The growing adoption of cloud-based infrastructure and services is driving the requirement for more bandwidth, ultra-fast speed and extremely low latency. To keep up with these evolving demands, data centre operators are pushed against the wall to build faster, more power-efficient and, importantly, cost-effective data centre operations.
A growing number of internet users and devices, the popularity of video streaming, online gaming, and other high-bandwidth consuming services, and ubiquitous social networking are leading to changes in data centre cabling and architecture. The exponential increase in social media traffic, the rollout of 5G services and a shift from traditional office-based work to remote locations are just some trends reshaping consumer expectations and demands.
The demand will only increase as several emerging applications are likely to drive the growth and file sizes to an all-time high, demanding more computing power, bandwidth and low-latency transmission. For instance, the number of connected devices is likely to go beyond 30 billion by 2025. In addition, several upcoming applications like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented
Reality (AR), and autonomous cars are all set to drive the usage. In addition, high-resolution videos, MRI imaging, telehealth, animation and visual effects push the consumption in the media and healthcare industry.
All these trends are not only driving cloud adoption but are also pushing them to increase computer power and ensure high performance. Growing digitization means that data centre traffic will continue growing and will likely touch 180 zettabytes by 2025. Gartner predicted that cloud service spending will touch $700 billion by 2025. The legacy approach can limit the adoption of the cloud as it is not designed to address the evolving needs of the data centre industry. The change in data consumption pattern means that the traditional approach is going to be inadequate.
The data centre needs to be scalable, energy-efficient and cost-effective to address the growing demands of retail and enterprise consumers. For this reason, the speeds are quickly moving from 100G to 400G and now 800G to ensure high-speed and high-performing data transmission. Data centre operators can provide high data rates only by leveraging fibre optic cable performance.
The increase in cloud adoption is also leading to a rise in the number of hyperscale data centres, which again demand high-speed fibre connectivity.
The Multimode Fiber Advantage
Optical fibre, especially multimode fibre, with its proven transmission capacity and resilience, has emerged as a technology of choice for data centres to meet the ever-growing demand for higher bandwidth and extremely low latency.
The most significant advantage of multimode fiber is that it is a low-cost way to transport high data rates over short distances. This is the crucial reason why the data centre industry continues to use it extensively to provide high-speed connections between servers, switches and storage.
Typically, multimode fiber optic is used to connect fiber optic devices with large cores, allowing light to be transmitted in different ways with wavelengths ranging from 850nm to 1300nm. It provides users better bandwidth and improved transmission speed over short to medium distances. This makes it appropriate for deployment in data centres and campuses. Multimode optic fiber can be divided into OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4 and OM5 fiber, with different types of multimode fibers being capable of transmitting different data rates at different distances.
Multimode fiber has transitioned from using LED light sources to 850m Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) for multi-megabit transmissions. This makes them more affordable than single-mode counterparts.
The critical advantage of Multimode fiber comes from its core size, which is significantly bigger than single-mode fiber, making it better equipped to capture light from a transceiver. This leads to significant cost savings because of reduced alignment costs, power consumption as well as maintenance expenses. Essentially, this means that in spite of the higher cost of multimode fiber, it will ultimately yield considerably improved cost savings.
Multimode fiber cables are perfect for high-speed data transfers resulting in improved response time and overall superior network performance. They also provide better flexibility as they can handle different data rates and formats. In addition, advancements in optical technology that allows the transmission of data over multiple wavelengths on a single multimode fibre have made it indispensable to the new-age data centre networks.
Over the years, HFCL has developed several multimode optic fiber cables to empower the data center industry to seamlessly transition to 800G to address the exponentially growing demand for bandwidth and improved speeds.
In closing
Adopting multimode optic fibre cables can be a game-changer for data centres to enhance performance while keeping costs under control. Its flexibility to work with various networking gear and its capability to provide high bandwidth while ensuring improved cost economics makes it central to the data centers journey to 800G.