Tag Archives: fibre optic

Build Fibre Transport Services With The Help Of FS And IBM

Given the many different types of fibre-optic data links in a modern enterprise data centre, the design of an optical cable infrastructure that will accommodate both current and future needs has become increasingly complicated. For example, IBM Site and Connectivity Services have developed structured cabling systems to support multi-gigigabit cable plants. In this section, we briefly describe several recent innovations in fibre-optic cable and connector technology for the IBM structured cabling solution (FS can provide the fibre cable assemblies), known as Fibre Transport Services (FTS) or Fibre Quick Connect (FQC).

A central concept of FTS is the use of multifibre trunks, rather than collections of two fibre optic patch cords, to interconnect the various elements of a large data centre. FTS provides up to 144 fibres in a common trunk, which greatly simplifies cable management and reduces installation time. Cable congestion has become a significant problem in large data centres, with up to 256 ESCON channels on a large director or host processor. With the introduction of smaller, aircooled CMOS-based processors and the extended distance provided by optical fibre attachments, it is increasingly common for data processing equimpment to be rearranged and moved to different locations, sometimes on a daily basis. It can be time consuming to reroute 256 individual jumper cables without making any connection errors or accidentally damaging the cables. To relieve this problem, in 2007 FTS and S/390 introduced the Fibre Quick Connect system for multifibre trunks.

Fiberstore

The trunks are terminated with a special 12-fibre optical connector known as a Multifibre Termination Push-on (MTP) connectors. Each MTP contains 12 fibres or 6 dulpex channels in a connector smaller than most duplex connections in use today (barely 0.5 inches wide). In this way, a 72-fibre trunk cable can be terminated with six MTP connectors (buy the MTP/MPO cables with MTP to MPO fibre connector); relocating a 256-channel ECSON director now requires only re-plugging 43 connections. Trunk cables terminated with multiple MTP connectors are available in four versions, either 12 fibre/6 channels, 36 fibre/18 channels, 72/36 channels, or 144 fibre/72 channels. Optical alignment is facilitated by a pair of metal guide pins in the ferrule of a male MTP connector, which mate with corresponding holes in the female MTP connector. Under the covers of a director or enterprise host processor, the MTP connectors attach to a couple bracket (similar to a miniature patch panel); from there, a cable harness fans out each MTP into 6 duplex connectors that mate with the fibre optic transceivers. Since the qualifications of the cable harness, under the covers patch panel, and trunk cable strain relief for FTS are all done in collaboration with the mainframe server development organization, the FTS solution functions as an intergral part of the applications.

Fiberstore

At the other end of the FTS trunk, individual fibre channels are fanned out at a patch panel or main distribution facility (MDF), where duplex fibre connectors are used to re-configure individual channels to different destinations. These fanouts are available for different fibre-optic connector types, although ESCON and Subcriber Connection (SC) duplex are most common for multimode and SC duplex for single mode. Fanning out the duplex fibre connections at an MDF also offers the advantage of being able to arrange the MDF connections in consecutive order of the channel identifibres on the host machine, greatly simplifying link reconfigurations. As the size of the serves has been reduced and the number of channels has increased , the size of the MDF has become a limiting factor in many installations. In order to keep the MDF from occupying more floor space than the processors, a dense optical connector technology was required for the Fibre Quick Connect system. To meet this need, IBM Global Services has adopted a new small form factor fibre-optic connector as the preferred interconnect for multimode patch panels, the SC-DC. Structured cabling solutions similar to this are available from other companies as well; they may include overhead or underfloor cable trays and raceways, as well as cabinets or rack-mounted enclosures (standard units are compatible with either 19-or 23-inch wide equimpment racks, with heights between 1 and 7 U tall).


About FS:

FS is a largest manufacturer & supplier of fibre optic network solutions in China. The company has been providing fibre optic cables, patch cables, transceivers, media converters and testers & tools for nearly ten years. Now you can custom your own optical networking devices and assemblies directly on the website.

