L-com, an Infinite Electronics brand, announced in July its new series of active optical cables (AOCs), designed to address high-speed data centers and enterprise networking applications. The new AOCs are hot swappable, pluggable cable assemblies that support high-speed Ethernet, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel connectivity (10Gbps-100Gbps).
As noted by L-com, "AOCs are opto-electronic devices used in place of standard fiber-optic transceivers due to ease of deployment and lower cost compared to using individual transceivers with separable fiber optic cable assemblies."
Paul Hospodar, product manager for L-com, adds, "Although they use the same electrical interface as Direct-Attach Cables (DACs), AOCs utilize fiber-optic cable instead of copper wiring, so they are able to support distances up to 100 meters. Furthermore, DACs are limited by crosstalk since they utilize copper cabling and generally cannot support distances over 10 meters."
The company says the new cables are available off-the-shelf in lengths ranging from 1 meter to 100 meters (model dependent). Integrated transceiver types include SFP+, SFP28, QSFP+ and QSFP28, offering high-speed server-to-server, server-to-switch and server-to-router connectivity in enterprise networks and data centers.
L-com's Hospodar concludes, "L-com's new active optical cable line offers the widest variety of data rates supported, off-the-shelf lengths and same-day shipping since all of these new cables are in-stock. This is a key differentiator from our competitors, who either do not offer all the data rates we offer, or do not have product in-stock ready to ship the same day. Also, we do not require large MOQs, and single cables can be ordered, which is another great benefit for our customers."