Sri Lanka is an island country of South Asia, located in the India Ocean. The largest city is colombo. The total area of Sri Lanka is 65,610 km², and population is about 20 million. GDP per capital (PPP) of Sri Lanka is $13,500, ranking the 91^st in the world of 2018. Sri Lanka is very famous for its tourism and tea export. It retains many Buddhism traditional culture and owns the beautiful scenery and landscape of tropical island. As the island is shaped like a teardrop, Sri Lanka has a beautiful name of a teardrop in India Ocean.

Data Center Industry

Sri Lanka has 34 internet users per 100, ranking No.147 in the global internet usage in 2017. Sri Lanka is the No.64 globally ranked country based on data center density. And the connectivity ecosystem is made up of 6 colocation data centers, 3 cloud service providers. The largest three data centers are built by Dialog Axiata, Tata Communication and Sri Lanka Telecom.

TATA Communications Lanka Ltd

TATA Communications Sri Lanka Data Center is located at Taj Samudra, Colombo 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is a subsidiary of TATA Communications Limited, a TATA Group company and one of the largest telecommunications service providers in the world. Providing services to customers in Sri Lanka, TATA Communications Lanka has unrestricted access to the global network and infrastructure of TATA Communications Limited. TATA Communications Lanka Ltd inaugurated its second International Gateway in Sri Lanka at the emerging IT Park, Orion City in 2011. Strengthening its seven-year presence in the country, the new facility will further strengthen the reliability and stability of its services to both operators and enterprise customers.

Sri Lanka Telecom

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has opened a 500-rack national data center in Pitipana, 40 kilometers away from the capital Colombo. Customers will be able to hire racks as and when they are required to manage their CAPEX and OPEX effectively. With this move enterprise customers and government organizations will get the freedom to minimize their investments and operational expenditure by eliminating the need for maintaining their own data centers. The rental payment expected from the customers will be far less in comparison to the amount they would need to invest and spend continuously in order to have their own data centers. SLT intends to provide expert knowledge and bear all costs associated with space, protection, disaster management etc. All data entrusted to the data centre will be stored lawfully following all necessary regulations and is thus secure against any vulnerability.

The facility was built with the assistance of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, and has obtained Tier III Design certification from the Uptime Institute. SLT is the licensed national backbone network operator in Sri Lanka, and one of the country’s largest companies. Constriction on its latest data center, a three-story building in the newly proposed Tech City area, began in February 2016.The company calls the facility the country’s first purpose-built Tier III data center.

A host bus adapter (HBA) is a integrated circuit adapter which provides physical connectivity between server and storage devices. It is responsible for input/output support and processing. A host bus adapter can also be called host controller or host adapter. Most of time, a HBA works as an expansion card that plugs into the bus of a server’s motherboard. The main purpose of HBA is to realize the data transmission of internal channel protocol between PCIe and SAS or Fibre Channel. HBA integrated with SAS port is called SAS HBA, while HBA integrated with optic port is called Fibre Channel HBA. Sometimes, the devices for connecting to IDE, Ethernet, Fire Wire, USB and other systems may also be called host adapters.

SAS HBA

SAS is the abbreviation of Serial Attached SCSI, which is a point-to-point serial protocol that moves data to and from computer-storage devices such as hard drives and tape drives. It replaces the older Parallel SCSI . SAS offers optional compatibility with Serial ATA (SATA). So a SAS HBA can support a SAS device as well as a SATA device.

A common SAS HBA is made up by a slight circuit board embedded controller chips, one or more SAS/SATA ports,a x4 or x8 PCIe interface and a profile bracket. The bus interface is on the side of circuit board, which is inserted into the server motherboard. The SAS or SATA interface is integrated on the other side of the circuit board. Sometimes, a heat sink may be installed on it. Generally, SAS HBA can be classified as Internal card and External card.

6Gb/s Internal PCI Express to SAS/SATA HBA Card, compatible for LSI 9211-8I

Let me show you an example. Above picture is a 10Gtek6Gb/s Internal PCI Express to SAS/SATA HBA Card, which is compatible for LSI 9211-8I. You can see a PCIe connector on the side of circuit board, which is X8 lane. The interface’s standard is PCIe 2.0, which means it can support up to 6Gb/s. On the right side of the circuit board, you can see 2 internal mini SAS SFF-8087 ports, which need mini SAS cables to connect with one or two storage devices. The SAS standard has the data rate of 3,6,12 and 24Gb/s.The latest SAS standard completed in 2017, which is called SAS 4^th generation supporting speed up to 24Gb/s.