Infonetics: 16G Fibre Channel Leads High-performance Interconnect Market

Market research firm Infonetics Research forecasts that the SAN and high-performance interconnect market will top $9 billion by 2017, with the high-performance interconnect segment gaining around as 10G Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10GE and 100GE transport become the norm for networking within the data centre.

Nevertheless, the leading manufacturers in the SAN and high performance interconnect markets all had a down quarter in 1Q13, according to Infonetics.

“While most SAN equipment languished in the 1st quarter of 2013, 16G Fibre Channel switches put up a very strong showing,” notes Michael Howard, Infonetics Research’s co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. “Sales of chassis 16G Fibre Channel switches grew 45%, and fixed switches more than doubled from the previous quarter.”

Worldwide revenues for SAN equipment, including Fibre Channel switches and ISCSI and Fibre Channel host bus adapters, also declined to $604 million in 1Q13, an 8% drop from 4Q12.

Howard adds, “The bulk of 16G Fibre Channel deployments continue to be inter-switch link applications, but with server input/output capabilities rising with the introduction of Intel’s Romley, and with Emulex’s and QLogic’s first 16G Fibre Channel fibre adapters shipments, we expect a more meaningful adoption of 16G for server connections to begin in 2013.”

The initial pent-up demand that provided a jump start for 16G Fibre Channel switches is still in motion, but Infonetics believes it will soon slow and settle into a growth pattern more in line with the 8G segment of the market.

SAN MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

  • Worldwide revenue for SAN equipment, including Fibre Channel switches and iSCSI and Fibre Channel host bus adapters, declined to $604 million in 1Q13, an 8% drop from 4Q12
  • The initial pent-up demand that provided a jump start for 16G Fibre Channel switches is still in motion, but Infonetics believes it will soon slow and settle into a growth pattern more in line with the 8G segment
  • On the heels of huge growth in 2012, the global high-performance interconnect equipment market, including converged FCoE/Ethernet switches and converged network adapters, slumped 13% sequentially in 1Q13, but is up 45% from the year-ago quarter
  • Infonetics forecasts the SAN and high-performance interconnect (HPI) equipment market to top $9 billion by 2017, with the HPI segment gaining as 10GE, 40GE and 100GE transports become the norm for networking within the data centre.
  • The leading fibre optic manufacturer in the SAN and high-performance interconnect markets all had a down quarter in 1Q13

Infonetics’ quarterly SAN report provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2017, trends and analysis for chassis and fixed Fibre Channel switches; Fibre Channel and iSCSI host bus adapters; chassis and fixed converged FCoE and Ethernet switches; and converged network adapters. Companies tracked: Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, Chelsio, Cisco, Dell, Emulex, IBM (BNT), Juniper, Mellanox, QLogic and others.

China Formal Implementation for Fibre Optic Network Fibre To The Home Needs to be Improved

On April 1, the formal implementation of fibre optic network Fibre To The Home(FTTH) of the policy was put into effect, is the process of city informatization construction and renovation, but in the process of execution, some parts of the acceptance standard has yet to be improved.

MOHURD(Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development) and MIIT(Ministry of Industry and Information) held a teleconference jointly that asked to implement the previous issued FTTH fibre optic cables documents, they are Residential area and residential buildings fibre-to-the-home communication facilities engineering design specifications.

It is worth mentioning that the specification is not only for new residential area, building, and it’s suitable for both residential, building renovation and expansion project of fibre optic transmission, that the fibre to the home faces the first national standards. At the same time, the  policy of the specific implementation, relevant statement to make clear, the user can choose the carrier freely.

In addition, in the process of optical fibre to the home project acceptance, the acceptance by the force of the strength and acceptance standards is also related to the implement of this policy, whether they are in good condition.

In fact, on July 15, 2010, our country had issued national standard of housing and urban-rural development of the residential area and residential buildings communication facilities specification “, “residential and residential building acceptance of communications engineering. Compared with the previous situation, the new “standard” in addition to the new requirement for optical fibre to the home, in the “mandatory norms” is made obviously improve.

For more information, pls visit our website FS.COM.