13 August 2015

Avago announces general availability of 40G BiDi MMF QSFP+ transceiver for data centers and cloud infrastructure

Avago Technologies Ltd (which designs and supplies III-V-based analog interface components for communications, storage, consumer and industrial applications) has announced general availability of its AFBR-79EBPZ 40G bi-directional (BiDi) multimode fiber (MMF) QSFP+ transceiver module, a field-proven 40G bi-directional fiber-optics solution designed for high-speed data-center interconnect and networking applications.

Picture: Avago's new AFBR-79EBPZ 40G bi-directional multimode fiber QSFP+ transceiver module.

Based on 2x20G BiDi optics, the module operates over two fibers with an LC connector as opposed to the eight fibers with an MPO connector of conventional 40G QSFP+ MMF solutions. It can hence enable 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) links on existing installed LC duplex multimode fiber of 10G networks, providing a cost-effective upgrade path to 40G Ethernet in the data center. The AFBR-79EBPZ supports 40GbE data transfer over 100m of OM3 fiber or 150m of OM4 fiber.

Avago says that the 40G BiDi MMF QSFP+ transceiver can provide a seamless and cost-effective transition from 10G to 40G Ethernet using existing 10G MMF cabling infrastructure. As well as being compliant to the QSFP+ SFF-8436 specification, it is also compliant to the 40GbE XLPPI electrical specification per IEEE 802.3ba-2010.  

"Our 40G BiDi transceiver technology is an important breakthrough that has facilitated many of our end customers to transition from 10G to 40G network to meet the ever increasing demand for bandwidth," says Philip Gadd, senior VP & general manager of the Fiber Optics Product Division. "With the general availability of the Avago 40G BiDi MMF QSFP+ transceiver, there will be an accelerated market adoption of 40G Ethernet for data centers," he reckons.

"40G Ethernet is an important technology in the data center as enterprises transition the aggregation/spine layers of their network towards higher speeds," comments Alan Weckel, VP of Ethernet Switch Market research at market research firm Dell'Oro Group. "As this transition occurs, we expect 40G Ethernet switches to surpass 10 million ports in 2017, almost a four-fold increase from 2014 levels, especially with the increased availability of high-ROI [return on investment], low-TCO [total cost of ownership] solutions that leverage the existing 10G cabling infrastructure," he adds.

Avago has shipped high-volume production quantities of the 40G BiDi fiber optics solution and is now accepting orders for the AFBR-79EBPZ.

Tags: Avago QSFP+ transceiver module

Visit: www.avagotech.com/products/fiber-optics/optical-transceivers/qsfp/afbr-79ebpz