With the large-scale construction of data centers, the demand for high-speed and high-density network in Switch , Storage & Server are more and more strong and complex. And the heat will be a big issue. And how to reduce the power consumption will be the requested in such kind of application and take a very important role.
The interconnect products currently used in data center racks include : Optical Transceiver, Active Optical Fiber (AOC) & Passive Copper (DAC). Based on actual wiring, these three products are alternately used in the rack (Inner Rack), Rack to Rack and Data Center to Data Center. The huge demand for AOC & DAC comes from the inner Rack and Rack to Rack.
As the speed gets faster and faster, the energy consumption of the optical component is relatively larger, but it can provide a longer distance (about 3-10 meters) and is relatively reliable. However, the price is high and the power consumption is even larger. Because the DAC price is low and low power consumption, so it becomes the first choice in Data Center application. But the transmission distance of the transmission rate of DAC is getting faster, the distance will be even shorter. Therefore, the Active Copper Cable (ACC) is born, the purpose is to increase the distance (like AOC) and lower the power consumption and price (like DAC).
Fig. 1 : ACC will replace alsmot 90% market than AOC
Fig. 2 : The max. distance for SFP28/Q!SFP28 & QSFP-DD ACC
Fig. 3 : Power Dissaption between ACC & Optical Transceiver/AOC