Intertek: Siemon LightVerse shows considerable margin over 400G fiber channel limits
Global network infrastructure specialist The Siemon Company (Watertown, CT) announced that its new, ultra-low-loss singlemode MTP cabling system, dubbed LightVerse, exhibits considerable margin over IEEE 400 Gigabit channel limits, as proven through third-party testing.
Intertek Testing Services, a global leader in the testing, inspection, and certification of products, recently tested Siemon’s new singlemode ultra-low-loss MTP cabling system in IEEE 802.3bs 400GBASE-DR4 and IEEE 802.3cu 400GBASE-FR4 400 Gigabit applications. The third-party testing employed Siemon’s new LightVerse fiber-optic cabling system, which was presented to visitors to the recent BICSI Winter event in Florida, and will be launched in Q2 2022 across the U.S., Canada and Latin America, with other global regions to follow later in the year.
“With emerging technologies driving widespread 400 Gigabit adoption in hyperscale data centers and enterprise data centers gearing up to deploy these next-generation speeds, data center operators need to be confident that their cabling systems can reliably support current and future 400 Gigabit applications. Recent third-party testing of our ultra-low-loss singlemode MTP cabling system delivers that confidence and more,” commented Gary Bernstein, RCDD, CDCD, Global Data Center Solutions Specialist for Siemon.
Bernstein added, “By demonstrating the ability of our ultralow-loss components to support multiple mated connections in 400 Gigabit channels and still meet stringent IEEE requirements, data center operators can ensure flexibility over a range of distances and configurations, including the use of convenient cross-connects that facilitate management, upgrades, and reconfigurations—all while remaining within their loss budget.”
Per a Siemon statement, in the Intertek testing, both of the system's channels were configured with a higher number of connections than typically used to ensure performance across a range of deployments:
- The parallel optic 400GBASE-DR4 channel consisted of eight (8) mated Siemon LightVerse MTP adapter plates and MTP-MTP cabling assemblies over the maximum allowed channel length of 500 meters.
- The WDM 400GBASE-FR4 channel consisted of five (5) Siemon LightVerse MTP-to-LC modules, MTP-MTP cabling assemblies, and LC-LC BladePatch fiber jumpers over the maximum allowed channel length of 2,000 meters.
Both channel configurations were tested for insertion loss and reflectance using the one-jumper method specified in TIA-568.3.D standards and exhibited considerable margin over stringent IEEE channel limits.
Siemon’s singlemode ULL component specifications provide a maximum IL performance of 0.30 dB for MTP connectors, 0.50 dB for MTP-LC modules and 0.20 dB for LC BladePatch cords.
The channel testing showed actual results well below the maximum specifications.
