A QSFP+ (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable) active optical cable (AOC) is the combination of a passive fiber optic cable and the active QSPF+s required to achieve 40 Gig network speeds. When purchasing this cable you have both the active and passive components needed to complete a 40 Gbps Ethernet circuit. The passive fiber optic portion of the AOC is a Singlemode or Multimode MPO to MPO connector cable (you chose the length) with 12 fibers (lanes).

The reason for 12 fibers instead of the traditional 2 (one transmit, one receive) is due to the fact that the fiber equipment (QSFP+) only has the ability to transmit at a maximum speed of 10 Gbps per lane, due to this speed limitation it is required to use a minimum of 8 fibers to achieve the 40 Gbps required. The active components of the AOC are the 2 QSFP+ modules that are attached to ends of the passive fiber cable. The QSFP+ uses 8 total fibers, 4 fibers (4 x 10 Gbps = 40 Gbps) in each direction for a total of 8. AOCs are hot-pluggable (swappable) which makes using it a convenient and fast installation. Use the part number table to configure your AOC cable’s length, fiber and cable type. All AOCs come with pull tabs for each SFP removal.