Cloud Core Switch—An Economic Choice for L3 Switch

MikroTik Switches have been popularly received favorable reviews, and this is inseparable with their keeping on the bleeding edge of switching technology. As a new member of MikroTik Smart Switch series, cloud core switch, also called cloud router switch, combing the best features of a fully functional router and a Layer 3 switch. That is to say, this cloud router switch works as both switch and router to connect the VLAN. This article would mainly discuss about cloud core switch, CRS226-24G-2S+RM switch and its connectivity solutions, as well as the reasons why they are economic choice for L3 switch.

About Cloud Core Switch

The cloud core switch, or cloud router switch, abbreviated as CRS, is a highly configurable switch, powered by RouterOS. It has 24 Gigabit Ethernet port. The Ethernet port 2-24 are switched, and the device can be accessed via these ports through the IP 192.168.88.1. Ethernet port 1 is configured as a DHCP client and has firewall on it. The SFP port is configured the same way as Ethernet 1, with a firewall and DHCP client on it. For the cloud router switch, there are nine models currently available. Here lists three different cases of the cloud core switch:

  • CRS125-24G-1S-2HnD-IN (integrated wireless, indoor case)
  • CRS125-24G-1S-IN (indoor case)
  • CRS125-24G-1S-RM (rackmount case)

MikroTik cloud router switch

Figure1: MikroTik cloud router switches(Resource: www.MikroTik.com)

Cloud Core Switch CRS226-24G-2S+RM

As one of the cloud core switches, CRS226-24G-2S+RM have been highly favored by most people. CRS226-24G-2S+RM is a fully functional layer 3 cloud router switch powered by Router OS, which is also available in 1U rackmount case. It comes with a special switch menu which includes all the specific configuration options for switches. It has 24 Gigabit ports and two SFP+ cages for 10G connectivity in which first SFP port supports 1.25G/10G modules and second port only 10G modules. Ports can be removed from the switch configuration and used for routing purposes if needed. The most distinctive feature of CRS226-24G-2S+RM is that uses a new class of switch chips, which allows us to have two SFP+ ports for 10G connectivity. The main features of this cloud core switch are listed in the following:

  • Fully manageable L3 switch, full wire speed switching
  • Configure ports as switch, or for routing
  • If required, full RouterOS power right there
  • SFP+ ports for 10G connectivity

CRS226-24G-2S+RM_big

Figure2: cloud core switch CRS226-24G-2S+RM(Resource: www.MikroTik.com)

Connectivity Solutions for CRS226-24G-2S+RM

As being mentioned, the cloud core switch CRS226-24G-2S+RM has 24 Gigabit ports and 2 SFP+ ports. For the twenty-four 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, you could use both network cables and optical transceivers to connect. The transmission speed of Cat5 and Cat5e cables can be up to 100 Mb/s and 1G respectively. Besides, you can also use 10/100/1000BASE-T copper transceiver to make network connectivity. But it costs more than the network cables. In terms of 10G SFP+ ports, there are also two connectivity approaches. You can use both 10G SFP+ modules and 10G SFP+ DAC copper cable to connect. Relatively speaking, the 10G DAC cable is cheaper a lot than the 10G transceiver. But if transmission quality is your pursuit, and then 10GBASE SFP+ transceivers would be a good choice.

Why Are Cloud Core Switches Economic Choice for L3 Switch?

According to the above description, cloud core switches are powered by Router OS. RouterOS lets you add upper layer functionality. The cloud core switch is very far below wire speed when doing layer 3 or above. In fact, the cloud core switch is more of a bare-bones layer 2 switch that has an embedded low-horsepower router. In short, the switch features are useful for making bridges that work at wire speed, but they’re limited to simple forwarding and vlan handling. The bridge feature lets you glue almost anything together, and gives lots of filtering/manipulation tools, but it cannot perform at wire speed because it uses the main CPU. Last but not least, the average prices of Mikro Tik cloud core switches are not more than $150, you can check them by this link.

Conclusion

Cloud core/router Switch is a managed switch that runs RouterOS and SwitchOS, which delivers a high performance as a Layer 3 switch. They allow to manage port-to-port forwarding, apply MAC filter, configure VLANs, mirror traffic, apply bandwidth limitation and even adjust some MAC and IP header fields. The economic L3 switch including several switch models covering wide range applications, like enterprise network and home network.

Enhance Your Network With 40G QSFP+ AOC Cable

To meet the requirements for higher bandwidth and throughput, 40 Gigabit Ethernet has become a trend for data transmission. A series of 40G equipment are designed to achieve the seamless interconnection in the 40G network. Devices like 40G fiber optic transceivers and 40G direct attach cables are widely used for the high speed transmission. 40G direct attach cables (DAC) are optimal solutions for short range connectivity. It can be further divided into the direct attach cable and active optical cable (AOC cable). This article will focus on presenting you some cost-effective 40G QSFP+ AOC cable solutions to improve your network.