Fibre Channel HBA

Besides SAS HBA, Fibre Channel HBA is also commonly used in some application, especially in commercial data center. Fibre Channel is a high-speed data transfer protocol providing in-order, lossless delivery of raw block data, primarily used to connect computer data storage to servers. It has progressed at the data rate of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 128Gb/s. Fibre Channel typically runs on optic fibers within and between data centers, so Fibre Channel HBAs need to connect with transceivers and optic fibers to work. The main structure of Fibre Channel HBA looks like SAS HBA, but it has optic ports rather than SAS ports. The form of Fibre Channel HBA varies from vendor to vendor. Some products can connect with optic fibers directly, while some products need optic modules, such as SFP(1.25G) or SFP+(10G).

Below figure is an example product from QLogic. It is integrated PCIe 3.0 x8 connector,which can support speed up to 16Gb/s. It has two options of SFP+ ports, single-port or dual-port. Both are include LC connector.

QLogic Enhanced Gen 5 16 Gb FC Single-port & Dual-port HBA

Application

Both SAS HBA and FC HBA can connect a host server to a storage device or a switch, serving as the connecting point in the SAN management system. Fibre Channel HBA is more popular in commercial data center because of higher speed and more effective performance. FC HBA can also connect multiple storage systems, or connect multiple servers when servers are used as both application hosts and storage systems.

Vendors

Broadcom, Promise Technologies, Adaptec, HP, QLogic, Areca, LSI and ATTO Technology are major vendors who sells SAS HBA cards, while the major vendors of FC HBA cards are QLogic, Emulex and Broadcom. Other manufacturers of FC HBA cards include Agilent, ATTO, and Brocade. 10Gtek provide two kinds of SAS/SATA HBA cards with unleashed performance, operational agility and maximum power of cloud virtualization. Please find more details in:

6Gb/s Internal PCI Express SAS/SATA HBA RAID Controller Card, compatible for LSI 9211-8I

6Gb/s External PCI Express SAS/SATA HBA, compatible for LSI 9200-8E

In order to meet the demand for new generation of SAS-4 standard and more effective storage bandwidth, 10Gtek launches the brand new product, Internal SFF-8654 24G SAS slimline cable, designed to provide for 24Gbp/s connectivity internal to the server between the SAS controller and SAS hard drive. It has some excellent specifications.

High speed

This very Internal SFF-8654 SAS cable is compliance with the SAS-4.0 and SATA, as the below figure shows, which is updated fastest SAS standard. It can support the high speed up to 24Gbp/s. In general, the development of SAS cannot follow the pace of storage system’s update, and always becomes the bottlenecks of I/O. If the storage system equipment can upgrade with this cable, it can keep your storage system running at top speed, as well as more excellent performance.

Figure 1

Flexibility and High-density

Using 3M twin axial cable, the brand new Internal SFF-8654 SAS slimline cable assembly owns the unique ribbon construction, which is very flexible for devices to connect and provides easy routing of cables. The slimline can be easily folded and bent, even into 180 degrees. Besides the flexibility, using the slimline cable can maximize space utilization. In data center or some other applications, the slimline cable can route along the sides of cabinets and through narrow openings among fans, memory, heat sinks etc., which makes it possible for providing more freedom to maximize system and device’s density. And all this happens under maintaining excellent signal integrity.

Figure 2

Straight and right angle varieties

The unshielded I/O connector called SFF-8654 is the standard the SFF committee released. The SFF-8654 has designed two version of connector, straight or right angle, which can be plugged into different receptacle configuration. 10Gtek provide straight to straight and straight to right angle, corresponding different backplane and application. Figure 3 shows the application view consisting of an 4X straight and right angle plug to straight or vertical receptacle configuration of this connector system. While Figure 4 shows the application view consisting of an 8X right angle plug.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Applications

The Internal SFF-8654 SAS slimline cable suits a variety of architectures in multiple SAS applications: such as enterprise storage, high performance computing, networking and data centers. After all, SAS is usually found in large data centres because of much high cost. But just with a simple adapter, the application of PCIe can be implemented. So the scope of this Internal SFF-8654 SAS slimline cable application is much extensive. As the common motherboard interface for personal computers’ graphics cards, hard drives, SSDs, Wi-Fi and Ethernet hardware connection, PCIe applies more often in some data centre environments, video editing, financial modelling, simulation and high end gaming. You may also find some more concret application in the following figure:

