How much do you know about MTP®/MPO fiber cable?

MPO/MTP fiber cable, also referred to as MPO fiber cable or MPO fiber optic cable, is used in data centers. With the continuous growth of data center bandwidth and network connectivity, traditional duplex patch cables (such as LC cables) can not meet the requirements. To deal with the problem, MTP/MPO cables have entered the market, accommodating more fiber in one MTP/MPO connector, which is a practical solution for high-density cable systems in 40G/100G/400G data centers.

What is MPO/MTP Fiber Cable?

                                                                                               Figure 1: MTP®/MPO  Fiber Cable

MPO (Multi-fiber Push-On) cable with an MPO connector is designed for multiple fibers, typically containing 8, 8，12, 24, or 48 fibers in a single connector. Optional lengths are also available to accommodate specific requirements. It is commonly used in high-speed data transmission applications, such as data centers and high-density cabling environments.

There are four MTP®/MPO fiber cable types: MTP®/MPO Jumper Cables, MTP®/MPO Trunk Cables, MTP®/MPO Harness Cables, and MTP®/MPO Conversion Cables.

MTP®/MPO fiber cables with MTP®/MPO connectors and fiber optic cable are components for high-density connectivity solutions. There are two types of connectors: female (without pins) and male (with pins).

 What are the features and benefits of MPO fiber cable?

• Multiple Fiber Counts: Available in various fiber counts (e.g., 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, 96, 144, 192).

• Plenum Rated: Suitable for plenum spaces.

• Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH): Ensures safety in indoor environments.

• Color-Coded MPO Connector Boots for Easy Identification.

• Method A/B/C Polarity: Ensures consistent connectivity.

  
  

Why do you need MPO fiber cable?

MPO fiber cables are used in duplex fiber applications throughout the data center as a way to deploy pre-terminated plug-and-play backbone trunk cables between active equipment. MPO-terminated trunk cables used in duplex backbone links take up less pathway space, ease cable management, and offer faster deployment compared to using individual duplex cables. When used for duplex backbone applications, MPO trunk cables with 12-fiber or 24-fiber MPO connectors on both ends form the permanent backbone link and then transition to either 6 or 12 duplex fiber connectors at patch panels via either MPO-to-LC cassettes or MPO-to-LC hybrid patch cords.

 transmit and receive over multiple fibers as a means to increase transmission speed. One of the first parallel applications that called for MPOs was 40 Gig and 100 Gig multimode applications (40GBASE-SR4 and 100GBASE-SR4), which use 8 fibers with 4 transmitting and 4 receiving at either 10 Gbps or 25 Gbps per lane. Note that while these 8-fiber data center applications are best supported by 8-fiber MPO connectors, 12-fiber MPO connectors can be used with the middle 4 fiber positions unused.

How many types of MTP®/MPO fiber cable are there?

MPO fiber cable types are divided by 4 aspects: function, polarity, fiber count, and fiber mode. Different MPO cables are used for different applications.

1. By Function

By function, there are four types of MTP®/MPO fiber cable. That is jumper cables, trunk cables, and MTP®/MPO harness cables.

MTP®/MPO Jumper Fiber Cables

MTP®/MPO jumper fiber cables are terminated with an MTP®/MPO connector (female/male) on both ends of the cable, which are available in 8-144 fiber counts. Typically, these multi-fiber MTP®/MPO jumper fibers use a single-sheath design and are ideal for connecting different pieces of equipment within a cabinet, such as from a fiber patch panel to a switch or from one switch to another.

MTP®/MPO Trunk Fiber Cables

MTP®/MPO trunk fiber cables facilitate rapid deployment of data centers and fiber optic infrastructure environments. The efficient plug-and-play architecture across MDA, HDA, and EDA zones for modular box or fan-out cable connections significantly reduces initial installation and maintenance costs.MPO fiber cables provide 12 to 144 core fiber connections.  Adopt a 12- or 24-core MPO connector to minimize

failure and reduce wiring space and support 10G upgrade to 40G and 100G network transmission, and support 100G transmission delay index Multi-mode OM3, OM4, single-mode G652D, G657A2, and other optical fiber specifications are available.

