As data center must keep up with the current trends like Digitization and 5G, IoT, etc., so they had to transition from current 100G to 400G.
Let’s talk about the Impact:
With this transition, you would need new Transceivers like CFP8, OSFP and QSFP-DD.
Based on the above, you need to select the connector Type.
MPO 8:
Would be supporting the 400G up to 500 meters on single mode OS2.
This is a common connector with alignment key in the center, so it can be mated with the existing MPO 12 and MPO 24.
MPO 16:
Would be supporting the 400G up to 100 meters on multimode OM4.
This connector has the alignment key at offset, which means mating with the existing 12 or 24 MPO directly would be not possible, the solution would be 16 fiber connector on one end and second end would be a breakout of 8/12 MPO, which can then be plugged into the common 12 MPO.
Singlemode VS Multimode
A datacenter with 100GBASE-LR4 having LC- Duplex connectivity when migrating to 400G, would require 4 x times the current amount of fiber because the interface would be changed from LC to MPO 8.
o When migrating to Multimode from single mode, the number of fibers would be 8 x times the current fibers, another thing would be the compatibility between 16 and 12/24 MPO connectors.
So in both cases either staying at singlemode or multimode changes would be required and more fiber would be added to your datacenter.
