By now you’ve probably heard of 8-fiber MPO plug and play solutions available on the market, which are ideal for Gigabit (40GBASE-SR4) and 100 Gigabit (100GBASESR4) applications that use 8 fibers with 4 transmitting and 4 receiving at either 10 or 25 Gb/s. Unlike 12-fiber MPO solutions where 4 of the 12 fibers go unused, 8-fiber MPO solutions offer 100% fiber utilization in these applications. But did you know that when looking ahead to future fiber applications, 8-fiber MPO solutions continue to make the most sense? That’s because all future duplex, parallel optic and WDM-based fiber applications are divisible by either 2 or 8 fibers – not 12.

1. All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
-Mark Mullins
27-11-2017 1www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation

2. All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
27-11-2017 2
By now you’ve probably heard of 8-fiber MPO plug and play solutions available
on the market, which are ideal for Gigabit (40GBASE-SR4) and 100 Gigabit (100GBASE-
SR4) applications that use 8 fibers with 4 transmitting and 4 receiving at either 10 or 25
Gb/s.
Unlike 12-fiber MPO solutions where 4 of the 12 fibers go unused, 8-fiber MPO
solutions offer 100% fiber utilization in these applications.
But did you know that when looking ahead to future fiber applications, 8-fiber
MPO solutions continue to make the most sense? That’s because all future duplex,
parallel optic and WDM-based fiber applications are divisible by either 2 or 8 fibers –
not 12.
www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation

3. All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
27-11-2017 3
When looking at current 10 Gigabit (10GBASE-SR) and 25 Gigabit (25GBASE-SR) duplex
multimode fiber applications and future 50 Gigabit (50GBASE-SR) duplex fiber standards in
development that transmit either 10, 25 or 50 Gb/s over each fiber, it’s easy to see why all roads lead
to 2 or 8 fibers.
We already have 8-fiber 100GBASE-SR4 transmitting 25 Gb/s per fiber. Now the 50 Gb/s
transmission per fiber slated for 50GBASE-SR has prompted the development of 200 Gigabit
(200GBASE-SR4) over multimode where 4 fibers transmit at 50 G/bs and 4 fibers receive at 50 Gb/s.
25 and 50 Gb/s transmission also gives us the potential for 400 Gigabit over 16 fibers
(transmitting at 50 Gb/s) or 32 fibers (transmitting at 25 Gb/s and currently in development as
400GBASE-SR16) – again both of which are divisible by 8, not 12.
www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation
From 10 to 400 Gig

4. All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
27-11-2017 4
If we look at wavelength division multiplexing technology over
multimode, supported by new wide band multimode fiber (WBMMF), referred
to as OM5, we still see potential future fiber applications as divisible by 2 or 8.
For example, if a WDM option over multimode that supports 25 Gb/s
over four different wavelengths comes to fruition, that will open the door for
100 Gigabit over a duplex fiber connections. Extrapolating that technology to
an 8-fiber MPO interface, we have the potential for 400 Gig over multimode
using WDM technology – 4 fibers transmitting and 4 fibers receiving at 100
Gb/s.
www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation
Even with WDM

5. All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
27-11-2017 5
The same holds true for Singlemode. Current 40GBASE-LR4, 100GBASE-LR4 and 100GBASE-
ER4 WDM-based fiber applications over singlemode use a duplex fiber. And future singlemode
applications transmitting 50 Gb/s over 8 wavelengths via WDM technology still places the number of
fibers at 2.
Short-reach singlemode applications in development for data center applications, including
200GBASE-DR4 and 400GBASE-DR4 transmitting and receiving at either 50 or 100 Gb/s over each fiber
will also use the 8-fiber MPO interface.
www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation
And Singlemode Too

6. All Fiber Roads Divisible by 2 and 8
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So what does this mean for the future of the 12-fiber MPO? In reality, not much.
For those who already have 12-fiber MPO solutions in place, they will be able to support
duplex applications. For 8-fiber applications, they should use conversion cords and modules to
transition two 12-fiber MPOs to three 8-fiber MPOs if they don’t want unused fiber. Most new plug
and play MPO deployments however will use 8-fiber solutions since this offer the most efficient,
flexible option for current and future high-speed fiber applications.
The good news is that 8-fiber and 12-fiber MPO interfaces have the same footprint and are
both easily tested using Fluke Networks' MultiFiber™ Pro – simply test either solution and the
MultiFiber Pro displays results by scanning all fibers simultaneously, regardless of the number of fibers
in the connector.
www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation
12-Fiber MPO’s Future

7. Thank You!
27-11-2017 7www.flukenetworks.com| 2006-2017 Fluke Corporation