Basic Knowledge of Active Optical Cable

AOC cable is a cabling technology that accepts the same electrical inputs as a traditional copper cable, but uses optical fiber “between the connectors”. It adopts electrical-to-optical conversion on the cable ends to improve speed and distance performance of the cable without sacrificing compatibility with standard electrical interfaces. AOC cable is especially used for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications. It is made up of the multimode optic fiber, control chip and different connectors with one end terminated with QSFP+ connector and the other end terminated with QSFP+, SFP+, LC or else connectors.

active optical cable

Reasons for Choosing 40G QSFP+ AOC Cable

However, why do we often use 40G QSFP+ AOC cable instead of QSFP 40G SR4 module? In fact, 40G QSFP+ AOC cable has many benefits that will provoke your interest for choosing it. First is the lower cost compared to the module since the AOC cable saves the need for extra fiber patch cables. Second is the low insertion and return loss. Although it is used for the same transmission distance, the repeatability and interchangeability performances of 40G AOC cable are better than 40GBASE-SR4 module. Thirdly, under the four-quadrant test, which is used to test whether the product still keeps better performance even under the lowest and highest voltage and temperature situations, the AOC cables are qualified to meet all the demands.

40G QSFP+ AOC Cable Solutions

Here provides some common 40G QSFP+ AOC cable solutions that are welcome in the market.

  • Solution 1: 40G QSFP+ to QSFP+ AOC Cable

Each end of this AOC cable has a QSFP+ connector used for 40G data propagation. The maximum length can reach up to 100 meters. It is a 40 Gbps parallel active optical cable which transmits error-free parallel 4×10 Gbps data over multimode fiber (MMF) ribbon cables.

40g qsfp+ aoc cable

  • Solution 2: 40G QSFP+ to 4xSFP+ AOC Cable

QSFP+ to 4x SFP+ AOC cable is a breakout cable offering the professionals a cost-effective interconnect solution for merging 40G QSFP+ and 10G SFP+ between devices of adapters, switches and servers. Users can install this AOC cable between an available QSFP+ port on their 40Gbps rated switch and feed up to four upstream 10G SFP+ enabled switches.

40g qsfp 4sfp aoc cable

  • Solution 3: 40G QSFP+ to 8xLC AOC Cable

This is also a breakout AOC cable with a QSFP+ connector on one end and 8xLC connectors on the other. It is a high performance, low power consumption, long reach interconnect solution supporting the 40G Ethernet compliant with the QSFP+ MSA and IEEE P802.3ba 40GBASE-SR4. It is an assembly of 4 full-duplex lanes. Each lane is able to transmit up to 10 Gbps data rate providing an aggregated rate of 40 Gbps.

40g qsfp 8lc aoc cable

Conclusion

Along with the popularity of 40G Ethernet, the market of 40G QSFP+ AOC cable has been growing over the years. It is definitely a better choice for high speed transmission over short distances. Additionally, if you are looking for higher bandwidth AOC cables, there are also 100G QSFP28 AOC cable and 120G CXP AOC cable suitable for your needs.

Related Article: Active Optical Cable (AOC) – Rising Star of Telecommunications & Datacom Transceiver Markets

Why Choose Direct Attach Cable in 40G/100G Migration?

Advance technologies like Big Data and Cloud which require high speed of data rate become more and more popular. To meet the ever growing need to high speed data transmission, many data centers are migrating from 10 GbE to 40 GbE or even 100 GbE. And some are considering about the migration, during which the cost is one of the most important factors to consider. Direct attach cable also known as DAC cable is a cost effective solution during the migration to 40GbE or 100GbE.

What Is Direct Attach Cable

A direct attach cable also known as DAC is usually a fixed assembly supporting high speed data that uses a small form-factor connector module as an optical transceiver on each end of a length of cable. With significant cost-saving and power-saving benefits, direct attach cable is now being widely used in data centers for short reach applications. It can be connected to switches, servers, routers, network work interface cards (NICs), Host Bus adapters (HBAs) providing high density and high data throughput.

Why Choose Direct Attach Cable

Direct attach cable with many significant benefits can satisfy the growing need for high speed data. The main benefits of direct attached cable are described in the following text.

Cost saving: the modules on the end of direct attach cable looks like optical transceivers. However, actually they very much different from optical transceiver. These small form-factor connector modules leave out the expensive optical lasers and some electronic components. That’s the main reason why the DAC is much cheaper than optical transceiver. Direct attach cable in some case can be an alternative to optical transceivers as it eliminates the separable interface between transceiver module and optical cable. Thus, choosing DAC in some cases can save a lot of money as well as time.

Low power consumption: to identify the modules on the end and cable type to the Ethernet interface, in both active direct attach cable and passive direct attach cable a small electrical component is used, which is low cost and consumes very little power compared with optical transceiver.

Supporting high data rate: DAC can provide high speed I/O (input and output) data. The most commonly used DAC can support high data rate of 10 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s. However, as technologies advanced, some vendor can provide direct attached cable supporting 120 Gb/s, like 120G CXP Cables.

Meet small form-factor standards: the modules on each end of DAC meet small form-factor standards which means DAC inherits some advantages of the small form-factor module, like space saving. Some time there is no need to upgrade the equipment by using a DAC.

40GBASE QSFP+ Direct Attach Cable

With various benefits like abilities in data transmission and cost saving, direct attach cable is becoming increasingly popular for short distance top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of row (MoR) data center deployments. It’s a cost-effective solution to 40G/100G migration. Currently direct attach cable are continuing to evolve to meet industry needs. Various types of directive attach cable are being provided. FS.COM as a vendor of optical components provides DAC cable assemblies including 10G SFP+ Cables, 40G QSFP+ Cables, and 120G CXP Cables.

Related Article: Use High Speed Direct Attach Cable for Data Center Interconnection