Tip-to-tip optical cabling system features a Base-8 design

8th July 2015

Jordan Mulcare

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Corning Incorporated announced its latest optical cabling innovation for data centres and Storage Area Networks (SAN), EDGE8solutions. EDGE8 is the industry’s first modular, tip-to-tip optical cabling system to feature an eight-fibre (Base-8) cabling design that maximises per rack unit density for better network scalability and improved link performance.

Driven by increasing adoption of cloud computing and a growing demand for streaming video, data centres and SANs are migrating to faster transmission speeds to find and send data back to consumers as quickly as possible. Corning’s EDGE8 is the most future-ready data centre connectivity solution available for simple, efficient and cost-effective migration to transmission speeds up to 400Gb/s.

“Corning’s EDGE8 solutions help data centre operators deliver an optimal end-user experience, while mitigating the uncertainty associated with ever-increasing transmission speeds and continually evolving standards,” said Stuart Hoiness, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Networks, Corning Optical Communications. “Installing a Base-8 cabling system like EDGE8 today provides the simplest, most flexible path to 40, 100, and 400Gb/s in the future.”

EDGE8 solutions, with eight-fibre MTP connectors, make it easy to match the fibre count in the backbone of data centre networks and SANs with today’s Base-8 QSFP transceivers. This results in 100% fibre utilisation, streamlined 1:1 port mapping and up to 50% reduction in link attenuation by eliminating the need for conversion modules. EDGE8 furthers the benefits of Base-8 design with pinned MTP trunks that enable simple patch cable deployment; optimised harness mapping for no unused fibre/connectors; and EDGE8 modules offer a 30% improvement in insertion loss resulting in longer duplex link distances.

EDGE8 is built on the foundation of Corning’s family of EDGE solutions, currently deployed in over 50,000 data centres across 30 countries around the world. EDGE solutions help operators maximise every inch of valuable data centre real estate with optical cables so light and compact that just one cable can replace as many as 72 copper cables. Plus, all EDGE solutions are fibre-based, so they consume about a quarter of the power per port of copper, saving money and reducing heat, while reducing overall carbon emissions for a smaller impact on the environment.