AOC cables have emerged as a competent alternative to bulky metallic cables. Find out everything you need to know about them in this guide about AOC cables.

Understanding Active Optical Cable (AOC) – All You Need to Know

The proliferation of internet-connected smart devices has caused the demand for higher and faster bandwidth to soar worldwide. Active Optical Cable (AOC) has emerged due to data storage, processing, and transmission needs, necessitating high reliability, high efficiency, high bandwidth, and low-cost network infrastructures.

Keep reading to find answers to all your questions about Active Optical Cable as seasoned professionals at Fibermart share insights into everything you need to know about AOC cables.

What is an Active Optical Cable?

Considering the bulky and heavy nature of copper cables, it was once challenging to manage data centers. Moreover, electromagnetic interference further limited the reliability and performance of copper.

Active Optical Cable offers an excellent alternative for multi-lane, short-ranged data communication and interconnect applications. While the optical communication's wire transmission typically belongs to the passive part, AOC cables are an exception.

Since people worldwide now expect to have more information at their fingertips, communication networks need to be quicker, and AOC cables are a great solution to these problems.

In layman's terms, AOCs have modules at both ends of the fiber optic cable, allowing direct communication between devices permanently linked by the fiber optic cable. AOCs comprise fiber optic transceivers, multimode optical fiber, modules, and control chips embedded in the fiber optic cable.

They utilize optical-to-electrical conversion on the cable ends to improve distance and speed performance without sacrificing compatibility with the standard electric interfaces. Compared to copper wires, AOC cables provide more advantages, such as low power consumption, high performance, lighter weight, flexibility, EMI immunity, and low interconnection loss.

Why Use AOC Cables?

They Offer Signal Reliability

Many switches, routers, and computers in data centers cause EMI that can interfere with communication, especially when electric signals are used to transmit data from one end to another. It results in many data center operators encountering failures on data links.

However, the problem is solved by AOCs as they operate for over 100 meters before any defects are identified by the engineers. So data center operators using AOCs will typically not have interference or noise problems with the usual length of up to 50 meters.

They Are Lightweight

AOC cables comprise one fiber optic patch cable and two optical transceivers. They weigh just one-fourth of a quarter of a direct connect copper cable but with half the bulk. They're easier to maintain and don't require cleaning post a failure. The terminal plus also doesn't need to be tested, which further saves time.

They Are Cost-Effective

AOC cables are comparatively less expensive, resulting in lower deployment costs. The transmission distance conveniently meets consumers' needs in various short-distance transmission applications.

The cooling and power consumption costs are also lower, resulting in considerable savings when it comes to operational expenses. Enclosed terminations also protect AOCs from impacts of vibrational and environment. Even if a component fails, saving money and time is easy, as it can be replaced directly.

AOC cables were primarily invented to replace metallic technology in HPC and data center applications. You can find a wide variety of AOC cables with high data rates over long distances for high storage and performance applications at Fibermart.

Our seasoned professionals can help you streamline a number of fiber optic solutions such as AOC, SFP+, QSFP+, and QSFP28, along with customized active optical cables n various lengths at our exclusive online store.

We have helped leading corporations such as Amazon, Apple, Intel, and IBM with cutting-edge fiber optic solutions according to our high-quality standards that reflect our commitment and dedication to helping businesses worldwide stay ahead of the networking curve.  

Explore our products or contact us for further details!