Network connectivity is the path to network reliability, and it requires special attention because the implications of poorly planned or executed network connectivity can seriously limit the potential of your organization and cause catastrophic system failures. From business applications and life safety systems to operational technology and user applications, connectivity enables the important functions of buildings and organizations.
As large data centers are quickly moving to 100GbE speeds, designers are now looking at the 400GbE options that are becoming available. The options for 400G are much more varied and complex than prior speeds. And whether it is 100G or 400G, there needs to be a cable plant designed to accommodate the technology. How does one go about determining the most cost effective solution with so many moving targets? Nexans has developed an addition to its popular “Own the Link” calculator to help data center designers answers these questions. This presentation will cover some of the specification requirements for 100GbE and 400GbE options and then introduce an online tool that can help determine the most cost effective options.
Viavi Solutions gave the first demonstration of protocol analysis for the recently completed PCI Express® 5th generation data communication standard at the PCI-SIG Developers Conference, June 18-19. PCIe 5.0 – the next revision of the ubiquitous serial computer expansion bus standard – will double the capacity over a PCI Express link to 32 gigabits per second per unidirectional channel or greater than one terabit per second across the common 16-lane bidirectional slot interface. This acceleration of speed correlates with the performance demands of emerging bandwidth- and compute-intensive applications such as 400-Gigabit Ethernet, IoT, hyperscale and AI.
Edge is where connection occurs. It’s the place people, devices or “things” access the network. If there is no connection, it’s not edge. Connectivity will play a critical role at the edge. The connectivity can be wireless, fiber or copper in different forms. The value of edge is data, in many cases real-time data. The majority of data at the edge is processed locally. The rest of the data can be passed to the data center for further compute and storage. If there is no data, it’s not edge. Finally, the interactions at the edge go beyond just human beings and the networks. Devices or “things” play important roles at the edge.
Siemon’s Why Edge? Why Now? white paper explores the solution to reducing latency and the benefits from edge data centers, including fifth generation (5G) networks, Internet of things and Industrial Internet of things devices, autonomous vehicles, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data analytics, and video streaming and surveillance.
As customer demand for extreme high-capacity, low-latency data transport continues to grow, CenturyLink is expanding the company’s intercity network by adding 4.7 million miles of Corning fiber, making it the largest ultra-low-loss fiber network in North America. The first phase of this overbuild fiber network, completed in June, connects more than 50 major cities throughout the U.S.
With hyperscale data centers driving the need for extreme high density fiber cabling, the market has responded with new products that pack up to 3,456 fibers into a single cable. Such density affects the installation of these cables. This article overviews some of the high-density fiber-optic cables available today and their suppliers’ comments and recommendations regarding installation practices.
According to test results, Rosenberger OSI’s FTT-ACP (fiber to the active consolidation point) concept achieves up to 50% energy savings in current building cabling projects. This is made possible by the PerConnect EcoFlexIT complete system which combines active and passive components and combines floor distributor, switch and passive collection point.
Cost study: Compared to a traditional splicer-cleaver combination, a Bluetooth-enabled splicer/cleaver combination produce as much as 76% cost of ownership reduction and weeks of time reclaimed.
AFL’s FlexScan FS300-325 Quad OTDR helps contract installers and network operators deploy and maintain single-mode and multimode networks, including Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Passive Optical Networks (PONs), Passive Optical LANs (POLANs) and point-to-point networks. The new OTDR includes many of the same capabilities found in AFL’s FlexScan FS200 family of single-mode OTDRs.
