Focus on MTP-link

Characterized by providing ideal plug-and-play solutions for structure cabling, pre-terminated cabling system has gained great popularity among data center manager in recent years, and it is considered as the norm for data center network deployment. In this cabling system, optical link is accomplished by pre-terminated cabling assemblies, such as MTP/MPO trunk cable, MTP/MPO to LC breakout cable, MTP/MPO cassette and MTP/MPO fiber optic patch panel. It not difficult to find that all these MTP/MPO fiber optic cable assemblies are based on the structure of MTP/MPO connector. And two types of MTP/MPO connectors—12 fiber MTP connector and 24 fiber MTP connector are commonly used for 40G and 100G transmission. This article will focus on MTP-link and share share some opinions about MTP-link performance with you.

High-density cabling makes the available space in data centers always precious. MTP/MPO fiber optic cable assemblies used in MTP-link that contributes to promoting space utilization are reputably appraised by data center managers. With massive cables being adopted in the data centers to carry out data transmission, MTP-link offers cabling solutions with much higher density and flexibility for data center upgrades.

As well know that insertion loss is inevitable during the cabling. Generally, lower overall optical loss allows more margin for the network to operate, or in the case for some users, offers the option of more connections for patching locations. Therefore, components characterized by low insertion loss will be preferred. For both 12-fiber and 24-fiber MTP/MPO connector performance, the industry standard product rating is 0.5 dB maximum. And using low-loss ferrules, both 12 fiber MPO connector and 24 fiber MPO connector can be rated at 0.35 dB maximum. What’s more, there is no need to worry about higher fiber count will lead to higher insertion loss, because when using proper polishing techniques, 24-fiber MPO/MTP terminations can meet the same performance levels as 12-fiber MPO/MTP assemblies.

Both 12-fiber MPO cable and 24-fiber MPO cable can be used in 100G applications. When used in 4x25G solutions, 4 fibers of 12-fiber MPO cable will remain unused. As for 24-fiber MPO cable, it can be converted into three 8-fiber 100G channels that run over one cable, with all 24 fibers used to support data transmission. Maybe you feel confused about this, let me take an example. If you need to support twelve 100G channels with the 4x25G standard, by using 12-fiber MPO cable, you will need to install 12 connectors, or 144 fibers total, with 33% of the fiber wasted; while by using 24-fiber MPO cable supporting the same 12 channels, only 4 cables would be required, using 96 fibers total, at 100% fiber utilization.

It is self-evident that MTP-link offers consistent high levels of network performance for improved network integrity, because the assemblies are factory terminated and the transmission testing is performed by the manufacturer before shipment. This will reduce the likelihood of many problems that may occur with field terminations. Also, testing and troubleshooting time can be greatly saved.

By using MTP components, MTP-link can provide fast installation, high density and high performance cabling for data centers. As 40G and 100G Ethernet is now a trend and hotspot for data center cabling system, MTP-link is a great option for data center managers and the network deployment will benefit a lot from this cabling solution. I hope after reading this article, you can have an in-depth understanding of MTP-link.