10 Gigabit Ethernet is becoming increasingly common, physics of the cabling plant including latency, distance, power consumption, technology availability as well as cost should be carefully considered by users when designing for 10 Gigabit Ethernet cabling infrastructure. This post introduced several 10 Gigabit transceiver and cable for server connectivity.
10 Gigabit Transceiver Over Copper
Many IT departments still use copper cabling for switch-to-switch or switch-to-server connections in 10 Gigabit Ethernet due to the low cost of copper cables. Now, two major copper cabling technologies are available for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper.
| Connector (Media) | Cable | Max. Distance | Protocol |
| SFP+ CU copper | Twinax | 10m | 10GBASE-CX1 |
| RJ45 10GBASE-T copper | Cat6, Cat6A, Cat7 | 100m | 10GBASE-T |
Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) technology provides cost-effective and flexible options for server network interface cards (NICs) and ToR switches. The SFP+ direct attach copper solution is a fully integrated SFP+ cable that is available in multiple lengths up to 10 meters. 10G SFP+ copper Twinax (SFP+ CU copper) is currently the best choice for server connectivity, providing a robust, power-efficient, and cost-effective solution for 10 Gigabit Ethernet transmission.
10GBASE-T was released by IEEE 802.3an in 2006 which specifies 10Gbps data transmission over four-pair copper cabling. Thus, there appears such 10 Gigabit transceiver as 10GBASE-T transceiver. Category 6A (Cat 6A) copper cabling is recommended to use with the 10GBASE-T standard to achieve reliable 10Gbps operation over 100m copper twisted-pair channels. 10GBASE-T has higher latency and consumes more power when compared to 10GBASE-CX1 and optical technologies. But this has been changed as the technology matures. 10GBASE-T solution is considered as an ideal copper cabling option for long-term plan.
10 Gigabit Transceiver Over Fiber
Fiber cabling becomes popular with the benefit of delivering the lowest latency in 10 Gigabit Ethernet. It is typically used for longer distance connectivity and environments that need protection from interference. There are two different types of optical fiber—multimode (MM) and singlemode (SM). For 10 Gigabit Ethernet server connectivity, multimode cabling is preferred to use with the following options:
| Connector (Media) | Cable | Max. Distance | Wavelength |
| 10GBASE-SR SFP+ | OM2/OM3 | 300m | 850nm |
| SFP+ to SFP+ | Active optical cable | 100m | \ |
For EDA (Equipment Distribution Area) to HDA (Horizontal Distribution Area) horizontal connectivity, SFP+ short-reach (SFP-10G-SR) cabling is better suited for longer distance connectivity between the server (EDA) rack and network equipment racks located in the HDA. It provides cost-effective fiber connectivity for fiber-based server connectivity options. In addition, SFP+ to SFP+ AOC (Active Optical Cable) is also an ideal choice for server connectivity due to its similar performance with the short-reach transceiver but with low cost.
Conclusion
10 Gigabit Ethernet has established itself as the ideal foundational technology. For server connectivity, copper and fiber cabling are available. Considerations for use cases depend on variables including latency, distance, power consumption, cost, and so on. FS.COM offer a wide range options of reliable 10 Gigabit transceiver. For more information, please contact sales@fs.com.
Related Article: Cisco SFP-10G-SR: All You Need to Know
