 duplex LC connectors, which provide connectivity to the SFP+ ports on the switch.

We know that 40G parallel optics transceivers (40GBASE-SR4) can support 4x10G modes. This feature allows new parallel optics active equipment to be compatible with existing 10G transceivers. And parallel optics 40GBASE-SR4 uses 8 out of 12 MTP interface fibers transmitting 4 x duplex (DX) channels (4 x transmit and 4 x receive). Designed for high density applications which require high performance and speedy installation without on-site termination, MTP-LC harness cables can realize the direction connection between higher-speed equipment (40G QSFP+) and slower-speed equipment (10G SFP+). This can greatly simplify the cabling system and make cable management easier.

As shown in the picture below, the high density 40G QSFP+ breakout patch panel has 48 duplex LC ports front and 12 MTP Elite rear ports. It is designed to connect 40G QSFP+ ports with MTP fiber cable to the back of the patch panel and then this breaks out as 48x10GE on the front with LC fiber cable. As mentioned above, every 40G QSFP+ transceiver is connected to 4 SFP+ transceiver via 4 duplex LC connectors. Therefore, to makes 40G connect to 10G more simple and stable, the 40G QSFP+ breakout patch panel logically groups the ports in 4 duplex LC ports.

The high-density MTP LC patch panel is mainly used in 40G interconnect network hardware. With 12 QSFP+ MTP Elite rear ports and 48 SFP+ duplex LC ports front offered, 12x40G multimode QSFP+ MTP connections from MTP trunk cables easily breaks out as 48X10G LC connections. Therefore, it achieves 480G transmission in only one 1RU patch panel and since the patch panel can be located in the same rack as the switches or closer to the network elements, it eliminates additional connections and you can then get the fastest bandwidth and greater connectivity in the limited space. Most importantly, the 40G QSFP+ breakout patch panel simplifies your high performance cable routing in a finished, professional manner and provides increased cable capacity in less rack space. It is really a high-density cable management solution.

As network technology migrates from 10GbE to 40GbE and beyond, it is often necessary to connect 40GbE equipment with existing 10GbE equipment. MTP to 4x LC harness cable is a good option for connecting high speed switches populated with higher rate transceivers QSFP+, CFP CXP, CFP2, etc. to existing 10GbE elements populated with SFP+ modules. And 40G QSFP+ breakout patch panel can make your 10G to 40G cabling more efficient to manage. These two high-density MTP components can provide cost-effective and simple high-density 10G to 40G breaking cabling solutions. And I hope this article can be helpful for you.