Why Fiber Deployment is Crucial in Data Centers

Digital traffic is witnessing an unprecedented surge, driven by advancements in 5G, AI, and machine-to-machine communications.

In particular, openai’s impressive achievements in the field of artificial intelligence.The sheer volume of data generated in every sphere is staggering.

The importance of data centers, the nerve centers of digital traffic, has never been more critical.

Fiber deployment in these centers is the key to handling this digital deluge.

The Triangular Balance Law in the Data Center World

In the data center universe, servers, switches and connectivity create a triangular balance.

Innovations in any of these three elements drive the others towards improved speed and reduced costs.

However, as cloud-based evolution accelerates, the challenges in connection bandwidth, latency, and speed increase.

Hence, the network connectivity pressure is higher than ever.

Back in 2020 ......

Just one Internet user will generate 1.5GB of traffic per day, a smart factory will generate 1PB of data per day, and a cloud video service provider will generate up to 750PB of video data per day.

A certain star provider of global video conferencing services, founded in 2011, was not well known before the epidemic.

After eight years of development, it counted only 10 million daily active users in December 2019, but surged to more than 200 million by March 2020, a 20-fold increase compared with the end of 2019.

Even more unexpected is that a month later, April 2020 daily active users have surged to 300 million, which is an increase of 100 million in just one month.

The Fiber Solution

To meet the growing demands, data centers are resorting to increasing the amount of fiber. In the past, core network cabling contained 24, 72, 144 or 288 fibers.

Today, fiber cables are deployed with as many as 1,728-, 3,456-, or even 6,912 fibers per cable.

This increase in fiber count, along with compact cable construction, is particularly useful for interconnecting data centers (DCI).

Fiber Vs. Copper

Copper connectivity solutions, once favored for their cost-effectiveness, are being overtaken by fiber.

In large data centers, the proportion of fiber has exceeded 70%, indicating a clear preference shift.

Fiber Optic Technology Innovations

Several innovations have made fiber deployment even more attractive.

The introduction of coiled ribbon fibers allows data center managers to tackle growing connectivity challenges effectively.

Furthermore, the fiber core number in data center fiber optic backbone networks has increased significantly, with some manufacturers providing cables with 6,912 or 7,776 cores.

Multimode Fiber OM5 Advantage

The advent of the new multimode fiber OM5, which supports multiple wavelengths, helps reduce the number of cores needed.

This not only results in less space occupancy but also better utilization of existing fiber optic trunks.

Changes in Transceiver Types

The pluggable optical module is another innovation that is easier to maintain and provides cost-effectiveness on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The introduction of the new 400GBASE standards by IEEE has also opened new opportunities.

The Future is Fiber

As data center networks transition to 400G, 800G, and even 1.6T, the need for faster throughput and design flexibility continues to grow.

The proportion of fiber in large data centers is over 70%, making it clear that the transition to fiber is not just a trend, but the future.

Fiber deployment is central to meeting the connectivity demands of ultra-large-scale data centers, enterprise data centers, multi-tenant data centers (MTDC), and service provider data centers.

Indeed, the drive to create next-generation data center networks is well and truly unstoppable.

If you need fiber data center solution, contact us!