All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8

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All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8-Mark
Mullins
www.flukenetworks.com 2006-2017 Fluke
Corporation
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All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
By now youve probably heard of 8-fiber MPO plug
and play solutions available on the market, which
are ideal for Gigabit (40GBASE-SR4) and 100
Gigabit (100GBASE-SR4) applications that use 8
fibers with 4 transmitting and 4 receiving at
either 10 or 25 Gb/s. Unlike 12-fiber MPO
solutions where 4 of the 12 fibers go unused,
8-fiber MPO solutions offer 100 fiber
utilization in these applications. But did you
know that when looking ahead to future fiber
applications, 8-fiber MPO solutions continue to
make the most sense? Thats because all future
duplex, parallel optic and WDM-based fiber
applications are divisible by either 2 or 8
fibers not 12.
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All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
From 10 to 400 Gig
When looking at current 10 Gigabit (10GBASE-SR)
and 25 Gigabit (25GBASE-SR) duplex multimode
fiber applications and future 50 Gigabit
(50GBASE-SR) duplex fiber standards in
development that transmit either 10, 25 or 50
Gb/s over each fiber, its easy to see why all
roads lead to 2 or 8 fibers. We already have
8-fiber 100GBASE-SR4 transmitting 25 Gb/s per
fiber. Now the 50 Gb/s transmission per fiber
slated for 50GBASE-SR has prompted the
development of 200 Gigabit (200GBASE-SR4) over
multimode where 4 fibers transmit at 50 G/bs and
4 fibers receive at 50 Gb/s. 25 and 50 Gb/s
transmission also gives us the potential for 400
Gigabit over 16 fibers (transmitting at 50 Gb/s)
or 32 fibers (transmitting at 25 Gb/s and
currently in development as 400GBASE-SR16)
again both of which are divisible by 8, not 12.
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All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
Even with WDM
If we look at wavelength division multiplexing
technology over multimode, supported by new wide
band multimode fiber (WBMMF), referred to as OM5,
we still see potential future fiber applications
as divisible by 2 or 8. For example, if a WDM
option over multimode that supports 25 Gb/s over
four different wavelengths comes to fruition,
that will open the door for 100 Gigabit over a
duplex fiber connections. Extrapolating that
technology to an 8-fiber MPO interface, we have
the potential for 400 Gig over multimode using
WDM technology 4 fibers transmitting and 4
fibers receiving at 100 Gb/s.
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All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
And Singlemode Too
The same holds true for Singlemode. Current
40GBASE-LR4, 100GBASE-LR4 and 100GBASE-ER4
WDM-based fiber applications over singlemode use
a duplex fiber. And future singlemode
applications transmitting 50 Gb/s over 8
wavelengths via WDM technology still places the
number of fibers at 2. Short-reach singlemode
applications in development for data center
applications, including 200GBASE-DR4 and
400GBASE-DR4 transmitting and receiving at either
50 or 100 Gb/s over each fiber will also use the
8-fiber MPO interface.
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All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
12-Fiber MPOs Future
So what does this mean for the future of the
12-fiber MPO? In reality, not much. For those
who already have 12-fiber MPO solutions in place,
they will be able to support duplex applications.
For 8-fiber applications, they should use
conversion cords and modules to transition two
12-fiber MPOs to three 8-fiber MPOs if they dont
want unused fiber. Most new plug and play MPO
deployments however will use 8-fiber solutions
since this offer the most efficient, flexible
option for current and future high-speed fiber
applications. The good news is that 8-fiber and
12-fiber MPO interfaces have the same footprint
and are both easily tested using Fluke Networks'
MultiFiber Pro  simply test either solution and
the MultiFiber Pro displays results by scanning
all fibers simultaneously, regardless of the
number of fibers in the connector.
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