What Is the Application for 10G DAC Cable and AOC Cable

In addition to 10G network structured cabling solutions, which typically use SFP+ optical modules and fibre patch cables, 10G DAC and AOC high-speed cables are also a cost-effective alternative because of their high performance and low budget features. This article details the application environment for 10G DAC cables and AOC high-speed cables.

Introduction to 10G DAC/AOC High Speed Cables

The 10G DAC high-speed cable consists of a two-core copper cable with SFP+ connectors on both ends, which can be connected directly to active devices. The difference is that the former can be transmitted without signal modulation, while the latter has electronic components inside the optical transceiver to boost the signal. Typically 10G DAC high-speed cables are used between cabling racks to connect switches, servers and storage devices.

The 10G AOC high-speed cable consists of a multimode fibre optic patch cable with SFP+ connectors attached at both ends and requires an external power supply to convert the optical/electrical signal from electrical to optical and then back to electrical. Similar to the 10G DAC high-speed cable, the 10G AOC high-speed cable is mainly used for interconnecting storage devices, switches, and switches to servers between data centre cabling racks.

What is the application environment for 10G DAC high-speed cable and AOC high-speed cable?

Typical applications for 10G DAC high-speed cables

The primary use of 10G DAC high-speed cable is to connect switches/servers to switches in the same or adjacent racks e.g. for interconnecting 10GToR switches with server rack ToR switches or for stacking 10G switches. Since 10G SFP+ DAC high-speed cables typically support 7m links and are characterised by low power consumption, low latency and low cost, this DAC high-speed cable solution is an ideal choice for short distance connections.

In addition, 10G DAC high-speed cable solutions can also be used in high-density ToR scenarios where there are many access layer devices. Such distributed access makes the connection appear clear and straightforward, but also makes it more difficult to maintain and manage the switch centrally.

Typical 10G AOC high-speed cable applications

10G AOC cables are typically used in data centres, in ToR, EoR and MoR applications. Similar to DAC high-speed cables, 10G AOC high-speed cables can be used to connect ToR switches between network racks and server racks, as well as switches within racks over distances of up to 100 metres.

In EoR cabling, for example, the servers are connected to the switches via 10G AOC high-speed cables, so that a large number of cable connections from multiple server racks converge to the side network racks. This makes cable management more difficult, but centralised maintenance is easier. The solution using AOC high-speed cables in MoR cabling is essentially similar to the EoR solution, while simplifying connections and centralising management.