MTP®/MPO Harness Cables

MTP®/MPO harness fiber cables (breakout cables or fanout cables, MPO-LC pre-terminated ) are terminated with a female/male MTP®/MPO connector on one end and 4/6/8/12 duplex LC connectors on the other end. For example, 8-fiber MPO to 4 LC harness cables.  The MPO cable is mainly used in the need to directly connect from the main distribution area to the system equipment port or equipment area distribution frame. Can also be used for system extension of the extension cable.

                                                                                               Figure 2:MPO-LC pre-terminated Fiber Cable

2. By Polarity

MTP®/MPO fiber cable types by polarity refer to the difference between the optical transmitters and receivers at both ends of the fiber link. For MPO fiber cables, industry standards identify 3 different polarity methods. It is Method A, A，Method and Method C. The cables of the three MTP®/MPO connector types have different structures.

Method A uses Type A straight-through MPO trunk cables with a key-up connector on one end and a key-down connector on the other end so that the fiber located in Position 1 arrives at Position 1 at the other end. When using Method A for duplex applications, making the transceiver-receiver flip is required in a patch cord at one end.

 Method B uses key-up connectors on both ends to achieve the transceiver-receiver flip so that the fiber located in Position 1 arrives at Position 12 at the opposite end, the fiber located in Position 2 arrives at Position 11 at the opposite end, and so on. For duplex applications, Method B uses straight A-B patch cords on both ends.

Method C uses a key-up connector on one end and a key-down connector on the other end like Method A, but the flip happens within the cable itself, where each pair of fibers is flipped so that the fiber in Position 1 arrives at Position 2 at the opposite end and the fiber in Position 2 arrives at Position 1. While this method works well when using MPO trunk cables for backbone connections in duplex applications, it does not support parallel fiber applications and is therefore not recommended.

                                                                                                        Figure 3: 24-Fiber MTP®/MPO  Fiber Cable Polarity

3. By Fiber Count

MTP®/MPO fiber cable types with different cores are classified into 8/12/16/24 cores, which are used for 40G/100G.

8-fiber MTP®/MPO cable systems can transmit the same data rates as 12-fiber cables with lower cost and insertion loss, making them more cost-effective.

12-fiber MTP®/MPO cables are the earliest developed and most commonly used solution in 10G–40G and 40G–100G connections. If they are used in 40G QSFP+ or 100G QSFP28 transceivers, 4 fibers will be idle, resulting in low fiber utilization.

24-fiber MTP®/MPO cables are typically used to establish a 100GBASE-SR10 link between CFP-to-CFP transceivers.

16-fiber MTP®/MPO cables use the same external footprint as traditional 12-fiber MT (mechanically transferable) ferrules, aggregate multiple 8-fiber parallel transceivers, and couple directly to emerging 16-fiber parallel fiber links such as 400G QSFP-DD and OSFP.

4. By Fiber Mode

According to Fiber Mode, MPO fiber cable types include multimode OM3/OM4/OM5 and single-mode OS2 cables. Multimode OM3/OM4/OM5 MPO cables are suitable for short-distance transmission, allowing 40 Gbit/s maximum transmission distances of 300 m/400 m/440 m, respectively (with corresponding modules). Single-mode OS2 MTP®/MPO cables are suitable for long-distance transmission, such as in Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) and PONs (Passive Optical Networks). With less modal dispersion, the bandwidth of OS2 is higher than OM3/OM4/OM5. The maximum transmission distance that can be achieved by MTP cables is listed below. Please note that it needs to be used with the corresponding module to achieve the maximum distance transmission. For example, a single-mode MTP-12 trunk needs to be used with a 40G QSFP-PLR4-40G module to achieve 10km transmission.

How to Test MPO Fiber Cable?

Just like any fiber link in the data center, MPO fiber cables also need to be tested to ensure that they remain within insertion loss budgets. This is especially true for higher-speed 40, 100, 200, and 400 gig parallel fiber optic applications that require the use of MPOs. Since these applications have much lower loss budgets, it’s important to maintain the highest testing accuracy possible.

MPO fiber cables were tested with a traditional duplex fiber tester. It was an extremely time-consuming task, requiring the use of MPO-to-LC fan-out cables that separate the multiple fibers into single fiber channels and verification of test reference cords before connecting each of the fiber pairs to be tested on both ends. This complex testing also led to greater inconsistencies and made it more difficult to keep all the fibers clean during the process.

Conclusion

The MTP®/MPO fiber cable is a good solution for high-density cabling in the data center. And it largely increases network capacity, saves a lot of space, and offers ease of cable management.