Data Center Cabling Many FOA instructors and members we talk to are involved in installing cabling in data centers. With data centers being built everywhere to support the booming growth of the Internet, especially streaming video, cabling is a major issue. As with everything in a data center, efficiency is the top concern, followed by reliability, latency (delay in providing data) and finally cost. What media are being used in data centers depends on who you are talking to. The table below summarizes what options are available. For short links within a rack for Top-of-Rack designs or between closely-spaced racks in End-of-Row designs, UTP at up to 10G seems to be a top choice. Beyond 10G, coax (CR-4 and CR10) seem to be a popular choice for short links, but beyond the rack or closely spaced racks, the choice is between parallel multimode optics with cheap 850nm VCSEL sources or cheaper singlemode fiber with more expensive WDM transceivers. As with other applications, we have been getting inputs from users, contractors and vendors to create this new program. We are finding that information on parallel optics either used for prefab cable systems with breakouts to LC or SC connectors or for direct MPO connectors for 40G/100G parallel optics network connections is somewhat confusing. We have started another project to understand these cabling systems and create new technical information on how to design, specify, install and test these cabling systems. FOA presented a webinar this month on prefab (preterminated) cabling systems for CI&M magazine. Details are here: thefoa.org/foanewsletter.html#Features We have updated the FOA Guide page on Data Centers to cover equipment and cabling architecture options: thefoa.org/tech/ref/appln/datacenters.html. We have added a YouTube video, Lecture 38: Data Center Cabling,: youtube/watch?v=lGvucf_XRio&feature=youtu.be&channel=thefoainc and are working on a new CFOS application specialist certification that should be ready soon.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 22:54:52 +0000