Parameter

Conclusion:

SAS-4 standard’s higher bandwidth gives the slimline twin axial cable assembly the ability to support a larger storage environment and to respond more adequately to the development of solid-state storage and virtualization applications to meet the demands of higher transmission performance that are urgently needed. On the other hand, it can also get rid of the performance bottleneck caused by the limited bandwidth of the previous generation SAS-3, and work with the next generation bus, such as PCIe 4.0, to build a high-speed I/O environment from the server end to the storage device, covering the whole internal applications. The sooner you can increase the transmission speed and boost the capacity, the more quickly you will take advantage of the merit the advanced technology brings. Our innovative designs will help our partners and customers achieve their goals with the highest performance and lowest cost while guaranteeing a robust and uniquely built product capable of taking the solutions to the next level.

Why SFP+ 10GBase-T transceiver?

Since optic fiber could make transmit faster and further and build a complete network system, why SFP+ 10GBase-T transceiver is needed? This is a key question encountered by 10GBase-T SFP+ transceiver. As a star member of 10G SFP+ transceiver family, 10GBase-T SFP+ transceiver is popular for a wide range of applications in copper-based infrastructure of network system. When connecting 10G modules to copper networks, 10GBase-T SFP+ transceiver can directly connect into the copper networks, while the other 10G SFP+ transceivers using optic fibers need to connect with media converter to realize this connection. Let me show you this application with a good example.

A Specific Application

Sometimes, due to the consideration of cost savings, there are some devices equipped with RJ-45 port still working in 10G Ethernet standard in many data centers, workstation, or servers network. For these devices, the only way to connect them to a host switch is using the RJ-45 port over a cat6a or cat7 copper cable. But what if this host switch has no RJ-45 port but only SFP+ slots? There are two solutions answering this question.

Solution 1

The first solution is using a SFP+ 10GBase-SR transceiver, a fiber patch cord with duplex LC port, a media converter and finally a cat6a copper cable connecting to the endpoint.

Solution 2

Like the table shown above, the second solution is very simple. Just a SFP+ 10GBase-T transceiver and a cat6, cat6a or cat7 copper cable are enough. No optical fiber and no media converter mean lower cost.

Now note the point in this application. First, you do have a endpoint with RJ-45 port. Second,  you have a host switch equipped with SFP+ slots but no RJ-45 port. Third, you don’t want to dissipate neither of them and hope put them together to build a network. Then, being the cable system within 30 meters is under application. So SFP+ 10GBase-T transceiver is a good and advisable choice.

10Gtek provides the 100% compatible SFP+ 10GBase-T transceiver with many switch vendors such as Cisco, HP, Juniper, Arista, Brocade and etc. Since it has the interoperability for a ranges of brands, 10Gtek SFP+ 10GBase-T transceiver certainly will run well in this kind of application.

A variety of 10G SFP+ transceivers

1.Copper Cable

10GBase-T SFP+ is a transceiver configured with a RJ-45 port, which means that it uses copper cable to provide connections of 10G transmission speed. Cat 6, cat 6a or cat 7 copper cable is required in this situation. As for the transmission distance, it only supports a link length of up to 30 meters. 10GBase-T SFP+ transceiver is a suitable one for very short distances and offer a cost-effective way to connect within racks and across adjacent racks.

Table 1

Transceiver	Style	Distance	Cable	Wavelength
10GBase-T		30M	Cat6, Cat6a,Cat7 Copper Cable	N/A

2.Multi-mode fiber

10GBase-SR SFP+ is the transceiver using multi-mode fiber to transfer data in SFP+ family. It is using 850nm wavelength. 10GBaase-SR transceiver supports a link length of 26m on standard Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)-grade multi-mode fiber. Using OM3 multi-mode fiber, up to 300m link lengths are possible. Using OM4 multi-mode, up to 400m link lengths are possible.

