Network migration to 100G made easy

The module was tailored for multimode fibre applications, allowing network operators to migrate from 10G to 100G without replacing fibre, and easily increasing throughput ten-fold.

The GBC Photonics QSP28 100G SWDM4 optical module helps operators multiply the throughput of a single pair of multimode fibres by ten times, without changing their infrastructure or adding more fibres. This solution is also ideal for connecting switches and serves inside data centres.

Until ten to twenty years ago, data centres were mainly equipped with multimode fibres. They account for almost 100 per cent of the internal cabling built in the first decade of the 21^st century.

Multimode fibre was the natural choice for administrators due to its lower price and good transmission performance over short distances, particularly between racks located in a single data centre. The maximum transmission range of multimode fibre optics is two kilometres.

Today, in newly built data centres, investments are made equally in singlemode and multimode fibres. Singlemode fibres have a number of advantages, but the most important one is the ability to transmit data over long distances without significant signal distortion and attenuation. While they are ideal for connecting branches located tens of kilometres away, laying new singlemode fibres is a costly task.

One solution is to reinforce the existing data centre infrastructure with standard multimode modules.

“When migrating from 10G to 100G, we switch out 4 pairs of multimode fibres and increase the throughput by 2.5 times on each pair of fibres,” explained Marcin Bala, CEO of Salumanus. “Our new QSP28 100G SWDM4 module allows operators to increase their transmission throughput by 10 times without paying for new fibres or for an entirely new network infrastructure. To put it simply, operators can now replace their 10G transceivers with the new 100G one using the same pair of fibres.”

While 100G connectivity is currently the norm for data transmission, the telecoms industry is quickly moving towards 400G requirements. To keep up with the demand, Salumanus engineers are currently working on an analogous solution to migrate from 10G to 400G. The GBC Photonics QSP28 400G SWDM8 modules will be available soon.