Duplex Multimode Fiber in the Data Center

Most data center interconnections today use multimode fiber (MMF) for their optical interconnections. The connections typically run at 10 Gbps over a duplex fiber pair – one transmit (Tx) fiber and one receive (Rx) fiber – using the 10GBASE-SR Ethernet standard. Many of these data centers are now upgrading to 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps. Using the parallel 40GBASE-SR4 or 100GBASE-SR4 standard would necessitate quadrupling the MMF infrastructure.

With the advent of SWDM, today’s 10 Gbps MMF infrastructure can be re-used for 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps without any additional fiber. This presents large capital and operational cost savings for the data center operator.