Application note
InstaPATCH® 360 2x3 Conversion Module
100% use of your 12-fiber backbone in a 40G network
March 2015
Contents
Overview3
4x4 parallel applications
3
2x3 Conversion Module design
4
Network example
6
Ordering information for InstaPATCH 360 2x3 Conversion Module
®
commscope.com
7
2
InstaPATCH® 360
2x3 Conversion Module
Overview
InstaPATCH 360 products provide plug-and-play connectivity for multiple two-fiber and
parallel optics applications at data rates from 10Mb/s to 100Gb/s and beyond. CommScope’s
innovations provide elegant and efficient migration paths within these platforms. This paper
explains how the InstaPATCH 360 2x3 Conversion Module provides connectivity for parallel
applications that use eight fibers (four lanes in each direction) to achieve 100 % utilization of
12-fiber array cabling.
4x4 parallel applications
Applications such as 40Gb/s Ethernet (40GBASE-SR4) and InfiniBand 4x (IB-4x-SDR, IB-4xDDR, IB-4x-QDR) employ four quarter-rate lanes in each direction that travel on separate
fibers, for a total of eight fibers per channel. CommScope refers to these applications as 4x4
parallel applications.
Two transceiver form-factors are poised to deliver these 4x4 parallel applications, the QSFP
(Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable) and the CFP (100G1 Form-factor Pluggable). The QSFP
can contain a single 4x4 parallel transceiver, while the larger CFP can contain up to three 4x4
parallel transceivers. Both of these form-factors accept one unpinned MPO connector for
each transceiver.
Figure 1 shows the optical transmit and receive lanes at the MPO interface inside the QSFP
transceiver. When viewed with the keyway on top, the four transmit lanes are on the left and
four receive lanes are on the right. The center four fibers are not used. The lane assignments
of the CFP are identical to those of the QSFP. Consequently, cabling connectivity is the same
whether connecting QSFP to QSFP, CFP to CFP, or QSFP to CFP.
POSITION NUMBER: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
TRANSMIT LANE: 1 2 3 4
RECEIVE LANE:
4 3 2 1
Figure 1: QSFP Transceiver and Lanes
A conventional 12-fiber MPO channel mated to a QSFP or CFP transceiver would result in the
center four fibers not being used, or 1/3 of the fibers in the cable being dark.
The InstaPATCH 360 2x3 Conversion Module allows full utilization of the four center
fibers by combining channels from three 4x4 parallel transceivers onto two 12-fiber trunks,
maximizing trunk cable utilization.
1
commscope.com
C = 100 in Roman numerals; Centum
3
InstaPATCH® 360
2x3 Conversion Module
2x3 Conversion Module design
Figure 2 shows the InstaPATCH 360 2x3 Conversion Module front equipment side and rear
trunk side ports.
Equipment Side
Trunk Side
Figure 2: 2x3 Conversion Module
There are three pinned MPO ports on the front equipment side that accept unpinned MPO
plugs from cords, and two pinned MPO ports on the rear trunk side that accept unpinned
trunk plugs. The fan-out inside the module combines all the active 4x4 parallel application
lanes from the three equipment side MPO ports onto all the fibers of the two trunk side
MPO ports.
The module is compatible with the array polarity of TIA 568-C.0 and CENELEC EN-501741 structured cabling standards. As shown in Figure 3, the ALPHA and BETA orientations
used by InstaPATCH products are marked on the front and rear surfaces of the module to
assist in installation.
Front Equipment Side
Rear Trunk Side
Figure 3: Front and Rear Panels
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4
InstaPATCH® 360
2x3 Conversion Module
The chart and illustration in Figure 4 detail the complete signal routing within the module in
the Alpha orientation. The chart on the left provides the connectivity for each individual lane,
while the physical layout on the right groups the lanes into collections of four.
12 fiber
Trunk
Alpha 1
Port
12 fiber
Trunk
Alpha 2
Port
Position 1
Position 2
Position 3
Position 4
Position 5
Position 6
Position 7
Position 8
Position 9
Position 10
Position 11
Position 12
Position 1
Position 2
Position 3
Position 4
Position 5
Position 6
Position 7
Position 8
Position 9
Position 10
Position 11
Position 12
Position 12
Position 11
Position 10
Position 9
Position 4
Position 3
Position 2
Position 1
8 fiber
Equipment
Alpha 1
Port
Position 12
Position 11
Position 10
Position 9
Position 4
Position 3
Position 2
Position 1
8 fiber
Equipment
Alpha 2
Port
Position 12
Position 11
Position 10
Position 9
Position 4
Position 3
Position 2
Position 1
8 fiber
Equipment
Alpha 3
Port
ALPHA 3
12-9 4-1
1-4
4-1
9-12
ALPHA 1
ALPHA 2
ALPHA 1
12-9 4-1
12-9 4-1
1-4
4-1
9-12
ALPHA 2
Figure 4: 2x3 Conversion Module connectivity map and physical layout
commscope.com
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InstaPATCH® 360
2x3 Conversion Module
Network Example
Figure 5 illustrates a top view perspective of the signal connectivity when using 2x3
Conversion Modules in a network.
The transceiver interfaces show the positions of transmit lanes (T1-4) and receive lanes (R912). The transceivers are depicted with the keyways up.
The module on the left is in the Alpha orientation (keyways up). The module on the right is
in the Beta orientation (keyways down).
T
R
1-4 9-12
T
R
1-4 9-12
T
R
1-4 9-12
T
R
1-4 9-12
ALPHA
T
R
1-4 9-12
T
R
1-4 9-12
BETA
Figure 5: Network example
The twist shown in the equipment cords on the right and in the trunk cables will naturally
occur due to the keyway orientation of modules. CommScope InstaPATCH cables
and cords use robust loose-tube round cordage (not flat ribbon cordage) that easily
accommodates twists.
commscope.com
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InstaPATCH® 360
2x3 Conversion Module
From this illustration it is easy to see the gain in efficiency by using the InstaPATCH 360 2x3
Conversion Module. Rather than requiring three 12-fiber trunk cables in this network with
67% utilization, only two 12-fiber trunk cables are required achieving 100% utilization.
If the deployment requires an even number of 4x4 parallel application channels, InstaPATCH
360 products provide options. Trunk cables in the backbone can be used without the 2x3
Conversion Modules by connection through InstaPATCH 360 MPO Panels with array cords.
Another option is to use only equipment ports 1 and 3 of the 2x3 Conversion Modules
leaving equipment port 2 for future expansion. Regardless of the choice of 2x3 Conversion
Modules and/or MPO Panels, CommScope products guarantee correct polarity throughout
the network.
Ordering Information
InstaPATCH ® 360 2X3 Conversion Module
commscope.com
Material ID
Product Number
Description
760136663
360DM-2X3P-LS
InstaPATCH® 360 2x3 LazrSPEED® Standard Parallel Module,
3 MPO male ports
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AN-106553.3-EN (02/17)