Table 2

Transceiver	Style	Distance	Cable	Wavelength
10GBase-SR		Up to 400M	Multi-mode	850nm

3.Both single-mode fiber & multi-mode fiber available

10GBase-LX4 and 10GBase-LRM transceiver is using both single-mode fiber and multi-mode fiber to transfer data. 10GBase-LX4 transceiver uses CWDM technology to divide 12.5 GB/s data streams into four 3.125 GB/s data streams that are propagated in optical fibers. And due to the 8B/10B encoding, the effective data flow is 10 GB/s. But 10GBase-LX4 transceiver has the disadvantages of high cost and much power consumption. Therefore,it has a very narrow market. 10GBase-LRM transceiver is a replacement of 10GBASE-LX4 transceiver, allowing distances up to 220 meters. It supports link lengths of 220m on standard Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) grade Multi-mode Fiber. There’s one thing to notice. To make sure that specifications are met over FDDI-grade, OM1 and OM2 fibers, the transceiver should be coupled through a mode conditioning patch cord. No mode conditioning patch cord is required for applications over OM3 or OM4. Besides, using standard single-mode fiber, 10GBase-LRM module also can support a link length of 300m. In general, multi-mode fiber connecting is the most application scenario for 10GBase-LRM transceiver.

Table 3

Transceiver	Style	Distance	Cable	Wavelength
10GBase-LRM		220M(MMF) 300M(SMF)	Single-mode or multi-mode	1310nm
10GBase-LX4	obsoleted	300M(MMF) 10KM(SMF)	Single-mode or multi-mode	CWDM

4.Single-mode fiber

There are three basic kinds of transceivers using single-mode fibers to transfer data in SFP+ family: 10GBase-LR, 10GBase-ER, 10GBase-ZR. With carrying different wavelength, every transceiver can reach up different distances. For example, 10GBase-LR transceiver can support a link length of up to 10 kilometers. 10GBase-ER transceiver can support a link length of up to 40 kilometers. 10GBase-ZR transceiver can support a link length of up to 80 kilometers. Due to a superior transmission range and usually a long length of optic fiber cable, using these three transceivers means much higher cost. So these three kinds of transceivers are the better option where budget is not a constraint, or when the demand for long cable system.

Table 4

Transceiver	Style	Distance	Cable	Wavelength
10GBase-LR		10KM	Single-mode	1310nm
10GBase-ER		40KM	Single-mode	1550nm
10GBase-ZR		80KM	Single-mode	1550nm

Conclusion

From the perspective of connecting cable types, we will have a more clear image of 10G SFP+ transceiver. In fact, we can easily draw the conclusion: different cable types constrain the transmission distance of the 10G SFP+ transceiver. The range of transmission distance is an important consideration factor of selecting SFP+ transceivers. Below is a detailed table for 10G SFP+ transceivers offered by 10Gtek, which gives you more reference information.

Order Information:

The word we now often refer to optical module is transceiver. It is a compound of transmitter and receiver, which is a smart combine. Because it vividly expresses the key function of the device, transmitting and receiving signal. Therefore, a transceiver is basically a transmitter and receiver in a small package and serves as an important sub system in fiber optic communication networks.

Structure and Operational Principle

There are several key components in a common transceiver. It’s TOSA, ROSA, laser driver chip, limiting amplifier chip and PCB. This components usually hides in a small package with one or two fiber optic connector at one hand including a release latch and an electrical PCB edge connector at the other. The TOSA(Transmitter Optical Sub-assembly) consists of a laser diode, optical interface, monitor photodiode, metal housing, and electrical interface. The ROSA (Receiver Optical Sub-assembly) consists of a photodiode, optical interface, metal housing, and electrical interface.

Look at how a common transceiver works. First, the electrical signal imported through PCB (Printed Circuit Board) from a motherboard is converted into the optical signal with the help of a laser diode and laser driver chip, and through TOSA the optical signal couples into an optical fiber cable. Meanwhile, the optical signal received through optical interface is converted by ROSA into the electrical signal, then exports by limiting amplifier to the motherboard over the PCB edge connector.

Short Story of Development

It probably not be over 30 years after the first transceiver was invented, but this tiny device has experienced updating every few years, which has taken many experts’ heart and soul. Generally speaking, the pace of technology progress always faster than we can imagine. But as for transceiver, no matter how far and how deep it will go and develop, the tendency of transceiver’s evolution always focus on data speed enhancing, miniaturization, longer distance, compaction, cost-effectiveness, lower dissipation and hot-plugging. In the following chart of different generation of transceivers, you may find how transceiver develop and update over the years.

Varieties of Transceivers

Application

As an important sub system of communication network industry, transceivers can found where high speed computer network and high-bandwidth data communications need, such as base stations, servers, data centers and so on. Specifically, Ethernet switches, routers, firewalls and network interface cards, fiber converter are most application scenarios.

Standardization

No matter old GBIC or the latest QSFP-DD, they are ‘standardized’ by multi-source agreements(MSA). It is an agreement between multiple manufacturers to make products which are compatible across vendors. This is a very important agreement for many transceiver market participator. Besides strictly defining the operating characteristic of transceivers that compliant vendor can make produce, most importantly, it establishes a competitive market for interoperable products, allowing third party vendor participating in the market. Thus, transceivers may be purchased from any of the multiple sources in the open market, just like 10Gtek.

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Dear friend,

We’re pleased to invite you to the ISC 2019 Exhibition at the Frankfurt Messe Forum Hall 3 from June 17 to June 19, 2019.

10Gtek has specialized in high-speed interconnect solutions for 11 years, including optical modules, optical & high speed copper cables, NIC and so on. Some customized products will be launched at this exhibition, such as under-fluid solution, QSFP+ extender series, PCIe products. Besides, 100~400G collection, SFF-8654 Slimline and 25G dual SFP28 port NIC will also be shown. Welcome to check samples on the site.

We look forward to meeting you then. At the same time, a surprised gift is ready for you.

Exhibition Center: The Frankfurt Messe Forum Hall 3

Booth Number: K-516

Date: June 17-19, 2019

10Gtek Team

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com

A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware component which can make a computer connect to a network. It serves as a link for sending and receiving data, allowing the communication between computers and local area network (LAN) or large-scale network. It is also called network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface.

Structure

A standard NIC is generally the combination of a slight circuit board integrated a controller chip, single or several metal slots, some other electronic components and a profile bracket. The bus interface is on the side of circuit board, which is inserted into the bus for exchanging data between computer and network. The metal port for connecting network is usually RJ-45 slot, which is mating with copper cables. But it could be the slot for transceiver modules in optic fiber communication. As for the profile bracket, you may have a easier way to install the NIC card into a computer with the help of it.

1G NIC with dual RJ-45 connectors for Intel E1G42ET

Let’s take an example with a more specific figure. Above figure is a 10Gtek 1G NIC with dual RJ-45 connectors and PCIe 2.0 standard I/O port for Intel E1G42ET, which is using Intel 82576 chips. It is a enterprise class NIC card. You can see a green slight circuit board. The Intel 82576 controller chips and other electronic components are integrated on it. The bus interface which has parallel metal lines is on the side of circuit board. It is a PCIe 2.0 connector, which supports speed up to 1Gb/s. The metal port for connecting cables usually is RJ-45 port. As for the profile bracket, it just has the feature that makes it easier to install the card in a small form factor/low profile computer case or server.

Application

In the aspect of application, NIC card can be simply divided into PC application and enterprise application. Personal computers typically need a NIC to complete a connection in a local area network (LAN) or participate in Ethernet. As for enterprises, NIC acts as a link between servers and switches, offering a high performance in overall network system. NIC for enterprises requires a higher quality and faster speed than PC application. Therefore, optic fibers are introduced to solve the lower speed of transmission. This kind of NIC is integrated SFP port other than RJ-45 port for connecting transceivers and optic fibers in order to realize the high efficiency data transmission.

Let’ s look at an example again.

1Gb/s Ethernet Server Adapter (NIC), Compatible for Intel E1G42EF

Above figure is a 10Gtek 1G/s NIC card with dual SFP ports, which is using Intel E1G42EF Chipset. The biggest difference between this NIC card and the upper one is that this NIC has dual SFP ports, which can connect with SFP transceivers and optic fibers. That is to say, long distance and high effciency network connection can be realized by using this NIC.

Data rate and vendors

Being a key part in network connection, the data rate of NIC must be concerned. The NIC card supports Ethernet standard varying from 10Mb to 100Gb. There is one important thing you need to notice. The data rate of NIC does not necessarily determine the speed of the network connection. It is determined by the corresponding devices.

For example, the two NIC cards mentioned above support 1G Ethernet. If your routers or some other Ethernet devices support data rate up to 1G/s, it is a good and economical choice for using 1G NIC. However, if your routers or some other Ethernet devices support data rate up to 10G/s, using 1G NIC in 10G network connection means you will suffer the slow speed only up to 1G. Therefore, data rate is one of the most consideration factors when selecting NIC.

The major vendor of NIC include Allied Telesis, Broadcom(includes former Avago and Emulex), Buffalo Technology, Cavium(formerly QLogic), Chelsio, Cisco, D-Link, Intel, Marvell and Mellanox.

10Gtek also provides NIC with high performance, low-latency and flexibility. Please find more details in:

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